DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest

[falstaffo]

Ingenious! Nice work! I'm not sure about the cotton, maybe someone else can speak to that.

How about paper shopping bags, using binder clips to attach to frame and keep closed...?

cheers i wasnt too sure either but i made a call and went with it lol
was very gentle transferring the bud and placed everything carefully.
have put the other plant in there too now with some more shelves, needed to get the other fridge useable again, the misses on my case.. ‘you brought a fridge purposely for your weed and still you stole the fridge..’ lol, this way ive fit it all in evenly and spread out, 2 weeks today for these girls.

 

[falstaffo]

i have lined the bottoms with baking paper now. tops not really touching anyway but seemed a good idea lol

 

[DonkeyDick]

got a little bored today, and felt creative, wanted to try make a drying rack to stand in the fridge to perhaps speed up the drying in my circumstance. to essentially be able to fit more into one fridge,as the bags take up a lot of space, but not so they are completely expsed, was looking at proper hanging drying racks, the round mesh type ones with multiple layers, but theyd be too big.

started with a frame

used some new cotton pillow cases, theyre not fluffy and seem less abrasive than cheese cloth and seemed softer too, only have one plant in here atm, spread over 3 ‘shelves’

whats everyones opinion? think it would work ok?
i can add more shelves and at least spread the other drying girl over a them. i could also line them with brown paper bags so they dont touch cloth if it would be better?
just bandying ideas.

@SweetSue what you reckon?

A great creative solution!
For my tuppence - I live so frickin far from anywhere that you have to wash any bought textiles as they are shipped with pesticides and other nasties. Give your skin condition a run for it’s money if you wear a new shirt without washing it.
That’s my only concern with your rig is that the pillow cases still look really new.
Probably not an issue wherever you are, just saying.
Love your work, man.

 

[falstaffo]

A great creative solution!
For my tuppence - I live so frickin far from anywhere that you have to wash any bought textiles as they are shipped with pesticides and other nasties. Give your skin condition a run for it’s money if you wear a new shirt without washing it.
That’s my only concern with your rig is that the pillow cases still look really new.
Probably not an issue wherever you are, just saying.
Love your work, man.

a valid concern!
they were new cases but had been washed on a rinse cycle yesterday, i lined all of them now anyway with brown paper so no actual contact with material. think its better to be safe, but the sleeves allow for easy sliding in and out now. probably a week they will be nearly ready to come out; i will fine tune it before the next harvest

 

[falstaffo]

forgot to post the final pic last night lol

 

[Hdinkleman]

hung buds for 10 days.

took buds out cut off colas and into jars for one night to sweat the middle humidity

back into fridge for one night in jars and a big bowl (spread evenly, no buds stacked)

into jars the next day at 64-66 rh% and been curing since

which would be over a week ago at this point

buds taste-smell-smoke-look—- all great

 

[Hdinkleman]

hung buds for 10 days.

took buds out cut off colas and into jars for one night to sweat the middle humidity

back into fridge for one night in jars and a big bowl (spread evenly, no buds stacked)

into jars the next day at 64-66 rh% and been curing since

which would be over a week ago at this point

buds taste-smell-smoke-look—- all great

actually let me rephrase that.
look great yada yada, as far as crop king goes.

one thing i understand now is the plants i have grown so far havent been great seeds.
crop king early miss and the couple nirvana plants before that are decent but not great i guess.
after my current lemon haze i have some dusted bud genetics seeds i are in seedling stage.
will use this method on those buds as well

 

[HigherTheHigh]

Hey @SweetSue and everyone .

Just wondering if anyone knows how many oz I can put in an under counter fridge to dry?

Or how many fridges would I need for at most 20oz?

Thank you all .

 

[InTheShed]

took buds out cut off colas and into jars for one night to sweat the middle humidity

I'm curious as to the theory behind this step? Does putting them in an enclosed room temperature jar sweat the middle humidity better than an air permeable container in the fridge? Is sweating the middle humidity something valuable?

 

[falstaffo]

Hey @SweetSue and everyone .

Just wondering if anyone knows how many oz I can put in an under counter fridge to dry?

Or how many fridges would I need for at most 20oz?

Thank you all .

i needed 2 for roughly that amount. and was still maybe a little crowded using paper bags.

 

[HigherTheHigh]

Thank you bud .

 

[Hdinkleman]

I'm curious as to the theory behind this step? Does putting them in an enclosed room temperature jar sweat the middle humidity better than an air permeable container in the fridge? Is sweating the middle humidity something valuable?

i dont know thats just what i did.

i should have taken more pictures but here goes-
you can actually see the moisture in the stems if you take a bud out.
what i noticed was the buds on the bottoms ( tops when hung outside down )
were dry and ready and the tops were not.

so i cut off the bottom nugs and kept as much of the main cola at the top intact for some good size nugs.

at that point i was able to jar the bottom buds and they immediately settled at 64% rh with no sweat.

the top colas were still registering 75-78 % rh. so i then put those buds back into the fridge in a open cannavault and a few jars with no lid for 2-3 days.

at that point i jarred them and they settled into 68-70% rh. from that point i just burped them to where they are at now.

only 1 bud (the biggest cola) i had to resweat and then back into the fridge.
but i think this was partly due to me not cutting the bottom buds off the cola stick

 

[InTheShed]

If you burp your jars down, aren't you losing the terpenes your have preserved going low and slow?

 

[ChefDGreen]

If you burp your jars down, aren't you losing the terpenes your have preserved going low and slow?

I think this might be true to an extent, but you’d still be starting at a higher terpene concentration than traditional methods of drying.. i think the best thing would be to burp like over night in the fridge again.

 

[InTheShed]

Rice balls. Keep the jar sealed and the terpenes in. Closed system!

 

[Hdinkleman]

my camera stinks but heres what im trying to say about the stems



in the middle of this picture, the old fan leaf stem going back into the main stem is still light green. when its that color i know its too moist but in trying to dry this entire cola, i do it seperately and try to find a happy medium between the lower buds and the top buds of the cola

same cola but the bottom. you can see the bud stem is lighter than the main cola stem. i know if i were to cut it off the stem it would be at the curing range if i cut it off and jarred it.
but this is size relevant. if the bud is so massive the smaller buds are bigger, i would assume they might need a sweat to equalize the buds rh% in the middle

same bud, same as first picture just zoomed out for context.

this is the cola that is alone in the above post. thats the reason for it being at 70% and doing the last bit of a drop by burping the jar

 

[Hdinkleman]

If you burp your jars down, aren't you losing the terpenes your have preserved going low and slow?

i could be wrong but my line of thinking is that the initial drying when removing the largest % of water at the beginning is where the terpenes are being lost the most.

by the time i take the colas out to sweat them once they are down to 70ish rh and they are a little crispy on the outsides of the nugs.

once the moisture content has been reduced in the bud at a lower temperature, my assumption was the terps were dried and werent going to evaporate the same way.

but i dont know if thats actually how it works. i dont really care for the cks anyways, this has all been a bit of an experiment, i want to get a few drys before my good genetic seeds need to be dried.

 

[ChefDGreen]

Rice balls. Keep the jar sealed and the terpenes in. Closed system!

I read that initial rice ball comment earlier and I was like duhhhh. But how does it work? Does it continuously lower the Rh until the buds are completely dry? Or does it stabilize at a certain Rh?

 

[InTheShed]

I read that initial rice ball comment earlier and I was like duhhhh. But how does it work? Does it continuously lower the Rh until the buds are completely dry? Or does it stabilize at a certain Rh?

Rice Balls to lower RH in jars

Let me start by talking about the success of @Scientific's oven-dried rice suggestion. :thanks: HOLY MOLY! Toss out your silicone beads and your store-bought desiccants. If you need fast and extreme dehumidifying, GO WITH RICE! The basic info is that rice took the RH in the jar from 75% to...

www.420magazine.com

You put one in the jar (following the instruction above), and the buds and a hygrometer on top. Seal the jar and watch the RH drop. I think SweetSue aims for the low 50s before she takes out the rice ball and reseals the jar to see where they stabilize. Careful, because they work fast.

 

[ChefDGreen]

Rice Balls to lower RH in jars

Let me start by talking about the success of @Scientific's oven-dried rice suggestion. :thanks: HOLY MOLY! Toss out your silicone beads and your store-bought desiccants. If you need fast and extreme dehumidifying, GO WITH RICE! The basic info is that rice took the RH in the jar from 75% to...

www.420magazine.com

You put one in the jar (following the instruction above), and the buds and a hygrometer on top. Seal the jar and watch the RH drop. I think SweetSue aims for the low 50s before she takes out the rice ball and reseals the jar to see where they stabilize. Careful, because they work fast.

How long do they last? Could you use this to dehumidify a small tent by placing it at the mouth of the intake fan?