Thanks, lots of folks here seem to be well schooled in both indoor and outdoor methods of growing and finishing. As for finishing, I tend to take individual branches/colas when they're done for the most part. Sometimes whole plants if ready all at once. I used to never trim off the large fan leaves (we NEVER took a leaf off a plant unless it was dead or dying, and never topped, only trained tips to promote branching - another point of contention for many) but I have started taking those off in the last few years. I hang them on fishing line in my cool, dark somewhat ventilated but not windy basement. Here they dry out, but not so dry where the small stems snap off. I like them to be still pliable (about a week or so), then I bring em down and trim off only the outer smaller fan type leaves, and put them in brown paper bags filled up about 1/3 full, scrunch (roll up) the top of the bag over (binder clips work great to hold closed) and put them in a cool dark closet to finish drying out. That's kind of the pre-curing stage. Opening up daily for a few minutes to air out. When they are dry enough to trim (about another week or so) I trim em and jar them up loosely. Burping the jars daily until they're just right and won't mold when sealed up. Thats more or less the final curing step. I tend to leave the smaller leaf tips on to enclose the inner buds which always gets negative comments from friends that have only known dispensary buds! Why all the leaf they ask? Then I final trim when smoking etc. All my trim goes to making butter. It seems like the super trimmed dispensary buds are naked and have nothing to wear to protect them from deterioration. That must be why they turn to dust and lose flavor and potency so quickly. I could be wrong though. A friend trimmed for a clinic and once he helped trim for me and was just hacking everything down to small nugs and tons of good material was being destroyed. I put a stop to that, telling him that's not how I do it. That's pretty much it, hope it helps a bit. Have fun and remember there are many ways to dry/cure/trim so see what works best and just be wiling to experiment. I use judgment at each stage and don't apply hardfast rules. Enjoy the process.
