0:11

Ladies and gentlemen , stoners and growers

0:13

, welcome to a midnight rendezvous

0:16

like no other . I'm your host

0:18

, socrates Gros , broadcasting

0:20

live from a server in the heart of America

0:22

. Join me on this

0:25

extraordinary journey through

0:27

the lush foliage of my autoflower

0:29

garden to learn how to grow your own fire

0:31

at home . This is Autoflower

0:34

Power , the podcast that takes you deep

0:36

into the hidden realms of the horticultural

0:38

marvels that we call autos . On

0:41

this episode , we will be discussing when and

0:44

how to harvest your autofowers

0:46

, as well as how to dry and then cure

0:48

your harvest for the best results . So

0:50

sit back , relax and

0:53

enjoy this episode of Autoflower

0:56

Power on harvest , drying

0:59

and cure . Before

1:05

we get too far into this episode , I just want

1:07

to acknowledge that this part of the garden

1:09

cycle can be very difficult because

1:11

you're going to want to rush . Each one of

1:13

these processes is very easy to look

1:15

at and say let's just do it a little bit early

1:17

. Whether it's harvesting just a little bit early , or

1:20

maybe drying just a little bit , not enough

1:22

, or maybe curing for not quite as

1:24

long as you would like , each one of

1:26

these processes is important and

1:28

it should be acknowledged that these

1:31

do need to be done to get the best results

1:33

. I think it's important to mention this upfront

1:35

, because we've already spent a lot of time . We've

1:38

spent money , seeds , electricity , we've

1:40

done a lot of research and we don't want to mess

1:42

things up at this point . We want to have something really

1:44

great at the end , a really nice product

1:46

. So each one of these steps will guarantee

1:49

a better product in the end and

1:51

it will make sure that the bud that you finally get

1:53

out , the end result , will be the top quality

1:55

that you could possibly produce from what you've grown and

1:57

from the genetics that you've put into

1:59

those pots in the beginning of your grow

2:01

cycle . So let's talk about harvest

2:04

. Every plant that

2:06

you can grow has an ideal peak harvest

2:08

moment . You can think of anything

2:10

in your garden , from peppers to herbs

2:13

. Everything is going to have an ideal

2:15

time to pull it from the garden . Take

2:18

it , for example , tomatoes . If you pull

2:20

tomatoes too early , you're going to see that they don't

2:22

have enough color . That's how you're going to know that

2:25

they aren't quite ready . They're

2:27

going to have a bad , almost bitter taste . There won't

2:29

be any sweetness , any savoriness

2:31

, won't be good . It might be a little bit

2:34

like extra jelly-like . It won't have

2:36

, maybe the firmness that it will eventually

2:38

have at peak harvest . So pulling

2:40

it too early is not great for tomatoes . Likewise

2:43

, pulling tomatoes too late , you're going to end up finding

2:45

tomatoes that have typically split or

2:47

rotten . You'll find some bugs in

2:49

there from the splits . They'll fall to the

2:52

ground and you'll know that they're no good

2:54

. But if you pick a perfectly

2:56

good , nicely timed tomato

2:59

, you've had a great tomato . It's sweet , it's savory

3:01

, the color is gorgeous , it's got a nice

3:04

firm texture , not too much jelly

3:06

in the middle . That's what you want to do . You're

3:08

shooting for peak harvest time on flowers

3:10

, just like you would for a tomato

3:13

. So how can we tell that

3:15

it is peak time for auto

3:17

flowers ? There's

3:19

going to be a few early signs , just from visual

3:21

inspection and from the way that the

3:23

plant is reacting to certain

3:25

environmental variables . That will give you an idea

3:27

that the plants are coming to the end stage of

3:29

their life and that they're almost

3:31

nearly ready to harvest . One

3:34

of the big tells is that the plant will stop

3:36

drinking water . If you're using sub-irrigation

3:39

, this will be particularly easy to spot

3:41

. But your plant will hold

3:43

on to water for a lot longer . It won't be using

3:45

it and that is a really

3:47

good sign that your plant is almost ready

3:49

for harvest . You'll also notice

3:51

that the leaves are completing what's called

3:53

the fade . This is kind of showing a range

3:56

of colors . This is again like

3:58

we talked about in the last episode . We're

4:01

almost mimicking fall when we're growing auto

4:03

flowers towards the end stage of their life . So

4:05

you'll see some fall-type colors

4:07

. Sometimes you'll see some red

4:09

, some oranges , a

4:11

lot of yellows is the most common one

4:13

. You'll even see purples a lot of times and

4:16

some particular types of genetics

4:18

. This when these full

4:20

colors are on display . You know that you might not

4:22

be there , but you are getting pretty close

4:24

to the harvest time for these plants , but

4:27

also a great time to take some

4:29

photographs , because this is one of the

4:31

most beautiful times where your buds are going to look gorgeous

4:33

against the backdrop of those colorful

4:35

leaves . So the fade

4:37

is another great way to kind

4:39

of give an idea to you that

4:41

the plants are coming to the end stage of their life

4:44

. Along with the fade , you'll also notice

4:46

that the fragrance tends to get pretty

4:48

strong towards the end of the flower stage

4:50

. You

4:52

will notice it throughout an entire flower , but right

4:55

towards the ends of the flower they

4:57

will get quite intense . You'll notice

4:59

it when you open up your tents or when you go in your grow

5:01

rooms or out in your gardens . Outside that

5:03

, the plants are definitely giving off a lot more smell

5:05

than they had been previously . Additionally

5:09

to the smell , when you just kind of look at

5:11

them from the naked eye , you'll notice a little

5:13

bit more maybe

5:15

yellowing . The buds

5:17

aren't quite as green . There's

5:20

maybe more variety in the colors

5:22

. You might see some purples , you might see some blues

5:25

, some reds , depending on what type of genetics

5:27

you're growing . But when you're actually just kind

5:29

of like giving a naked eye to the flowers themselves

5:32

, you'll notice that there is more of a variety

5:34

than there was early on in the flower development

5:36

. The

5:39

real , true and best way to tell

5:42

when your flowers are ready to go

5:44

I'm sure you've heard is by looking

5:46

at the trichomes . The

5:48

trichomes are the small resin

5:50

glands on your flowers

5:53

. They're all over the plant . You'll see them on some of

5:55

the leaves as well . These are where

5:57

the THC is

5:59

. This is what we're really going for these resin

6:01

glands . We're really waiting for

6:03

these to mature . This is what we're going

6:05

for , whether we're making hash or we're

6:07

just going to be smoking the flower itself . What

6:11

are we looking for when we're looking for trichomes

6:13

. Well , trichomes

6:16

begin basically clear

6:18

. You can see through them

6:22

. They almost look like light bulbs . They're just straight

6:25

see-through . There's some prismatic

6:27

visuals

6:30

to it because it's not totally

6:32

clear . There's a shape to it , but

6:34

basically it's clear . There's no cloud to

6:36

it , which is the next step is

6:38

that they get cloudy . They get filled with white

6:40

and they sort of look like like

6:45

a milk filled glass

6:47

or something like that . And cloudy

6:49

is really what we're going for . Cloudy

6:51

is the goal for our

6:54

resin heads , which

6:56

is what these trichomes are , our

6:58

resin heads . After they are

7:00

cloudy for long enough , they're gonna start to deteriorate

7:03

, and the way that you can tell that they're deteriorating

7:05

is that you're gonna see them turn more

7:07

of an amber , a red brown type color

7:09

. Again . They kinda

7:11

look like something in the fall , almost like a dead leaf

7:14

, that type of color , that sort of reddish

7:16

brown , burnt sienna

7:18

color . If you're into paint , that's

7:21

a really good sign that your

7:23

resin heads have matured . So

7:26

what we're shooting for on there depending

7:28

on how strong we want the final

7:30

product to be is somewhere between

7:32

10 to 30%

7:34

amber trichomes . That's

7:38

not an exact math type thing . This

7:41

is something that we're gonna wanna keep an eye

7:43

on as the plants start flowering

7:45

maybe through midflowers , when we

7:47

should start and you just wanna keep

7:49

an eye on the trichomes because

7:51

they won't all mature over

7:55

a long period of time . I

7:57

found in my experience that a lot of times I'll

8:00

look and I'll look and I'll look and

8:02

then all of a sudden one day towards

8:04

day 85 or 90 , whatever

8:07

it happens to be on this particular run , a

8:09

lot of the

8:12

heads turn amber on the same

8:14

day . So you go from maybe like 5%

8:17

to 15% in

8:19

a very short period . This isn't always

8:21

the case . Sometimes they ramp up and there's a few

8:23

here and a few there and it takes a real long time

8:26

for them to go one by one . But that's

8:28

why you wanna really keep an eye on them is because they

8:30

can develop pretty quickly towards

8:32

the end of harvest . When

8:35

you're looking at this and you see kind of a lower

8:37

amber count , maybe like in the 10%

8:40

range , you can kind of assume

8:42

that this is gonna be less of a

8:44

couch lock type situation . As

8:46

far as the expression

8:48

of the genetics go , don't forget that

8:50

it's really the genetics that are gonna make the most

8:53

difference . But as far as when you're

8:55

harvesting , if you want something a little bit heavier

8:57

. You wait for more amber

9:00

trichomes to appear in form . Typically

9:03

, this will give more of a couch lock feel than

9:05

if you have closer to 10 or

9:07

lower percent ambers on

9:09

your resin heads

9:11

. So what's some

9:13

of the best ways to look at these resin heads ? There's

9:16

really two ways , maybe three ways

9:18

, that you could go about this . The first

9:20

is you can use a camera

9:22

if you've got like a nice macro lens on

9:24

there . I haven't had experience

9:26

with this , but I've talked to a few people who use their cameras

9:28

and they say it's perfect , no big deal and

9:31

easy to use . So if you've got a nice

9:34

new camera on your phone , that's

9:36

one way you could go about doing this . The

9:39

cheapest way to go about doing this is to

9:41

get an inexpensive jeweler's loop

9:43

. I've gone through maybe about

9:45

10 of these . These are similar to the pH

9:48

meters . When you're going through those You're gonna

9:50

break them maybe every two or three

9:52

runs . So if you wanna have a backup

9:54

one on hand , that might not be a bad idea . But

9:57

Amazon does always deliver tomorrow , so

9:59

it's usually not a total emergency

10:01

. But a cheap jeweler's

10:03

loop is another way to go and

10:05

it does take kind of a

10:07

steady hand to be able to get in there and to know

10:10

exactly how far to put the loop from

10:12

the flowers to be able to see the amperes

10:14

. But after a couple runs

10:17

and some practice you can get pretty

10:19

good at kind of getting an idea how to do it . It's

10:21

almost like you gotta do it on the fly while you're moving . Jeweler's

10:24

loop is a bit of a skill that you've

10:26

got to acquire . Last

10:28

but not least , as far as checking the tricomes

10:31

and I think this is pretty cool . I've never had the

10:33

experience of trying this one either , but I

10:35

like to get one in the near future is to grab

10:37

a digital microscope . These

10:39

are pretty inexpensive . Again

10:43

, you can get these on Amazon real quickly and

10:46

these usually can

10:48

either plug into your phone or their Bluetooth

10:50

or Wi-Fi I'm not exactly sure depending

10:52

on the model and you can basically

10:55

pull up microscopic

10:57

photos from this digital microscope

10:59

onto your phone and capture them that way . I've

11:02

seen some great photos online from people doing

11:04

that and I've also seen some terrible pictures online

11:06

. So I think all these tools kind

11:08

of are your mileage may vary as

11:11

far as the qualities go and

11:13

how well you personally use them

11:15

, because I've seen good results and bad results

11:17

from all of these tools . So

11:20

that's how you check your tricomes . Tricomes

11:23

are definitely the best indicator

11:25

of when your flower is ready to be harvested

11:28

. So once your amber

11:30

tricomes are about 10 to 30%

11:33

depending what you're gonna do with this in

11:36

the end and what your end goal with it

11:38

is whether it's kind of like a heavier vibe

11:40

to it or kind of a lighter vibe you

11:43

will know that you are ready to chop

11:45

your plant . Congratulations

11:48

, all the growing and hard work is done

11:50

. You're ready to take down the plant now and get

11:52

it ready to enjoy . Well , there's

11:55

a couple more steps first . So let's talk about

11:57

taking down the plant for the time being . Before

12:00

you chop the plant , you're gonna wanna remove any

12:02

dead leaves or any leaves

12:05

that are kind of in the way . You don't wanna take

12:07

all of the leaves off , but you do wanna take

12:09

anything kind of like you did during the rest

12:11

of the plant's life dead , decaying

12:14

, diseased or more than 50%

12:16

damage off the plant . So

12:19

this is a good time to go ahead and do that

12:21

. It's also a

12:23

good time at this point to take

12:25

some pictures of your plant . This is your plant

12:27

in her full glory . You

12:30

will never get another beautiful picture of

12:32

the plant alive in her pot in

12:34

the full state that she's in after

12:37

this . So make sure you get some documentation

12:39

. If you're into that kind of thing . I

12:41

find it good at least to

12:43

have maybe like a full picture

12:46

of each plant that I've grown so I could have

12:48

kind of a reference in the future

12:50

of what looked good and what didn't

12:52

, and also kind of what to expect if

12:55

I were to grow them again or

12:57

if I wanted to show anyone else kind of what I was

12:59

looking at . So I think now is a

13:01

good time to take a picture to show the

13:03

full expression of the genetics and

13:06

from there you'll have some good

13:08

reference material . So

13:11

as far as technical bits on

13:13

chopping , the form

13:15

of the chop is sort of dictated by

13:18

your environment and the tools available

13:20

during the dry . So

13:22

what am I trying to say there ? Basically

13:24

, for wetter environments where

13:27

you're going to have a harder time keeping

13:29

the humidity down , you might want

13:31

to chop up the plant a little bit more

13:33

. But if you can

13:35

and you can control your humidity

13:37

and keep it below 60%

13:40

relative humidity and about 60 degrees

13:42

Fahrenheit you should

13:44

try to chop that plant as a complete plant

13:47

and dry it over a longer period of time

13:49

, and keeping the plant is

13:51

one entire form will definitely

13:53

allow you to get an extra few

13:55

days out of the dry process

13:58

than if you're to chop into several pieces

14:00

. So just consider

14:02

what your environment is , whether you can control

14:04

your humidity or not , especially

14:08

if you've got a very low humidity that you can't

14:10

control , which you should be able to because

14:12

you can use a humidifier . During this process

14:14

, you're going to maybe want to keep the

14:16

plant intact there for sure . So

14:19

shoot for an intact

14:21

plant , and if there's some

14:23

sort of relative humidity issues

14:25

, you're going to want to shoot for branches

14:27

. I suppose would be the best option

14:29

in that case . So how do you

14:31

chop the entire plant ? It's super easy

14:33

. You basically take a big bypass

14:36

pruner or like a hand shear

14:38

and you chop the base

14:40

of the plant just above the

14:43

soil line . This is going to give you the most

14:45

complete cut of the plant . This is going

14:47

to give you the most room for drying

14:49

, and the reason why the bigger

14:51

plant is better to dry

14:53

for a longer period obviously is because there's more

14:55

water in the plant , there's more stalk

14:58

available , there's more leaf

15:00

material available and , of course

15:02

, the flower material . So you're going to

15:04

get a much longer period that it's going to be

15:06

able to dry out and be

15:09

in that dry room before it gets completely

15:12

like crispy or anything like that . So

15:14

we want to kind of shoot for the longer

15:17

dry period if we can . So a full

15:19

plant chop is the way to

15:21

go if possible . This

15:23

would also be the time where we would decide

15:25

if we were going to do a wet trim or a dry trim . These

15:30

can be dictated based on what you want , and

15:32

it could also kind of be dictated on what your schedule

15:35

is like . If you know you've

15:37

got something coming up in the future once this plant is dry and

15:40

you've got no way to store it to preserve

15:42

it , then I would maybe do a wet trim

15:44

so that you can have

15:47

it ready to go once it's dry and it will

15:49

trim a little time off the back end , no pun

15:51

intended . Whereas if you do

15:53

a dry trim you're going

15:55

to allow for more plant

15:57

drying time , which

16:00

is again beneficial . I know I've said that a hundred

16:02

times at this point , but it does sort of spread out the work

16:04

over more time , which can be beneficial

16:07

, and it allows you to adjust your

16:09

dry period . So

16:11

if things are going too slow you can chop

16:13

it up later on or

16:16

kind of do different techniques

16:18

, so that will also

16:20

prevent over drying . So

16:22

basically , a wet trim

16:24

, dry trim . This is now the time to

16:27

make that decision whether you're going to get those sugar

16:29

leaves and everything else out

16:31

of there . Again , I'm

16:34

going to go ahead and recommend . If everything is totally under

16:36

control , you're going to want to do a

16:39

dry trim and you're going to want to do a full plant

16:41

dry . So

16:43

those are my recommendations

16:45

for the chop

16:47

process . Let's talk about drying

16:49

. The drying environment

16:51

is just as important as the growing

16:53

environment and , just like the

16:55

growing environment , you can use a

16:57

tent or you can use a dry room

16:59

for this procedure

17:01

of drying . You're going to want

17:04

to be able to control the humidity

17:06

and the temperature and you're going to be able to

17:08

want to control the light to a major degree

17:10

. By that I mean you're going to want

17:12

to be able to keep it dark specifically

17:14

. So either one

17:17

depending if you've got a good room for this that has some

17:19

ventilation , or you can

17:21

use your tent , or if you've got a spare tent

17:23

. A lot of people like using a smaller

17:25

tent with some sort of a hanging

17:28

system to dry

17:30

their stuff aside from their main tent , because

17:32

sometimes plants don't finish at the same time

17:34

. If you're lucky enough to have a room

17:36

or a closet that you can use for this , that's

17:39

another great option , as long as you've got some airflow

17:41

in there and can control the humidity and

17:44

the temperature . So

17:46

as far as humidity and temperature , what

17:48

we're shooting for is a 60-60

17:51

split . Basically , you're going to want

17:53

a relative humidity of 60%

17:55

and you're going to want about 60 degrees Fahrenheit

17:58

for your temperature . This

18:00

environment allows for a slow

18:02

and an even dry of the

18:04

plant , and that's going to be the best , most

18:07

beneficial dry . To

18:10

get the best results in the end , for the first couple of days

18:12

you might want to keep

18:14

your relative humidity even a little bit lower

18:16

, maybe 50% for the first day

18:19

or two . This can prevent

18:21

some issues like molding

18:23

or bud rot . This isn't necessary , but a lot of

18:26

people do like drying closer

18:28

to 50% . I found that that

18:30

dries a little bit too quickly . So maybe if

18:33

we could do a little bit of the best of both worlds

18:35

start at 50% for

18:37

a day , two days , maybe 48

18:39

hours and then allow the

18:41

humidity to rise up to 55%

18:44

or 60% for the rest of the cure

18:46

. Just like in the grow

18:49

, you're gonna wanna use a humidostat and

18:51

a thermostat to manage the RH and

18:53

the temperatures in the room . Don't

18:56

be afraid to use a humidifier

18:58

in the dry room . That's something

19:00

that I've told a lot of people and they kinda look at me crazy

19:02

like we're trying to dry in here . Why would I wanna add

19:05

any sort of humidity ? You

19:07

do . You wanna make sure that it's not too dry

19:09

because you want to make sure that you've got a nice

19:11

long process , like we talked about before

19:14

. You're more likely

19:16

to have a high humidity issue

19:18

in dry in some parts of the world in some

19:20

seasons than you are to have a low humidity problem

19:22

. In that case , again , we're gonna run a dehumidifier

19:25

and , if you

19:27

can , you're gonna wanna run that to a sink or a sun pump

19:29

so you don't have to worry about emptying the bucket . Last

19:32

but not least , as far as the humidity and

19:34

the temperature , you might wanna consider

19:37

getting some type of a heater If you're

19:39

in a very cold room or if the

19:41

lung room that you're in and you're using a

19:43

tent is super cold . Or

19:45

you might wanna consider getting some sort of AC

19:47

for the room if it's crazy

19:50

hot in there . So you don't wanna be

19:52

burning up your butt while it's drying

19:54

. That's definitely not something that's gonna be

19:56

beneficial in the long run . Another

19:59

consideration in your grown environment is

20:01

to have some air circulating . You're

20:03

gonna want some air blowing . You're gonna wanna

20:05

use fans , whether it's oscillating fans or

20:08

just stationary fans but you're not gonna

20:10

want any air blowing directly on

20:12

the plants . So if you see the

20:14

plants and their hung and they're moving

20:16

or they're spinning if they're hung

20:18

by string , that's too

20:20

much air flow You're gonna want

20:22

to maybe point

20:25

the fan at the wall or maybe

20:27

lower beneath the plants just to get some

20:29

air circulating . But yeah

20:31

, bouncing off the wall is a great idea as

20:34

far as a dry room goes , and you're

20:36

gonna wanna keep that going in there because

20:38

you don't want any still air . Still

20:40

air can promote bud rod

20:42

or mold in your dry

20:45

, and that's one thing that we're definitely trying to prevent

20:47

. So make sure you've got a nice amount of

20:49

air flow going in

20:51

your room . Last but not least , you're

20:53

gonna wanna keep your environment dark . One

20:56

thing that does degrade THC and

20:59

your terpenes is exposure light

21:01

, and this is one of the most precarious

21:03

points in your flowers life . So

21:05

if we can keep the plants in the dark

21:08

during this period of drying

21:10

, this is gonna be great in

21:12

the long run . So keep your dry

21:14

room or your dry tent dark

21:17

. You're gonna wanna keep the relative

21:19

humidity about 60 and the temperature

21:22

at about 60 as well , fahrenheit

21:24

. Sorry , europeans , you can convert

21:26

that All right . Let's talk about

21:28

a couple practical tips . I

21:31

would start by saying

21:33

that one tool that's great to use are

21:35

clothes hangers . You can hang

21:37

one or two branches off

21:39

of these . If you only have one branch , you could

21:42

use clothes pins . If you've got two

21:44

branches , just hang them over the middle . You

21:46

can also use clothes hangers for an

21:48

entire plant . One

21:50

thing while you are drying that

21:53

you're gonna wanna keep in mind is that you're gonna want some space

21:55

in between the plants . You're not gonna wanna

21:57

crowd them in there . You're gonna want some air

21:59

flow , some space . This again

22:02

prevents mold and mildew and any sorts

22:04

of issues with dampness . So

22:06

leave some space , and if you are putting

22:09

plants on as whole

22:11

, you're gonna wanna separate them just a little bit . You're

22:13

not gonna wanna have two plants on one hanger , even

22:15

though they could fit . Another great

22:17

tool if you are using an open

22:19

room is , you can use these portable clothes

22:22

racks . These are

22:24

sometimes used for stores or whatever , but

22:26

you can get them pretty cheaply at Walmart

22:28

or on Amazon and

22:31

you could hang several plants on

22:33

several hangers on there and

22:35

they're very efficient space-wise

22:37

and as far as having rollers on there so

22:39

you could move them around easily if you have a room

22:42

that you can set this up in . If

22:45

you have a spare tent , tents are

22:47

useful . As I mentioned before , since

22:49

we're trying to control the environment

22:52

, it's easier to do in a tent than

22:54

in an entire room . So get

22:57

a tent going if that's

22:59

an option for you , especially if you have a spare

23:01

one . A lot of us have , maybe a starter

23:03

tent like a two by two , and then we've moved up to

23:05

a three by three or a four by four

23:08

. Whatever the issue might be , if

23:10

you can figure out a setup , take

23:13

a look at . There is a place

23:15

that has automatically turning

23:17

chandeliers . I think it's called

23:19

drytentscom . Never

23:22

used them , but I think it's a pretty cool idea . It's

23:24

just a way to keep air circulating around them

23:26

without a fan and that fits in

23:29

a two by two tent . I think you put an air filter

23:31

in there , anyways , something

23:34

like that . I think it's a pretty cool idea because you can control

23:36

your environment in there . So

23:39

we did discuss the drying

23:41

at 6060 . Just

23:44

for reference , this could take anywhere from

23:46

seven to 14

23:49

days before it's ready to cure . So

23:52

be patient . As I said in the beginning of

23:54

this episode , there's no point in rushing at

23:56

this point . We've gotten here because

23:58

we've put in a lot of work and at

24:00

this point the work is gonna be patient . So

24:02

wait it out , it's worth it . Another

24:05

note , a practical tip is if you can

24:07

only control one variable

24:10

, keep that lower relative humidity

24:12

in check . And then , second

24:14

is very high temperature is

24:16

not good . So first

24:19

is humidity , second is temperature . Neither

24:21

one's great , but shoot for a lower relative

24:23

humidity . If you have to shoot for something Going

24:27

along with the seven to

24:29

14 day cure or

24:32

14 day dry , rather a

24:34

longer dry will enhance the terpene profile

24:37

in the long run . This

24:39

is our goal when we're growing stuff

24:41

. So I would say this

24:43

is great , this

24:46

is free quality . Basically , all we gotta

24:48

do is just sit there and let it happen . So

24:53

when we're getting towards the end

24:55

of the dry period , we are going to

24:57

kind of want to

24:59

test out and figure out is

25:01

this dry enough , is this ready to cure ? And

25:04

there's a couple of ways to do this . First

25:06

off , I would choose a nougat to kind

25:09

of test the dryness . You're going to want to check the outside

25:12

to make sure that the outside is

25:14

dry , but you're going to want to make sure that the inside is

25:16

still squishy . You don't want the whole thing

25:18

to be dry and crispy all the way

25:20

through . That means you've over dried it and

25:23

you do want that squishing that's on the inside

25:25

, because that moisture will even out

25:28

during the cure stage . It will spread

25:30

out and it will make

25:32

the dry outer shell of it

25:34

that now feels dry and kind of almost crusty

25:37

, much more moist and much more

25:39

. Even so , try

25:41

to get your bud whichever tester bud

25:43

it is and just like squish it up . Don't

25:46

worry about it . That's going to be your tester nougat

25:48

. It's all good , all

25:51

right , one to go with . That is

25:54

don't

25:56

wait to try it . I mean , there's no rules

25:58

that says you have to dry it for six

26:02

months before you can try it . What

26:04

you're doing Very

26:06

often . I will pull that tester

26:09

nougat off . After I smash it and it seems

26:11

pretty good , I'll just light it just to kind

26:13

of get a test profile , and it's

26:15

not going to be perfect , it's

26:19

not going to be non-harsh , it's probably going

26:21

to smoke pretty harsh . It's

26:23

not going to be the full profile

26:25

, it's not going to be the full exact thing , but

26:27

you can get a pretty good vibe and

26:31

kind of get a sense of exactly where it is in

26:33

the dryness process once you do have

26:36

some experience with it beyond just looking at

26:38

it and touching it . All

26:41

right . Also , you're not going to want to dry too quickly

26:43

. This produces the infamous hay

26:45

smell . If you dry it too quickly or

26:47

you don't dry it enough and you put it into the cure bags

26:50

, this will degrade

26:52

the quality . It might still be

26:54

okay to smoke , but the smell will be

26:56

no good . And you want a good nose on these things

26:58

, especially if it's for yourself . You want people

27:00

to enjoy it . Give it that time

27:02

. Another

27:05

classic way to test whether it's dry enough

27:07

is to snap the branches

27:09

. What you're doing here is you really

27:11

want to hear a real crack . You don't

27:13

want to just see it kind of bend . This

27:16

is typically the smaller or medium-sized

27:18

branches , but you will hear a definite crack

27:21

, almost like if you were to crack open a peanut , you

27:24

will know that all the moisture has been removed

27:26

from that stem and that there's

27:28

no more drying to be done in there , so that most

27:31

likely the flower is evened

27:33

out and pretty dry and

27:36

that there's not going to be a lot more moisture movement

27:38

in the plant from the stalk at least . That's

27:41

a pretty good indicator that you might be very

27:43

close to the end of your dry . One

27:46

last thing that I've come across , especially

27:48

in summer when there's high humidity , is

27:51

it will seem like the dry

27:53

is completely done and I will start

27:55

chopping it and I

27:57

will put it into the cure

27:59

stage and it just won't be done

28:01

. I'll talk to you very briefly about

28:04

that in just a second , about how you can tell if

28:06

your flower is ready once it's in the cure

28:08

stage . But sometimes

28:10

what I'll do is I will chop it up

28:12

. By that I mean I

28:14

will trim it . Basically I'll break down

28:16

the branches and I'll break down

28:18

the flowers and I'll trim it If

28:21

it's still not quite dry enough . You

28:23

can use these mesh dry bags

28:25

. They're easily available , they're

28:27

relatively inexpensive and they're a decent tool

28:30

to have on hand for a variety of things

28:32

. Basically they're just a mesh

28:34

multi-layered hanger and

28:36

you could put buds in there . You just put them in

28:38

an even layer . It

28:40

won't cause any indentations , like

28:42

if you were to dry them flat on some type of paper

28:44

out

28:47

in the open air . You

28:49

could keep this mesh bag also

28:51

at a 60-60 environment

28:53

and you should be good to go drying

28:56

for maybe a couple extra days if you're not quite

28:58

there and you just need a little bit more

29:00

. I'm pretty good luck with this in recent

29:02

history and I

29:05

think that's a good way to get that

29:07

final dry out . If you realize that

29:09

you're just not quite ready for cure , all

29:13

right , let's talk about cure now . There's

29:15

a bunch of benefits to a solid

29:17

cure . This is possibly

29:19

the most critical step if you've done

29:22

everything well up to this point , I'd say by

29:25

curing well , you can preserve and

29:27

develop terpenes in

29:30

the plant . This will give you better smells

29:32

and flavors when you finally enjoy the product

29:35

post cure . This will enhance

29:37

all those experiences . It'll

29:39

also even out the moisture , as we talked about

29:41

. Remember the bud that we checked before

29:44

and it was kind of dry on

29:46

the outside . This will get the inner

29:48

moisture to move all over

29:50

the bud and kind of like rehydrate

29:53

the outer parts so that you have more

29:55

of an even bud when you're going to smoke

29:57

it later on . It'll also

29:59

make the bud burn

30:01

smoother . If you went ahead and you

30:03

tried that uncured

30:06

bud straight off the drying plant

30:08

, you will have noticed that if

30:10

you smoked it it is definitely not

30:13

smooth . It's

30:15

quite a harsh smoke and curing

30:17

will actually smooth that out a

30:20

ton . It's really

30:22

amazing how much smoother the smoke can be

30:24

once you have gone through

30:27

a proper cure . Last

30:29

but not least , I think the top benefit

30:32

is that it stabilizes

30:34

the flower to be stored for a longer term

30:36

. This will make

30:38

sure that you're not deteriorating in quality

30:40

and that it will maintain for a lot longer

30:43

, whether it's in a jar or a bag . This

30:46

is one of the major benefits to curing

30:49

your flower . So

30:51

how do we cure our flower First

30:53

, after we're done drying is you're going to want to move

30:55

your dried and now trimmed

30:58

buds into airtight containers where

31:00

you can cure it . You're going to want to shoot again

31:02

for about 60%

31:05

humidity or somewhere between

31:07

like 56 and

31:09

65 is acceptable as

31:11

far as curing goes , and whatever environment

31:13

you're going to do it in . To

31:16

monitor that , you can find mini hygrometers

31:19

and you can put these in the containers

31:21

and just continually check them . Whatever

31:24

we're going to be using is probably going to be clear or have a window

31:26

in it , so these mini hygrometers are

31:28

very inexpensive you can usually get like a four

31:31

or a 12 pack and it's an easy

31:33

way to check in . They

31:35

even have ones that can check

31:37

in on your , whether it's Bluetooth

31:40

or Wi-Fi , so that you can continuously monitor

31:42

them without going into the storage

31:44

room or wherever you're doing your drying

31:46

, and it's a great

31:49

tool . It makes it a lot easier . So

31:51

there's several different methods to

31:54

curing your cannabis . There's

31:56

going to be two that we're going to cover today the mason

31:59

jar method and then a bag method

32:01

. So to use the mason

32:03

jar method , which is the most common

32:05

, you're going to basically want to take

32:07

your dried bud after it's been all

32:09

trimmed up and nice , and

32:11

you're going to want to set it aside . You're going

32:14

to take a mason jar , depending on how

32:16

much cannabis you've harvested , and

32:18

you're going to want to turn it on its side . You're going

32:21

to want to place a hygrometer on the

32:23

bottom so that it's facing

32:25

outwards , and then you're going to want to stuff the

32:27

flower not stuff , but you're going to want to place

32:30

the flower gently into

32:32

the jar over the hygrometer so that it stays

32:34

in place . Once

32:36

it's filled up . Past the hygrometer , you

32:39

want to keep adding

32:41

flower . You don't want to overfill the jar

32:43

. You want about a fourth of the jar left with

32:46

air , or maybe a couple inches

32:48

, depending what size the jar is . Always

32:51

leave a little headroom on there . That's what they call air

32:53

in a jar and

32:56

that's going to give you a better cure . For

32:59

the first few days . You're going to want to make sure that

33:01

you're going to check it all the time

33:03

. This is where you're going to have the most fluctuations . This

33:05

is when you're going to find out if your

33:08

dry has been completely done or not

33:10

. Basically , you're going to want to check the humidity

33:12

hourly during the first week or

33:14

so . If you can't do it hourly , it's okay

33:16

. If you do it every six hours or even

33:19

every 10 hours

33:21

, you're probably fine . While

33:23

you're checking , you're going to want to remove the lid

33:25

and burp the flower . This

33:27

allows CO2 to escape and

33:29

fresh air to get into the jar and

33:32

allows humidity to be released . What

33:34

this is doing is exchanging fresh air

33:36

for the air that's in there . It's going to allow

33:38

some extra humidity to get

33:40

out , help the drying process continue

33:43

while the cure is going and it's going

33:45

to aid in making sure that

33:47

it's becoming more stable and moving

33:49

more towards that 60% . If

33:52

the jars you see when you're

33:54

opening them and checking them or if

33:56

you see it on your hygrometer

33:59

app is over 70%

34:01

, especially if it's over 75%

34:03

, especially in the early days , you're going to want

34:05

to remove your buds from the jars completely

34:08

. You're going to want to let them air out , either

34:10

on a table or , if

34:12

you've got a drying mesh set up , like I

34:14

had mentioned before , you're going to want to

34:16

just remove that from the jar and let

34:18

that sit in there , whether it's for a few hours

34:20

or a few days , depending how high the relative

34:22

humidity got up on there . If you leave

34:24

them in those jars , you could still be

34:26

getting mold on those , especially

34:28

if it's above 75 , like I said , if

34:31

you see anything above 70 , just remove

34:35

the bud completely . If you are

34:37

below 70 , if you're

34:39

at 65 or

34:41

even 69 , something

34:43

around there , you can open up the tops of

34:46

the jars , let it sit for a few minutes

34:48

and you're going to continue burping them

34:50

After the first few days

34:52

. You're going to want to continue burping at least

34:54

twice a day for about the first two weeks

34:56

. Then you're going to want to do it daily for

34:58

at least a month . This will give

35:00

you the best opportunity for airflow and to

35:02

make sure that your bud is curing evenly

35:05

and nicely when you

35:07

open the jars . I'd shoot for about

35:09

five to 20 minutes

35:11

. If you leave them open for a little bit longer , it's

35:13

fine . I wouldn't shoot for anything shorter

35:15

than five minutes , though . If

35:18

you're leaving them open for more

35:20

than an hour or so , you are now drying

35:22

it more . Just keep

35:24

that in mind . It will even out again , but

35:27

just take that into consideration if you

35:29

are having an issue and you're keeping them open

35:31

for any longer than 20 minutes . So

35:34

once your cure has been going for

35:36

a month two months , something like that

35:39

, at least two weeks minimum I

35:41

would say that you can start consuming

35:44

that cannabis and you can keep it

35:46

in that jar . It's a perfectly good container

35:49

to store it long-term . Just

35:51

make sure you keep it in a dark area

35:53

with a relative humidity and a temperature

35:55

that's pretty stable . It doesn't have

35:57

to be perfect , because at this point

35:59

your bud is a lot more shelf stable

36:02

. So congratulations

36:04

, you've , mason jar , cured your weed

36:06

. So let's talk about another method that

36:09

I have come to like in the last couple

36:11

of years , in the last couple of runs

36:13

, and I'll tell you some of the benefits and some of the cons

36:15

that I see with it . And these are cure

36:18

bags Particularly

36:20

. I've had experience with

36:22

the Grove bags . I

36:25

found them to be very useful

36:27

in some manners and there's also

36:29

some stuff that I don't particularly like about them

36:31

. So what a Grove bag

36:33

is is that it's a

36:37

one-way air flow bag

36:39

that allows air flow out and doesn't

36:41

allow air flow in . So basically , if you've got

36:43

your bud dried

36:46

properly , the main

36:49

selling point is that you don't have to burp

36:51

the bags . They're kind of like self

36:53

burping is the idea . The air flow out

36:56

is enough to make sure that you've got

36:58

air flow and that you

37:00

are lowering the humidity in there

37:02

and you're getting the best terpene profiles

37:04

. So I've

37:07

had some luck with these . I've

37:09

got some pretty good cures out of them . I've

37:11

done both Mason jar and cure

37:14

bags before and I will say

37:16

cure bags are a lot easier

37:18

just because you do not have to

37:20

burp them regularly Real

37:23

big benefit . Another

37:25

big benefit is that when they're empty they're

37:27

a lot easier to store than big Mason jars . You

37:30

got a bunch of Mason jars . If you're into

37:32

pickling or canning or anything like that

37:34

, you know how much of a pain in the butt they

37:36

are when you are storing them empty

37:38

. They take up a lot of space , they take up a lot of room

37:40

and they're clunky , hard to

37:42

move around , they're heavy and they make

37:45

a lot of noise . These cure

37:47

bags are light . You can fold them up . Basically

37:49

they're flat pack . You can put a bunch

37:51

of them in a small amount of space and

37:54

they're easy to store . Now

37:56

some of the cons that I will say . I

37:59

hate that they're plastic . I

38:01

don't know what else they could possibly be , but

38:03

I do hate the fact that these

38:06

bags are plastic and I'm storing my cannabis

38:08

, especially in these early stages , in

38:10

plastic . That's

38:13

one of the major advantages of the Mason

38:15

jars is that you're in glass . There's

38:17

no plastic concerns

38:20

. I don't know if there's any actual plastic

38:22

concerns or if that's something that you think about , but

38:24

I do often think . You know , I've

38:27

been growing all this stuff at home and I'm not sure

38:29

that I want it to be sitting in plastic in

38:31

one of its most important stages

38:33

of its process . Additionally

38:37

, I'll say that I've

38:39

had a couple zippers break on

38:41

these bags . I don't know if that was user error

38:43

or not , but I will say that a

38:45

few that I've bought more than one

38:47

the zippers have broken . They're reusable

38:50

, so it's not

38:52

ideal . When the zipper breaks , it basically renders

38:54

the whole thing useless and

38:56

, yeah , I wasn't thrilled

38:58

with that . Last but not

39:01

least , as far as the cons go , once

39:03

they're filled they're not as easy to store

39:05

as when they're not filled . They're

39:07

kind of clunky . They're almost like pillows

39:09

, like little plastic pillows that you got to

39:11

store and not

39:13

bad . They stand up , I guess , but not

39:16

the best way to store a

39:18

long term in my opinion . But they're great

39:20

for the cure . I have had great luck

39:22

with them and I wouldn't discourage you from trying

39:25

them because you might find them perfect

39:27

. I definitely will continue using them

39:29

. I will continue using mason jars

39:31

. So this isn't throwing shade

39:34

at cure bags or Grove bags . I like

39:36

your product . I think they're really cool and

39:38

I hope you guys figure out that zipper problem

39:41

. So , yeah

39:43

, that's basically the two different ways that

39:45

I'd like to discuss about curing . Let's

39:49

talk about a couple of tips I have for

39:51

you as far as curing goes . First

39:54

, I just wanna say a

39:56

longer cure reveals more flavor

39:58

, more smell and more potency in your

40:00

cannabis . This is

40:02

, like I said , a very important stage

40:05

and not something you wanna rush . So take your

40:07

time and go

40:09

for a longer cure if you possibly

40:11

can . It will pay off in the long run

40:13

. I'd also

40:15

like to say that you should shoot

40:18

to cure for at least a month

40:21

if possible , possibly several

40:23

, depending what you're doing and your environment

40:26

. But I would definitely shoot for

40:28

at least a month of cure before you really

40:30

consider your flower done

40:32

. As you can tell

40:34

, I don't mind sampling it in earlier

40:36

stages . I don't think there's anything quote

40:38

unquote wrong with that but

40:41

you do wanna remain in

40:44

cure for long enough for the majority

40:46

of your flower to make it worth the

40:48

work that you'd put in previously

40:51

. Minimally

40:53

, I would say two weeks

40:55

. Two weeks is the absolute minimum

40:58

. Anything before a two-week

41:00

cure . This is basically like the first

41:02

few days you're opening it every couple hours and

41:05

then for the first two weeks you're basically

41:07

opening it every maybe

41:10

twice a day , and

41:12

after that point you're basically

41:15

getting into a very , very early

41:18

cure . So if you wanna consider that cured

41:20

, you can maybe start using

41:22

it at that point , but if you can wait another

41:25

two weeks , I'd wait another two

41:27

weeks . Another

41:29

tip and I think this

41:31

is important is

41:33

, for a good cure , have good

41:35

bud on hand . If you can , having

41:38

good bud on hand , make sure that

41:40

you're not rushing the process , that you

41:42

have enough time for drying and curing and

41:44

that there's no

41:46

issue with being like I need to get

41:48

my hands on that cause I got nothing else

41:51

. So if you possibly can have some good

41:53

bud on hand before you start the drying

41:55

cure process , that will make

41:57

the whole thing a lot easier as

41:59

far as the patients . All

42:02

right , and last but not least , along with patients

42:05

, I will say that again

42:07

avoid putting your weed into the jars of

42:09

the bags too early . This causes

42:12

that hay smell and it can ruin a lot of the good

42:14

work that you've put in to develop your

42:16

strained terpenes and your

42:18

flavors and everything that you've hoped

42:20

to get out of this . I've both

42:22

had it myself and had many friends who've given

42:25

me hay smelling weed and I'm just like all

42:28

right , well , was

42:30

that really worth the effort ? I

42:32

screwed that up in the end , but

42:35

yeah , so if you can

42:37

avoid that , that's definitely worth its weight

42:39

in gold . Again , those herb drying

42:42

racks , those mesh racks , are cheap , they're

42:44

useful and they're

42:46

great in case of further drying

42:48

needs . So take your time

42:50

, keep an eye on the relative humidity and

42:53

the temperatures in your jars and I

42:55

think you will have a very successful and

42:57

fruitful curing process and

42:59

this will pay off in the end . Thanks

43:03

for checking out this episode of the AutoFlower

43:05

podcast , where we have discussed

43:08

how to tell when to harvest

43:10

your AutoFlower plant , how

43:12

to manage your dry and how

43:14

to maximize your cure for the best

43:16

results in the long run . I hope

43:18

you've taken something away from this that you can

43:20

directly apply to your garden today to

43:22

grow bigger , more vigorous and

43:25

monster plants at home . Check

43:27

out the show notes at SocratesGrovescom

43:31

slash Harvest

43:33

. You'll find show notes there and

43:35

links from this episode . Feel

43:38

free to email me any questions or comments

43:40

or just to say hi at SocratesGroves

43:42

at protonmailcom . I

43:44

will reply to anyone over there and

43:47

until next time , take

43:49

it easy . Bye , I'll

43:52

see you in

43:55

the next episode

44:00

.