After months dedicated to the art of cultivating cannabis (and a tonne of hard work), your plants are stripped, your tools are back in the shed, and your buds are now undergoing the all-important drying process. For the first time in ages, you might not know what to do with yourself. The drying process takes a couple of weeks, so how do you make the most of you free time until those juicy buds are ready?  
The answer is, anything you like! But from a cannabis perspective? Fear not, there are plenty of useful ways to maximise your time while you wait for your new batch to peak. Here’s a few suggestions to keep your anticipation high while your flowers dry. 

The drying period is a good time to sit down with any grow diaries you kept or notes you took – or even just reflect on observations you made. Looking over the various stages of your most recent project – including the end product – teaches you a lot as a grower. For example, you can look back on problems you encountered, how you handled them, and what you might do differently in the future. Maybe you encountered a new obstacle and could troubleshoot it better the next time round? This gives you the opportunity to take the next step as a cultivator, and a deep dive into your successes and failings will help you move from a beginner to an intermediate, or from an intermediate to a weed wizard! 
Gaining a better understanding of your growing technique can only lead to easier grows in the future – and to better cannabis. 

Outdoor season draws to a close for many of us, but if you can’t stand the thought of going a few months without gardening, you can turn your green-fingered hands to indoor cannabis cultivation. You don’t need to spend a fortune on equipment, either. If your budget and available space allow, you can set up an indoor grow room or tent that will allow you to keep gardening throughout the winter months. But even if money and space are limited, you can still produce one or two plants without breaking the bank on gear. While your outdoor harvest is drying, you can immerse yourself in setting up and indoor project to keep you occupied through the off-season, and reward yourself with a smoke of your new buds after you’ve prepared for an indoor grow! 
The ingenuity of cannabis growers seemingly knows no bounds, and creative minds have found ways round all manner of limitations would-be cultivators may face. Lack of space and lack of equipment budget are no match for the intrepid cannabis grower, and we have comprehensive guides to help you get started growing cannabis indoor on a budget. And if space is the issue? You can still grow killer cannabis plants in a closet, or buying setting up a phenomenal but space-saving micro grow. All the info you need resides within the pages of the Seedsman blog, and you can keep your hand in throughout the chillier months of the year. 

Some swear by a proper month-long cure, while others are happy with some nice fresh weed. Which are you? Either way, it’s the done thing to try a sample of your latest creation, right? You’ve earned it, after all. Dry a few hits and see how it sits! 
The most obvious thing to do in this stage is plan for the next step in the finishing process. Curing is like a ripening process for cannabis where your buds get primed for consumption and all those wonderful terpenes and cannabinoids flourish. At the same time, curing diminishes chlorophyll and expunges the vegetal grassy tast 
e from the buds. Once your flowers hit the drying station, you have a window of around a week to ten days to prep for curing. The good news is you won’t need to spend a week readying everything, but doing this makes sure you’re ready for the next step, and keeps your focus on the jackpot. Use some of your time to ensure all the equipment you need for curing is in place and optimised for the task. Check the following: 

• Do you have a set of working scales to weigh your buds once they’ve dried? 
• Do you have scissors/necessary equipment to carry out a dry trim? 
• Are you stocked up on sanitization products for the next stage? Think about gloves/aprons/cleaning products for your gear 
• Do you have adequate jars or containers to accommodate your harvested buds while curing? Are they spotlessly clean, dried, and ready to hold buds? 
• Is there anything you need to read up on? If so, now’s the time to hit the Seedsman blog and learn all about the art of curing cannabis. 
• Calibrate your hygrometers to ensure accurate readings 
• If you haven’t already, clean out your grow area and make sure everything’s neat, tidy and clean 
  
  
  

Sure, the curing stage might be another waiting exercise, but a good student of cannabis can use the time wisely to prepare for optimal performance at every stage. It might not be sexy, but it’s beneficial to achieving optimal buds 

You can plan a sampling evening with your friends – arrange to have everyone over for a testing party. Have any grow friends bring over samples of their buds and you can hold a mini-cannabis cup from the comfort of your own home. What better way to celebrate your hard work by arranging a good time with all your best buds?  
However, in the new cannabis era many growers have access to testing methods to gauge for example the level of THC. Whether it’s in a home unit based on near-infrared technology, or a sample being sent to a laboratory for full analytical testing, you could gather a sample or two and check its vitals. If you’re serious about your skills, a little bit of quality testing can help you understand your process better, and teach you a bit about your choice of genetics, too. 

Take advantage of the waiting period by learning some new smoking-related skills! Learn how to roll various fancy different joints, like a Backwoods joint, a 15-skinner, or a t-joint! Then, kick back, light it up and enjoy your handiwork. 

What better way to use the time while you await your latest pile of pot, than to take a brief stay of abstinence and reset your endocannabinoid system? (hey, you get no bonus points if you said “continuing to smoke cannabis”). A tolerance break is when you simply abstain for cannabis for a period of 48 hours or more, allowing your system to reset and make you more receptive to positive effects of cannabis when you start puffing again. 
A 2016 research project undertaken at Yale University demonstrated that daily cannabis users experience a decrease in CB1 receptor availability as time goes on. This reduction means there are fewer points for cannabinoids to connect with, reducing the intensity of the high experienced by users. Interestingly, the research noted that a mere two-day break could increase the availability of CB1 receptors. If you’ve got the willpower, abstaining for four weeks could restore the CB1 receptor availability to levels similar to those of individuals who don’t use cannabis at all. Next time you light up, it’ll be like the first time you lit up (but with better internet speeds). 

Following the arduous process of cultivating cannabis, the drying stage offers growers a moment to regroup. It's prime time for reflection by reviewing cultivation notes, identifying past successes, and areas of improvement. As outdoor cultivation winds down, consider pivoting indoors. Today's innovative methods, like micro-grows, offer solutions even when faced with limited space or budget. As you approach the curing phase, ensure you're equipped with essentials like hygrometers and sanitized jars to optimize flavor and aroma. For a deeper insight into your harvest's quality, consider home testing units to analyze the cannabinoid profile. Finally, explore creative endeavors, be it enhancing joint-rolling techniques or contemplating a tolerance break, which can amplify future cannabis experiences. In short, this "waiting period" is an invaluable interval for growers to strategize, refine, and innovate.