The 454 Post Harvest Process: 10-14 Day Dry, Cure, Trim and Out the Door

Step 1 - Drying

  • We are shooting for a 5-7 day dry. However, the size of your plants, whether you de-leafed and the strain will all play a factor in the drying time.
  • Maintaining the ideal drying environment is crucial: 60-65 degrees temperature and 45-55% relative humidity.
  • Ensure you have proper equipment to maintain temp and humidity based on the size of your dry space and amount of plants you’re drying. Heater, AC, dehumidification.
  • You are ready to go to the next step when your stems snap at the base of the buds.

Step 2 - Curing

  • Buck down buds into lined totes. Make sure to line your totes with a tote liner to prevent cross contamination.
  • Buds will still be retaining some moisture so burping is critical to release CO2 and moisture.
  • Initially burp daily 3-4 hours for 3-4 minutes. To burp, remove the lid from the tote, remove the buds from the edges, place hands under totes liner and gently pull buds from the bottom and middle to the top. Leave lid off for 3-5 minutes.

Step 3 - Trimming

  • This step is often done simultaneously with Step 2 to speed up the process.
  • When trimming from a tote it is ideal to account for an extended burp.
  • Trimmed buds go back into tote to continue curing.

Step 4 - Package / Dry Cure

  • Congratulations you’ve accomplished a dry, cure and trim in 10-14 days. Now it’s time to package your cannabis.
  • Vacuum bags are great to show your users and deliver them to a Turkey bag for long term storage. We recommend storing in Turkey bags.
  • You can store up to 25 turkey bagged units in our Space Saver Bags with an airtight environment.

Step 5 - Long Term Storage

  • Long term storage must be done properly to preserve the quality of your cannabis.
  • Vacuum seal as your long term storage option. When vacuuming down, do so until the machine vacuum seal unit stops.
  • When the bag begins to lose air you’ll need to start over on the machine.