Drying Box Design: Will it work?

Dr Jay Rolla

Dr Jay Rolla

New Member
Ok guy i need your opinions....

PROBLEM:

...i have nowhere to dry my buds when the time comes.
Going in my option was going to be to use my grow tent as a drying room since all the plants would be done around the same time....and i could control the environment inside my grow tent so that i would be optimal for drying process...

Now that im almost 6 weeks in...i've realized that my plants are going to be ready for drying at different times...up to maybe 1 or 2 weeks difference.

So now i have to come up with a place to dry my buds....and i have to be able to contain smell....and control the environment.

So heres my design....

I want to build a box 3' x 2.5' x4' are the dimensions.
Built out of plywood and 2 x 4's for support
....basically ill create a box with a 6in electric fan installed on the end....used as a fresh air intake and providing air circulation as it pushes air thru the box....then on the opposite side will another 6in electric fan installed and used as an extraction fan....now this extraction fan will be connected to duct which will outlet the air into my grow tent thru the bottom inlet port......
...the exhaust i use for my grow tent will be enough to handle the air coming from this smaller 'drying box' without any issues....
...this box will be 4ft tall...in order to allow the plants enough room to hang...and be able to insert a humidifier or a small space heater at the bottom in order to control temps and humidity.
Im going to make this box as air tight as possible....and the lid will be removable...and at the top will be lengths of wire running parallel both ways in order to maximize the amount that can be dried in this box.

This is the only idea ive been able to come up with....without spending a lot more money.

Will this design work????.....

any ideas to add to it or suggestions will be great. thanks cant wait to here some input on this idea.

Questionable option #2...

Would i be able to still use my tent to dry my buds if a few plants werent ready for another week or 2.
In other words i would have buds hanging drying at the top and plants under the lights at the bottom of my grow tent....is this an option?
 
ok.....i was purposed an idea to gain heat in my dry room in way so i wouldnt have to add a heater into my drying box....

Will this work????

If i have a intake fan bringing fresh air into my drying box...
...on opposite side of drying box it would be attached to the tent by a duct into the bottom inlet hole....

....now there telling me i can maybe cut a hole in my tent or use a different export/inlet port to have a fan set up in my grow tent blowing air thru a duct back into my dry box from the tent...
....this would supposedly raise the temp in the drying box(since the air in the grow tent would be 75 degrees).....i would only need to raise the temp about 5-10 degrees...

.....my only concern with this method would be that i would be sending dirty air back into my drying box where my precious buds are drying....is that ok?
..basically i would have 2 different ducts running....1 pushing air from my drying box to my tent and the other pushing air from my tent to my drying box...

Will this even work to raise temps?.....
Will it affect my extraction process?....
 
If space is an issue, you could try trimming, and use paper grocery sack. That's how I do. I don't hang. It works pretty well. Then maybe you could put in tent to keep light off them.
 
my fears of using that much wood is it will dry out to fast,Im not sure you will be able to keep the humidity up

my drying area sits at 65 and 65 for the first 2 days then 70 and 65rh for the next 5-7 days it never drops below that.

slower you can dry it the better it will be,sometimes I get lucky and its on the line for 2 weeks

Heavy paper bags work well also,,harvesting and curing is a different skill set besides growing
 
What do you think about the suggestion i was given on how to raise temp in my grow box?


ok.....i was purposed an idea to gain heat in my dry room in way so i wouldnt have to add a heater into my drying box....

Will this work????

If i have a intake fan bringing fresh air into my drying box...
...on opposite side of drying box it would be attached to the tent by a duct into the bottom inlet hole....

....now there telling me i can maybe cut a hole in my tent or use a different export/inlet port to have a fan set up in my grow tent blowing air thru a duct back into my dry box from the tent...
....this would supposedly raise the temp in the drying box(since the air in the grow tent would be 75 degrees).....i would only need to raise the temp about 5-10 degrees...

.....my only concern with this method would be that i would be sending dirty air back into my drying box where my precious buds are drying....is that ok?
..basically i would have 2 different ducts running....1 pushing air from my drying box to my tent and the other pushing air from my tent to my drying box...

Will this even work to raise temps?.....
Will it affect my extraction process?....
 
why do you need to raise the temps?? as long as its not below zero,they will dry,but it will be slower,and thats ok,I consider it great.

you do you the risk of dust,lint and whatever particles could be in the tents air,but man,its there anyways

what extraction?? iso,bho,rso?? ,I wouldnt get to crazy on the "dust free" worry,tons of dudes use outdoor trim and plant to make all extractions

if your doing this to smoke,watch the RH when its drying,you only get 1 chance to cure,if the RH drops below whats needed 62-65%
then your chance for a great cure is over,you can still do a good cure,but greatness is over.

as I said before,growing is the easy part,harvesting/curing is a different animal.

how much drying are we talking about?? 5-10 plants,couple lbs??
 
I have 7 Auto flower plants.... it will be less than 7 ounces i would imagine.

I think what im going to do is buy one of those moving wardrobe boxes for $15.....20" x 20" x 36"
...ill rig it up so its connected to my tent in order to extract air from this little box as well....and it should be able to induce passive air intake for the drying box......
...then i would have a small fan inside the box and a small heater to keep temps up to at least 65 degrees.....i know you say temp dont matter but ive been told i need to worry about temps......
..ill be able to control humidity and temp inside this dry box.

and im not trying to rig this up for my own entertainment.....i have no other way to dry my buds when the time comes.
 
yes the cardboard will work,those wardrobes have saved me a bunch of times,the paper bags work just as well

I use the ones from the grocery store.

back in the 80's I had some drying in 45 degrees,took 3 months,bets smoke Ive ever had,experiment with each harvest and see what best for your situation.
indirect lights and air movement(not blowing on them) will get you what your after

post some pics at harvest

:Namaste:
 
c526 said:
yes the cardboard will work,those wardrobes have saved me a bunch of times,the paper bags work just as well

I use the ones from the grocery store.

back in the 80's I had some drying in 45 degrees,took 3 months,bets smoke Ive ever had,experiment with each harvest and see what best for your situation.
indirect lights and air movement(not blowing on them) will get you what your after

post some pics at harvest

:Namaste:
Click to expand...

Hey thanks a lot for that input....
i was just kinda wondering if my idea would work....its really my only option and its really cheap too!

So whats your advice about temp and humidity?
...you say to experiment with each harvest and i will do that!...great idea
...but what would be my optimal temp and humidity?

and what do you think would be my safest way to raise my temp in the dry box about 5 to 10 degrees?
i was suggested to have warm air from my tent blow back into the box to possibly raise the temp....but i will already have the box hooked to the tent and blowing air into the tent......would this still be an option or is it a bad idea?
 
65-70 for temp and 60-70 rh

75-78 drys them to fast,in my opinion,but if you need warm air,than yes you can pull it from the tent,you must have egual in and out ,or it will warm up fast inside the wardrobe.

when the buds are stored inside the jars,there is a desiccant pack called broveda it is mmj specific,designed and built for this purpose and it hold the moisture at 62%,
 
c526 said:
65-70 for temp and 60-70 rh

75-78 drys them to fast,in my opinion,but if you need warm air,than yes you can pull it from the tent,you must have egual in and out ,or it will warm up fast inside the wardrobe.

when the buds are stored inside the jars,there is a desiccant pack called broveda it is mmj specific,designed and built for this purpose and it hold the moisture at 62%,
Click to expand...

Thanks again man....

you've been very helpful....i know now i can at least try to pull air from my tent back into the box and see if that gets me warm enough....only reason i really want to do that is so i dont have to put a space heater in the wardrobe box.....but if push comes to shove will just put one in there...

One more question.....Ok, the air that will be pulling out of the wardrobe box will go into the tent at the bottom thru the grow tent inlet port (ill have to cut a hole in the wardrobe to attach the duct which will connect the two). Then how would u suggest making a 2nd hole in order to pull this off.....due to how little the wardrobe box is compared to where the closest available inlet/outlet port is on the tent it would have to run thru quite a bit of ducting.....which might be ok in order to allow more air to be pulled out of the box than i'm actually pumping back....i really dont want to cut a hole in my grow tent in order to make a closer connecting.

All else fails ill just forget the idea of pumping air back in and just buy a space heater.....cuz at night when my lights are off in the tent the air is going to be cold so for at least 6 hours everyday i would be just pumping cold air back into the box.....

What you think?
 
how warm is it in the room,now?? when the tent is running and when it is not
if your girls are surviving the off hour lows,than so will drying weed


using a space heater will dry that out fast,waay to fast,and drop the humidity to 10-20% and that will give you harsh and not great tasting medicine
you must inspect drying medicine daily, sometimes multiple times.

do not cut a hole in the tent, if ya had some pictures,it would help plenty.

Thanks again man....
Click to expand...

my pleasure,you grow the girls,ya got my respect,hopefully others will jump in also

take all that you read,and decide whats best for you,Ive had great tips be shit,and shit tips be great.But I try them all

:Namaste:
 
Good stuff man!

...Grow Tent Conditions
-Lights ON
-Temp 75 degrees (range 70-78 degrees)
-Humidity 50% (range 40%-60%)

-Lights OFF
-Temp 61 degrees (range 60-63 degrees)
-Humidity 55% (range 45%-65%)

Conditions outside my tent is just a normal unfinished basement roughly 55-60 degree down there.....humidity is between 45%-50% down there ...remember this is outside the tent!.....

So when i hook this wardrobe box up to my tent.....if i dont add anything to raise the temp.....then it will most likely be somewhere between 45 degrees and 55 degrees inside my wardrobe box by the time harvest comes .....cause it will be colder in my basement that time of year.....Next grow i wont have this issue....it will only be during winter grows.

I reckon 50 degrees is too cold to dry buds at.....i want to dry them right and get the best ending result without having to dry them for more than 10 days......

I also have a small humidifier to be able to raise humidity inside that wardrobe box if needed....

I think i will be able to construct a really nice structure to dry my buds....im just worried about the temps......
i would prefer to be able to have my temp right at 65 inside the dry box and humidity at 65%-70%......thats my goal environment for my 'wardrobe/dry box'.

....i found a small space heater for $54 that has a thermostat on it so it will shut down at the temp i want to....from 50-90 degrees....its very small so it will fit in the wardrobe box with no problem.
 
But if you have the room this is what I do I have a veg room and a flower room. you have a tent but you can still do this find a old up right freezer i got mine behind a sears waiting for junk pick up. Take her home if anybody asks what your doing with it say making my own smoker lot of people do that with them. Now gut the freezer out and put a PC fan at the top for intake and one on the opposite bottom corner for exhaust this one you run back back into your tent , I made my own drying racks to slide in and out but you could hang your girls in there too. Works good when your not drying you can use it as a veg box when your girls are in flower when you harvest put them in the flower room. I don't worry too much about drying temp I like to be no higher than 70. But I only rack dry for 3 to 4 days and then paper sack it for the other 3 to 4 then jar it. I get many a compliments on a smooth smoke with good flavor
 
Another great idea......i like that idea a lot.

...im going to look into that....i may start out with this small wardrobe box just because its easy and i dont need anything as big as an upright freezer right now.....but in the future this will be something i will definitely keep in mind as as option...

....thanks for your input Kola......brilliant idea!
 
Subnoise said:
Space heaters will eat up humidity keep that in mind. My dry box has only a exhaust fan and passive intake. And I just run a humidifier in the room my box is in. I try to keep it in the 60s rh. My temps stay 60-65. Takes about 10 days on average. Higher temps will result in to fast of dry. And high temp and high rh can cause mold.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input....very helpful stuff man

so you think if my temp inside the dry box is 60 degress i will ok to dry in there without adding heat?......
i also have a small humidifier which i can put in the box if humidity needs raised.....humidity will be roughly 45%-50% inside the box without anything to enhance that.......would you still add the humidifier to raise it little bit?

I think my plan will be to cut them at the base, trim the around circumference of the bud so nothing remains except bud and stem....
...then ill hang them upside down in my drying box for roughly 7-14 days however long it takes....basically looking for the snap on the stems instead of bending......at that point ill put them in a brown paper bag for 3-5 days, then they are on to the jars for curing.....and i will also buy the humidipaks for the jars to keep humidity perfect inside curing jars.

Any comments on my whole process.....i would love to hear them. Thx!
 
Kola320 said:
Another great thing about the freezer is its insulated for it holds temp pretty easily
Click to expand...

That was one of the first things i thought of when you mentioned the freezer......wonderful idea.

What do you think about drying bud in constant 60 degrees flat the whole time while theyre in the dry box.....is 60 degrees too cold or will it be ok???
...and ill raise humidity to 65% as well.
 

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