Get ah Humidifier(digital display), keep it dryn area around 50%RH

well, i havent tried using one yet, but i'll try anything new at this point. spend spend spend :mad0233:

hell you should have one run'n in your bedroom all the time, its super dooper dry out there, youll sleep better.

There are salt solutions that will keep humidity at an ideal level; they are used by museums and conservationists to keep valuable pieces at the right humidity level without complicated machines. So long as there is undissolved solid and some visible liquid, the air in along with the salt will maintain the right level of moisture.

One of the best is calcium chloride, sold as Damp Rid. I forget if it's 30% RH or 37% RH, but it really does a good job. Only problem is that it's kind of slow; if overloaded, it will take too long to reach dryness.

Glycerin is used in the same fashion to regulate humidity in cigar humidors; I think it's around 70%.

Neither of these (nor the other salts used in constant humidity solutions) will impart any change in terms of flavor, etc. to curing bud, provided they don't come into contact with it.

Bent said:

Anyone have any tips for curing in really low humidity? When I hang mine, they start to get crunchy on the outside after about 48 hours. Then, skipping any brown bag stage, I put them in jars to try and slow it down, just opening for an hour or so a day. Then progressively cut down the time the jars are open over the course of 2-3 weeks, at which point I only open them to get some fresh air in.

I've been growing Indica dom strains and cutting around 55 days.

I have always done it this way and have had great success in the past, but the last few crops have all ended up with that hay smell, or just very little smell at all. I have read conflicting opinions, with some saying it's from cutting to early, some saying drying too fast.

I just can't figure out wtf it is that is going wrong. These buds should be stinking up the place. :sign0065:

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I have tried just about everything when it comes to drying... as the first few times I harvested I didn't dry any 2 plants the same until I found what worked best for me.

First off, hang the whole plant, it will slow down the drying time if you are used to breaking the plant up before you hang it. Once the fan leaves are dry, remove them.

You should leave the plants hanging in the closet until the outside of the bud feels dry, but the stem DOES NOT SNAP. While the stem is flexible, and the outside of the bud feels dry, this is the point where you should put the buds (WITH AS MUCH STEM AS POSSIBLE) into the paper bags. Don't fill the bags up more than a few inches on the bottom, as you need to rotate the buds once a day.

After a few days of rotating the buds in the bag, you should now hear that "snap" when you try to remove a bud from the main stem. This is a good indication that they are ready for jars.

With the jars you will want to burp them for a few minutes a day. Much longer in our desert environment will dry them out too much, and stop the curing process.


The goal is to slowly draw the moisture from the stems and the inside of the bud, and remoisturizing what you thought was a dried bud.... The slower you can do this the better.

I recommend the brown bags, cardboard box step because it keeps the humidity in that small area right around 50 %.

I even had great success chopping the plants, removing fan leaves, and going straight to the paper bags / cardboard box, but the buds had a flat look to them from laying down on their side and drying that way.

Definitely check your Room humidity and try to keep it above 40-45 %, and no higher than 60 %

Once the relative humidity of your buds is below 65 % you have virtually no chance of getting mildew . So generally if you jar after this point you will be ok. I have heard people getting very scientific about the whole process and jarring at 62 % humidity, which they slowly bring down to 55 % humidity over the next few months. They say once the bud reaches 55 % humidity it has lost all ability to cure.

I think DesertMed is pretty spot on with that AZ cure technique, I'll just add a few things that I've noticed over the years of growing here.

When you cut them down to hang in the dark closet DO NOT remove any fan leaves!

After 5-7 days hanging depending on bud density they should be ready to remove fan leaves and brown bag, but as he said leave as much stem on as possible, just remove fan leaves and any other leaves that have nute burn, or yellow, etc.

Brown bag process is generally 2-3 days, rotate once a day, and as he said not to much in any grocery bag... QP max.

Now then, it's time to trim, and trim as fast as you can, hopefully you can get everything done in two days if you've got some friends helping?

Place them in the mason jars, and not too much in any one jar, I would just go ahead now and buy those things by the case and clean out every grocery store in my immediate area.

Now this is the trick... DO NOT OPEN THE JARS FOR 48 HOURS! If you've dried them properly, they should literally have little to no smell and you should just about be thinking right now that you've completely F'd up all your hard work. But to the contrary, that probably means they are just right, and it's just one of those things that you'll get the feel for after a few times doing it.

When you do finally open them after 48 hours they should smell EXACTLY like they taste when smoked.... and that's a perfect cure.

Now I would say let em breathe for maybe an hour and then jar em back up for another 24, and then over the next 7-10 days, slowly cut back on the daily breathe time, and after that there should no need to open the jars at all.

Anyway, Good Luck, hope this helps, and thanks to DesertMed, you get Rep.

Great info and exactly what i was looking for. Got a humidifier on the way. Thanks.

Also.. can you elaborate what growing methods etc you use? I have never had a trouble with losing smell or taste even on short cures and dries .. but I am strictly an organics guy so that might have something to do with it..

I'm a hydro grower, and I guess the main factor here is the size of the plant. Mine are generally around 3 feet tall at harvest, and yes I use a humidifier in my grow rooms, but never in my dark closet after they have been harvested????? no reason at all they should need that, sounds like a recipe for moldy tasty hay, because of course WE ARE TRYING TO DRY THEM, but please don't take my word for it? And no I don't lose taste...? On the contrary, I just know the speed at with which this process can be done here, And DesertMed your right that is a pretty fast cure, I'd say total time from harvest to jar is 10-12 days average, if it's the middle of summer, and I'm running AC it might be 8-10? It's just a feel thing and every plant is a little different.. but I don't add moisture or rely on the abstract snap test or the science of a hygrometer. Take it for what it is, just ten years of experience in the valley of the sun. And just trying to give newbie a general timeline, and the best trick for all, like risk to reward.. It's better to just dry the hell out of em, and then jar em up, because it all comes back, so I repeat, 48 hours do not open the jars!

I have been growing with Fox Farm soil and nutes under 1k lights. This harvest is Nirvanas White Rhino and may turn out ok, just smelling mostly chlorophyll right now. I cut some a little early and let it dry quick just to sample it and it just smelled like regs. I have grown White Widow from Nirvana that smells absolutely killer even during cure and not really doing anything different. The last couple have been different strains all from Nirvana but nothing I'd call keepers. Maybe it's strain related, bunk seeds, I don't know.

Maybe I just need to find a better seed source and just stick with one strain until I master it. This hobby is too expensive to mess around with and just get mid grade bud.

Bent said:

I have been growing with Fox Farm soil and nutes under 1k lights. This harvest is Nirvanas White Rhino and may turn out ok, just smelling mostly chlorophyll right now. I cut some a little early and let it dry quick just to sample it and it just smelled like regs. I have grown White Widow from Nirvana that smells absolutely killer even during cure and not really doing anything different. The last couple have been different strains all from Nirvana but nothing I'd call keepers. Maybe it's strain related, bunk seeds, I don't know.

Maybe I just need to find a better seed source and just stick with one strain until I master it. This hobby is too expensive to mess around with and just get mid grade bud.

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A couple of follow up questions here...

By the time you are harvesting are u pretty yellowed out? If you are taking it too early I could see a bit of this chlorophylish taste.

Also... the only organic "nute" that Fox farm makes *that I know of* is their Big bloom (which is basically just Earth worm castings and guano). If you are already using soil, I would just switch to a nute line that is organic before you give up on growing completely. The Pure blend and Earth Juice products I used in the past were both easy to use, and relatively inexpensive (and don't give you any added taste all you get is the flavor the strain intended) .

What does your regiment look like exactly?

Try to get in touch with Kal El and get the Golden Pineapple strain he has... It yields well, only goes 56-63 days (went 58 for me), has tons of crystals / resin, and stinks like a pineapple. You can really smell the cindy 99 pheno in her.... I'd stick to solid genetics others you know can vouch for and stick away from falling in love with the seed company rhetoric you find on the world wide web. Unfortunately a lot of it is basically misinformation that you would not want to get involved w/

Hopefully that can help you, and feel free to drop a pm or respond here further if you need more help.

Bent said:

Maybe I just need to find a better seed source and just stick with one strain until I master it. This hobby is too expensive to mess around with and just get mid grade bud.

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If you don't go the clone route and you do decide to order more seeds, you might wanna check out some of the guys on this site who are geneticists (motarebel, alien, etc)

Otherwise pick up some DNA genetics or reserva privada off of attitude, their stuff is HOT in amsterdam right now. I am on my 3rd 4th and 5th DNA strains now and EXCITED considering how much I enjoyed the others.

Good info ....

I know you've probably had your humidifier for a while now, but I've already discovered how I'll be drying/curing (I'm in AZ too). I'm getting a grow set up as I type, and I've been testing the environment inside my tent before I start growing (Secret Jardin 4x4x6). Since I'll be letting my water rest for at least 24 hours before giving it to the plants, I filled up a 5 gallon home depot bucket and have an aquarium air pump in there to keep things aerated. With this in the tent and two of the vents open, I've been maintaining a perfect 55% RH for 4 days in a row now. I'm obviously not going to be doing a continual grow, so my tent will be able to be used for this, but this method is showing promise if you want to give it a shot sometime.

Spaced and forgot about this.

Thanks for all the help. I picked up a humidifier and a hydrometer. Slowed things down when I hang them and kept everything jarred at about 60%. Took a few weeks for the hay smell to go away, but everything came out sooooo much better. My buds smell like they should and I am :sun2:

sweet! congrats on bringing your bud back from the nastiness.

I know the last post was a some time ago but here is how I solved this problem. Forget the stem snap as a measure of proper dryness. Before you hang the plants slit the main stem and branches with a knife or razor blade. This allows moisture in the stem to evaporate faster and allows moisture in the center of the bud to wick out a little faster. Hang the plants til the outside gets dry then cut the buds off the stem. Give them one to two days in a paper bag. then jar them. Give the jars extended burps every day ( at least 45 minutes) and every other day take them out and put the bottom buds on top, the top buds on bottom. If they get too dry, stick a 1-x-1 inch slice of orange peel lin the jar, seal the jar, and dont open it for 24 hours. They will re-hydrate just fine. I have a cumquot tree and I just slice one of the little fruits in half and put it in the jar. The plus about living in the desert is you probably wont lose any bud to mold unless you try to get them moldy.

Desertmedgrower wrote" Once the relative humidity of your buds is below 65 % you have virtually no chance of getting mildew . So generally if you jar after this point you will be ok. I have heard people getting very scientific about the whole process and jarring at 62 % humidity, which they slowly bring down to 55 % humidity over the next few months. They say once the bud reaches 55 % humidity it has lost all ability to cure."

I agree with that statement totally, however my methods differ a bit from what desertmedgrower suggested. I'm going to go ahead and publish something right now that i'm including in an upcoming book that may be of some help to you.

1. Buy a small hydrometer at a cigar shop, narrow enough to fit into a pint jar, more on that later.
2. imho, forget about the 5day to week dry time in books, AZ is different, and keep in mind when those buds get dry trics and hairs can easily get knocked off, keeping them on (handling procedures) until in the pipe is a goal, a big reason i don't follow the book. I usually go 2 days if hanging "in a dark cool place with ventilation but no wind on plants"

3. personal choice here, I don't like hanging the entire plant, I snap off all large fan leaves during harvest and cut branches from main stem and trim sugar leaves at an angle into the colas. Now you can hang them or place them into a dry box.

4. One problem all of us have is that bud drying really smells, I took advantage of the negative pressure on a grow tent that the scrubber produces. I created a plastic box which was just a large plastic tote with a lid, lay it on its side and weave string across the top back and forth to hang your bud from. Then I cut (actually i did this first lol) a 6" hole in the top to fit ducting that goes into a ducting port on my tent. The box stays outside of the tent. on the inside top of the box I place a cardboard plate that i turn to regulate how much air flows through the box into the tent, this regulates how much airflow and how fast to dry the buds.

i cut two holes on the middle of the lid and one one each side of box, then place carbon filter that can be purchased at wallyworld in the heppafilter section.

So now ive killed 2 birds with one stone, the smell is gone because air travels into the box, then into the tent where it's scrubbed, it's dark, and i can regulate the dry time.

I'll finish this later, I have to run.

Jeff AZ Canna

Thanks for all the helpful information. I harvested my first crop yesterday! I've learned so much this first go round and can't wait for #2. I've noticed that so much information out there seems to contradict desert growing. Can anyone suggest resources specific to our geographic area?

I definitely am experiencing that drop off in smell that Bent is talking about. I'll get em in bags today and jars shortly after. Hopefully they bounce back!

Cheers,
Liphted