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:
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.
