Speeding Up Drying

[Nog]

Sometimes ya just have to get it dry by a certain date.

Rainy weather can slow things right down as the humidity is around 100%, and it will dry really slowly in those conditions.

I don't advocate putting it in the oven, we are not talking about having to dry it immediately, just talking about hurrying up the drying process which may be being slowed down by bad weather.

Putting it in a room with a fan blowing on the buds and a heater in the room will crisp up the outside after a while.

Problem is the inside is still moist, as can be seen by the flexible stems.
You then need to give it time to sweat, for the moisture in the inside to wick to the outside of the buds, so the inside is dryer and the outside is not crispy anymore.

This takes time, you have to let it do it at it's own pace, you can't really hurry it up, although the buds sweat quicker in a warmer environment.

It's the waiting for the moisture inside the buds to redistribute to the outer parts of the bud that slows things down.

And I find you often have to sweat them a few times before you get rid of the moisture from the stem and inside parts of the bud.

I find putting the buds in a sealed container and sitting them in the sun for a while will make them sweat quicker. I don't mean hot summer sun, more just winter or spring sun, which is not too hot.
And then put them back under the fan to dry the outside again, and then back into the container to sweat again.

Of course this is only if you really need them finished by a certain day, as patients are clamouring for them, otherwise I would say just take your time.

 

[G gnome]

What? Lol

I wudnt do any of those things......

How bout if u really are in a pinch just lowering the rh in the drying rm? Rmfao

 

[Nog]

What? Lol

I wudnt do any of those things......

How bout if u really are in a pinch just lowering the rh in the drying rm? Rmfao

I don't have air conditioning, but putting a heater in the room lowers the humidity.
My patients aren't that fussy anyway, there's not much around here so they don't complain.

 

[G gnome]

Im sorry man but im not understanding the point of this thread....it dont seem like ur asking for hel or giving advice. ....?

I sure wudnt put my half assed dry buds out in the sun.....

Rather than use a htr to lower rh why not use a dehumidifier?

Anything worth doin is worth doin right....

 

[G gnome]

Sounds like ur patients dont know what they're missing lol.....

I dont let shit go out the door till its properly dried n cured and if its not then they'll haveta wait......

 

[Nog]

I usually don't bother with curing, just dry it and out the door!

Soil growing it doesn't need as much curing anyway.

The market is not as competitive here as say in California, most people here don't even know there are different strains of weed and wouldn't know what curing is, so you don't get asked any hard questions from them.

 

[Midwestjay]

No no nooooo..... I understand you can get away with it but maaaannn. I'm trying not to be negative but please don't do these things. Your bud could go for so much more if you properly dried and cured the shit. Come on bruh step up your game.

 

[Nog]

No no nooooo..... I understand you can get away with it but maaaannn. I'm trying not to be negative but please don't do these things. Your bud could go for so much more if you properly dried and cured the shit. Come on bruh step up your game.

I donate it cheap with the idea of moving it quickly, $200 an oz and then people will buy an oz as they know they can make money out of it at that price as well as having some to smoke themselves.

Double the price and they will just buy a $20 bag at a time for their own use.

I don't want to sit on it, I want to change it for cash as quick as possible.

I left this batch in the room with the heater on for most of the night, it's looking ok, crispy on the outside but not real crispy, like it wont crumble to dust if you squeeze it gently, but the stems are still flexible, but not as flexible as yesterday.

So I'm thinking once the moisture has a bit of time to wick, the stems will be nearly at the point they will snap when bent, and the outside will not be crispy.

And it didn't lose it's smell doing this by the way, still smells quite strong.

 

[Midwestjay]

Have you ever properly dried and cured before? If you dry without trimming it taste twice as good off the stem. I quick dry if I need bud asap but even then I just fully trim and cut from stem then put in room with strong air circulation, don't like having fan directly on them tho. But even then flavor is 25% as good as it can be. That usually takes 3-4 days.

I'd recommend finding a dehumidifier on Craig's list or what ever. But the best I ever grew came from plants that I hung whole plant with all but fan leaves, in a basement at about 55-60℉ and 55% humidity. It took about 3 weeks to fully dry buttasted as good as a lot of cured bud. And as it cured in jars it got even better.

I have issues with drying and curing now because I can't grow enought in the space I have to get me through from grow to grow so I end up fast drying and very little cure. I can't wait to get in my new spot...

 

[Nog]

Have you ever properly dried and cured before? If you dry without trimming it taste twice as good off the stem. I quick dry if I need bud asap but even then I just fully trim and cut from stem then put in room with strong air circulation, don't like having fan directly on them tho. But even then flavor is 25% as good as it can be. That usually takes 3-4 days.

I'd recommend finding a dehumidifier on Craig's list or what ever. But the best I ever grew came from plants that I hung whole plant with all but fan leaves, in a basement at about 55-60℉ and 55% humidity. It took about 3 weeks to fully dry buttasted as good as a lot of cured bud. And as it cured in jars it got even better.

I have issues with drying and curing now because I can't grow enought in the space I have to get me through from grow to grow so I end up fast drying and very little cure. I can't wait to get in my new spot...

I usually dry over 7 days, and then put in sealed containers.
But even after this sometimes a week or two later I open the containers and it has sweated and the buds are soft and moist again, so I take out and air dry for a bit and then put back in container.

I am at day 4.5 of drying this batch, and what set it back was it has been rainy weather, and without air conditioning the humidity is same as outside, so humid because of the wet weather.

But I'm talking about those times when for whatever reason you want that bud dried quick.
Maybe it's a security issue and you want your bud dry enough quickly so you can put it in containers and store it at another location without worrying about it getting mouldy from being stored wet.

But even speeding up the drying process, I think the minimum it takes to dry bud is 5 days.
And even then they will probable sweat after about 2 days jarred up and need taking out and drying a bit more.

 

[Midwestjay]

Yea you always have to burp your containers. When it first goes in containers I burp daily. And over time less and less. Everybody has their own process. But the slower the better.
Next harvest try leaving the leaves on a branch and let dry slow. Then tell me how it compares.

 

[Nog]

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Yea you always have to burp your containers. When it first goes in containers I burp daily. And over time less and less. Everybody has their own process. But the slower the better.
Next harvest try leaving the leaves on a branch and let dry slow. Then tell me how it compares.

No, it's too hard to trim when it's dry.
I like it when the plant is just harvested and all the leaves are sticking out, then it's easy to snip them off.

 

[Midwestjay]

It's really not hard to trim dry and its half cured off the branch. I used to think the same thing but it's really not at all. When you wet trim you have 4x the amount of leaf to trim. When they dry they shrink to nothing and just pull off don't even really need scissors.

 

[Midwestjay]

Just trying to help a brother out, if your cool with the quality of smoke and so are your people then that's on you.

 

[Nog]

Anyway the last two plants got harvested last night.
It was a poor yield from most of that grow, as I put the clones into 12/12 straight after supercropping them, and it' didn't give them time enough to form a knuckle at the bend, so what happened is when they started getting buds what would have been main cola's ended up hanging straight down to ground level nearly, so they ended up with light airy immature buds as they didn't get any light down there.

I would have veged them longer but I had other plants in the room that needed to go into flower.

Not to worry, onto the next grow.
I have some Bubba's Gift x Black Widow seedlings at about 4 inches tall, and some clones from the highest yielding Black Widow clone mother which are yet to root.

I think I will make this one a fast grow, no topping, just veg till they are about 2 foot tall and into flower.
Or maybe supercrop the main stem over at right angles and veg for a little while so the side branches have time to orient into main cola's and then into flower.

Depends on what the Bubba's Gift x Black Widow look like, at the moment they are looking very indica so maybe I wont supercrop those one's.

 

[Midwestjay]

My buds get too heavy for the stems every time. I use yoyos to string then up. Or just twine/string. Plants look like puppets at harvest.

 

[Nog]

Yeah, I want a big harvest soon.
I mean I have 2 1K lights, so I should be able to pull a decent yield.
I'm going to order some Mr Nice Critical Mass, as that's supposed to be the highest yielder out there, with good bag appeal, just got to get the coming grow out of the way first and hopefully have the Mr Nice seedlings ordered and started by the time it's finished.
That's why I want to make this coming grow a quick one, not much veg time and no topping, as topping can extend flowering time.

Got to clean up the grow room today now everything is out of there, vacuum up the spidermites and the stray leaves, open the curtains so the neighbours can't say they are always closed.

 

[Midwestjay]

All the crits I've grown are producers. That mass from nice is the shit. You should love it.

 

[G gnome]

I just cant see puttin in the time n effort to grow a crop only to half ass the final crucial step....

 

[Nog]

All the crits I've grown are producers. That mass from nice is the shit. You should love it.

Yeah, and I've heard they sometimes give you 26 seeds in a pack, so makes it easier to put a decent crop in straight away instead of like those seedbanks that give you 10 seeds so you have to go through the hassle of growing them out, sexing them and then taking clones off the female one's and then veging them so you have enough plants for a decent sized grow.
That takes too long.
Sure you can buy more packs, but at the prices that some of them charge for 10 seeds I feel I can only buy one pack, otherwise I feel I'm getting robbed.