Trying to dry & cure in this Midwest summer: advice wanted

[Deketx]

So I'm trying figure out how to dry/cure my recent harvest with a 70% humidity. That's as low as I have in the house. The flowers have dried to 70% rh so how do I lower it to the 62% Optimum rh in their jars? The rh in the Midwest sucks for the next 2 months. Thanks for any advice you can give me!

 

[Stunger]

I don't have direct experience in this but many folks use those humidity packs, a even using a dehumidifier. I read in one posting somewhere of baking rice to further dehydrate it and then putting it in the jar of buds and that was said to lower the humidity a few points where you could then re bake the rice and repeat to bring it down. Someone said about putting some dry newpaper in the jars was useful, but for greater effect I imagine the baked rice would help more. Sorry can't more.

 

[013]

May want to try low & slow in refrigerator. Here is the best thread to study from based on your question.

Harvest Prep & Curing

 

[Justin Goody]

In a paper bag in front of an A/C unit, or in the fridge may be the only way to get more moisture out. Just throwing in silica packs would soak up a bit too. Would be tough in that environment without a dehumidifier but it can be done.

 

[Dwight Monk]

They will air dry below the RH of your room with some air movement in room, but yeah more of a battle if it stays over 70% RH all day long (here it drops at night a lot). Something to keep in mind in your planting/harvesting schedule for next time if it causes you enough problems or you lose some product due to it. Those packs will only absorb some, not sure if would drop it from a 70 to a 62 though as that quite a bit, but I only use those to calibrate my meters in a jar and not on the buds themselves personally.

 

[Pennywise]

I would go with a dehumidifier but Dwight is correct they will dry below 70% as they are.

 

[Diggler420]

If u can’t get a dehumidifier in the room, lower you air conditioning and add some fans to move the air in the room. It will just take a little longer to dry them, but they will still turn out great. I would rather deal with removing the humidity than drying in a Colorado room with low humidity and dry crunchy buds

 

[politoed]

definitely buy a dehumidifier. $200 is worth not losing your harvest. and its especially worth having nice nuggets that were dried slow and smoke smooth and delicious.

those boveda packs claim to be 2 way packs but from what i have read, they really just put humidity out to the buds and dont really absorb much of anything.

 

[Emilya Green]

I can't imagine choosing to dry down into the cure zone here in Missouri during the summer, without air conditioning. Typically during July-August it is 90-100°F actual temperature with very near 100% RH. There was one summer when we tried to dry out in the garage, without the conditioned air. It took a bit longer and we kept a fan going to keep the harvest from molding, but it did dry out enough to get into jars... it just took over a week to do it.

 

[politoed]

I can't imagine choosing to dry down into the cure zone here in Missouri during the summer, without air conditioning. Typically during July-August it is 90-100°F actual temperature with very near 100% RH. There was one summer when we tried to dry out in the garage, without the conditioned air. It took a bit longer and we kept a fan going to keep the harvest from molding, but it did dry out enough to get into jars... it just took over a week to do it.

id be so scared leaving my harvest in 100º heat. good lord! glad it turned out well.

 

[Deketx]

If the jars are open for awhile, or when the jars are closed rh stays the same. 70-71%. I'm 2 weeks with a coupe plants now and the rh isn't moving. So if I'm understanding this correctly, even if the rh remains at 70% the buds will cure down to 62% over time?

 

[Deketx]

So I put a portable dehumidifier in the room that was at 70% rh . I opened the jars and 8 hours later the rh was 55%, and so was all the bud!!!! 8 hours and it dropped it 15%?! .
So I figured once I close the jars the rh will rise...nope. In 8 hours the buds lost 15% . I put some 62% packs in each jar and so far the RH has come up 1-2 % but that didn't really help the buds did it. If I can get them stay in try upper 50's for the next month maybe I'll get an ok cure. Not happy