Finish drying my bud in the freezer in my kitchen?!?

Yo Chevy,

Welcome to the crew to you and games.

Minus 20C is pretty chilly! That's -4F for us Yanks and Rebs.

Your freezer is frost free? "Inquiring minds", and all that.

Peace All.

Glad to have found this thread and the gang!
It IS pretty chilly, but I don't have anything just below 0°C. It's either the Fridge at +6°C or the freezer at -20°C... nothing in between. I've read through all the posts here, and I guess it should work just as good hopefully.
The freezer is normally frost free, that's what it said when I bought it. Hmmm that was a while ago and now there def. is frost on the inside. I recall this is from when I found one morning that the door wasn't shut properly, probably was open all night causing all the stuff in there to partially thaw and then refreeze when I closed it again. Ever since then there's some frost on the ceiling... I store the nugs in an open shoebox on the top compartment of the freezer.
Update asap, good or bad ;-)

Peace out

All rightee then. Will be interested to hear your report.

All the Best, CT

trying this tomorrow.

^ good shit! happy harvest.

Howdy Folks,

LONG POST ALERT!

Decided to join this forum due to this thread and being a recent new grower for the best part of 2 and a bit years. I am still trying to master both curing and the art of patience in terms of curing. I am growing decent strains but my constant need to smoke a lot is not allowing for me to experience the full potency of my trees.

And it doesn't help i have a wife who is tiring of my constant smoking (i smoke more because i am not allowing for a cure so i am smoking buds that are low in potency am hence my tolerance builds up and hence need more of my stash to smoke therefore means i have to grow more etc etc and wife is not happy) so i have decided to finally do it the proper way.

I have kinda figured out how to grow good amounts with both phenos and autos, i have LSTnfg methods down packed and am using the whole CANNA line.

BUT i have failed miserably in curing. Again coming back to patience.

So back to this topic, i have tried this with my last 3 harvests. The first two times it seems to kinda work initially. I have a new frost free freezer which is roomy. What i used was empty tissue boxes.

After air hanging for 3-4 days in my low humidity shed, once they were crispy on the outside but still moist i the centre and the stem bendy i put them in the freezer.

After a week i had no more stash so i decided to attack them. Man they feel awesome when they are freezed dried, so dense so heavy almost edible!

The first two times i allowed the buds to dry for a few hours before chopping and smoking. The buds were a little spongy yet a little bit wet but i managed. I then put them in mason jar and did the curing for a couple of days before i just started smoking without the proper cure. Buds dried out and the taste harsh, unlike when i took them out of the freezer. I agree that smoke is smooth but i guess i didnt allow for a proper cure to experience the true aroma. Man i am hopeless and cant resist the temptation to attack my stash!

Then the last time i tried the freeze method was just 2 weeks ago. I harvested 2 plants both Dr Feelgoods (they are autos which i grew in between the current phenos just so i have some smoke and can do the proper cure. I plan autos these days to get me in between proper grows).

After harvesting them, I did the normal thing, hung them dry for a few days and all that and then put them in the tissue box and into the freezer. I didnt allow for a proper dry this time round, which i did last time.

Well a couple of days later i didnt have any more stash and there is no way i was going to go buy some cured stash, wife would kill me. So i took them out after 3 days and allowed them to dry for a few hours. This time i noticed they were still went and not spongy. Still they had all their trichs but the smell was grassy. So after an hour i jarred them up and put them in a cool dark area under the kitchen counter. I burped them the next day and noticed that it was a bit to damp in the jars, so i left the lid off for an hour so maybe it could dry. Close the lid, back in the cool place and off i went for the night.

Then i stuffed up, i placed the jars during a midnight jar raid (i was semi drunk after dinner with friends) above the stove this time around where we keep dry condiments. I figured this is suppose to be a dry area with dry herbs up there.

Anyway came home from work the next day and burped the jar for 20 mins, pulled buds out for evening smoke and i didnt even check the jar for anything else. Put it back up where i put it the night before. Missers then starts cooking dinner. Boils potatoes and well general condensation from cooking forms around the kitchen.

Next morning i go to get more buds and then to my shock...one big bud is covered in grey mould. I try to rescue what i could but it was bad..basically one side of the jar hadn't either allowed for air to properly release and well warm air temps from the cooking and closed jar lead to this. It ruined my whole plan to use this as in between stash when my two big girls are ready. Man i was bummed..losing heaps of bud to mould sucks!!

But i am sure it was from me rushing the curing and placing the jar where i did.

But this time around i have bought a hygrometer and i am going to do it the proper way. I harvested two girls on the weekend and have hang them dry in my grow box in my grow room which is a nice man shed out the back. Yesterday was a really hot day and with my current grow lights in there it got pretty hot and well i had to remove the hanging buds as they dried really quickly and put them in paper bags. Now they are spongy and the stem is bendy. I chopped some up and while not wet still a bit moist and but no wet grass smell.

So do you think they are ready or should i wait another day for the stem to be more flexible kind of easier to snap? The temps have dropped a lot today compared to yesterday so putting them in a paper bag has kind of stopped the quick dry and retained moisture inside the buds.

So glad i came across this thread because i really am going to make an effort and properly cure my buds and this is the manner i am going to do it, freeze dry them and then jar them. I am just scared from my experience last week which is 100% user error about mould forming again, there is still a little doubt in me about the step after taking them out of the freezer and putting them into jars and that was what attracted mould, apart from that from my semi good 2 first up experiences i am confident!

Oh and so sorry for the long winded post, i dont have many friends who grow or smoke and well theres not many people i can vent about my mould issues last week..so yeah sorry for being the stoner who talks to much!

Welcome to ICMag!

Take your time and be patient fool. You need to use some mental muscle and control that smoking habit.

What strains do you have? They might be low thc content - even tho they look and smell amazing.

But regarding the dry before freezer.

I would dry the buds just as if you were going to jar cure them. The OP(orignial poster) never gave us his drying conditions... coulda be 85F 40% RH. . . I wouldn't trust 4 days.

Here in cali it takes 5-10 days for a good dry... its all about your environment.

In my opinion - when the stems snap but not apart is when the dry is good. and it really depends on the size of the buds. Huge buds shouldn't even be left to be huge - they could mold in the center if there isn't enough airflow and breaking them apart would be ideal to ensure proper drying.

I wish I had a personal freezer.

What do you guys think about putting one of these in the freezer to use for a secure dry?

SentrySafe Safes Fire 0.18 cu. ft. Fire Chest

I got roommates and I already had some one pinch the shit i put in the freezer last night.

The safe is sealed so I'm not sure if that works - frozen or not.

City Twin said:

All rightee then. Will be interested to hear your report.

All the Best, CT

Click to expand...

Hi City Twin and the rest,
Still need to burp the jars another couples days, but anyways here's my report.
Sorry no photos though.

strains:
Northern Lighst from Sensi and JackFlash also from Sensi.
Both chopped and hung to dry in a dark well vented chamber at 40%rh for 4 days.
Then into the freezer they went in an open shoebox, loosely filled.The buds lie on top of each other.
Temp: -20°C( brrr)
I'm talking about a normal freezer ( well it used to be frost free, but somehow that doesn't work anymore, the fan is not comig on, no heating of internal walls / auto defrost, tons of ice/ frost ....damn it's Amundsen vs Scott in antarctica in there)
To be able to see some differences of this method and the best timing on the first run already, I took the NL out of the freezer after 10 days , the JF was left inside for another 5 days( total of 15).

The JF came out perfectly, spongy and went into jars to be burped for another few days. smell is increasing straight after it defrosted and keeps changing a little from day to day, only getting better. It gets more and more yummy.

The NL had to be layed out to dry for another 5 hours, lost a good amount of moisture and then went into a jar as well. Should have gone 15 days as well.

As of today, both of them have been in jars and burped daily for 3 days. The initially moister NL is burped twice as long daily as the JF that came out of the freezer perfectly.

All in all I have to say after a little over 3 weeks I have some of the finest smelling buds in my jars. To achieve this It took me well over a month using regular curing ( ten days to dry and then burp continuously for AT LEAST a month).

Next round will be:
- hang dry for 4 days
- Freezer for 15 days
- burp in jars for another 5 days.

So my conclusion is: this method works well.
pros:
- The freezer( although not frost free) speeds things up( sublimation).
- Time hang drying is minimized along with time of tell tale smell
- buds come out delicious after shorter amount of time

cons:
- the lady may have a word on what goes in the freezer

(My guess why it worked in a non frost freezer at minus 20 Celsius is that sublimation always occurs below 0 Celsius. colder temps will not help, but also not harm.
I guess the sligthly lower air pressure in a freezer that you feel as a resistance of the door when you try to open it helps the sublimation process and is probably the same as if you had a frost free freezer where a fan/ air pump causes this sort of a very light "vacuum" ( it's not anywhere near a vacuum).
In my opinion it works like this:You open the door, the freezer is flooded with warm air from the outside, then, when you close it again, the warm air is cooled down significantly, therefore decreasing in volume and causing lower air pressure as on the outside. this is the resistance you feel when you try and open the door again.
The bud was grown outside, now the lower air pressure in the freezer, although minimal, let's the cells in the buds expand slightly, making for a more even sublimation.)

Thanks everyone for providing the initial info to me, happy as can be!
Jah bless and keep g(r)oin!

thanks for detailed report!! +rep
any pics?!?!

LyryC said:

Welcome to ICMag!

Take your time and be patient fool. You need to use some mental muscle and control that smoking habit.

What strains do you have? They might be low thc content - even tho they look and smell amazing.

But regarding the dry before freezer.

I would dry the buds just as if you were going to jar cure them. The OP(orignial poster) never gave us his drying conditions... coulda be 85F 40% RH. . . I wouldn't trust 4 days.

Here in cali it takes 5-10 days for a good dry... its all about your environment.

In my opinion - when the stems snap but not apart is when the dry is good. and it really depends on the size of the buds. Huge buds shouldn't even be left to be huge - they could mold in the center if there isn't enough airflow and breaking them apart would be ideal to ensure proper drying.

Click to expand...

Hi and thank you.

Yeah i know i am pathetic when it comes to self control and weed, but i am working on it.

Ok the two strains are: Crazy Miss Hyde and Ch9 Cluster.

I checked the buds last night as i placed them in a brown paper lunch bag and then in a cool dry area where its dark. Both where nice and spongy about 75% dry. I could bend the stems but not break them, the outside of the buds where semi crisp. So being day 4 i decided to split the curing process.

Its been warm here so it's kinda speed up the drying process.

I put 2 ounces of each strain in the freezer using the tissue boxes. I checked up on them now and they are rock hard frozen but not dampness or wetness. Another 20 days to go.

The rest of my harvest i left in the paper bag and will jar tonight. I also set aside about half an OZ for my smoke while i am waiting to cure smoke, mainly made up of small pop corn buds.

Anyway here are a few albums with both the cluster and hyde that i took last week. Both germed on the same day and both had simliar growing cycles. Both 75 days flowering time.

Cluster
Crazy Miss Hyde

Chevy cHaze said:

Hi City Twin and the rest,
Still need to burp the jars another couples days, but anyways here's my report.
Sorry no photos though.

strains:
Northern Lighst from Sensi and JackFlash also from Sensi.
Both chopped and hung to dry in a dark well vented chamber at 40%rh for 4 days.
Then into the freezer they went in an open shoebox, loosely filled.The buds lie on top of each other.
Temp: -20°C( brrr)
I'm talking about a normal freezer ( well it used to be frost free, but somehow that doesn't work anymore, the fan is not comig on, no heating of internal walls / auto defrost, tons of ice/ frost ....damn it's Amundsen vs Scott in antarctica in there)
To be able to see some differences of this method and the best timing on the first run already, I took the NL out of the freezer after 10 days , the JF was left inside for another 5 days( total of 15).

The JF came out perfectly, spongy and went into jars to be burped for another few days. smell is increasing straight after it defrosted and keeps changing a little from day to day, only getting better. It gets more and more yummy.

The NL had to be layed out to dry for another 5 hours, lost a good amount of moisture and then went into a jar as well. Should have gone 15 days as well.

As of today, both of them have been in jars and burped daily for 3 days. The initially moister NL is burped twice as long daily as the JF that came out of the freezer perfectly.

All in all I have to say after a little over 3 weeks I have some of the finest smelling buds in my jars. To achieve this It took me well over a month using regular curing ( ten days to dry and then burp continuously for AT LEAST a month).

Next round will be:
- hang dry for 4 days
- Freezer for 15 days
- burp in jars for another 5 days.

So my conclusion is: this method works well.
pros:
- The freezer( although not frost free) speeds things up( sublimation).
- Time hang drying is minimized along with time of tell tale smell
- buds come out delicious after shorter amount of time

cons:
- the lady may have a word on what goes in the freezer

(My guess why it worked in a non frost freezer at minus 20 Celsius is that sublimation always occurs below 0 Celsius. colder temps will not help, but also not harm.
I guess the sligthly lower air pressure in a freezer that you feel as a resistance of the door when you try to open it helps the sublimation process and is probably the same as if you had a frost free freezer where a fan/ air pump causes this sort of a very light "vacuum" ( it's not anywhere near a vacuum).
In my opinion it works like this:You open the door, the freezer is flooded with warm air from the outside, then, when you close it again, the warm air is cooled down significantly, therefore decreasing in volume and causing lower air pressure as on the outside. this is the resistance you feel when you try and open the door again.
The bud was grown outside, now the lower air pressure in the freezer, although minimal, let's the cells in the buds expand slightly, making for a more even sublimation.)

Thanks everyone for providing the initial info to me, happy as can be!
Jah bless and keep g(r)oin!

Click to expand...

I was just going to ask about temps and you have a similar issue to me.

My freezer has three options, less cold mid and more cold. Yeah simple i know but its a good fridge. Its new and its frost free as i see no frost at all in there.

So i chucked my digital thermometer in there for a minute and it gave me -16 degress C on the mid option. When i turn it down to less cold it gives me a temp of -4 C

So i guess i am going to try it for 15 days rather than 21 days, what do you peeps think?

I once knew a slinger who keep every thing in the deep freeze ,cash too ,the weed was always good mexi brick too!made I very nice deferance

CannaGrowBuds said:

I was just going to ask about temps and you have a similar issue to me.

My freezer has three options, less cold mid and more cold. Yeah simple i know but its a good fridge. Its new and its frost free as i see no frost at all in there.

So i chucked my digital thermometer in there for a minute and it gave me -16 degress C on the mid option. When i turn it down to less cold it gives me a temp of -4 C

So i guess i am going to try it for 15 days rather than 21 days, what do you peeps think?

Click to expand...

Hey Canna,
Yeah you're good. anything below 0°C will work equally well, and I'd give it 15 days in the freezer if it has been air dried for a bit ( crispy outside/ wet inside)

Thanx for the report Chevy. Tis good to know.

pic of freezer dried bud

pic of freezer dried bud

Hi guys,
here's finally a pic of the freezer dried Jackflash.
It's a smaller bud, took the picture a while ago, just thought I'd share it with you guys as I feel I still owe it to you as I couldn't provide it with my report...


Hope the pics aren't too big...


My next run will def. go into the freezer as well!

take care everyone& stay safe

they didnt show

glockdoc said:

they didnt show

Click to expand...

Hmm strange, I see them when I go back to the last page...
Not sure what I would need to change, any idea ?

not a clue try again

after hitting insert images (the big green button) make sure to select the viewing size top right another big green drop down.

or you can hit the image url button the mountain post card looking shit - like word clip art hotkey.

LyryC said:

after hitting insert images (the big green button) make sure to select the viewing size top right another big green drop down.

or you can hit the image url button the mountain post card looking shit - like word clip art hotkey.

Click to expand...

O I'll try again. Usually that Postcard icon and the URL( all my pics are on ic anyways) works.