Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible

applied during the last week (not recommended), mist plants heavily to wash off undesirable residues that may have accumulated on foliage. The bath will not affect resin production. Gently jiggle buds after rinsing to shake off any standing water. To prevent fungus and bud blight, wash the garden early in the day to allow excess water on leaves to dry before nightfall. If bud mold (botrytis) is a threat, DO NOT wash buds.
    Step Three: You may want to give plants 24 hours of total darkness before harvest. Many growers do this and say the buds are a little more resinous afterward.
    Step Four: Harvest in the morning when THC content is at its peak. Harvest entire plant or one branch at a time by cutting near the base with pruners. Jerking the root ball creates a mess and is unnecessary. All of the THC is produced in the foliage, not in the roots.
    Step Five: It is not necessary to hang plants upside down so all the resin drains into the foliage. Once formed, resin does not move. However, drying the entire plant by hanging it upside down is very convenient. When stems are left intact, drying is much slower.
    Step Six: To harvest entire plants and/or branches:
         a.  Remove large leaves one or two days before actually cutting the plants down. Or remove leaves after cutting plants. Harvesting large leaves early gets them out of the way and makes manicuring easier and faster.
         b.  Harvest entire plants by cutting them off at the base before manicuring.
         c.  Or cut each branch into lengths of 6-24 inches. Manicure the freshly harvested tops, trimming away leaves with clippers or scissors. Hang the manicured branches until dry. Once dry, cut the tops from the branches, taking special care to handle tender buds as gently as possible.
         d.  Or leave larger leaves on branches to act as a protective sheath to flower buds. Tender resin glands are protected from bruises and rupture until final manicuring, but, manicuring is much slower and more tedious when trimming dry foliage.
Manicuring
    Once harvested, carefully manicure buds by cutting large leaves where they attach to the stem. Leaving the petiole (leaf stem) can cause mold to grow. Snip off smaller, low-potency leaves around buds that show little resin, so a beautiful THC-potent bud remains.
    Manicuring is easiest when leaves are soft and supple immediately after harvest. Trimming off leaves now will also speed drying. Waiting until foliage is dry to manicure will make manicuring buds a tedious, time-consuming job.
    Manicuring is easiest with a good pair of trimming scissors that has small blades to facilitate reaching in and snipping off leaf petioles at themain stem. An ergonomic pair of scissors with comfortable handles is indispensable when manicuring cannabis for hours.
    Manicure over a fine silkscreen (see Chapter 15, “Hash” ) or a glass table. Scrape up fallen resin glands on the table or under the screen. This potent resin can be smoked immediately or pressed into blocks of hash.
    Wear inexpensive rubber gloves to collect “finger hash.” After trimming for a few hours, remove accumulated finger hash on gloves by bathing in a small portion of isopropyl alcohol. Set the hash-laden alcohol on the counter overnight to evaporate. Scrape up the remaining hash after all the alcohol has evaporated. Or put the rubber gloves in a freezer for a few hours. Cooling will make it easier to scrape and rub the accumulated hash from the gloves.
    Scrape accumulated resin from scissors when it impairs blade movement. Use a small knife to remove built-up resin from blades. Ball up small bits of scraped resin by rubbing it together between fingers. The ball of hash will grow as manicuring progresses.
    Budget enough time to harvest and manicure your crop. Properly manicuring one pound (454 gm) takes from four to six hours by hand with scissors and one to two hours when using an automatic trimmer.

Looking at a wall of buds is impressive, but it tends to loose its luster after manicuring by hand for a few days.

Remove large leaves by cutting the petiole where it meets the main stem.

Cut the main stalk at the base to harvest entire plant at once.

Remove individual branches and hang from drying lines after manicuring to speed drying and reduce workload.
Drying
    After harvest, marijuana must dry before smoking. Drying converts THC from its non-psychoactive, crude, acidic form to its psychoactive neutral form. In other words, fresh green