How to Harvest Cannabis Plants

Harvesting cannabis plants is actually a fairly complex process with several steps, and there are almost as many techniques as there are growers. I will briefly explain each step in the harvesting process, and give examples of some of the different techniques that can be used.

How to Harvest Cannabis Plants

1. Cutting the plant when it is mature.
2. Trimming the leaves.
3. Drying the plant.
4. Curing the buds.

Determining the Right Time to Harvest Cannabis Plants

Determining the exact right time to harvest cannabis plants is the trickiest part of harvesting. As marijuana plants mature, the trichomes (mushroom-shaped glands on leaves and buds) change from clear to milky-white to amber. Some strains have trichomes that change to other colors, such as purple, instead of amber.

Basically, a clear trichome is not ripe, an amber trichome is over-ripe and a milky trichome is perfect. The problem is, the trichomes don’t all change at the same time. A bud harvested at the right time will have about 60-80% milky trichomes, with smaller amounts of clear and amber trichomes.

Harvesting early or late can also change the effect of the buds: Harvesting early will give the buds more of a sativa feel, with less couch lock and drowsiness than would be expected for the strain; harvesting late will give the buds more of an indica feel, with more pain relief; and harvesting either early or late will give you slightly lower overall potency, so it’s usually best to try to get them at their peak. A small digital microscope or optical hand magnifier is a great help for determining proper harvest times.

Manicuring (Trimming the Leaves)

Trimming, or manicuring, is the most labor-intensive part of harvesting, and there are several different techniques to try. At its most basic, the goal of manicuring is to remove the chlorophyll-rich leaves from the final product. To remove the leaves, you can use scissors, your bare fingers or a powered trimming machine.

Many growers will dry the plant (fully or partially) with the leaves still on, then come back and remove the leaves (by breaking them off). This is a very messy technique, and I don’t recommend it. The most common method of trimming is using scissors to trim off the leaf as soon as the plant is cut from the base. This is the method I prefer because the leaves are still perky but flexible.

When trimming, hold the bud upside down by their stem, and clip the fan leaves off right where they meet the stem, called the petiole. Focus on these fan leaves first, working in a sort of spiral pattern down toward the end of the bud. Then, turn the bud over again and carefully cut the small, single- to triple-fingered leaves protruding from the buds. Try to get as close to the bud as you can, without touching the bud itself.

Always try to minimize any contact with the buds; the trichomes can be easily damaged at several times during the harvesting/curing/storing process, and handling buds roughly throughout can really take its toll on the final product.

This is a video that has some decent detail to it, though the harvester is working a little quickly (and rough on the buds) to demonstrate the finished bud.

Drying the Harvest

Drying the harvest is easy, once you get the hang of what to look for. To dry your buds, I recommend hanging them along a line. This is easily done with a piece of twine, and I like to use safety pins to hang the buds; simply push the sharp end through the stem and hang from the clasp of the safety pin. You can also hang the branches supported by a bud/stem, but that can damage some of your buds. Another way is to set buds on a screen or in a tray to dry, just make sure you gently turn the buds at least once a day.

The drying area should be dark, 60-65 degrees (F) with 30-40% humidity. The exact amount of time it takes to dry depends on the density and number of buds, ventilation, temperature and humidity. Once the buds have lost about 50-60% of their fresh weight (when the stems are brittle enough to snap), it’s time to jar them up for a day or two. This allows the remaining moisture to spread out evenly within the buds, helping remove more of the moisture without making the buds too dry or crunchy. After this, the buds are again left to dry until they are only about 25% of their fresh weight. The buds are then ready to be jarred and cured.

Curing the Buds

Curing is the easiest part of the harvesting process, but it is very important. The dried buds are placed in air-tight containers, and left to allow the moisture to even out once again. Jars of dried, curing buds are opened periodically (once a day to once a week) to allow any extra moisture in the jar to escape, and usually left open for a short time (10 minutes to an hour). This process slowly removes the remaining moisture in the buds, and enhances their flavor and smell.

Again, this is just the basics of the processes to harvest cannabis plants. There are so many different methods and techniques that I cannot cover them all in this article without writing a book. Fellow growers, please share your harvesting techniques in the comment section below.