It’s been a long few months (longer if you started from seed) tending to your girls. You’ve watched them grow, cared for them, and, have closely monitored their progress.

After Investing this much time and care into growing your plants, it would be very upsetting to mess everything up at the end.

Harvesting your crop isn’t as easy just slash and hang, the quality and flavor of your buds will be determined based on how you dry and cure. Just like the methods you chose to grow your girls, the way you decide to collect will have a significant impact on your results.

Hold Your Horses

It’s okay to be excited that your cannabis plants are mature and have reached the end of the flowering stage. But (and this is a big but (thicc with two C’s big) you need to have patience! I’ll say it again: patience!

The biggest newb mistake that most new growers can make is harvesting their girls before your buds reach maximum dankness. A high-quality yield means flavorful buds and a lot of them. You will be rewarded if you patiently wait for the right time.

Depending on the strain you choose, a typical flowering stage is two months. At the start of the last week, you will be able to see physical signs that your plant is mature. While a magnifying glass is handy to get up close and personal with the trichomes on your girls, you can always kick it old school and use the red hair method of judging when to harvest.

Red Hair

The red hairs on a mature cannabis plant are called pistols-bang bang! When these pistols mature they change color from white to a copper (reddish brown) color. There was once a time where a home grower did not have a magnifying glass to monitor trichrome growth, so watching the pistols on the buds was the best telltale sign to harvest.

Trichomes

Trichomes are oil-producing glands on the cannabis buds. They contain all the good stuff: THC, CBD, and other beneficial cannabinoids. If you happen to have a pocket microscope on hand, take a look at the concentration of trichomes on your buds. Like pistols, they change color: clear, then cloudy white, and finish to an amber color. Start your harvest when most of the trichomes are cloudy white with a good amount of clear and amber trichomes still visible.

Flushing

Flushing begins during the final weeks of the flowering stage and is the beginning of the harvesting stage. You need to remove salts from your grow medium, and your plants or else your buds will fall flat on the flavor and quality sale.

If you are growing a strain you are not familiar with, timing the start of your flush may be a little tricky. Typically, a flush would start at the beginning of the final week of flowering. Flushing means watering your plants with only Ph balanced water. It also means you will stop feeding your plants with nutrients entirely.

The Art of Trimming

After your girls have been properly flushed, it is time to trim. You can trim your cannabis plants when they are wet or dry. This choice is all yours. Wet trimming is faster because you have cut away all the fan leaves and most of the plant’s material before you start the drying process.

A clean cut is known to help your plants confidence and performance in bed

Trimming the leaves and plant matter around your buds can be done after you have dried your plant, however, cutting dried cannabis takes a little more time because the plant material will dry to the flowers causing it to get stuck.

Drying

Drying your cannabis will come before or after you trim your plants. The process of drying cannabis is quite simple, but there are a few things you need to keep an eye on. Humidity and temperature are critical factors to a successfully drying your buds.

First, cut your plant into sections and hang them upside down on strings to dry. Next, turn off the lights. The drying process is done in the dark and takes anywhere between seven to thirteen days. Finally, do the snap test. If you bend a stem and it snaps, your plants are most likely nice and dry.

The Cherry on the Cake

Curing. The last hurrah of harvesting your cannabis. You made it, congratulations! The process of curing cannabis is to very slowly continue to dry your buds to enhance the flavor. Don’t rush to cure your buds, a bad cure will kill all your hard work with a no-so-pleasantly tasting product.

Fill a glass jar three-quarters full with your beautifully trimmed and dried buds. Now, leave them in a cool and dark place. Open your jars frequently during the first two weeks to burp your buds. This gives them fresh air and releases some humidity. Continue this process less frequently for the next five to six weeks and the flavor of your buds will reach their absolute dankness.

The Holy Grail

Harvesting is the holy grail of growing your own. The process of growing will teach you a lot. You then apply this knowledge to your next grow. A grower will typically have five harvests in one year. By repeating this process you will eventually have your own ideal growing method that you stick to ritualistically.

It’s a given: high-quality cannabis is much more enjoyable and sought after. The only way to achieve great bud is by properly growing, flushing, drying, and curing your cannabis.

The time and effort you have spent growing and cultivating your cannabis are rewarded by the harvesting process. Curing cannabis is one of the most important, yet commonly overlooked, aspects of growing. Love and patience go a long way with your cannabis plant. You show your girls the TLC they deserve and they reward you with the stickiest and dankest buds.