Setting up the drying tent correctly... avoiding the dreaded hay smell.

[HomegrownOhighO]

So, on my first harvest I ended up with the hay smell about 24 hours into the drying. Looking back I realized the fan I had in there was too much air movement, which caused it to dry too quickly, it was ready for grove bags 5 days in. I lost most of the terps but the smoke is still enjoyable and quite frankly doesn't taste bad for a first time grower. Now, my current drying tent is a 2x4 with a humidifier connected to an inkbird humidity controller. My house stays about 35% rh on a normal basis. My question to the community is how precise do the conditions need to be for the correct way to dry and not rapidly drying? I also did wet trim, which I believe contributed to the rapid drying as well. Can fluctuating rh between 55-63 with an average of 59 fuck up the drying? Current the controller is set to kick on when the rh drops below 58 and shuts off at 60. My inline fan kicks on at 61 rh. The problem is the probe on the controller doesn't quite line up with the probe on the tent. Both are hanging in the exact same spot but the rh controller is just a bit behind the hub probe. I did calibrate the two as close as possible but there is a 2 %+/- difference between the two. So, what seems to be happening is the controller kicks on the humidifier, it gets up to 61 on the tent hub which kicks the inline fan on but the controller hub is slow to catch up so the humidifier keeps running until it gets to 60 on the inkbird controller but reaches 63 on the tent hub so the fan runs and it usually brings the rh down to anywhere between 55-58 triggering the humidifier to kick on and this cycles continues. Any suggestions on the best way to incorporate the inkbird controller and the tent hub/inline fan, I'm all ears. Below is a pick of the last 24 hrs of the tents numbers. The goal obviously is protecting those terps and not loosing them because this plant smells so much better than the first one and anything I can do to savor those terps I'm all about. Thanks fam!

 

[PooToe]

Terpenes and other VOC's that account for smell and flavor start to evaporate from the Trichomes at around 70°.

As long as you keep your environment within range you'll reduce the chances of overdrying. I like to set my humidifier to 65% so that I still have a margin of error. I can always just dry a little longer if I have to but trying to rehydrate is a bit tougher road.

This last run I did just that and the hygrometers in the Grove bags are registering a steady 59° currently.

 

[HomegrownOhighO]

Terpenes and other VOC's that account for smell and flavor start to evaporate from the Trichomes at around 70°.

As long as you keep your environment within range you'll reduce the chances of overdrying. I like to set my humidifier to 65% so that I still have a margin of error. I can always just dry a little longer if I have to but trying to rehydrate is a bit tougher road.

This last run I did just that and the hygrometers in the Grove bags are registering a steady 59° currently.

Ok, that makes me feel a little better. I don't think my conditions were terrible last time I just think the fan I had was pulling too many cfms causing it to dry quicker than it should.

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

My last few times drying the humidity was about 50% because I didn't have a humidifier. I had the heat at about 60º and set the exhaust fan to run continuously at its lowest speed. That worked okay. After drying, I keep the buds in Grove bags for 4 to 6 weeks and they stay close to 60% RH while in the bags. I think that really helps.

 

[PooToe]

Ok, that makes me feel a little better. I don't think my conditions were terrible last time I just think the fan I had was pulling too many cfms causing it to dry quicker than it should.

More than likely. When I setup my fans for the dry portion I point it at a wall near the corner so that it ricochets off the wall and starts a gentle swirl in the tent.

My next harvest I'm going to set up the dry and cure like this dude did. I've been following his grow and he has a lot of good ideas.

 

[HomegrownOhighO]

More than likely. When I setup my fans for the dry portion I point it at a wall near the corner so that it ricochets off the wall and starts a gentle swirl in the tent.

My next harvest I'm going to set up the dry and cure like this dude did. I've been following his grow and he has a lot of good ideas.

View attachment 2141935

See, my first lady was stunted so not much on her and when I harvested I hung individual stems of main colas. Maybe with this one I'll do a preharvest defoliation and just chop and hang the whole plant and do the dry trim method once it's done drying. That is a nice setup! Wish I had the space for something like that. I just have the 2x4 and a 3x3x6. Really thinking about getting ballsy and doing 4 in 3x3 on the next run and it's about time to pop some new beans!