How much light is ok during the drying phase?

[Geets McWagon]

Hi,
How critical is it to keep a harvested plant in the dark during the few days of drying, before curing? I think it's safe to say that it is not as critical as when the plant was alive and in flowering phase (during its "nights"). What is an acceptable amount of light, or can it even be dimly lit, in my drying area?
Thanks in advance, -Nick

 

[Carcass]

I've never had a dark spot to dry mine (except at night) and it comes out fine-I wouldn't hang them in direct sunlight,but ambient light inside the house isn't strong enough to degrade them...
In my opinion,anyway.

 

[Mastrmasn]

I've done the same as @carcass and I've never had an issue. You'll be ok with light.

 

[Dwight Monk]

Just keep mine out of direct light, as I never had a dark place to be by themselves at and still control smell. I think once I had a empty cabinet but I couldn't see any difference between that and my normal on the wall behind the cabinet and not in direct light.

 

[Edzzed]

Good 2 know. I just finished drying and put them in jars this morning. I had them in the garage and there is a window in there. Not see thru glass but diffused like a bathroom window and covered by a Canadian flag. I did open the garage a few times to change the air. Also had them strung up with fishing line.

 

[Barney86]

Yeah I generally end up having to hang a lot of mine above the lights and never had any dramas.
It certainly fucks it when you leave it to dry under a light. I've done that and regretted it but as long as there's no direct light on it then it's safe enough.

 

[Mastrmasn]

Yeah I generally end up having to hang a lot of mine above the lights and never had any dramas.
It certainly fucks it when you leave it to dry under a light. I've done that and regretted it but as long as there's no direct light on it then it's safe enough.

Now this answers a question I've had for a while now. Can it be dried in the tent above the lights.
How often have you done this? It always turned out?

 

[Dwight Monk]

Now this answers a question I've had for a while now. Can it be dried in the tent above the lights.
How often have you done this? It always turned out?

Only problem with that is it dries out quicker with the hot moving air, personally I did it once above lights in my box, but wanted it to dry slower so I didn't do that again and went back to hanging on clothesline on corner of back wall.

 

[Mastrmasn]

Only problem with that is it dries out quicker with the hot moving air, personally I did it once above lights in my box, but wanted it to dry slower so I didn't do that again and went back to hanging on clothesline on corner of back wall.

I'm using LED strip builds. Wonder if the heat you're talking about would be different with these. But that's assuming you were using HIDs.

 

[Dwight Monk]

I'm using LED strip builds. Wonder if the heat you're talking about would be different with these. But that's assuming you were using HIDs.

yeah not sure, mine were blurple led that the fans blew out of the top of it, so quite a bit of warm air coming off of them and heat rises and all that .

 

[Geets McWagon]

That's kind of what I figured, thank you everyone! I wonder if there is a slight degradation in the thc that total darkness would prevent, and what is the ratio of light to darkness along a thc degradation trajectory.

 

[TorturedSoul]

My guess is that it's the UV in sunlight that would be (at least primarily) responsible for any degradation of the cannabinoids.

But that's (mostly) just a guess.

 

[nickeluring]

If you dry the plant whole including the root, the plant will actually benefit from some light the first couple of days since the photosynthesis is still going for a while.

 

[SmokingWings]

I'm using LED strip builds. Wonder if the heat you're talking about would be different with these. But that's assuming you were using HIDs.

Heat is heat, just excited molecules. With the LED set-up there should be less heat per watt. Hanging over LEDs would just take longer to dry than over something like one of those HID light set-ups. I did it at one time but since I have only used LED lights I can't say how much longer.

Have a great day.

 

[Mastrmasn]

I know heat is heat. I meant less heat is generated from LEDs.

 

[Billotto]

An experienced grower I know claims the only difference between drying in the dark as opposed to ambient light is the color of the buds upon completion.I believe he said green buds in the dark and browner buds if there's light present. I dried my first grow in my garage which is more dark than light and the buds were green. I'm guessing color is also strain dependent to an extent.

 

[TorturedSoul]

If someone actually bothers to properly cure their bud, they tend to get brown(ish) bud as a result, because the chlorophyll (and some other things) gets converted into other substances... which is why cured bud is far smoother to smoke (and better tasting, too).

THC and other cannabinoids degrade into other, non-psychoactive ones in the presence of light. It doesn't happen all at once, and it's not like the light from a candle is enough to cause it, lol. On the other hand, you only start out with so much in each bud - after having just spent a considerable amount of time and money producing that bud - so whatever amount you destroy during the curing process is "wasted THC." A very rough analogy would be... harvesting, manicuring, drying/curing your harvest the best you can, and then throwing 11.5% of the bud away. If someone saw you do it, they would probably be left scratching their head if, after having asked you why you did such a thing, you replied, "It's okay, there's still plenty left."

Having typed the above, I will add: If your only options are to dry/store your bud in a location that'll cause/allow it to mold, and one where the bud gets stored in the presence of light... choose the latter (of course). It's all relative, lol. Someone once said, "In comparison to good single malt Scotch, beer sucks - but it's still better than that stuff that fish pee in..."