When it comes to the harvest and "Drying" most people really believe it ends when your buds reach the humidity level you think they need to be at and then DONE... buds to smoke, Problem is it doesn't work that way and believe me there is as much to drying and curing as their seems to be to growing a plant, but the more you know the better the buds will be. I push to get my humidity down to 40% in drying myself, then I put them into mason jars and do the daily/weekly pop the lid and let it breathe for an hour and reseal it until I really get the humidity down... Then it takes about 3-months once I get it down to where I keep an eye on the humidity inside each jar and then I open it and drop in a Boveda packet or two depending on the size I bought and then I give them another month of curing...Believe me I know nobody wants to wait that long to smoke some buds, so not all the jars may make it to that point for some people and that's fine you will still get high and enjoy some great buds. However the buds that make it to 4-6 months compared to the fresh buds you have that just dried even of the same clones there is a serious difference in the smoke you are enjoying. I read some place from some trusted source that bud should actually cure 1-YEAR to be at its best potency, taste, etc... All in all I actually don't know, but was willing to debate and test that claim and I can tell you this... WOW I wasn't complaining when we put that question to the test.
Here is what I can honestly say about our Test/Trial on the 1-Year cure... the bud was potent in the smell, it got Boveia at 3-months and moved to a dark place to be left alone undisturbed for the rest of the time once the burping of the jar was completed. We compared the same mother plant clones which have stayed the same in potency and have been staying to the same nutrients, etc... so we feel confident in our results, and in the end... Opening the other newer jars (fresher buds) there was some nice smell, you opened it got a whiff and stuck your nose in there to get a good smell of it. The 1-year old jar, you opened the lid and it smelled up the entire room and surrounding rooms with its potency of the smell, made me think of a hot car with the new air freshener in it for the potency of it. When it came to the smoothness, the newer buds were okay for smoothness you coughed here and there... but nothing horrible... the 1-year old stuff however when down like air, you couldn't even feel it burning your throat or lungs, but the hits OMG allowed you to really take in much bigger hits without any issue getting it all back out without coughing became the trick. When it came to the high effects, again we noted a serious difference it seemed much more intense as well.
Why does any of this really matter? Because when you really start getting into learning about Drying and Curing you will learn some aspects of how some things inside the buds need to lose water for them to change into something else, and thus that is why cannabis must dry out to a certain percentage and then Cure in order for the buds to become more potent in the ways you are looking for. In the end I ended up learning so much that I did some more experiments to see if the drying and curing process would in effect change taste, flavor and potency depending on the aspects of curing and drying... and sure enough buds off the same plant, dried and cured in different ways were all believed to be different strains all grown by different various people, and couldn't believe it was all bud from one plant at one harvesting. So here is a good place for you to start learning about Drying and Curing may it help you get started learning more on these topics:
http://www.growweedeasy.com/drying-curing
