Need advice, bud drying too fast

[_Dude]

I built a drying rack in my room so I could dry my stuff in a heated part of the house (don't ask), because drying it in the non-heated part of the house was taking too long. It's pretty spiffy, 3'x3' PVC frames with window screen stretched on the bottom side. Trouble is, my stuff is drying too fast! I cut it Saturday night, and now not even 3 days yet and it feels really crispy and brittle on the outside. But the stems are still green and I think the drying is too much on the outside, and not enough on the inside. I took it and put it all in ziplocs in the unheated part of the house (I live in the SE so it's not all that cold in the winter, especially this winter which so far has been really warm).

How should I proceed? Right now my plan is to open the bags a few times a day for the next day or two and see how they progress. My theory is that once too much moisture is released there's no putting the genie back in the bottle so I don't want to overdry them.

 

[GrinStick]

i'm sorry man. take it out of the bags and dry it more. when the stems snap then put it into baggies. too soon means mold...and you can always rehydrate with a lemon peel or similar.

 

[mad librettist]

too late to help you, but in dry weather I don't trim before drying, and that slows it down

 

[_Dude]

Yeah, I usually trim them after they dry, too. Listened to some bad advice on that one, frankly.

Grin, I've read that there's no "rehydrating." That it's just a band-aid, and there's really no way to put the genie back into the bottle. I'm worried about mold too though.

Trouble with drying it in the unheated part is that I built the screens so the buds won't absorb the smells from the surfaces I used to dry them on. And so they'd dry evenly. Now I have to rig something up in the middle of my living room to support the screens. I guess I'll get over it but the whole point of building the racks was to have a nice, neat, out of the way place to dry my stuff in style.

 

[unclefishstick]

brown paper bags... i live in the desert so its very arid here,i hang the buds for 48 hrs then go into a brown paper bag folded over and clothespined shut,that slows the drying down quite a bit...i just open the bags once or twice a day and give them a little shake to mix them up,after 3-4 days they are typically ready to be jarred and start the curing process..

 

[_Dude]

UFS, no offense, but no way in hell am I going to put them in paper bags. I've heard too much about cardboard and paper imparting odors and worse, turning buds brown. If it were just me I wouldn't care but I have to move this stuff and what with the economy, that's been a lot harder for me than it used to be. Even if the bags had no effect I wouldn't use them, because the guy I deal with is a stubborn fuck, frankly, and I'd never fucking hear the end of it if I went against him on this.

Drying them in partially opened ziplocs doesn't sound that different to what you're suggesting.

P.S., I don't cure.

 

[GrinStick]

Yeah, I usually trim them after they dry, too. Listened to some bad advice on that one, frankly.

Grin, I've read that there's no "rehydrating." That it's just a band-aid, and there's really no way to put the genie back into the bottle. I'm worried about mold too though.

http://www.bovedapacks.com/

i hope you reconsider, or just send me your crispy cannabis, i'll manage.
good luck...

 

[_Dude]

i hope you reconsider, or just send me your crispy cannabis, i'll manage.

Hehe, no this is going to be some kick ass smoke, crispy or no. It's the prettiest batch I've grown (Nebula, instead of my usual brand X from bagseed), and it looks really effin good, which is why I'm semi-panicking at this point. I'd just like it to weigh what it should, and have max bag appeal. Correct me if I'm wrong but crispier, overdried stuff doesn't have the shelf life that properly dried stuff does, right?

Hey, if I see something SOLID on "rehydrating," I'd love to change my tune. I'm just going by what I read in that "perfect cure" thread - how the moisture level only goes up, not down.

 

[GrinStick]

Hehe, no this is going to be some kick ass smoke, crispy or no. It's the prettiest batch I've grown (Nebula, instead of my usual brand X from bagseed), and it looks really effin good, which is why I'm semi-panicking at this point. I'd just like it to weigh what it should, and have max bag appeal. Correct me if I'm wrong but crispier, overdried stuff doesn't have the shelf life that properly dried stuff does, right?

Hey, if I see something SOLID on "rehydrating," I'd love to change my tune. I'm just going by what I read in that "perfect cure" thread - how the moisture level only goes up, not down.

hmnnn...moisture only goes up, not down?

sounds like it's already rehydrated.

extra good luck then...

 

[_Dude]

Oops, brain fart, meant down, not up.

I don't claim to understand it, but it does make sense - once the natural moisture is gone, you can't replace it. So you have to stabilize it where you want it before it's gone.

I guess I'm worrying too much, I was just shocked by how dry they were last night and then really shocked this morning. I've never had a problem moving bud that was a little on the dry side. If anything, people are getting a better deal.

I took it out of the bags and put it back on the racks, but out in the cold part of the house. I'm going to leave it out there until it's done I guess.

 

[St3ve]

No sense in rehydrating at all. I would just take your newly built rack and put it back in the cold area to slow drying.

Paper bags do NOT make it turn brown, or impart "paper bag" smell. It has been done that way as the preferred method for millions of years.