When it comes to growing cannabis, what you do after harvest is just as important as what you did during the grow.
Drying cannabis is the crucial first step to preserving the terpenes and cannabinoids you worked so hard to develop. No matter how you plan to cure weed, the drying process lays the foundation for smooth smoke, clean flavor, and a long-lasting final product.
Get it wrong, and you risk losing potency, burning away terpenes, or leaving excess moisture that can cause mold. Get it right, and you’ll set yourself up for the best cure of your life. The key is creating the right drying environment: steady temperature and humidity for drying weed, good airflow, and sufficient darkness to protect your plant material.
Plan for drying buds
Wondering how to dry weed?
Before you can think about hanging or racking your buds, you need a solid plan for the drying process. Post-harvest prep is where you set the stage for everything that follows, and it’s important you get it right.
One of the most overlooked steps is timing your harvest. Whenever possible, cut down your cannabis plants during the cooler part of the day: early morning or late evening, when the sun isn’t beating directly down on them. Direct sunlight can quickly degrade terpenes and cannabinoids, and this undoes months of careful cultivation in just a few minutes.
Once harvested, make sure to handle your plant material gently. Avoid tossing or stacking branches in ways that can crush the buds. Whether you choose to hang dry or use a drying rack later, the goal is to keep flowers intact and protect their delicate trichomes.
As soon as you’re ready, you’ll want to move your freshly cut cannabis into your drying room. The quicker you can transition your plants from the field or grow space into a controlled environment, the better chance you have at locking in their peak aroma, flavor, and potency.
Creating the ideal drying environment
A great dry starts with the right space. Building out a proper drying room gives you the control you need over temperature, humidity, airflow, and light: the four elements that make or break your final product.
Temperature & Humidity Targets
The sweet spot for pot drying is usually around 60-70°F with 55-65 percent relative humidity (RH). This balance slows the process just enough to protect terpenes while preventing excess moisture from lingering too long.
If humidity levels dip too low, your buds can dry too fast, which means harsh smoke and brittle plant material. Too high, and you risk mold, mildew, or an uneven dry. Using a hygrometer to monitor your environment helps you stay consistent throughout the entire process.
Airflow Matters
Fresh air keeps your drying environment stable, but direct airflow on the buds can cause them to crisp up unevenly. Instead, circulate the air gently with fans pointed at the walls or floor: never straight at the flowers. A small exhaust system can also help manage humidity and prevent stagnant air from building up.
The Importance of Darkness
Light is another factor many growers wrongly underestimate. UV rays degrade cannabinoids and terpenes, which robs you of potency and aroma. Keep your drying room dark at all times, only flipping on low-intensity work lights when absolutely necessary. Think of it as putting your cannabis plants into hibernation: they need a cool, calm, and dark space to transition into their best form.
When all these factors come together, your drying room becomes a controlled environment that protects the investment you’ve made from seed to harvest.
Drying methods: Hang drying vs rack drying
When it comes to knowing how to dry ganja, growers will swear by one method over the other.
Both hang drying and rack drying have their pros, and understanding the benefits of each can help you decide what works best for your setup.
Hang drying
Hang drying is the classic approach, where cut branches are trimmed and hung upside down in your drying room. Many growers love this method because it allows even airflow around each bud, helping them dry slowly and uniformly. Hanging also preserves the natural shape of your buds and keeps the trichomes intact, which means more flavor, aroma, and potency in your final product.
How-To:
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Trim away large fan leaves, leaving sugar leaves attached to protect the buds.
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Use string, twine, or a drying line to hang branches upside down.
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Space branches apart to allow gentle airflow between them.
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Maintain your drying room’s temperature and humidity targets.
Rack drying
Rack drying involves laying buds flat on mesh drying racks instead of hanging them. This method is ideal for growers who want space-efficient drying or are working with smaller rooms.
Rack drying also gives each bud more surface area exposure, which can speed up the drying process while still protecting terpenes and cannabinoids when done properly.
How-To:
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Trim buds off the branches, leaving a bit of stem for handling.
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Place them on drying racks in a single layer, avoiding overlapping.
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Rotate buds occasionally to ensure even drying.
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Keep your room’s temperature and humidity in check for a slow, controlled dry.
Both methods can produce great cannabis flower. Whether you’re hanging or racking, the key is giving your buds time to dry properly without rushing the process.
How to tell when your cannabis is dry
Knowing when your cannabis is ready to move from the drying room to the curing process is essential for a high-quality product.
Here are a few ways growers can tell their buds are properly dry:
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Snap test. Take a smaller branch or stem and try to bend it. If it snaps cleanly rather than bending, your buds are likely dry enough for curing.
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Dry to the touch. Gently squeeze a bud between your fingers. It should feel dry on the outside but still slightly spongy inside. Overly brittle buds mean you may have dried too fast, while overly soft or damp buds indicate excess moisture.
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Trichome check. Look closely at the buds’ trichomes; they should appear intact and not overly shiny with moisture. This is a good sign cannabinoids and terpenes are preserved.
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Small sample cure. Some growers like to place a single bud in a small jar for 24 hours. If condensation forms on the inside, the bud needs more drying time. If there is no moisture, it’s ready for the full curing process.
Cannabis drying mistakes
Even experienced growers can make mistakes during the drying process. Knowing these common pitfalls (and knowing how to avoid them) will help you preserve terpenes, cannabinoids, and the overall quality of your final product:
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Drying too fast. When buds lose moisture too quickly, the exterior can feel dry while the interior remains damp. This can cause harsh smoke, brittle plant material, and loss of terpenes and cannabinoids. Rapid drying often happens when the temperature is too high or airflow is too strong.
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Drying too slow. On the other hand, if cannabis dries too slowly due to high humidity or poor airflow, buds can retain excess moisture for too long. This creates a risk of mold, mildew, and a musty aroma that can ruin your harvest.
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Not drying enough. If buds aren’t dry when moved into curing, excess moisture can build up in storage containers, leading to mold growth.
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Overdrying. Buds that are too dry become brittle, lose flavor, and burn much faster when smoked.
Using Grove Bags can help mitigate some of these issues. Our humidity-control technology ensures that even if your buds dried a little too fast or too slow, the stored cannabis stays at the ideal RH for maintaining terpenes, cannabinoids, and overall freshness.
Curing with Grove Bags
Once your buds are properly dried, curing is the next step to maximum flavor, aroma, and potency.
Knowing how to properly dry and cure is quite simple with Grove Bags: just place your dried buds inside our bags and let the built-in humidity control maintain the optimal environment for curing. This is your best bet for the highest-quality dried and cured cannabis.
For more information on curing with Grove Bags and the overall drying and curing process, check out the full guide here.
