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Drying in high humidity..

ozzieAI

Active member
Veteran
this ^...

but your space doesn't need to be any bigger than what you are drying, living in the tropics i can place a cardboard box on an oil heater set on low in an open room and dry several ounces at a time over a several days...

i never got a good/satisfying result force drying in a short period of time....like using an oven...

an air conditioned room works very well...but alas no aircon for me....

good luck...
 

Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
Temps are too high. You should be around 20C for terpene preservation. At 60% RH you won't reach the snap stage. You'll need to jar some up in 2 weeks and see if it stays at 55-60% RH after 12hrs or if it rises.
 
I cant seem to get temps down... they seem to stick around 24C with humidity of 50%. but when i use humidifier temps go to about 22C with humidiity 60-70%
 

Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
I would invest in a window a/c unit for a small room for your next harvest. It will both lower temps and dry the room it's in a bit more. I'm hoping things work out for you.
 

dufous

Active member
Hello igrow,

You have a low humidity drying condition.

You want to increase the humidity so that your product will dry more slowly.

Do I understand your question correctly?
 

ohimaria

Out(of mind)Grower
Me too have high humidity, it has 75% humidity and 20 C there is a risk that it will dry out badly,or mold, but if I can dry it at 75 in 20 days the product it will be bad?? :thank you: all


However I was told a trick to dry, open the buds creating a small space between the buds and the stem ..
 

Swamp Thang

Well-known member
Veteran
Hello Igrow. Tropical high-humidity bud drying needs to be done fast, to prevent mold from forming. In high humidity areas of the planet, growers do not have the luxury of time, whereby the drying process is slowed down to begin a good cure, as is standard practice in dry climates.

The sure-fire, one-stop, never-fail drying method I recommend, is to first trim your buds while they are on the plant, and also remove all stems right at the grow site, since those leaves and stems will greatly slow down the dry process.

Next, separate out your harvest of buds into portions that can be spread in a thin layer between the folded pages of a newspaper, which can then be folded over along the edges, and stapled all around those folded edges, to keep the buds from spilling out during the drying process.

Now, you are ready to climb up into the crawl space in the ceiling of your home, where you can slot those newspaper envelopes full of buds, up between the roof rafters, and the roof. This is best done at dawn before it gets too hot up there. This drying process turbo-charges the time-frame, allowing the buds become dry enough to smoke in two days flat.

After two days up in the attic, your buds will be dry enough to smoke, but will still have enough moisture in the center of the buds that will make them soft to the touch a day after being removed from the attic. Using the attic also means that your harvest will be safe from any sudden tropical rain storms that may roll in during that crucial drying process.

Drying buds directly in the sun denatures the THC to an extent, and leaves your harvest at the mercy of any sudden changes in the weather. By using the attic, you can just leave your drying stash up there for two days, without having to take it down at night, or in rainy weather.

For long-term mold-free storage, up to three days in the attic will be required for a brittle-dry finish, but if you are planning to make Malawi-style cobs, as described in Tangwena's thread on that subject, then a 2-day attic dry process will be the ideal starting point for the cob fermentation process, since that does require slightly moist buds.

I have used this method with great success, to trap in those aromatic turpenes, whilst completely eliminating all worries about mold, in the high humidity climate where I grow.
 

DrDee

Member
Hey swamp,
You didn't say how your attic dried bud smokes? On the smooth to harsh scale.

I'm in high humidity also...but cold. I'm right on the Washington state coast and on a clear dry day we have 50% rh. Ocean is less then a mile away. I have yet to make my first harvest here...but nothing wrong with planning ahead.

I'm looking to somehow harvest the dry air from my dehumidifier and to channel it to a drying chamber. Any ideas would be welcome.

And Swamp Thang...not everybody has an attic. I live in a trailer...no attic. But I'm happy that you posted since it reflects on my situation.
Cheers dude,
JD
 

Swamp Thang

Well-known member
Veteran
DrDee weed does smoke a tad harsher if hurriedly speed-dried, but I generally set it aside in vacuum bags for a few weeks to ferment and cure some, using the concept described in Tangwena's Malawian Cob thread.

If I have no daily stash on hand though, I go ahead and vape that fast-dried bud, running the vapor through a bubbler. The taste is not as nice as aged weed, but it does the job in a pinch.

If you don't have access to an attic, and if your grow site is secure enough, you could construct a small shed with metal sheet on the top and sides to trap the heat, and dry it on-site for a couple of days to get it past the stage where mold is an immediate concern. This would depend on how secure you consider your grow site.

Alternatively, if you live far from civilization, where your car is safe from prying eyes and noses, you could probably dry weed in the trunk of the car, which gets extremely hot on sunny days. The drying weed will give off a strong smell in the trunk of a car, so this method would only be practical if your car is normally parked in a remote area, and can be thoroughly aired out after the job is done.
 

DrDee

Member
Hey Swamp Thang,
I'm a big fan of Swamp Thing (the movie) and worshiped Adrienne Barbeau's bouncing boobs as she ran around the swamp. Great schlock film...

I applaud you for your out of the box thinking regarding drying. I'll figure something out. I thought about somehow channeling dehumidifier output air into a small tent. Something like that.

I also have read Tangwena's Malawi Cob thread and find the idea intriguing. That would solve a lot of issues. I actually am working on an idea of building a combined mushroom fruiting chamber and a cob incubator all-in-one.

We've all smoked harsh bud...but better not to. I like that the fermentation process uses up left over nutrients in the process. Anyway...
Cheers,
JD
 
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