DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest

[Hdinkleman]

as long as you move the buds around it wont mold.
i actually provided examples in my earlier post.
food molds WHEN NO AIRFLOW is present.
so as long as you dont pile up buds in a mountain and move them around every few days youre good
and also mold in fridge usually is partly due to actual build ups of water/moisture.

this is why we hang dry 4 hours or so after washing before we put into fridge

 

[DET—PDX]

I think I’m going to try the low and slow method with my personal stash, and standard hang dry/cure the rest as I have before with good results.

I will comment come August with those updates

 

[George2324]

Everyone is putting their buds in paper bags that do not have ventilation though?

 

[ChefDGreen]

Everyone is putting their buds in paper bags that do not have ventilation though?

I didn’t use bags or boxes, I set my buds out on racks on top of sheet trays

 

[George2324]

I didn’t use bags or boxes, I set my buds out on racks on top of sheet trays

How did that work out for you? I read a few posts people saying without bags they dry too quick

 

[ChefDGreen]

How did that work out for you? I read a few posts people saying without bags they dry too quick

Took me almost exactly two weeks, with main colas taking an extra 2 days.
I did a batch in jars also, I like the bag appeal of the rack buds more. The jars also took an extra week in the fridge.

Also the inside of the jars have a sticky trichome layer. I don’t like the thought of losing my potency to the inside of a jar, much less a paper bag.

 

[George2324]

Took me almost exactly two weeks, with main colas taking an extra 2 days.
I did a batch in jars also, I like the bag appeal of the rack buds more. The jars also took an extra week in the fridge.

Also the inside of the jars have a sticky trichome layer. I don’t like the thought of losing my potency to the inside of a jar, much less a paper bag.

How often do you turn your buds to prevent them going flat on one side?

I’m opening and turning once per day at the moment and it’s going flat

 

[ChefDGreen]

How often do you turn your buds to prevent them going flat on one side?

I’m opening and turning once per day at the moment and it’s going flat

I think I flipped em over twice a week. My nugs didn’t go flat.

 

[George2324]

I think I flipped em over twice a week. My nugs didn’t go flat.

My bud must be too big then I’ll need to break it up a bit more was trying to keep this huge fist bud in tact

 

[Hdinkleman]

How did that work out for you? I read a few posts people saying without bags they dry too quick

first day i rolled the top of the bags but left an opening. after 3 days i completely rolled the top closed on paper bags

How often do you turn your buds to prevent them going flat on one side?

I’m opening and turning once per day at the moment and it’s going flat

mine didnt really go flat, i checked them every day or two.
dont put more than one layer in the brown bags, and they wont smush

My bud must be too big then I’ll need to break it up a bit more was trying to keep this huge fist bud in tact

my biggest nugs, were fist sized when harvested, are still drying. big buds will take more than 2 weeks.
big thing is to cut off the buds from the main stems if you want the quickest drying time

any questions just ask, i have my first time with this method fresh in my mind.

also the nugs i hung and didnt bag up dried better than the ones i put in paper bags. im leaning towards that method instead moving forward.

 

[Hdinkleman]

Also i will say mixing two different strains in the same curing jar is not a good idea.
i stupidly didnt label and ended up mixing both strains i had grown into the same jars.
each type of bud had a different density/moisture level and i KNOW that for me the buds kind of mixed moisture levels in the jar and caused the buds to dry unevenly. now im at the point im having to finish burping by drying even more because i didnt sort buds by size neccasarily.
lesson learned though, i have to jar buds by strain and size from here in out to avoid this type of mishap.
ive dealt with enough moldy pounds of commercial buds that i know the mildewy stagnant mold smell. couldve turned out worse, think i just caught it and am letting the jars in question air dry more to prevent this.
also do you guys think boveda 58s are better for storage than 62?
what is the absolute rh that i dont need to worry about mold out of the fridge? <60% ?

 

[InTheShed]

what is the absolute rh that i dont need to worry about mold out of the fridge? <60% ?

That's one of those questions that really depends on your ambient RH where you do your burping, but I'd say 68-70% RH is safe if you're burping 20 minutes 2x a day to start and your ambient RH is around 50%. If your ambient is 65-70% then it's a whole different ball game! Then it's rice ball time .

62 or 58 Bovedas is personal preference and also probably depends on how you like to smoke. I find that joint smokers tend to like slightly dryer buds from bong hitters.

 

[Hdinkleman]

That's one of those questions that really depends on your ambient RH where you do your burping, but I'd say 68-70% RH is safe if you're burping 20 minutes 2x a day to start and your ambient RH is around 50%. If your ambient is 65-70% then it's a whole different ball game! Then it's rice ball time .

62 or 58 Bovedas is personal preference and also probably depends on how you like to smoke. I find that joint smokers tend to like slightly dryer buds from bong hitters.

ok cool, all my jars are now around 64-65 rh%
ambient rh today is 38-40% so was a good day to check
i know mixing the two sized buds in the same container equalized the rh% throughout.
for example the big buds probably were higher than 70% and the small buds closer to 60% and dry.
jarrring them together sucked some of the moisture from big buds to small and the strain that was originally dryer sucked moisture back into the bigger buds (not a good thing)

 

[falstaffo]

can anyone recall the strength h202 to get for bud washing?
3% or 5%?
i tried to find the post on it but havent been able to lol
need to get some ordered up this week.

also what is the ratio again please of anyone can help?!
thanks

 

[ChefDGreen]

I’m pretty sure 3%. And the ratio is 1c/5gal

 

[InTheShed]

My ratio of 3% H2O2 is 1:3, and if I need to make sure all the bugs are dead it's 50/50.

 

[falstaffo]

excellent thanks guys
i ordered the 3%
havent had critters
but i wanna make sure theyre dust and hair free still lol
i alwayss wear a hair net in the tent and still find long blonde suspects caught around lol

 

[StoneyMemoirs]

Hey, anyone heard from Ziggs lately? Miss that guy!

I feel like he'd LOVE a cut of this A5...

 

[George2324]

Right just an update with my progress.

The pizza box idea is a bit of a failure.

Maybe the boxes are cheap but I don’t see how you can get better quality cardboard pizza boxes.

They are losing their integrity and getting a bit soggy in the fridge due to the moisture.

Since I had 15 boxes stacked in the fridge the ones near bottom are squishing and squishing the buds in them.

I’ve ordered some netting and I’m going to build a custom rack in the fridge next week and not use bags or boxes and hope that due to the fridge having such high humidity all the time it should dry slow enough

 

[falstaffo]

quick question
am preparing to harvest my first one. gonna wash before it goes to fridge, so i will remove fans, then do i trim the buds before or after the wash i cant remember?
so much info taken in recently i start forgetting the stages and cant find the posts detailing again lol
feeling stressed more than any other time during the grow now aargh lol