Going to start drying today and need good advice

tanin

New Member
Hello,
First timer here.
I am going to trim my plant and start drying tonight, but I have a problem. Next Thursday I am going abroad for 12 days, so I will not be home to start curing till the end of the month.

I really have no idea how to proceed. Any tips???

Thanks
 
Next Thursday as in a week from now? (Well obviously I guess)
That's plenty of time to dry it to the point of jarring it.
If you can get your hands on some Boveda 62 humidipaks- just toss them in the jars and you'll be totally fine.

Otherwise dry it to what you think is right- put hygrometers in the jars so you know what the RH is - aim for anywhere between 60- 70 and you'll be fine with that for now. Then tweak it to the exact RH when you get back.
 
Next Thursday as in a week from now? (Well obviously I guess)
That's plenty of time to dry it to the point of jarring it.
If you can get your hands on some Boveda 62 humidipaks- just toss them in the jars and you'll be totally fine.

I'll try that.
So just toss it at the bottom and put the flowers on top?
For how many days is 1 pack good for?

Thanks
 
I usually put them in the top- but I'm sure it amounts to the same thing. Just make sure you're dried past all risk of mould.

They last pretty much forever. Can be dehydrated if they lose much moisture and start getting skinny/dried out if they've collected too much water and seem too fat.
 
You mean how to be sure its past the risk of mould? Well- the easy way to take the guesswork out of that is to buy one (or several) of those little digital hygrometers - they show the RH and usually the temp as well. Get ones that will fit in your jars. I bought about a dozen online, they're cheap. Put it in the jar of dried bud and let it stabilize overnight to see the true reading. Under 70 RH and you should be free of the risk of mould. Then you can dry it further at your leisure. Because of my local conditions my bud usually ends up around 65 RH by the time I take it out. The BV packs will take it to 62. At some point usually I remove the pack and dry it a little further down to about 60- personal preference.
 
Thank for the thorough reply.

Last question, after how much time you remove the pack out? Do you still open the jar daily or once you put everything in with the pack, you'll leave it be?
 
Well I'm not an expert on this, as I only got the BV packs last year, after many years of doing without. But I'm sure you can leave the packs in. Or once the RH has stabilized at 62- you can take them out and the sealed jar should stay at that humidity level.

As to the 'burping' routine and whether or not you need to keep opening the jars- that's a bit of an unknown. Some people will insist that you need to do this to regulate some sort of 'off-gassing' that's part of the process, but so far I've found that these people just repeating what they read somewhere.

In general I think a big part of opening the jars regularly is to dry them gradually to the right moisture level, assuming that they went in the jar slightly wetter than you want them to finish at. The boveda packs should do this for you- especially if you're not too far outside the proper range at the time of jarring.

Others just toss the packs in and leave them. I don't think anyone knows exactly what processes are involved in curing. At least I haven't been able to find anyone posting the science behind the process. Personally I just leave them, except that I'm messing around inspecting and admiring the jars frequently enough that they tend to get opened once a week or so anyway.
Sometime I mean to do some side by side tests of 'burped' and unburped, and see if I can tell any difference.
 
I burp until they hit around 65% then seal and don't open till they have been in there for at least 2 weeks. 4 is better but I have not noticed any difference in going longer than that. I cued one jar for 6 months and there was no difference between 4 weeks and six months.
 
My experience is different - I find that longer curing makes a huge difference. Six weeks is sort of a bare minimum cure before I'd give any away to friends without apologizing a lot first. Three months is much better. At 9 months smells and flavours are coming out that weren't there at 6. After a year or so the changes are less drastic, but the smoke keeps getting smoother.
 
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