After 9 weeks of flowering, "Ace" (my Steem OG female) is finally ready to become medicine for my wife @MediKatie!
Ace enjoyed a few minutes in the setting sun today, as I gathered the tools I needed.
Here she was last night:
Method
I prefer the 'no-touch hang method' of drying cannabis. This is only one way of many that it can be done. It works great for small batches of hand-cultivated flowers, and it's great on a budget of $0 like mine.
I'm a big fan of getting the right tool for the job, but in this case, simple is best. Turns out a regular old hanger is great for hanging flowers! For small indoor plants like these, one hanger can dry a whole plant.
You'll need some string, twine, or thread to do the hanging. Make sure it won't shed fibers into your buds.
( Aside: I couldn't find any suitable string until I went looking in my gardening stuff. It belonged to my late grandfather, a master gardener of vegetables and flowers. He died about a decade ago, and I took care of my grandmother in their home until she died 3 years ago now. I inherited a few bags of his 'junk', after my already-wealthy family looted anything they could sell for cash, and threw out huge amounts of his belongings. He was an efficient, quiet, intelligent, deep, and hard-working man. He called me "Big Dee". I couldn't have asked for a better grandfather, and I think of him often.
When I opened the box of gardening stuff, there was a bag of twine and string, neatly rolled up and stacked. It was easy to find the perfect string from such a variety, all of them salvaged from various jobs and purposes years ago. I pulled back the little bit of tape he'd placed so the next person - me - wouldn't need to go searching for the end. Grampa was always preparing for the future. He was a Scout - "Be Prepared", always. He rarely threw anything away if there was a good chance it could come in handy in the future. This came from being born during the Depression. He and Grandma clipped coupons, they had food storage in the cellar, they saved, they preferred cash over bank balances, they were generous with family, they were wise stewards of what they had, and they died wealthy (without having ever lived a wealthy lifestyle).
My family hurt my wife and I to get the house sold quickly, and much was lost in the rush to leave (with nowhere to go), but I got this twine. As I unrolled the length I needed, I noticed that it had been taken off the roll before, and carefully rerolled, with the end taped down. Thank you, Grampa! )
Fans off
I removed all the fan leaves, and anything without trichomes on it. The small leaves, I eat (like salad). MediKatie uses the larger ones in art/modeling projects.
Then I tied about 20-30 cm (9-12 in) of string to one of the stems, just below the lowest nug.
Then cut the stem just below the tie-off:
And tie the other end to the hanger.
Repeat until all your flowers are tied up! This can be done without touching the buds at all. They can remain completely untouched except by air, until the moment you go to bust them up.
Hang in a cool dark place with good airflow and low humidity. This allows the flowers to die, and the chlorophyll to begin to break down. This is the start of the curing process.
Back at the plant, clip the stem off at the soil line.
I keep all my favourite plants forever. Here are my Pink Kush plants from the last crop:
Aside from sentimental value, in a pinch they can be sacrificed for a few doses of medicine. They're very strong, and can be used to make things, like a fancy roach clip. You could roast a snack over a fire, even.
All that's left of "Ace" is the roots & dirt!
So, naturally, the next step is to separate the roots from the dirt.
Into the tub!
A good soak in lukewarm water loosens the soil nicely.
I let the water wash over the root ball, dirt and perlite (the white bits) carried away.
A healthy earthworm appeared (and was given a ride to a different plant that isn't being harvested today).
After about an hour of soaking and rinsing, the last of the dirt was gone from the roots:
A pleasant smell like carrots came from the clean roots. They're full of cannabinoids and other medicinal compounds, including some of the more rare ones that aren't found up in the buds. Many people make edibles or topicals (creams) with the roots.
First, to get them dried:
The roots are hanging to dry with the stem, on a hanger next to the flowers.
100% of the plant is prepped and drying. Nothing wasted. Efficient.
Stay tuned for updates as these gorgeous buds dry, cure, and are extracted for their medicine!
That's the pink kush from last year (some may remember the photo). I have a feeling Steem OG is going to look even more incredible! Thanks for following the process with me. (EDIT: See the curing process here!)
DRutter
