Harvesting Outdoor Marijuana Plants
So you’ve waited all summer, and now it’s trime to harvest those beautiful cannabis plants which you’ve been nurturing through thick and thin throughout the season. So what’s the best way to do it? Well, it’s actually pretty simple. You’re going to want to first not water the plants for at least a week prior to cutting them down. If you’re unsure about when to harvest then check out my other article about how to tell if your plant is ready for harvest here.
So the first step is to simply cut the plants down, remove the leaves with a pruning scissors ( or a regular scissors will work fine as well.) and then hang them to dry and dark and cool and dry place. Notice how the word “dry” is bold. Yeah, that’s because if it’s not dry, you risk the chance of getting bud rot and having all of your plants turning to mold. Not good. So then you’re going to need to cut a series of strings which can be hung from the ceiling and hang your plants upside down. You’re doing this to get rid of any excess water remaining in the plants. You probably pinched a bud and tried to dry it early to smoke right? well, that’s ok, but you also probably noticed that it smoked like shit. That’s what the drying and curing process is for.
Make sure you bring a fan into the space, to circulate the air. The best possible option is to use the same space you use for growing, since this should already have good ventilation. And then dry your plants there. However if you are growing outdoors then this obviously isn’t an option. So put them somewhere dry, and dark, and let them dry there!
After about a week you’ll notice that if you snap the stalk of the plant that it slightly snaps. It will still be a bit “rubbery” since all the water isn’t gone yet, but a slight snappy sound is a good sign. Once this is achieved you can then put the buds into a mason jar to cure. Open up the jar daily, tossle the contents about, and then seal it again. You’re weed will be ready to smoke in about two weeks, but of course you can pinch as you go along.
