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Drying room size, lbs per sq.ft ratio?

Anybody have good estimates of how much square footage you need per pound you are trying to dry? Perhaps sq.feet is not the best measure, more likely cubic feet since you can dry vertically.


If you are hoping to dry 50-100lbs (25-50kg) at one time, how big a room would you need to get an even dry?


Or another way of putting it: flower room size to dry room size. A 2000 sq.ft grow should have what size dry room?



Any other recommendation about what else to consider when scaling-up a dry room are welcome.
 

MJPassion

Observer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
How about detailing your drying method so folks can get an idea of how you go about it.


Do you dry or green trim?
Do you cut the plants up or dry them whole?
Individual plants or on drying racks?
 

dank.frank

ef.yu.se.ka.e.em
ICMag Donor
Veteran
It takes just as much room to dry them as it does to grow them. They are the same plants, taking up the same amount of space. They don't magically get smaller the instant you cut them down.

Measure your canopy. If you are hanging whole plants to dry, even if stem by stem, that's how much space it's going to take to dry them as well.



dank.Frank
 
My initial thoughts are:
dry trim
cut by branch

hang individual stems


Why do you say the drying space has to be the exact same as the flowering space? For sure it can be at least half because you can hang plants vertically with slight overlap. I've seen pics of some pretty tights and vertically stacked drying rooms. You can hang at least three 4ft plants on 8ft of vertical clearance, especially if you big leaf before hanging. So, sure, the sq.ft might stay the same, but you can take 100sq.ft of canopy and, once you stack it vertically, use only 20sq.ft space to cure it.

So to be more precise: what are some of the drawback or things to be careful of when cramming a dry room very full? Obviously too tight and bad airflow will grow mold, but anything else?
 

Ibechillin

Masochist Educator
Check out growers network's Canna Cribs videos on youtube, they show some of the licensed producers drying rooms. Hard to give a lb per sq ft estimate because of strain variance/personal opinion on how tight to pack branches in together.

I liked Copperstate Farms backwall pushes air slowly and frontwall pulls configuration with individual plant branches hung on racks/netting in between.
 

MedResearcher

Member
Veteran
The right techniques, its amazing how much you can dry in decent space. The opposite is just as true to though, its amazing how little you can fit in an area using a poor technique.

Two overhead beams, spanning the room lengthwise. On top of the beams lays a pole, pvc, metal conduit, even bamboo can work just has to be sturdy enough to span between the beams without bowing from the weight you hang. Thread the pole through hortinova long enough to span the beams and hang from just above the floor to the beams.

So its basically a wall of hortinova, that slides across the beams. Fill with buds, slide to the back of room. Then repeat. Until the room is full. Can push the walls/sheets pretty damn close to each other, and as they dry a little even closer.

Just don't shove 50# in a tiny room, without being able to monitor the humidity, and if needed lower it to an optimum range. Some gentle air circulation is nice as well. Cool, dark, RH in range, long, slow hang ftw imo.

Mr^^
 
Thanks for the tips folks.
MedResearcher, that's a really inexpensive design for a sliding wall! Super awesome, thanks.
 

f-e

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
The round fabric drying racks that hang like laundry airing nets are quite effective. If each round surface is about 60cm across, and you have about 8 levels, then it's around 2sqm of drying space. Occupying 0.25sqm of floor space, or more like 0.5sqm really, as circles are not the best shape to work with.

I don't like my green out in the open, catching a breeze. I'm straight from plant to porous transportable containers. Burping daily. They can really stack up. The nets are the closest eBay option though
 
I don't like my green out in the open, catching a breeze. I'm straight from plant to porous transportable containers. Burping daily. They can really stack up. The nets are the closest eBay option though


What do you mean by porous transportable containers? Are you talking about shipping containers, like those 40ft long sea cans?
And are you talking about curing or drying in containers?
 

f-e

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
No not that sort of container. I'm settled as a home grower these days.

I like to chop bits off using my scissors as a measuring stick. 1 pair of scissors, and the handles again, making 25cm. Or shorter, if that won't facilitate hanging on a washing line. Such 25cm lengths are easy to spin round between finger and thumb. So you soon have the leaves trimmed.

I like these washing lines to be within a box. Just string stitched back n forth maybe 7 times in a box that could hold maybe 20 wine bottles. Getting about 6oz of slow dried gear from each. You can play with drying times by bagging them to slow things, or putting fans on them to get wicking faster. A full box left alone might take a week in the corner of a still active flower room.


That's not applicable to you, but the density is. A kg wet takes a cubic foot, as a pretty precise measure. You can run your strings wherever, but keep them a bud width apart and you will see that kind of density. Touching buds is fine, as they can be halved in size during the first 24 hours, without that rushing along having any notable effect. Just slow it down afterwards.

You can't fill every square foot obviously. You need access and some circulation in a situation your size. Likely keeping your air conditioning piped in and out, so nothing gets hit with it forcefully.


Lets see.. 50kg dry is 5000kg wet, or 5000 square foot. Lets look at a 40 foot container. You could string that back to front in four 10 foot runs. So they won't sag. It's 8 foot tall, so 8 strings high. Lets say 3 foot deep to keep things at arms reach. That's 960 wet kg's. You could have such a rack down each side to hold 1920 wet kg, with a 2 foot isle front to back. So you would need 3 containers if working in such an environment. Or the floor space of two containers if a single room. That's 5 such racks with 4 walk spaces. Though the outer two racks would be narrower to reach in easier, while the ones with a walk way each side could be deeper.

So a room 40 foot by 20 foot might be comfortable. Giving space to actually carry boxes of green in and out. Access each end of the isles so your not passing one-another. sealy bag dispensers for the occasional mold find and bag. I wouldn't go much smaller. You will be in there with steps, trying to pass them.

That would take the 50kg in one go. loaded up a daily sessions, you can move buds closer together after 24 hours. In just one day they may half in size. Making such a room too big.

Be easy to knock up wooden frames and staple lots of string in place. I wouldn't drill the walls. Just join them with high level tie rods (bits of wood) so they can't fall anywhere. Or cough for steel racking if funds allow

800 square foot.
250 square foot if you aim for the lower yield and fill in stages, sliding the dry stuff about.


I know other people will have their own ideas. I would do better myself given time.


Edit: You should really have a trimming machine in mind, which will push you in one direction

edit2: I have used about a 10th of the flower space for drying, because it's fairly well packed in, 8 levels high. I imagine you can see that, or parking your car must take ages
 
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