Drying advice

[afternoon blazer]

Howzit good people

 

That time is coming now. So wana just check my options and get organised.

 

So after harvesting. Im gona hang dry until the branch snaps. Then final trimming and jars with boveda packs.

 

So lets say im gona dry in a 50x40x30cm box. 50 being the height.

I have a high powered computer fan. ( for either intake or extraction.

Humidity needs to be about the 50 percent mark.

Im not drying alot at a time. 2-3    40-50cm tall plants.

 

Is intake or extraction a better option?

How big of air vent would i need?

 

[Prom]

With drying you do not need a monster air flow. Just enough to regulate your humidity and temp inside the dry box. No direct fan needed at all, just the tent fan, low entry and top exit.

There are many recommendations how long you should dry.. the longer the better. What is sure, to fast drying and you get hay smell and the typical chlorophyll taste.

I remove all fan leaves to dry, but not the sugar leaves. If you are in a wet area, you might want to snip more, if very dry, might even keep the fan leaves on the plant to slow down the drying process.

I try to keep my drying material between 55 and 60% humidity. Beginning I prefer more around 55, end more 60. If you are dry before day 5 has passed, you are to quick. If you are in a arid area, put a pan of water in your drying tent and point air flow on it depending on your humidity reading. Also try to stay out of the +65% area.. to wet can cause monster problems.

Temperature.. best taste results I have with 18-20 degrees and 7-14 days dry time.

Growing a plant is one part, I even think the easiest part. The result of the smoke depends on your drying and curing procedure. Most people ruin their material in the last 2 steps.

[Batista]

You need to do what Prom said and plan your drying according to ambient temperatures and your actual bud.

I just dried my f skittles last week, for a full 7 days.Here was my process:

My buds were extremely dry when I harvested(as it should be, because you left the plant in darkness for 3 days without any watering right lol ;)

Now, with the temperatures climbing into the 23's and RH decreasing , I had a problem, these buds were going to dry out too fast because I dont use anything special to dry,just hang em up in a dark room.

What I did was, a budwash(water->bicarb->h202->water), and then a small soak for 5 mins in clean water.

I then sundried on brown paper for around 10 mins a side until there were no water dripping.The buds gain some weight in water - then I hung them up.

This slowed down my drying process and I only had snappy branches on day 6.The bud as been curing for a week now, and its smells like petrol cookie dough my gawd!

I came up with the above because i fucked up my entire Fuel OG harvest last year, buy hanging up buds that were already dry and hadnt been washed, the buds dried in 3 days flat and the smoke was harsh cos of chlorophyl.An epic waste of money,time

[afternoon blazer]

Thanks @Prom .solid as always.

 

Thanks @Batista . Can i get away without the budwash?

[Batista]

4 minutes ago, afternoon blazer said:

Thanks @Prom .solid as always.

 

Thanks @Batista . Can i get away without the budwash?

Budwash is personal preference or PM control if you have, so yes you dont have to do it - but if your bud is to dry then a soak is beneficial to prolong drying 

[PsyCLown]

So @Prom and @Batista pretty much covered it.

 

You want to slow down the drying process by controlling the humidity. Having a tent or small enclosed space helps as the water weight from the plants will increase the humidity. So a small extraction fan (PC fan works well) connected to a controller wit ha RH sensor of sorts is ideal.

 

Since its warming up, low temps aren't really an issue and unless you have an AC controlling the temp isn't easily achievable. However high temps will ruin the terpenes, so you want to try keep the temps low too. Below 26C preferably.

 

Do not dry out your bud too much, I personally prefer to put the bud into a jar with Boveda and have it increase ever so slightly above the Boveda pack humidity and let the boveda bring the RH down.
Whenever I have dried bud too much and the Boveda has had to increase the RH, the bud has ended up harsher than the rest - even after months of sitting in a jar with Boveda packs.

 

I base my drying on the RH in the drying area vs the ambient RH, the snapping of branches has never worked well for me. I also do not really burp jars, if the bud is a bit too wet when I jar it, then I leave the jar open for a couple hours and continue to do so until RH is around where I want it. Burping daily is too much of a mission for me, I don't have time to do that.

 

The drying process can make or break your weed.

[afternoon blazer]

Thanks for the help guys. Will keep u posted.

[Prom]

PM, short word, we have serious PM in the Cape region. And you want to get your plants clean BEFORE you hang to dry.

A budwash with bicarb of soda works but only if you had it on your leaves only... very difficult to get your buds clean clean with a wash. Working system to get them proper clean... Serenade Garden disease control. You have to import, but it leaves zero taste on your buds and cleans PM rather fast and well. For heavy infected plants, spray several times a day to a good run off and open your buds up soft by hand and wet the buds properly. I do those sprays during the 2 days dark. Havent lost a batch since i got my bottles  

I prefer my weed over dried then under dried. My Bovedas in general add moisture. And if i had a bag in a bad jar, the bag goes to the dumpster like the weed on the compost heap  look that your storage jar are properly disinfected.

 

[PsyCLown]

12 minutes ago, Prom said:

PM, short word, we have serious PM in the Cape region. And you want to get your plants clean BEFORE you hang to dry.

A budwash with bicarb of soda works but only if you had it on your leaves only... very difficult to get your buds clean clean with a wash. Working system to get them proper clean... Serenade Garden disease control. You have to import, but it leaves zero taste on your buds and cleans PM rather fast and well. For heavy infected plants, spray several times a day to a good run off and open your buds up soft by hand and wet the buds properly. I do those sprays during the 2 days dark. Havent lost a batch since i got my bottles  

I prefer my weed over dried then under dried. My Bovedas in general add moisture. And if i had a bag in a bad jar, the bag goes to the dumpster like the weed on the compost heap  look that your storage jar are properly disinfected.

 

Got a link to an overseas site which sells the right Serenade, there seems to be a few different types.

When I last looked I could only find a huge bottle of it, I think it was like 4 gallons or something stupid.

[afternoon blazer]

14 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

Got a link to an overseas site which sells the right Serenade, there seems to be a few different types.

When I last looked I could only find a huge bottle of it, I think it was like 4 gallons or something stupid.

What figures we talking bro?

[Prom]

That's the shit you wanna get 

 

[afternoon blazer]

10 minutes ago, Prom said:

That's the shit you wanna get 

 

@Prom . U know u suposed to post location and costing too.

[Prom]

Intrnet search... you might have to look a bit to find somebody shipping to SA. That is the biggest issue.. 1 liter is about 25$ US. Shipping will be more expensive

 

I get mine over my California PlanetExpress address

Edited September 17, 2020 by Prom
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