Harvest Time - The Whole Plant or just Branches???

[NuggetMan]

Today my Indica plant is at 10 weeks old and ready for harvesting. The debate is to whether do the whole plant or by branches??? I decided for this one to just remove the big fan leaves and cut the branches individually. They say at this point it should take anywhere between 7-10 days before jarring. My issue is when I do it this way, my stuff is usually ready to jar after 3-4 days (when it starts to get hot here) and I want to extend this drying period to see if the results are any better.

I am sure there are many different opinions as how to do this, so I am asking for your opinions as how to go about this. What is best???

[BR2K]

I JUST cut one bud, from the top of my Sativa plant. It was it's 9th week birthday and probably barely ready.

It's my first harvested bud and it was a calculated decision. I had originally decided to yank it, as it was having problems early on and the runt. I was advised to "wait and see". Boy was that good advice ...but I didn't do any topping or training.

While the top is pretty mature, the lower buds still have plenty of white pistals. Being impatient, trying to plan logistically and eager to examine my bud up close and personal, I went ahead and clipped it. I then raised the plant to take advantage of the LEC as much as possible. Now the buds directly underneath are maturing quickly and I'll do the same for them, when the time comes. I chose to put the freed bud in an open pint jar. This environment should allow even drying for a few days before I close it up and "burp" it once a day.

Staged harvests are fairly common, according to what I've been gleaning on here.

My environment is different than yours - You need to make the call based upon your personal, up close perspective. I would say that you might consider using an open jar as well. In any case - Good Luck!

[Gluteous]

I think you'll find most will do branches vs the whole plant. You want the slowest dry you can get, at least a week but 10-14 days would be better. When they're hanging I only run my exhaust fan and dehumidifier, no other fans on as that only speeds up the dry. Cooler temps slow things down. The amount of leaves left on and the size/length of the branches affect the dry time based on more or less moisture that needs to dry. The dry is pretty vital. If you over-dry it's nigh on impossible to recover from that.

[Brandon]

cutting the whole plant is kind of old school, I've seen dried by cutting the whole plant, pluck all fan leaves hang it upside down and put the plant in a paper bag stapled loosely shut but have not seen this in years. The idea was that the buds suck the juice out of the stalk as they dry, supposedly this enhances flavor, smell and effect. but it takes longer to dry. I've never tried this but an old timer I was close with (he passed away) was a fan of this, so much so he wouldn't dry any other way and I have to say his smoke was some of the best I've ever had.

[NuggetMan]

I have always, when I first started, just did the branches, trim fan leaves, trim the buds, hang upside down in my closet with the ceiling fan running on low and leaving the closet door just barely cracked for air to get it. At night, when the lights are off, I open the door completely then close it again in the morning as to not let light hit the buds. But where I live, and it does get very hot in the summer, cold in the winter, it's hard to keep the temperature down in the summer or warm enough in the winter. I think as long as you don't go over 75 degress and humidity is around 45-55. I should be o.k. BUT it seems that the buds always seem to dry fairly quickly 3-4 days before I jar. I have researched that drying should take 7-10 days ideally. The only way I can accomplish this is by cutting the whole thing, no trimming, as this slows down the drying time but may take longer to dry. I just cut down my Indica plant and did this one the way I would normally do it and it is cool right now so this should not be an issue until it starts to get hot. I have 2-3 more weeks left on my Sativas and am going to try the other method since it will be getting hot around here fairly soon.

I see where the paper bag trick comes in handy. It supposedly absorbs the moisture to the paper and keeps it out of the light. I saw this done back in the day and have always wondered why they do this. And it was also used for steaming the bricks open back in the day!