Does drying/curing matter for edible?

[Toripony]

Hi. New forum member, new grow... my first "real" grow (if you don't count my failed bag seed in the woods tries), finally in a real grow room (have wanted one for years). I've grown a crop of White Widow using the scrog method under 8 T5s and it's gone surprisingly well. There's at least 30 nice 4-6 inch colas topping 5 plants including a few really plump ones plus plenty of small nugs below. Am at week 7 of flower and just harvested my first 2 colas because 1 plant is ripening early. The other plants have at least a couple of weeks to go on a 10/14 schedule. GWE has been my guru; thanks for ALL that typing, guys! I attached some eye-candy for you.

I don't have a problem but rather a question about harvesting for edible material that I haven't come across elsewhere. After choosing a few choice pieces for smoking (1-2 oz), most of this crop (hopefully 5-6 oz) is going to be used for making canna-butter. For the buds going to edibles, does it matter how particular I am with trimming/drying/curing? Can I just take off the fan leaves and skip trimming? Can I just let it completely dry before jarring it for storage? My thinking is that since I won't be smoking the vegetative material, will the flavor and possible potency improvement of curing do anything for my edibles? I don't mind doing the work if it matters but if it doesn't I should spend that time/effort on improvements for my next grow. On a side note, how do you usually dry your trim? I'm letting it fall/lay on a piece of screen and plan to fluff/flip/shake it every day until it's completely dry.

Thanks for any advice/opinions you have.
Tori

[Campesino]

I would make sure that it dries properly but agree that a cure really isn't needed prior to making edibles.

When trimming I would just want to make sure that I trimmed enough for it to dry properly - but yeah, no need for a fine manicure since it will all go into the pot anyway.

I dry my trim on a drying rack. I hang the buds.

[IslandColas]

Hi. New forum member, new grow... my first "real" grow (if you don't count my failed bag seed in the woods tries), finally in a real grow room (have wanted one for years). I've grown a crop of White Widow using the scrog method under 8 T5s and it's gone surprisingly well. There's at least 30 nice 4-6 inch colas topping 5 plants including a few really plump ones plus plenty of small nugs below. Am at week 7 of flower and just harvested my first 2 colas because 1 plant is ripening early. The other plants have at least a couple of weeks to go on a 10/14 schedule. GWE has been my guru; thanks for ALL that typing, guys! I attached some eye-candy for you.

I don't have a problem but rather a question about harvesting for edible material that I haven't come across elsewhere. After choosing a few choice pieces for smoking (1-2 oz), most of this crop (hopefully 5-6 oz) is going to be used for making canna-butter. For the buds going to edibles, does it matter how particular I am with trimming/drying/curing? Can I just take off the fan leaves and skip trimming? Can I just let it completely dry before jarring it for storage? My thinking is that since I won't be smoking the vegetative material, will the flavor and possible potency improvement of curing do anything for my edibles? I don't mind doing the work if it matters but if it doesn't I should spend that time/effort on improvements for my next grow. On a side note, how do you usually dry your trim? I'm letting it fall/lay on a piece of screen and plan to fluff/flip/shake it every day until it's completely dry.

Thanks for any advice/opinions you have.
Tori

Tori, I must say that is one of the best looking t-5 flowers I’ve seen and for it being your first time you’re doing awesome! I’m a relatively new grower myself who is still working on the curing process and figuring out my methods so I can’t add anything but a whole hell of a lot of ada-girls!!! I’m sufficiently impressed keep it up!

[IslandColas]

One thing I could add is a simple suggestion. You obviously do your homework and have taken really good care of the girls so please take no offense to my suggestion. I would remove a good amount of the foliage under your netting.(unless you’re uderlighting which I don’t see in the photo.) what that will do is force the girls to focus all their energy on those buds and canopy above the scrog. In my opinion they’re wasting energy Sustaining all that undergrowth. Just my 2 cents, and again, GREAT JOB!!!

[Campesino]

YES!
I agree with both points: EXCELLENT JOB... Impressive; and I also recommend lollipopping: https://www.growweedeasy.com/lollipo...nabis-tutorial

[IslandColas]

Campesino, that’s the term I was looking for! Lollipoping! Thanks for the help!

[Redwasp]

I dry my trim and any popcorn buds in a cardboard box. I put it in less than half and inch thick. I then shake it up/stir it a few times a day. Works really well and takes maybe 3 days. I do leave the box open. No need to cure it but i do jar mine. So some gets a curing period because I dont make it all at once, but i haven't noticed a bit of a difference.

Using a screen sounds like a great idea too. I use a box because it helps absorb the moisture. Some put them in those paper lunch bags to dry. They say it works just fine.

[Redwasp]

In my dry room it hovers around 57% humidity 72 degrees.

[Redwasp]

I obviously hang the actual buds.

[Campesino]

Yeah, of course!
It is about that in my room now, but it will be in the 40s RH most of the day. I have a lot of sticky trim though, so I am going to keep an eye on it to make sure it is drying properly.

[Toripony]

Thanks for the ideas and comps, everyone! Yea, from what I've read I wasn't expecting too much under fluorescent lights, but I'm really happy with what I'm seeing. I kept the lights really close with fans directly on them to keep all the colas around 80 degrees. Interestingly, the frostiest buds are the ones that got the most wind (just like I read somewhere on GWE). At the end of veg the plants were extremely thick and bushy and then during the stretch they shed about 1/3 of their leaves (everything below about 15"). As the colas developed I noticed a lot of nice nugs coming on at the screen level but they weren't getting much light, so that's when I inserted the 240 watts of 2 foot long biax bulbs (salvaged from an old Phototron). The fans keep them cool enough so I just laid them on the screen. The leaf dropping stopped almost immediately and it really brightened up the whole canopy area as well as the next 6-8 inches below the screen. I think even the colas above benefited from that and those lower nugs have gained a lot of weight and frost. I didn't want to take many chances with this first try (I tend to overdo things, lol) so other than plucking a few shadowing leaves here and there, I kept my fingers to myself and just let the plants decide what they wanted to do. This is an organic soil grow, btw, based on Fox Farms Ocean Forest plus more worm castings, some Happy Frog (for the micros), a little more coco, a cup of alfalfa meal and some bone meal. The only thing I added later was a few small doses of bloom formula. Keeping it simple, natural, and easy until I gain some experience and confidence.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear my harvesting will be easy and quick (the edible part). I can invest my efforts on a nice manicure for those smoking buds.

Redwasp, I forgot all about the old bag trick! I really like your box idea and will definitely try that. Seems like keeping the top open is a good idea; more controllable. Do the trichs stick to the box? They're sticking a little to the screen, but not too bad. Paper will definitely suck the moisture out; learned that [mistake] with some wet "homegrown" I bought decades ago, lol, so I never did that again.

Thanks again, guys. Seems like a great bunch of folks here!

[Redwasp]

No they do not stick to the box. Works really well for me.

[gbauto]

Welcome, Tori.
When I harvest my meds, I wet trim the colas I plan I smoking and save the trim for making my CCO. On sections of the plant that doesn't meet my standards for keeping the bud intact, I don't trim and just grab a stalk and zip off all of the foliage between my fingers. I then dry this on trays until I don't have signs of excess moisture and then jar up. I don't bother curing my edible weed-I just want to make sure it doesn't mold during storage.