How I dry/cure my harvest

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chuck88

chuck88

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Greetings,

Hopefully some might find this useful !

To start I feed right up to harvest.

IMO starving doesn't provide any benefit. I believe the plant gets more benefit from available nutrients than from cannibalizing it's leaves.

My last watering is three days before chop. Up till the week before they were taking a gallon every two days in 3 gallon fabric pots with ProMix HP.

Harvest is when ALL the white pistils have turned color and receded. AND the trichomes are all at least cloudy/white, some amber is good.

I chop when lights normally come on, no dark period other than regular lights off.

My last crop I wet trimmed on the plant, seemed to be quite a bit faster.

Then I cut off the branches and hang in the dark. Best I could do was 45% RH and 70 degrees. A suggested ideal is 50-60/60.

I had a staggered harvest so I built a frame and threw a tarp over it 😉

And had a 50cfm fan blowing in. Takes six to seven days for the buds to feel "crispy", I never did get the hang of the "snap the branch" thingee..

KG  GG4 hanging


Cut the buds off the branches and loose fill a food grade container to at least 3/4's full. Anything less is too much air.

OR multiple jars, your choice 😎

Pop in a hygrometer (less than $20 for 5 off Amazon) and check it the next day. Takes a while to get a good reading as the crispy parts will absorb moisture from the bud interiors.

Ideally it won't be over 70. If it is leave the top off the contain for a half hour, three times a day. Much over 70% is mold area and I would either paper bag it or lay it out on newspaper for a while. You will get the hang of this part, no pun intended !

It's handy to have an extra container the same size. Place on top of the original and flip. This is less harsh than fluffing up the buds and gives the bottom of the container access to the burp.

When RH is in the high 60's burp the container twice a day for a couple of minutes until it reaches 58%.

Hopefully this will take at least two weeks.

Curing KG  GG


Then I vacuum seal in 1 L mason jars with a 58%/size 8 Bovida pack.

Some prefer 62% but 58% works best for me to grind for joints or pipe.

The KEY to a good cure is paying attention to the RH !

Gelato auto.

Gelato


Purple Silverback auto.

Purple Silverback


Please feel free to add your comments/alternatives to this method.

Cheers
 
Heywood

Heywood

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Hey @Shaded_One -
What do you think of those Grove bags?

Do I understand correctly - once you reach your desired level of initial dryness with the plants hanging, you can then trim the buds to your liking, toss them into these bags and no need to burp them like you would with a mason jar? No need for a Boveda pack?

What is the magical secret to these that they don't have to be burped to manage the humidity?

I'll be harvesting soon and am looking at my options.
 
chuck88

chuck88

151
63
.
Hey @Shaded_One -
What do you think of those Grove bags?

Do I understand correctly - once you reach your desired level of initial dryness with the plants hanging, you can then trim the buds to your liking, toss them into these bags and no need to burp them like you would with a mason jar? No need for a Boveda pack?

What is the magical secret to these that they don't have to be burped to manage the humidity?

I'll be harvesting soon and am looking at my options.
As I understand it, the buds need to already be @ 58 -62 % relative humidity Before going in the bags !

The "no burping" is marketing hoopla 😉

Once my buds reach that RH I don't need to Burp anymore, I simply store them vacuum sealed in mason jars.

I definitely can see where these bags would be a more compact storage system !

And the zipper would be much easier than removing a supply from a mason jar and having to vacuum seal it again 😎

Cheers
 
Heywood

Heywood

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Thanks for replying...

Yeah I was just on their site reading up on it.
I put together a build-your-own variety pack and had it in my cart, but bailed out when I saw shipping was $12.
I'm not a cheap bastard, but shipping me basically a handful of ZipLock bags via Ground, shouldn't be $12.

Anyway... here is their spiel on the how's and why's

 
Shaded_One

Shaded_One

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Thanks for replying...

Yeah I was just on their site reading up on it.
I put together a build-your-own variety pack and had it in my cart, but bailed out when I saw shipping was $12.
I'm not a cheap bastard, but shipping me basically a handful of ZipLock bags via Ground, shouldn't be $12.

Anyway... here is their spiel on the how's and why's


Hey Heywood,

The way I see it - you are buying mason jars and boveda packs the old way so buying some bags and paying for shipping was worthwhile to me imo. The ~100 dollars I spent on 20 bags is nothing compared to getting pounds of properly cured buds :)

You got the gist of it. You do your initial hang/dry and then do your final trim and straight into the Grove Bags. No burping. No opening. Heat seal and leave closed for best cure! I don't quite understand the magical science behind it but something about resin layers and 2 way vapor barriers being used to regulate the humidity inside the bags. All I can say is that the bags I've cut open have been perfectly cured, nice spongey weed with practically 0 effort on my end.
 
Shaded_One

Shaded_One

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263
As I understand it, the buds need to already be @ 58 -62 % relative humidity Before going in the bags !

The "no burping" is marketing hoopla 😉

Once my buds reach that RH I don't need to Burp anymore, I simply store them vacuum sealed in mason jars.

I definitely can see where these bags would be a more compact storage system !

And the zipper would be much easier than removing a supply from a mason jar and having to vacuum seal it again 😎

Cheers

You are incorrect. The "no burping" is not marketing hoopla.
 
chuck88

chuck88

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You are incorrect. The "no burping" is not marketing hoopla.
Just about any air tight storage solution doesn't require "burping" after the buds are dried to 58 - 62%.

So their claim seems a little weak 😉

BTW > thank you for offering an alternative option !

Cheers
 
Shaded_One

Shaded_One

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Just about any air tight storage solution doesn't require "burping" after the buds are dried to 58 - 62%.

So their claim seems a little weak 😉

BTW > thank you for offering an alternative option !

Cheers
If that was the case then why burp mason jars? :)

Not trying to start arguments, but a glass jar and a resinous bag with two way vapor layers are not going to behave the same. Not an advocate or salesman for either method just a lazy bastard who prefers to get quality results with the least amount of work involved.
 
chuck88

chuck88

151
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If that was the case then why burp mason jars? :)

Not trying to start arguments, but a glass jar and a resinous bag with two way vapor layers are not going to behave the same. Not an advocate or salesman for either method just a lazy bastard who prefers to get quality results with the least amount of work involved.
😎

The normal/usual recommendation is hang the plant till it starts to feel crispy.

At this point your buds will likely be in the 70% range. THEN they are put in mason jars and burped daily until reaching your target rh.

Before using the grove bags you still need to dry down to 58-62% first...

And 1 gallon mason jars are not cheap either. If you wait till canning season you’re lucky to even find any.
They definitely are also the less expensive option at that size !

One gallon jar is ~ $20 compared to $6 for a half pound bag..

I pay ~$22 for a dozen 1L jars and stuff (OMG !) two ounces in each. 24 one ounce bags would be ~ $48.

So size does matter, he, he...

Cheers
 
Oldchucky

Oldchucky

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I threw some bud into some quarter pound grove bags last November. Stashed them away and haven’t looked at them since.I’ll go dig them out and see what condition it’s in. They were zipped not heat sealed so not expecting much. We’ll see.
 
Shaded_One

Shaded_One

1,866
263
😎

The normal/usual recommendation is hang the plant till it starts to feel crispy.

At this point your buds will likely be in the 70% range. THEN they are put in mason jars and burped daily until reaching your target rh.

Before using the grove bags you still need to dry down to 58-62% first...


They definitely are also the less expensive option at that size !

One gallon jar is ~ $20 compared to $6 for a half pound bag..

I pay ~$22 for a dozen 1L jars and stuff (OMG !) two ounces in each. 24 one ounce bags would be ~ $48.

So size does matter, he, he...

Cheers

It's dry as hell here and I don't test the actual moisture levels of my buds before the final trim but I hang dry for about ~5 days until the buds feel crispy and then I start my final trim. Haven't had any issues with moisture or mold going straight into a heat sealed Grove Bag(yet). I guess the ultimate test will be after 6-12-24+ months of sitting in a bag.

Really curious how yours turned out @Oldchucky they say a heat seal will provide a much better cure but zipped should still be good
 
Heywood

Heywood

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I threw some bud into some quarter pound grove bags last November. Stashed them away and haven’t looked at them since.I’ll go dig them out and see what condition it’s in. They were zipped not heat sealed so not expecting much. We’ll see.

Right on, Chucky. I'm totally interested in the outcome!
 
Oldchucky

Oldchucky

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The bags were stored in a tote to keep them in the dark but not airtight. My place only has wood heat so that stove is going from November to the middle of May nonstop. The humidity I would guess never gets much above 40% due to the drying effect of the woodstove. I would guess never gets much above 40% due to the drying effect of the woodstove. The three bags ranged from 45 to 50% according to my cheap hygrometers. Pretty dry. A half gallon mason jar about half full sealed at the same time read 64%. Probably about what it was when I put it in. The bags if heat sealed probably would have fared better if kept in an environment that was a little more humid. The oxidation didn’t look too bad , Probably about the same as the jar.
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7F6013C9 CE61 4FD4 972D F6ED95099F0E
E2E9E7A6 83D1 4F28 B2CE FA8913C367DA
 
chuck88

chuck88

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The bags were stored in a tote to keep them in the dark but not airtight. My place only has wood heat so that stove is going from November to the middle of May nonstop. The humidity I would guess never gets much above 40% due to the drying effect of the woodstove. I would guess never gets much above 40% due to the drying effect of the woodstove. The three bags ranged from 45 to 50% according to my cheap hygrometers. Pretty dry. A half gallon mason jar about half full sealed at the same time read 64%. Probably about what it was when I put it in. The bags if heat sealed probably would have fared better if kept in an environment that was a little more humid. The oxidation didn’t look too bad , Probably about the same as the jar.
Thank you, very interesting !

Now can we have a smoke report ? 😉

The mason jar buds should be continuing to cure while the grove bags are a squeeze away from powder....

Cheers
 
Oldchucky

Oldchucky

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I guess the next logical step would be to find a place with high humidity and put the bags in there and see if it gets absorbed into the weed overtime. The weed sucked. Just never panned out. that’s why I threw it into the tote and forgot about it for seven months. Lack of trichome development and lack of smell.And I let them go plenty long just to make sure. Could’ve been bad genetics, my bad growing habits, very harsh environment to try and grow in, who knows. Two years Ago it was weed to be proud of. That’s why I don’t mind sacrificing this in the interest of experimentation with the bags.From Now Until October it’s going to be hot and bone dry so finding a consistently humid place is almost impossible. Maybe I’ll try and hang one up inside my swamp cooler. LOL open to suggestions.
 
Heywood

Heywood

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Thanks for sharing this info, Chuck. Good stuff.
So yeah... pro's and con's to all of this.

Bags may be as good as mason jars, provided the bags are heat-sealed, but there is a limit to how many times you can do that with the bags
No limit to how many times you can seal a mason jar.

All dependent on how long you typically store your weed.
For me, I rarely smoke, so it gets stored. I'll lean towards mason jars I think.

Still looking forward to the rest of your experiments with these bags.
 
Shaded_One

Shaded_One

1,866
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Yeah from what I can see you'll get maybe 3-4 heat seals on one bag maximum. For long term storage they do def recommend heat sealing and even just for quality sake heat seal should be done. It's nice to have some options and I personally like the bag appeal with the Grove Bags. Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling cutting open a heat sealed bag of buds 😁
 

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