[gdbud]

Originally Posted by GrnMtnGrwr

they're slowly stabilizing, and I'm extremely confident this will be a great cure. Once they're stable I'll be uploading a screenshot of a spreadsheet I've been tracking the humidity in the jars with, hopefully someone will find it useful/informative.

I have been curing my harvest for 6 weeks now. One jar sitting stable at 62%rh while the other 3 are at 59 - 56%rh. The 62% jar has a nice spicy-Fruity smell to it and its continuing to smell better each week I open the jar. The others jars are improving slowly or not at all.

[GrnMtnGrwr]

Right now my jars are at 61%, 63%, 63%, 63%, and 66%. They've been in the jars less than 3 days, today is exactly 1 week from harvest.

[gdbud]

I might mix some of the 61% with some of the 66% and start opening the 63% start to 4 or 5 days apart.
I have only opening my jars every 7 to 10 and that is mainly just to get my fix for a great smell.

[simon]

Sounds like things are moving along well for you guys.

GMG, looking forward to the spreadsheet.

Simon

[simon]

Originally Posted by GrnMtnGrwr

Here's how I did it, doing my first dry/cure after reading this thread.

I cut the plants, and trimmed them. All of the drying was done in 45-55% RH and 70-75f. I hung them up in the cabinet I grew them in, lights off, with the ventilation still going. I had some inner air circulation fans during the grow but I turned them off for the dry. They were hanging up for 3-4 days and the outsides of the buds were feeling dried out, but the stems weren't quite snapping yet.

This is when I stripped the buds off the main stem and put them into jars. The humidity eventually rose to 65-72% so I took the tops off and let them sit. They quickly lowered to the ambient RH, around 55% () I then put the lids back on, and I've been doing this for a couple days now, and they're slowly stabilizing, and I'm extremely confident this will be a great cure. Once they're stable I'll be uploading a screenshot of a spreadsheet I've been tracking the humidity in the jars with, hopefully someone will find it useful/informative.

...I'm adding this to the original post.

Simon

[NickMode]

How long do you have to keep the things in the jars to get an accurate reading?

[jawnroot]

Originally Posted by NickMode

How long do you have to keep the things in the jars to get an accurate reading?

24 hours. However, if the humidity is going up 1% per hour or more, chances are it's too high.

If the humidity is really high (i.e. mold territory) you'll be reading 70% or higher within four hours.

All of the above as per Simon and/or previous posts.

[GrnMtnGrwr]

Here's how it's looking so far. (Click pic for hi-res)

[jawnroot]

Quick question...

...I don't claim to understand the hydrodynamics/thermodynamics/dynamics-in-general of weed curing and moisture relative to ambient.

So, let's set up a hypothetical. Let's say ambient is 75% at room temperature. Would it then be physically impossible to get the bud to a lower humidity level without raising temps?

Assuming it would be impossible, would those wonder cigar beads glossed by a few posters solve the problem?

I only ask because ambient here can be anything from about 40ish percent to 80ish percent. Sometimes on rare days, higher or lower. I do have an air conditioner, which, by my understanding, lowers humidity, but I have yet to take readings...

EDIT: Another question. How long do the batteries on the Calibers last? I would probably want the hygrometers running 24/7 for most or all of the cure...

[twrex]

Originally Posted by jawnroot

Quick question...

...I don't claim to understand the hydrodynamics/thermodynamics/dynamics-in-general of weed curing and moisture relative to ambient.

So, let's set up a hypothetical. Let's say ambient is 75% at room temperature. Would it then be physically impossible to get the bud to a lower humidity level without raising temps?

Assuming it would be impossible, would those wonder cigar beads glossed by a few posters solve the problem?

The short answer to your question is no, the bud would continue to dry out just slower than at a lower rh. And the humidifying packets will affect this by artificially fixing the rh at a specific point which would precisely limit rate of dehydration and thus aging of the bud.

Now the long version as I understand it:

Crash course in relative humidity, the amount of water that a given volume can hold is dependent upon two things, the temperature and the pressure. Pressure is fairly well constant for most of us so we will disregard that, but temperature is something which fluctuates a bit. So, imagine you have a jar at a given temperature, and it is at 100% rh. Now, we take that same jar and add heat to it and raise the temperature by some amount, now this new hotter air in the jar contains the exact same amount of water vapor, but it is now at a lower rh.

The reason for this has to do with something called vapor pressure, if you can imagine the water vapor in the air is exerting a pressure on the liquid water. When you are at 100% rh there is equilibrium, the pressures are equal so no water evaporates and no vapor condenses. Now, if you add heat you excite the water's molecules making them bump around a bit more and exert more pressure on the atmosphere there will be an imbalance and your rh will no longer be at 100% (because we're now at a higher temperature) and this will cause the water to try and evaporate more. Similarly if you remove heat and lower the temp the pressure in the liquid will reduce and the pressure in the vapor will be greater, if this goes over equilibrium (remember: 100% rh = equilibrium) it will begin to condense. This is why 100% rh is also known as the dew point.

Also worth noting, if you raise the temperature to the point at which the pressure of the water equals the ambient pressure of the room (not just the pressure of the water vapor in the air) then it boils, neat huh?

Now, the rh packets you mention work based on this principle, they have inside of them a semipermeable membrane which augments the 'pressure' of the water, so that it will stabilize at a certain level (70%, 65%, etc). This will mean that if the rh goes above that level the packet will absorb some liquid, and if it goes below it then it will release some.

**the following are my assumptions and not based on anything other than what I feel are reasonable conclusions**

Now, your bud is not made of pure liquid water, and as such it has its own special internal pressures and such which make it want to hold onto water even if the rh is not 100%. From what simon has written it would seem this equilibrium point is somewhere in the 50-70% range depending on the age of the bud and such (I'm assuming this would be due to enzymatic degradation and other changes to the internal structure of the plant as it cures)

So, in my opinion I think that using those cigar packets would be good if you're trying to dial things in and can make sure to get enough fresh airflow to control mold/anaerobic critters until you're satisfied with the level of your cure at which point you should dry it to the point which you find most pleasing to partake and consume or store.

If you're still a little new to all of this I'd imagine it's better to err on the side of safety and dry/cure things a little faster until you feel comfortable with doing it and not getting mold, then you may work on prolonging via these methods.


Disclaimer: I would like to state I'm no expert on these things (although I am a life-long student of the sciences) and what I've said above may not be 100% technically correct, but I'm fairly certain it's pretty darn close. I just hope it can help clear things up a bit for those wanting to know a little more about how this works.