DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest

[SweetSue]

If memory serves, they just feel ready at 2 weeks for me. My next harvest I am going to put effort on having uniform size nugs. It is a stinky diesel, yikes!
Kitchen gonna reek when I open the door.

One of my favorite things is the lovely Canna smells coming from the fridge every time the door got opened.

Hi Sue..how did you like the outcome of 1 week in fridge and then rice balls?

You know, I’ve tried a lot of drying techniques since finding this community and I’ve yet to fail getting great results, mostly due to the nature of cannabis to overload the terpene profiles.

I’m on vacation right now, far from my notes, so I can’t give you an answer based on written records, but my distant recollection was I found it “Close enough for government work,” meaning it’ll work in a pinch. I like having many options, and quick drying was one of my intended goals.

I chose low and slo as my standard for drying and stayed with a two week schedule because I found the resulting product superior to buds dried faster. To be honest, I pulled them most often at two weeks not because they were done, but because I needed the fridge space for the next harvest.

 

[throwitmj8000]

OK, trimmed up first grow/chop, and put into mini-fridge after hang drying for about 16 hours (I felt they were a bit wet still after 6 hours from the bud washing)... things looking good?

As a first time grower about to harvest first plant tomorrow, I am hoping someone could confirm these steps?


1. Cut and trim fan leaves
2. (optional, though I am): wash colas in 3 bucket baking soda & lemon juice method
3. Trim (or don't trim?) the sugar leaves while wet
4. Hang dry for four hours with a fan blowing near by but without it enough to move plants
5. After 4 hours, move to fridge. (what temperature should I set it to? I have a wine rack fridge I got for this, and will post a pic. )
6. Ideally place colas in paper bags in fridge (or can I just place them on paper towels in on the racks in fridge? is there a preferred method?)
7. Rustle the bags daily (or open them and flip the buds daily?)
8. After 7-10 days, they are removed from the fridge, and buds cut from branches
9. Buds placed in jars for jar curing (do these jars then go into the fridge?)
10. Begin jar cure process with daily burping for next four weeks

...sounds about right?

 

[weenmeoff]

Why no paper bags?

 

[Derbybud]

Why 16 hours? You lost most terpenes already.

 

[falstaffo]

yeah id probably try and keep off the glass, probably condensation will build up on them, i removed them from one of mine and used plastic pot lids to sit the paper bags on top of in the other. paper bags will help draw the moisture out,
in fact i think newspaper would be the best, of not for the ink lol i was gonna look if icould source the same paper but clean.
4 hours after wash is enough.
people hang to dry for a couple weeks outside this method, so no worries,
low and slow ftw though for me

 

[Althegardener2]

Tried this with my first auto harvest and it cured splendidly. Never going back!

 

[Newfun]

Other than the glass shelf part it looks great. Happy fridge.
Don't be like me, I just had a small amount to dry. 1st dry and all. Be patient. Don't keep checking etc. Follow what the experienced lo and slo people here say. Patience.

 

[Tejasdirt]

I’ve been doing a cold cure tech for awhile.
I now want to try to incorporate this lownslo tech.
Due to space concerns, I am searching Craigslist for a small cube dorm fridge to do not only this dry but also my cure.
After reading through I was wondering
Does anyone use one of these types of temp controllers to maintain fridge temp?
This way I don’t have to open the door to adjust temp.
My goal is to never open the fridge for 2 weeks.
I’ll have a humidity monitor also.
I’ll drill a hole for the remote wires so I don’t have to run them through the door seal.
I think this may be more precise temp regulation than the refeers temp control.....

 

[Derbybud]

First few days it's advisable to move the product some in the bags to make sure they don't stick and rot.

 

[Tejasdirt]

I am now going to get a small cube

First few days it's advisable to move the product some in the bags to make sure they don't stick and rot.

Too true
I didn’t really mean toss in and never open
I just want to open as little as possible
My flow will kinda be like:
Chop
Trim fans
Budwash
Hang for 24 hours or when dry from the washing which ever is first
Bag or lay on shelfs
Check n shake after 24 hours
Then close I and use the exterior temp and humidity to make needed adjustments.
From reaserch and doing reading here mold does not grow well in temps under 65 degrees f and 60% humidity.
I’ll be shooting for 40/40.
Has anyone else tried the small cube mini fridges???

 

[Tony Urban]

I use a small cube mini fridge. But I check them daily.

Chop, hang dry for up to a week, trim and put in paper bags, into the mini fridge. I open up the bags and move the buds around 1 or 2 times a day for the first few days. Then 1 a day after that for about two weeks. More important to get a feel for the dryness and buds than it is to leave them untouched...for me.

 

[Newfun]

Sorry if I caused confusion. I was a helicopter Mom. I was obcessinng the humidity etc. New Mom syndrome did not work out well.

 

[Tejasdirt]

I use a small cube mini fridge. But I check them daily.

Chop, hang dry for up to a week, trim and put in paper bags, into the mini fridge. I open up the bags and move the buds around 1 or 2 times a day for the first few days. Then 1 a day after that for about two weeks. More important to get a feel for the dryness and buds than it is to leave them untouched...for me.

Wow
A whole week?
In my drying environment it takes 3 days to fractal .
Thus one of the reasons I want to not check every day
I think I can do once a week.
Looking forward to this process
Purchased the controller today....

 

[Tejasdirt]

I use a small cube mini fridge. But I check them daily.

Chop, hang dry for up to a week, trim and put in paper bags, into the mini fridge. I open up the bags and move the buds around 1 or 2 times a day for the first few days. Then 1 a day after that for about two weeks. More important to get a feel for the dryness and buds than it is to leave them untouched...for me.

@UrbanAchiever

Approx the max amount you have dried at once in the cube??
Thanks

 

[Tony Urban]

@UrbanAchiever

Approx the max amount you have dried at once in the cube??
Thanks

My last harvest was about 8 ounces. Could have dried a few more ounces without too much problem. I’m fact I am a week from my next harvest. Should be close to around 8-10 ounces. Three shelves/spaces for three large paper bags.

 

[throwitmj8000]

If I were you, after they drip dry for 4 hours, I’d take the buds down off the stems right then. And for you fridge, you don’t need bags or paper towels or anything like that, just lay them gently on the racks themselves (the individual buds that is, not the colas). Don’t forget that you need to remove all of the bud from the fridge for 2-3 hours once every 4-5 days <-THIS STEP IS IMPORTANT so read it again.

...thank you - mine have been in the mini-fridge for 5 days now, laying on paper bags, and RH in it is 60%... I was wondering though, what's the reason for removing them for 2-3 hours every 4-5 days? My room, out of fridge, RH is 50%. I'd just be moving them out it seems so they just a bit of air flow from the room?

 

[ChefDGreen]

...thank you - mine have been in the mini-fridge for 5 days now, laying on paper bags, and RH in it is 60%... I was wondering though, what's the reason for removing them for 2-3 hours every 4-5 days? My room, out of fridge, RH is 50%. I'd just be moving them out it seems so they just a bit of air flow from the room?

It restarts the drying process. while they’re in the fridge the drying process is slowed to a crawl because of the temp. Bring em out to room temp, let them temp out and they’ll be back to drying at normal speed, then put them back in to slow it down. I think it makes the buds dry evenly inside and out.

 

[throwitmj8000]

It restarts the drying process. while they’re in the fridge the drying process is slowed to a crawl because of the temp. Bring em out to room temp, let them temp out and they’ll be back to drying at normal speed, then put them back in to slow it down. I think it makes the buds dry evenly inside and out.

Ok thank you!

 

[Tejasdirt]

It restarts the drying process. while they’re in the fridge the drying process is slowed to a crawl because of the temp. Bring em out to room temp, let them temp out and they’ll be back to drying at normal speed, then put them back in to slow it down. I think it makes the buds dry evenly inside and out.

Well
That kinda makes sense.
However....
Could One not just shut off the fridge and leave the door open??
Seems like alota shuffle of the bud and messing with the tricks
Especially since the colas are getting broke down.
Maybe a small small fan to move air in while door open ??
After a few hours shut door turn back, turn on fridge....
Seems like something I'll put on my list to try when I get the mini fridge and when I get the plant material to put in the fridge.
Good info.....

 

[Remystemple]

Just wanna say that all of this seems like way more work than reward. I've been smoking like a mad fiend since i was a kid, 41 now with a tolerance that is through the roof. so maybe that's why i notice no difference in the high between fresh dried herb and cured. I just did a 5 day dry and it's getting me more stoned than my cured stuff from the batch before.

Not saying curing is useless, but all this work seems a little much for what? a few terps? i don't get it.