Drying in high humidity

[Weskush]

Howzit fellow growers!

I am nearing harvesting time and need some urgent advise on drying my whole plant vs wet trimming then hanging separate branches vs wet trimming and removing buds and using a drying rack.

My drying room's humidity is 60% - 75% and temps average about 23 degrees Celsius. Will use a fan on a timer for air circulation (electricity saving) but unfortunately a dehumidifier isn't an option at the moment.

The plants are hybrids and the buds are diiiik so the dreaded mold is my biggest concern.

Any input would be greatly appreciated

 

 

[Live Canna]

I had a similar situation a few weeks ago. Where I usually dry trim, here I wet trimmed a fair amount away. This I felt, helped, as the plant was in such a humid room, it didn't need more leaves to add to that. And I found that worked quite well. I also had 1-2 days where I left the heater on a bit and off a bit. It raised the temps a bit but shot the humidity down for a while + dried them a bit. We had tons of rain, so I was more worried about mould hence the more drastic measures.

[Dookie69]

I don’t know how effective it is, but why not try a home made salt dehumidifier? You can find out how on YouTube or this link
https://www.amfam.com/resources/articles/at-home/how-to-dehumidify-your-home
I built one cheaply using a round rubbish bin and a large round plastic perforated bowl which fits in the top. (The bowl is more like a large flour shaker / sieve).
You then buy a 50kg Rock Salt from TWK (mine is sold as a cattle supplement, evidently they dig raw salt) even though you only need maybe 5-10kg at a time.
Put the salt in the top and water will eventually drip down into the bucket.


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[Dookie69]

I’ve just seen this older post. My salt dehumidifier didn’t work as well as hoped. It might have absorbed some moisture but not enough to be expelled in liquid form. It probably needs a very very damp environment to work properly. I ended up buying another dehumidifier instead.

[Marzcanna]

The ideal temp is 16c, it's very difficult to do that during the hot season without an aircon, 23c isn't bad at all and and RH is on point, I would still dry trim for that extra moisture. Without an aircon or someway of bringing down the temps, our best bet is to focuss on RH and dry trim. 

Edited February 7, 2022 by Marzcanna

[Weskush]

I've got the same factors to take into account when drying. High temps and high humidity. Will try the diy salt bucket in a bucket dehumidification technique to bring my RH down. The temps is my biggest concern. With an avg of 23-25 celsius, i will use a oscilating fan to circulate air and hopefully bring down the temps a bit.

Definitely wet trimming to not encourage mold. No need for extra leaf material in high humidity.

[Dookie69]

Problem using ac to drop the temps into a nice low range is that it then the humidity plummets. I had my ac at 20’C and that caused humidity to drop into high 30’s / low 40’s. So pushed it up to 22’C now humidity is sitting around 52% which is still a bit on the low side. So I added a humidifier to kick in at 50% which just tops it up if the ac is working hard.

[Bos]

Eishh... RH on the north coast is between 80-100%, especially with all the rain. Aircon can only reduce RH to 65%. Wet trim as always.

[Dookie69]

Eishh... RH on the north coast is between 80-100%, especially with all the rain. Aircon can only reduce RH to 65%. Wet trim as always.

Consider a dehumidifier, it will work well in that environment.

[Prom]

If you run a decent size tent, which produces a fair amount of heat, consider to use the exit air as dry medium. The air coming out of the flower tent should be in their 50ies if humidity is high, 40ies if low.

I live a 15 minute walk from the beach.. so humidity can go really crazy. And due to the huge swings, letting it hang can suddenly cause more issues.

My dry regime is rather easy but a bit work intensive. As I work with Clones or Autos, the plant size isn't over the top. I remove all fan leaves before hanging the whole plant in my air circulation room (second filtered one goes out directly under the roof), room also harbors the AC if needed. When things go really crazy, there is no way around the AC or losing the harvest.. as soon as I am happy with the dryness of the buds.. the sticks and stems still way to wet, I remove the undressed buds into jars with hydrometers. Lock the lid and as soon as the hydrometer goes over 65%, the jars go open right under the fan flower tent exit for 2 hours. Then lock and start the game again till I have em around 60% for 2 days.. 58-62 is my range of happiness. The buds will start to cure till i decide to dress them. In any case I only dress once the jar is balanced. The goal is never ever to dry below 50% that makes the smoke bitter, no matter what you do after. But 8% is a good gap and you come to the point, where you get the right humidity in 2 ventings (under the tent exit air stream).

Friend just lost half his harvest to mold inside the bud, hanging it in a dry tent, even 2 dehumidifiers running.. was just to moist for to long and 75% air moisture, the dehumidifier can't win that if you suck in all the time air from outside.  If you lock the outside inside air flow and run the AC, you get way better results and win humidity wise, CO2 concentration will drop over time, but.. better as to moist anyhow. Salt doesn't work, you can only separate the water if you put heat in again, the salt will re-crystalize.. but then just run a dehumidifier, last thing you want during summer is more heat.

My flower tent is more or less shut down since mid December, not fighting the humidity and heat.. if I have enough solar power up to run the AC free during sun time, I might grow again in summer.. March I put things back up.. and simply avoid the crazy times. 

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by Prom
can't write, nothing new ^^