Rice Balls to lower RH in jars

InTheShed

InTheShed

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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 50% in about 90 minutes. Yes, 25% moisture reduction in an hour and a half. I had to open the jars to let the buds re-hydrated from the moisture in the air!

So when you do this, make sure you have a hygrometer in the jar and don't walk away for too long :).

What you need: uncooked white rice (not instant!) and panty hose/knee-highs or something similar.

Here's what I did:
I poured uncooked white rice in the bottom of a mason jar to fill about 3" which was to be divided across three jars of buds (1 rice ball in each jar). I spread the rice on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven at 200° for about 45 minutes. When it was done, I needed it to cool down. However, if you leave it out to cool down it will absorb the moisture from the air and end up at the ambient RH, offering no desiccating properties. So I put it in a ziplock bag, got the air out, sealed it, and put it in the fridge. This kept the rice dry as it cooled.

From there, it went into panty hose balls and into the bottoms of the jars.

20170807_205127cr.jpg



Within approximately an hour and a half the RH in the jar had dropped to 50% and the buds felt crunchy again, so I took the rice out and left the lids open for about 20 minutes until the RH had risen to 66%. Then I closed them up and put them back in the dark to sit overnight.

Works like a charm!
 
It's great for areas like mine that rarely have low enough RH to dry out the harvest! Those folks who live at 50% just don't understand :).
 
InTheShed said:
It's great for areas like mine that rarely have low enough RH to dry out the harvest! Those folks who live at 50% just don't understand :).
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Im in south Africa. Things dry out fast here buddy!! But helps to quicken the dry if you want a little tester in the mean time. :cool:
 
Grow Bro said:
Im in south Africa. Things dry out fast here buddy!! But helps to quicken the dry if you want a little tester in the mean time. :cool:
Click to expand...
Quite true. BTW, I don't know if you've run across him here but Smeegol is from SA.
 
InTheShed said:
Quite true. BTW, I don't know if you've run across him here but Smeegol is from SA.
Click to expand...
Got the man.
Met recently thanks.
And on the 420sa forum too.
 
InTheShed said:
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 50% in about 90 minutes. Yes, 25% moisture reduction in an hour and a half. I had to open the jars to let the buds re-hydrated from the moisture in the air!

So when you do this, make sure you have a hygrometer in the jar and don't walk away for too long :).

What you need: uncooked white rice (not instant!) and panty hose/knee-highs or something similar.

Here's what I did:
I poured uncooked white rice in the bottom of a mason jar to fill about 3" which was to be divided across three jars of buds (1 rice ball in each jar). I spread the rice on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven at 200° for about 45 minutes. When it was done, I needed it to cool down. However, if you leave it out to cool down it will absorb the moisture from the air and end up at the ambient RH, offering no desiccating properties. So I put it in a ziplock bag, got the air out, sealed it, and put it in the fridge. This kept the rice dry as it cooled.

From there, it went into panty hose balls and into the bottoms of the jars.

20170807_205127cr.jpg



Within approximately an hour and a half the RH in the jar had dropped to 50% and the buds felt crunchy again, so I took the rice out and left the lids open for about 20 minutes until the RH had risen to 66%. Then I closed them up and put them back in the dark to sit overnight.

Works like a charm!
Click to expand...
Love this InTheShed. Brilliant to know and will be trying this one.
 
Intheshed.
I hope you dont mind me asking a quick question between the pro's! :Namaste:

I got 2 Gigabud seeds. 1 never came up and the other looking like nitrogen deficiency at a very young age.
Would you give nutrients this young already?
Here she is.
The 2nd one is a critical + germinated at the same time.

What u guys think is up.?
Hope not genetics.
 

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Grow Bro said:
Intheshed.
I hope you dont mind me asking a quick question between the pro's! :Namaste:
I got 2 Gigabud seeds. 1 never came up and the other looking like nitrogen deficiency at a very young age.
Would you give nutrients this young already?
Here she is.
The 2nd one is a critical + germinated at the same time.
What u guys think is up.?
Hope not genetics.
Click to expand...
Looks more like light burn to me. The cotyledons look fine and I don't give nutes until those are used up. That's where the plant gets its first nutrients from.

Try backing the light up and see what the second set of leaves looks like.
 
InTheShed said:
Looks more like light burn to me. The cotyledons look fine and I don't give nutes until those are used up. That's where the plant gets its first nutrients from.

Try backing the light up and see what the second set of leaves looks like.
Click to expand...
Again I find a snippet from you that feel like a eureka moment. Coty leaf. Thanks for that one .
 
Shed I will get to your journal, guess it won't be this lunch break though.

This is a great idea. I've used rice to dry out damp tech, and it works.

Never thought of baking the rice first, or using it for weed.

I think it might be worth keeping a bag of pre baked rice around the house for emergencies.

:Namaste:

Think it might be worth,
 
Piña Delores said:
Shed I will get to your journal, guess it won't be this lunch break though.
This is a great idea. I've used rice to dry out damp tech, and it works.
Never thought of baking the rice first, or using it for weed.
I think it might be worth keeping a bag of pre baked rice around the house for emergencies.

:Namaste:
Think it might be worth,
Click to expand...
If you live in a place with higher RH it's a great way to get the jars down close to where you want them. Stop by whenever you can PD!
 
:welcome: :peace:
 
Hey buddy briefly mentioned using your tutorial on rice bawls on my journal and wanted to continue that discussion here.

So RH was roughly between 68-70RH room temp about 62F. Humidity has been very high for my neck of the city :rolleyes: I toasted about three cups worth of rice and let all the stockings I used be filled with various amounts. I determined that the larger the ball, the faster it sucks RH out of there. Was that your experience as well?
 
The larger the ball the more rice, so by rights that should have a greater influence on the RH. The ones I made are all pretty close to the same in size so I couldn't see any difference, but it does make sense that way.

When you toast, don't toast them brown. That makes them less able to absorb moisture.
 
InTheShed said:
The larger the ball the more rice, so by rights that should have a greater influence on the RH. The ones I made are all pretty close to the same in size so I couldn't see any difference, but it does make sense that way.

When you toast, don't toast them brown. That makes them less able to absorb moisture.
Click to expand...
Awesome so depending on the amount of RH you need to absorb you can have different size rice balls. Little more margin for error as well in case you forget to check the jar or something lol.
Toast was a poor choice of words as they are certainly not brown. They are still white.
 
Oh good!

Could do different sizes, but either way it's best to keep an eye on them. Even small ones suck a lot of moisture out of a jar.
 
This can be great for harvest day or just before curing phase. RH here is around %60 and it is kinda high. I am using fans in drying chamber. I am not blowing them on buds but creating a mellow air circulation inside the chamber. I might try this on harvest day to take the excess moist a little bit. I prefer slow drying because %60 RH is almost perfect but I feel that my nugs are always feel a little bit too moist to start with. Sitting buds with rice balls for 30-40 minutes instead of hanging them at %50 RH for a whole day should improve the taste. I will also try cob curing this time. I am always after the best taste and still couldn't decide which drying method works the best :lot-o-toke:
 
I'm often hanging in the low to mid-60s RH and I find that having a breeze the buds works to keep the mold at bay. I've never had a bud mold in drying even at my humidity levels. And the advantage is that you never need to worry about when to take them down. I left a harvest hanging over a week at 62% and took them down when it was convenient.

I hang mine in a cardboard box with vent holes bottom right and top left. I have a fan pointed at the lower holes so the air flows through the box and out the top, right past all the buds. I only turn the fan off if the Santa Ana's blow in and lower the ambient RH.

20190413_172717.jpg

20190413_172717.jpg

AK-47 harvest, flip day 71

I find the rice balls most useful when the humidity is higher and I need to lower it in the jars to make sure nothing molds when they're sealed between burps.
 
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