Zero Humidity

[crisscross]

I live in a dry, arid climate where it hardly rains. Some might call it the desert. Regardless, my grow space, and therefore my curing space have nothing more than 15% humiditity. Sometimes the humidity can get higher but this is really rare.

The last few harvests have been met with some difficulty. The problem is that the buds dry too fast. I know I must have air circulation to combat mold, I know that leaving the larger stems intact during the initial dry is helpful to retain moisture. I've tried hanging the buds, drying in paper bags, drying in jars and no real success. Trust me, I've read quite a bit on this subject.

My problem is that the buds just dry too fast unless I immediately trim them up and throw them into jars. I, and my friends, believe that my bud is delicious and has no harsh burn but the fact remains that the bud is dry. When I get other people's buds commercially or whatever the buds are substantially 'wetter' but not any more sticky or potent. The problem I have is that weight matters and less weight equals less $$.

Does anyone have any pointers to slow down the initial dry or should I just say eff it and keep on doing what I've been doing?

 

[Budwhyser]

Why not add humidifiers to the room? You can get 9 gal Lasko's from Homey Depot for less than $80 and add humidity to a decently large room. At the right setting 9 gals ought to last 24 hrs or so.
Or try the "whole plant dry" method where you whack and hang the entire plant upside down to dry. This should add at least 4-6 extra days of drying time to the process

 

[SeaMaiden]

I do the whole plant whackness, but at 15% RH I don't know that it will slow down drying well enough.

I would do a couple of things.

First, I would tighten up the room where the drying's being done. By that I mean make it physically smaller.

Second, I would seal the room somehow, plastic or something, so as to allow less moisture to escape.

Third, I would consider flooring the room with cement pavers, if at all possible, perhaps even some short, small walls made of cement block--and I'll tell you why. They hold onto moisture, and if you're able to put water onto them directly they'll give it up over time, think: humidor. Caveat: you probably want to put plastic or something like that directly underneath if this is an indoor living space you're using. Now, this would be something I would prefer because it's a lot more like my basement, and would be easier I think to control RH losses.

Third, I would add cool must humidifiers, and I know that in an approximately 12'x12'x10' (high ceilings) room indoors in the winter, where the RH tends to be about double what crisscross is reporting at 30%, two or three of these things running all the time does the trick in bringing it closer to 50%RH.

 

[justanotherbozo]

you could also put a piece of celery in your jars of too dry weed, this won't solve your too dry conditions but it will re-hydrate your bud and in a way that does NOT impart any flavor to the buds, ...so don't worry your buds will end up tasting like salad, lol. (a stalk of celery has a LOT of moisture)

...and get a humidifier.

bozo

btw, i'd have to think that in the conditions you describe you would have zero chance of mold.

 

[2 Legal Co]

Ask your local tobacco Smoke Shop how they keep their humidor room. Pretty much their whole retail space has to be humidified.

Or your dispensary if you have them there.

 

[2 Legal Co]

Get humidistats from the pet shop (for reptiles). They change color with RH change.

 

[SneakySneaky]

Put a humidifier in a closet with your drying herb. There are these humidity packs that have a 2 way osmotic membrane, meaning they absorb/release moisture to keep a constant predetermined humidity.

One of the 62% humidity in a gallon jar will reconstitute your herb if it gets too dry. If u don't wanna order those, I just tape a fat fan leaf to the top of the jar overnight. Ive always been skeptical of using food items to reconstitute dry herb.

 

[Chunkypigs]

an easy cheap way is to take a cardboard box and hang the herb inside. make a few openings for air to move. the herb will dry slower in the box. I find 5 days to be the minimum for good results but 7-9 days is ideal for me before jarring.

good luck!

 

[crisscross]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to try a few of the ideas posted. In turn, I will let you know my results.

 

[sprinkl]

Yes there are ways to get around this. Dry in a closet or room that can be sealed, moisture will build up. Don't use too much air circulation, especially don't direct a fan on the buds, dry in a room that's a bit on the cold side, the more heat the faster water will evaporate.
Air circulation should go down and humidity in the room up as the buds get drier. They are most prone to molding when cut fresh so that's the part where you have to watch out, using low enough humidity and enough air circulation to prevent mold from growing. After that it's important to slow down the drying. Close off the drying room, lower the air circulation... Cutting branches or plants whole will slow down drying time as well, as well as leaving the fan leaves and bud leaves until dry.

My last grow took more than a month to dry, branches were harvested one by one(the branches were bigger than the average indoor plant though), after a week I shut down the fan and after another week I closed the door of my cellar. Buds were small and airy so I really didn't want it to dry too fast, outdoor needs a slower cure than indoor imo especially if it's leafy small buds to overpower the leaf taste. After more than a month the budstems still wouldn't snap but it's just dry enough to smoke and it cured pretty well already. As it gets drier by opening the jars daily the taste is improving with every joint I smoke of it.
I reckon with better budded indoor plants I would've had the fan running and door open for 1-2 weeks extra or mold could've been a problem.

 

[cmu]

Hygrolid

Hygrolid

I live in a dry, arid climate where it hardly rains. Some might call it the desert. Regardless, my grow space, and therefore my curing space have nothing more than 15% humiditity. Sometimes the humidity can get higher but this is really rare.

The last few harvests have been met with some difficulty. The problem is that the buds dry too fast. I know I must have air circulation to combat mold, I know that leaving the larger stems intact during the initial dry is helpful to retain moisture. I've tried hanging the buds, drying in paper bags, drying in jars and no real success. Trust me, I've read quite a bit on this subject.

My problem is that the buds just dry too fast unless I immediately trim them up and throw them into jars. I, and my friends, believe that my bud is delicious and has no harsh burn but the fact remains that the bud is dry. When I get other people's buds commercially or whatever the buds are substantially 'wetter' but not any more sticky or potent. The problem I have is that weight matters and less weight equals less $$.

Does anyone have any pointers to slow down the initial dry or should I just say eff it and keep on doing what I've been doing?

http://www.hygrolid.com/ This lid is a good way to get it to the exact moisture content you want then you can cap it off. It will fit any wide mouth canning jar up to 64oz. Good luck

 

[Budwhyser]

Yes there are ways to get around this. Dry in a closet or room that can be sealed, moisture will build up. Don't use too much air circulation, especially don't direct a fan on the buds, dry in a room that's a bit on the cold side, the more heat the faster water will evaporate.
Air circulation should go down and humidity in the room up as the buds get drier. They are most prone to molding when cut fresh so that's the part where you have to watch out, using low enough humidity and enough air circulation to prevent mold from growing. After that it's important to slow down the drying. Close off the drying room, lower the air circulation... Cutting branches or plants whole will slow down drying time as well, as well as leaving the fan leaves and bud leaves until dry.

My last grow took more than a month to dry, branches were harvested one by one(the branches were bigger than the average indoor plant though), after a week I shut down the fan and after another week I closed the door of my cellar. Buds were small and airy so I really didn't want it to dry too fast, outdoor needs a slower cure than indoor imo especially if it's leafy small buds to overpower the leaf taste. After more than a month the budstems still wouldn't snap but it's just dry enough to smoke and it cured pretty well already. As it gets drier by opening the jars daily the taste is improving with every joint I smoke of it.
I reckon with better budded indoor plants I would've had the fan running and door open for 1-2 weeks extra or mold could've been a problem.

First find a way to lower the room temp. Second add humidity to the room. A humidifier or a pond fogger in a 5 gal bucket works nicely. Third when you harvest cut and hang the whole plant. All of these combined should significantly slow your dry time

 

[BasementGrower]

i agree with above. hang entire plant.. in a room that u can controll the temps.. to around 60-70 degrees F .. and then get ur humidity up.. if u need to .. build a box.. depending on ur harvests.. say 4x4x5 box.. out of PVC .. and PandaFilm.. get humidifier.. and get that box to the desired humidty with ur buds in there.... and another thing.. if u dont have humidity.. in ur room. i dont use a fan at all in my drying room unless its too humid.. to slow down my drying.. i like to do a 10 day dry. winter is the best for me.