[00:03] It's harvest day. Before a single plant comes down, I'm prepping the space so the dry goes smooth. First up — building a couple of hanging cages. This is my twist on something I saw Swami use. I've hung plants with string before and it works, but the metal fencing material gives me way more hanging points and lets me spread plants out so they dry more consistently.
[00:26] It's gonna be a lot of humidity, but we do want that slow dry to give us a smoother smoke. Because the fencing comes rolled, I'm fastening it to lumber to help flatten it out. I found a pair of long metal brackets laying around — perfect for attaching the fencing to the wood and taking out that curl. Once it's secure, I measured out an eight foot length and cut it with tin snips. I'm leaving the cut ends a little long on purpose so I can bend them back on themselves.
[01:04] That puts the hanging points exactly where I need them and gives me a convenient place to load every plant as it comes down. Now that the rig is in place, I do a quick defoliation before cutting — targeting the big fan leaves, the ones with noticeable stems. Pulling those now helps the plant dry more evenly.
[01:24] Let's harvest time with this Donny Burger. See these nice deep purple colors, packed with trichomes. I've rigged up here this little cage thing — I've used this in the past. We're going to cut the plant, defoliate it, just take the big water leaves off, and then hang it and repeat the process throughout the greenhouse.
[01:51] So with a plant this large, you can either chop it up into some smaller branches or just take the plant whole when you can. I like to take the whole plant because it keeps everything together and I can keep removing material from the plant as it's hanging. Any leaf with a stem is going to be coming off — that'll help get some wet weight off and remove excess material.
[02:34] We're gonna continue to work on this after we hang it. If it's a huge plant and not feasible, you can take off some branches and break it up that way. But I do have enough vertical space where I can just take it at the base and hang it whole — it's gonna help me keep everything organised.
[03:39] All these little sugar leaves — I'm not gonna mess with these. Just most of the big fan leaves is what I'm gonna work on. Usually, especially with the temperature right now, this is probably gonna be hanging for a couple of weeks. When you are checking to see when your plant has dried enough, you're gonna be taking one of these smaller stems and bending it to make sure that it snaps. One of these smaller branches is a great indicator for when the plant is dry enough to start bucking down and getting in the jar.
[04:18] The smaller leaves tucked in and around the buds — the sugar leaves stay for now. They're usually covered in trichomes, just like the flowers, and they act as a humidity buffer, which helps you with the dry. The bigger fan leaves come off but the sugar leaves are staying on.
[04:38] This plant was a little bit lighter than I wanted going into flower — had a tough time keeping up on the watering — but after getting into these beds, keeping them moist and lots of compost, it bulked up pretty nice. This has some really nice trichomes on it and it's got a great smell. We have a mix of 707, some coco, and a lot of compost that I've been bringing out — the raised beds really make a difference.
[06:10] I don't want it to take forever to dry, but you also don't want it to dry too quick — that's gonna lead to a harsh smoke. If you're in a place where you're worried about humidity and mold and you want to cut down your drying time, you can break the plant up. I do have a small dehumidifier, but if you're pulling down way more material and you're worried about that, you can break it up for faster drying. Just be careful because quick-drying cannabis leads to a harsher smoke — so I tend to keep my plants whole.
[07:00] We'll tag it so we know what the strain is and get these in the room drying. Because I'm running a mix of strains, labelling is everything. The plant markers that were in the pots from day one — as each plant comes down, I attach its marker directly to the cage next to the plant.
[07:54] Once the first cage is full, we're moving it into the drying area. I'm using the shed as a dry room. In a perfect world, you keep the space around 60 degrees Fahrenheit and 60% humidity. Air circulation matters, but you don't want fans pointed directly at the plants — think gentle movement in the room, not a breeze on the flowers.
[08:49] Got all these attached to the cage, got my little plant markers on there so I know what strain is what. The main thing with drying and curing is a dark space. So I have my shed here — AC, a fan pointed away from the plants so it's not directly on them, but it's gonna keep it cool, keep it dark, and keep that humidity under control.
[09:22] Thanks for joining us for this year's harvest. If you liked what you saw and want to see more videos, make sure to follow our YouTube channel. Drop a like — if there's any comments or tips you'd like to see in the future or things you do differently, let us know down in the comments.
