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Did air exchange during dry process do any harm?

Baloni

Member
Hi

Im wondering what is the true best way to dry buds.. I really lost some terps profile and smell during this process everytime and in summer its really bad.. sometimes I found a lost bud on the floor and it stinks way better I guess its about air, the forgotten buds after month have fresh and nice smell and looks frosty and great but they are harsh to smoke. Can anybody explain what happens here?

I guess 70F with 60RH for 7-10 days will be the key... but how achiev it in a tent?

One way is changing air slowly and constantly and for first days keept RH right this way after few days with oscilating fans and humidifer trying to achieve 60RH... in a winter season 70F isnt problem.

Other way is with dehum kept 60RH without air exchange. Only air movement with fans.

Im really thinking about buying dehum but I dont need it. So its tough decision how powerful it should be for a tent btw? Its pricey for a test.
But my idea coming from this: profi kept dry rooms sealed and manage atmosphere via gear. Im wondering if fresh O2 and other air particles will do harm or not.I guess they did! The buds what I found after month in a tent floor are in a stable air for a month but they are in wrong humidity so thats why they are harsh but they smell great ... I have problem with fast browning during drying/curing process.
 
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moose eater

Well-known member
Lately I have run my exhaust fan through the shop, with my buds drying in pizza trays (25-year-old habit that just hangs on), with the shop at about 66 f. and the last crop the humidity in there ranged from 40 to 60%. (Currently it's winter, and with the HRV's air-exchanges, the humidity in the house, overall, at the moment, ranges from 16% to 21%, though I think it actually gets below 16%, at times, as that -may- be the lowest level of RH my Accu-rite hygrometers can read

While the air flow through the shop might stand to dry the flowers too quickly, the pizza trays (size huge) can be opened partially or closed completely, to address the speed with which that environment dries them.

My shop's exhaust fan is on an internal loop it shares, sort of, with the intake to the shop near an indoor supply vent for my HRV, and the exhaust from the shop is located near an indoor exhaust trim port for the HRV, taking treated air up and out though the HRV, which has no active ports in the shop.

In wintertime, I can slow the air-exchanges to the house and/or the shop, but increased moisture in arctic weather means some amount of ice forming at the base of the insides of windows, and the HRV is programmed to run just over 1/2 to 2/3 of its run-time, then go into defrost every 'X' number of minutes, in combating freeze-up of the core in winter temps.

Otherwise, my shop's exhaust fan, which as described, works in tandem with the HRV's air movement, is continuously pulling about 485 cfm through my shop, minus loss of actual cfm due to pressures from duct size changes, a couple elbows, etc.

I can further slow the curing process with jars or other 'air-tight containers'.

Going by feel, trying not to have slightly too much moisture when I put the flowers into airtight containers, as I found a -limited- amount of mold on a couple of the Satori #2 flowers, as well as on a couple of the White Lotus #4 flowers. Just white fuzz, nothing catastrophic, but still....

No one has complained about the cure and my weed.
----------------------------------------
Edit: The area of my shop is about 240 sq. ft. with an ~8 ft. ceiling, to put the 485 cfm (minus resistance from pressure) from the inline/centrifugal exhaust into perspective, re. the area/volume being treated y that specific fan..
 
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Switcher56

Comfortably numb!
Hi

Im wondering what is the true best way to dry buds.. I really lost some terps profile and smell during this process everytime and in summer its really bad.. sometimes I found a lost bud on the floor and it stinks way better I guess its about air, the forgotten buds after month have fresh and nice smell and looks frosty and great but they are harsh to smoke. Can anybody explain what happens here?

I guess 70F with 60RH for 7-10 days will be the key... but how achiev it in a tent?

One way is changing air slowly and constantly and for first days keept RH right this way after few days with oscilating fans and humidifer trying to achieve 60RH... in a winter season 70F isnt problem.

Other way is with dehum kept 60RH without air exchange. Only air movement with fans.

Im really thinking about buying dehum but I dont need it. So its tough decision how powerful it should be for a tent btw? Its pricey for a test.
But my idea coming from this: profi kept dry rooms sealed and manage atmosphere via gear. Im wondering if fresh O2 and other air particles will do harm or not.I guess they did! The buds what I found after month in a tent floor are in a stable air for a month but they are in wrong humidity so thats why they are harsh but they smell great ... I have problem with fast browning during drying/curing process.

Canada here and tent grower.

I dry in my tent (3x3x6) in drying baskets @ ambient temp 68 degF and 60RH.

It's winter here and I am schedule to harvest in the next week or so. I have a household humidifier in the den where the tent is, at currently the den sits @ 42% RH.

I maintain my temp and tweak the humidity in the tent via the exhaust rate. If the humidity is too high this works like a charm.

Click image for larger version  Name:	inline fan bloom.jpg Views:	0 Size:	37.9 KB ID:	18022976
It sucks from the tent and discharges into the den via a charcoal filter, activated by the other leg of my RH controller $60 and change CAD. No need for expensive dehueys. In order to maintain RH in the tent, I have my cool mist humidifier. The last 3 weeks of grow my tent temps are maintained @ 75 deg and 55% RH via controllers.

I have circ fans in the tent while growing but, when drying only one runs and is pointed at a wall under the baskets. I can get a week to 10 days with this set up. I used to hang my branches in the tent, but as I got better, I ran out of room so, I bought hanging baskets. They work like a charm. The BONUS, is that I can collect the contents of each basket and weigh them individually (ea basket of 4). Dry weight is equal to 20% wet weight as the plants will loose roughly 80% of their moisture. This is done alongside the snap test of course. But weighing them lets me know how close I really am.

I started doing this some time ago and I found that jarring them with the appropriate amount of 62% boveda packs along with a hygro, after the "tent dry" I may burp maybe once a day for the 1st couple of days, to once a week thereafter, to eventually once a month. I have never had any bad smells coming from my jars, just the sweet bouquet of my buds, which only improves over time. I never smelled chlorofil nor hay, which to me means they were jarred tooo wet. Hope this helps :tiphat:
 

tobedetermined

Well-known member
Premium user
ICMag Donor
We are just discussing this in the coco A+B thread. Since I live in the frozen north, my RH is far too low to dry slowly in the winter. For my latest dry, I cut the plants whole and hung them in my tent. Since the exhaust moves too much air for drying – even on low – I am using a small intake fan to push a bit of air into the tent. I cycle it on for 15 minutes every hour with a timer. With a pail of water in the tent to add moisture, I have been stable at 44 – 55% for 2 days now and the plants are drying perfectly at this point.

I have a small humidifier that I stick in the tent for seedlings but it is too uncontrolled for drying. Although, I could cycle it as well if needed.
 

Three Berries

Active member
In summer with high humidity I hang mine in small room with a dehumidifier set at 60% In winter just usually hang as the RH is already down under 50% usually. And a small fan is always running.

So do you think there is any benefit to hanging the whole plant to dry vs trimming the leaves and whole plant vs cutting the branches and trimmed off leaves?

Thinking the plant may draw down from the leaves while drying. Is this good for the end result or does leaving the leaves on just prolong the cure?
 

tobedetermined

Well-known member
Premium user
ICMag Donor
I have usually hung semi-trimmed (fans removed) plant parts in a short closet, hanging from coat hangers but I have always found that they just dry too fast – usually in 4 – 5 days. The one time I tried it in the tent, it also went too fast. I probably ventilated it too much. So, this time I decided to do what man has always done with the plant. Whack it down and hang it whole.
 

RyanR

Active member
I dry in basement with minimal air flow dehume set at 65 and the temp at 60 degrees. Minimal if any loss of terpenes.
 
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