Experiment: Vacuum Drying With Desiccant

[Canalchemist]

Happy Valentines

Found this old Vacuum purge chamber in storage and thought I would try a vacuum desiccant experiment, since I have a ton of Desiccant it was a no brainer.

The interesting part:

I am no scientist but I was very curious to see the Hygrometer register a 40% drop in humidity after the vacuum had been pulled on the chamber. I am going to give it 24 hours under vacuum then I will re seal the mason jar and see how much moisture we lost.

If it is sufficient for a cure, I will cure it and see what affect it had on quality.

 

[Muckman420]

Very interesting to see, I am now curious... That was fresh off the plant with no dry time? Would be awesome if it works well, keep us updated.

 

[Canalchemist]

It spent one night in a bowl, the humidity was 70%, I can now see that the hygrometer is now climbed to 60%, and the colour change desiccant is turning pink so we are absorbing moisture. I guess technically I can take it out of the vacuum chamber and put it in a jar for a cure at 60%. It has been 8 hours a few inches of vacuum has been lost so I am pretty happy with the chamber given how old it is.

I am oing to release the vacuum and jar it with the hygrometer after I calibrate it, who knows what the vacuum will do to it.

 

[Full.Melt]

do you notice any loss in smell?

 

[Canalchemist]

Still smells very green and sweet with some noticeable Dank. like fresh cut. at this point I am going to guess that it will smell like hay, but we will see, I weighed the buds after the first vacuum run forgot to weigh it before duh... Anyway the base line is 23 grams, added some more fresh desiccant.

 

[Muckman420]

i wonder, did you scope it first? I'm curious to know if anything happened with the trichomes, like getting a hickey, being in a vac chamber has no effect or not on swollen glands.

Kinda like that, ya know ;)

 

[Canalchemist]

I will take a pic with my digital microscope when they come out.

 

[Canalchemist]

Well the weight is 21 grams , we lost 2 grams of moisture in that last hour, the buds are noticeably drier. Stand by for bud picture.

 

[Muckman420]

How is the smell now? Any noticeable difference?

 

[Canalchemist]

The sweetness is disappearing, the Dank is still there, still smells green.

 

[Muckman420]

I'll keep my fingers crossed she cures decent enough for ya

 

[audiohi]

Just as a heads up, cobalt chloride is typically used in blue desiccant. It's potentially carcinogenic, toxic to aquatic organisms, and may have long term effects on the environment.

Some alternatives if you were interested would be the orange desiccant, or better yet, calcium chloride

 

[Canalchemist]

There is a Jar holding the Buds separating it from the Desiccant, Possibly carcinogenic, I will be careful thanks for the heads up.

And here is the close up. I have obviously smashed some trichomes off I could feel them falling off onto the paper.

 

[Canalchemist]

I have 2 kgs of this stuff I should really just Put it in the safe and use the orange stuff like you mentioned.

 

[Canalchemist]

i wonder, did you scope it first? I'm curious to know if anything happened with the trichomes, like getting a hickey, being in a vac chamber has no effect or not on swollen glands.

looks like the vacuum may have expanded the heads and dislodged them from the stocks. I wonder if I shake the jar up later if there is going to be trichome heads at the bottom.

 

[Canalchemist]

So I sealed everything in a Jar with the hygrometer, we are down to 65% humidity, almost cure time, one more cycle then I am going to weigh it, then it will be sealed for a 2 week cure, then the jar will be opened to check the smell and do a smoke report.

 

[Canalchemist]

Final weight 13 grams at 60% humidity I could have dried it faster if I had pulled a vacuum every 30 minutes, anyhow in a couple weeks I will unseal the jar and do a report.

 

[Muckman420]

I had a feeling the heads and trichs would act funny, looks like you still have good cover on dem nugs. Great experiment, shit like this has been moving science forward. Keep it up

 

[Canalchemist]

I am sure I am not the first one to think of this but I need to try and the only difference would be our observations, like you mentioned about the heads, and the observations under the scope.

 

[Muckman420]

If the smell profiles go the direction you want, it seems like a very easy process for a faster dry. Just gotta get the cure right, how is it smellin today?