DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest

Just what I was afraid of...

Opened the fridge today to check on the buds...
several buds moulding like crazy...

Fridge temp is 40f... buds on racks... I don’t see how you guys are doing this without mold unless you only have a couple of oz in a fridge
 

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Steve9814 said:
Just what I was afraid of...

Opened the fridge today to check on the buds...
several buds moulding like crazy...

Fridge temp is 40f... buds on racks... I don’t see how you guys are doing this without mold unless you only have a couple of oz in a fridge
Click to expand...
Do you know what the RH in the fridge was with all the buds in there?
 
Sounds to me like your losing your harvest. If u wish to save what’s left, chop out existing mold keep in paper bags Not in the fridge shake daily and only cover the bottom of the bag with buds. Place in mason jars when dry 3-5 days burp daily place a 6.2% humidity pack in each jar after humidity drops to around 65%. This works well imo. Growers luv
 
Bud said:
Sounds to me like your losing your harvest. If u wish to save what’s left, chop out existing mold keep in paper bags Not in the fridge shake daily and only cover the bottom of the bag with buds. Place in mason jars when dry burp daily place a 6.2% humidity pack in each jar after humidity drops to around 65%. This works well imo. Growers luv
Click to expand...

I’d think paper bags are just as likely to encourage mold aren’t they? The humidity inside those bags will be sky high I have 150 oz of buds here so far about half an oz I’ve found with mold due to the fridge
 
The bags breath, I’ve never seen any mold I open the bags daily to inspect but after doing this for so long now I don’t even bother anymore I just shake to move bud around open bags and spread buds evenly
At the bottom of bags and close with a clothespin, that’s how i dry slowly.
 
Bud said:
Whatever covers the bottom of the bags. I must have 25 bags now I reuse them and add when I can.
Q. Why weight out oz, when not dry yet? Weight changes with humidity loss imo
Click to expand...

No I mean 150 oz dry...

I grow the same clone every round and I’ve consistently gotten 140-160 oz per grow. I’m looking to improve my drying method and thought the fridge method may be good but looks like it’s not an option for large quantities
 
Hey Steve. Sorry to hear about the mold. Maybe it is the quantity. Not sure. I wonder where all the low and slow experts have gone? I'm a novice, only done it a couple times, in much smaller amounts. I hope you can save the rest of your crop!

:passitleft:
 
I am not sure if what I did last season will help. I think while trimming last season a small batch must have been touched or something by a mold encouraging contaminant. I trimmed mold off while cleaning scissors after each snip with rubbing alcohol. Then I rinsed with peroxide and water. We hung it on the backside of a fan. That way the fan pulled moisture out. After 18 hours placed buds in large zip lock bag. I put the buds into basket style coffee filters and slid them into one side of the zip lock while it was laying flat. The other half of the bag I put baking soda in a small container. Got air out as best as I could do. Zipped up bag. I did the bag after sunset so I could leave it on the table. Checked for moisture in the bag. No moisture and no mold. If it showed moisture I would have thrown it out. The smokers in the family said it lost some flavor but was still very good.
Best wishes to you.
 
Newfun said:
I am not sure if what I did last season will help. I think while trimming last season a small batch must have been touched or something by a mold encouraging contaminant. I trimmed mold off while cleaning scissors after each snip with rubbing alcohol. Then I rinsed with peroxide and water. We hung it on the backside of a fan. That way the fan pulled moisture out. After 18 hours placed buds in large zip lock bag. I put the buds into basket style coffee filters and slid them into one side of the zip lock while it was laying flat. The other half of the bag I put baking soda in a small container. Got air out as best as I could do. Zipped up bag. I did the bag after sunset so I could leave it on the table. Checked for moisture in the bag. No moisture and no mold. If it showed moisture I would have thrown it out. The smokers in the family said it lost some flavor but was still very good.
Best wishes to you.
Click to expand...

Is it safe to spray hydrogen peroxide on buds to kill mold? Does hydrogen peroxide not destroy odours too?
 
I couldn’t get my humidity down this time either with a larger harvest. I had them in the fridge for over 2 weeks and checked RH....over 90 still. I ended up pulling the bags out and having a fan blow across the tops one day while I was at work. Didn’t take much more than that to drop the Rh to 70ish. Still struggled with the GG4 getting it down. I was bouncing the buds everyday while they were in the fridge this time also. I think I just had too much in there. Luckily no mold. Sorry for the loss of buds. Hopefully you won’t lose any more. They have probably had enough time in the fridge to get some of the benefits of the slow dry. After a couple weeks if rh is still high I will sometimes use Shed’s rice balls to knock it on down from that point. The rice will pull out the extra moisture and get you ready for jarring. I’ll post a link to the rice ball thread.
 
Rice Balls

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
 
Steve9814 said:
No I mean 150 oz dry...
I grow the same clone every round and I’ve consistently gotten 140-160 oz per grow. I’m looking to improve my drying method and thought the fridge method may be good but looks like it’s not an option for large quantities
Click to expand...
Unless you are in an industrial size fridge (like room-sized), I'd say low and slow is not for you. Hang your harvest where you normally dry and toss what has molded. No one here has dried that kind of quantity in their kitchen refrigerator and I'm guessing you will lose your entire harvest if you try.
Steve9814 said:
Is it safe to spray hydrogen peroxide on buds to kill mold? Does hydrogen peroxide not destroy odours too?
Click to expand...
H2O2 will not make the moldy bud safe for smoking. Toss it or steam clean it if you want to use it for topicals.
 
I trimmed mold off and mixed the peroxide with water 1 part H2O2 and 4 water. Not so much as a mold deterrent but it seemed that something must have touched those buds after the rinse and allowed the mold to grow. I wanted to remove that residue. The mold was all perfect thumbsize spots.
 
Try 25% of the harvest as low and slow and the rest the regular way. Or 10%. Whatever looks like it fits comfortably in there.

$700 on a first-time trial is quite an investment!
 

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