Question regarding drying

[skunkybudz420]

Hey guys just joined the site and had a few questions. Any input is appreciated.

So I cut down six plants three days ago and hung the whole plants in my basement. 3 gal pots and about 3-4 feet tall. After I hung them I picked off all the fan leaves. At first my basement was sitting at 59 degrees and 30% humidity.

I talked to the guy at the grow store and he suggested I get my temperature up as close to 75 as possible and told me not to try to raise the humidity.

I got the temperature up to 68-70 degrees but the humidity dropped to around 10% humidity.

My buds feel on the crispier side on the outside but still feel wet on the inside. The stems are starting to harden but not at the point of snapping yet. I doth want to over dry my bud.

My question is can I start trimming it and curing it?
If not, how much longer should I let them hang before trimming.

I know the slower they dry the better they are but my drying situation is what it is and I would appreciate any suggestions on what you would do in my situation.

Thank you!

 

[Weaselcracker]

The way to know how dry your bud is , is to use a digital hygrometer. They tell you your RH. (Relative humidity). Usually you'll find them in the form of a thermometer/ hygrometer combo. You can buy small ones that will fit in your curing jars. They're cheap.
Put your trimmed bud in the jars and toss in a hygrometer. Leave it a few hours or overnight. If the reading is above 70 RH then you need to take it out and dry a little more. Anything below 70 should be pretty safe against mold. The ideal finished moisture is around 60 RH, give or take a few degrees.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Their are some variations on the slow air dry to methods used but would largely depend on your own conditions to how this achieved !

I've been using a method i found from dinafem that is seed breeder you could type in Dinafem slow air drying & see if that brings up their page on search results ?

But ye 10 to 14 days slow air dry if you can pull it off !

Basically the first few days the temp is about 20/21 c 68/69 f with RH 50% this allows for a slightly quicker dry & helps avoid bud rot issues in case RH is way off/high when the bud is most moist.

The remaining period the temps ideally needs to drop down a little to about 18 c / 64 f give or take a little with RH 60% this slows down the drying process.

After that or 10 to 14 days later ya bud is optimal RH etc for curing the jobs is half done.


Ye ok i do this in my flowering tent with exhaust fan going you still need some air movement but not directly on the bud & it is pretty bang on... for some reason my own conditions are nearly perfect but not always in summer months so some minor give on ideal conditions can be tolerated. Even tho i use a dehumidifier to lower RH in first few days to around 50% & the rest after that sits naturally around 60% to which i can only at best get 1 or 2 c drop between drying temps with this method.


I just feel mildly sorry for those who have conditions when it is dried in a few days or so... i'm not aware of any one yet who have used humidifiers along with temp control to do the slow air dry in warm & low RH conditions just yet ?

One day i'll find such a brave person !