Harvesting and drying

Harvesting is certain to be the time when you are able to reap the benefits of the hard work and the most enjoyable aspect of spending time in the garden. 

A plant is in a position of being harvest once the flowers are able to start to ripen. A rip flower is likely to relate to the process of white pistils turning an orange, brown-like color and begin to revert back into its seed pod. A seed pod is able to expand with the resins often kept for the production of seeds, and you start to notice red and golden marks on the ripe buds. 

It is likely that the harvest time is going to have an impact on the high stage of the buds. An early harvest with minimal colour alterations with the pistils often means that the buds contain a higher concentration of THC, while also featuring less THC which has been able to turn to CBN and CBD. A lower psychoactive substance is able to generate the make-up of the resulting pot, and determine the volume of stupid-ness and stoniness related to a potential high. Content of pure THC is counted as highly cerebral, whereas a high CBN, and CBD count is likely to mean plants producing buzz of the hazy and stupid variety. A bud in its later stages once entirely ripen is likely to have the higher CBD and CBN counts and might not provide the ideal taste after testing several other examples. It helps to test the taste in order to achieve to ideal strain from your plants. 

It might help to remember that the weight of a bud is certain to be heavier when fully ripen. This is what a great number of cultivators are likely to want to sell, but it might also be beneficial to select some of the earlier buds for your own collection to help decide on the most desirable option. If planning on growing to sell you might want to allow the plants to reach full maturity.  

A lot of the fresh growers are likely to be quite impatient and will want to pick as soon as possible. In most cases that is fully acceptable. Just make certain that the chosen buds are taken from the top and the middle of the plants, while the rest can remain in place to fully mature. It is likely to be the case that the top buds will be the first to ripen. You might want to harvest those and leave the rest in place to continue with the growth cycle. Within a short period you should see that the lower level buds are able to get fuzzier and bigger which indicates reaching the final stages of maturity. 

It might benefit to use a magnifying glass to capture the stalked trichomes on the buds (similar to the THC crystal). If appearing a clear colour with minimal browning, it likely means the top of the floral bouquet is close. If they appear with the brownish hint this is an indication that the level of THC is falling and the plant has gone beyond it ideal potency level, and in the process of declining in quality. 

Avoid waiting too late until you start to harvest. A great number of people are overly cautious and leave a harvest until the quality of potency starts to decline. Keep an eye on the plant life and get a better appreciation of when the floral potency is at its peak. 

It also helps if you are able to avoid curing the pot in a natural sunlight since this is likely to reduce the quality of the potency. It is more beneficial to slowly cure the buds which can be hung upside down in a suitably ventilated area. An alternative option can include drying the harvest in a paper bag and might offer a more convenient solution. A slow dried bud is certain to provide a great taste. 

If you are searching for the quickest solution to drying the buds you might want to look at adding a small volume to a paper bag and placing them in a microwave oven. Avoid burn it and go slow and check the progress often. It might help to use the defrost setting for improved drying. 

A high quality food preserver or food dehydrator is likely to have the pot dry within an hour or two, which is certain to be a high-quality option if you want to avoid having a lot of pot hung up waiting to dry. 

Ideally, you want to look at dying the buds so that you get stems that are quite brittle and can easily snap. Buds should then be placed in a Tupperware container similar to cure. Turning the buds and burping the air is certain to help over the next two weeks.