Questions Breaking down colas

@mcgrower yes. My preferred grow method is mainlining and that make’s long main colas. I tried preserving one intact once and it went moldy in time. Mains are broken down into individual buds till the single buds get too small. Then the last bit of the main, the very top, is left intact.

@monkeydo I'm in day 7, of the whole plant drying. Is it ok to break down now? And will my drying time be less or shall I still wait the ten days I'm was aiming for?

Yeah best to break it down for the cure, as monkey said the big colas can hold more moisture than you would think. I break down into nuggets and leave the tops about 2 inches long Max 

@mcgrower I usually let the drying finish and then break down the mains onto smaller pieces for the curing in the jars. You can do it now if you want to but I prefer to handle it as little as possible so mine are done when I do the final dry trim. A slow dry is preferable to a quick dry to preserve flavor but it’s your harvest to do whatever you think will serve you best.

@monkeydo I will keep to your advice. Cheers dude, I too have tried to cure mainline buds and had mixed results, only thing I ever really did, thought it was too sacrilege to break up beautiful bud up like that.

@mcgrower, it maybe sacrilegious but so is throwing out Big Beautiful rotten buds. Breaking apart colas in my world happens when,  1- the RH is high, above 55%-60% or higher and isn't coming down, like in summer time here, or 2- the buds are sooo big and thick they won't dry before molding. Maybe if you can place them in 40% RH it might work but not worth the price and you lose the slow cure. IMO.

Last year, I found the very earliest start of mold on a big cola that was drying too slow to beat the botrytis. Ever since then, I break them up to get them dry before mold sets in. I know it is not bud-porn, but no sense in growing big buds only to lose them to rot later.

I like big buds & i cannot lie.🤣

yeah bud I’d agree with everyone else I break them up before hanging tbh 

good luck bud 

The first time I had to toss a 27 gram cola I was keeping to impress my friends was the only lesson I needed. It looked fine for a month or so then there was an eruption of white fuzz and it was ruined. It’s just not worth it.