You should check out @BeagleZ KNF on the shelf thread if you haven’t, or @FattyRoots on his FAA process, I’ve been reading both a lot and plan to try some this summer
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Cut and paste of me explaining my current drying and curing process from another thread, since I’m reviewing it in my head right now as I reorganize and set up for the impending big chop:
- Saw down plants, trim fans, dunk the whole plant in a bucket of clean water and hang/drip.
- Three weeks in a tent or drying chamber at 65F, in a room kept at 55-60% RH, tent/box is sealed and filtered, vented with an inline (either my old 4” cheap Vivosun or a 4” dryer vent booster. That’s controlled by an Inkbird or other humidistat, set to 65% for the first week, 60 for the second, 57 for the third.
- Each whole plant gets chopped into branches in its own clear Sterilite storage bin with a mini Inkbird thermo /hygrometer taped to the inside so I can read it. They get stacked in a corner under a tarp in the basement and burped daily for a week until holding steady at 57-59% RH when I check the next day. I will probably automate this in the future with an air pump and lines the way people make Gamma Bucket curing setups but I need to switch to bins that will hold pressure or gasket my existing ones. The blowoff pressure for one way valves isn’t that high if I choose the right ones or used something like a weighted louver or water airlock.
- Then they get a quick dry trim and cut up into one pound Grove bags with a 58% Boveda in there and put in a cardboard box for a month or two, I “burp” them about once a week sampling buds but it’s not necessary. The Boveda is a safety measure so that if they’re a little dry or I leave a bag open etc I don’t bork the whole process. I find that the Groves are good at expelling and preserving moisture (you gotta heat seal them for long term IMO, the difference in smell when you cut one open vs a zippered bag after six months is noticeable) but they don’t let it back in from the air, I don’t think. I could be wrong, that’s just anecdotal observation.
- After a few months in the Grove they are ready to get vac sealed or glass jarred etc and they keep going on a slow cold cure in my 45 degree weed and seed dorm fridge. Best cure I’ve ever had, keep it moist and keep it cool. I’ve definitely gotten surprisingly good results from letting things get hella crisp down to 50% and bringing the moisture back up by just spraying the underside of the bin lid with water once a day, and that did interesting things but the complexity of aroma and bud quality is definitely stickier and deeper with the slow and wet approach, just wash your buds and bleach everything first to make as sterile of a field for this as possible since cooler temps are a risk for botrytis and the like.
- Go in your fridge a year later and pull out fresh and terpy buds, enjoy the fruits of your labors!
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Half price on four different TGTB strains over at Oregon Elite, someone send me a Gluetini or two if ya get them. Dynasty stuff too, but I don’t think he’s as generous with the seed scoop:
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I keep my big Grove bags in a giant vacuum comforter bag. I added a few oxygen absorbers and a Boveda to the big exterior bag, rather than inside the Groves. The whole benefit of those, IMO, is the bidirectional exchange of moisture in conjunction with oxygen permeability. I push out the extra air around the Grove bags, so light external vacuum but not compressing the bags of bud if that makes sense. The oxygen absorbers are large enough to remove all the oxygen over time, so there should be absolutely minimal oxidation of the buds. That slightly vacuumed comforter bag gets chucked in a cooler to minimize temperature fluctuation.
I like your process just wanted to share how/why I’m trying to do my long-term storage.
I’ve certainly considered a weed fridge, I expect that will yield the best long term results like you do. Maybe 
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Happy 420 Dirt! Hope you’re enjoying it in proper style my friend 
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Thanks man, I’m trying! Gonna roll an enormous cone tonight with a bunch of dry sift and end the day confused as heck
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Now that sounds just about right!! Happy 4-20 Dirty!!! Saving the last of my FireOnTheMountain for later 
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Got some nice trichome shots tonight with a cheap old Beseler 8x single-element slide loupe I found while cleaning, shot freehand with my iPhone and some hard thinking about optics, along with a healthy dose of spray and pray.
Sowah Grapefruit is starting to look like she’s finishing, finally seeing some milky trich heads at the end of Day 76:
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Nice looking shots and plants!
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The blue Tara was/is lovely. I really enjoyed both of the ones I ran even with a little variation.
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It has been a really interesting plant to run, and I’m glad I got two pucks of them from JohnnyPotseed a while ago, @Oldjoints did some nice work here. My girl was a little slow in veg but she’s a flowering beast and very beautiful with the thin leaves
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For the longest time I’ve been calling it Blue Tara (tear-uh) like the girls name, but I only recently learned of the Taras in Buddhism pronounced “Tah-rah” which I now assume is what bodhi probably intended when naming the strain. Damned if it isn’t difficult to turn the ship around and pronounce it correctly
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Nice haul!
I wanted to mention that the Tara is particularly significant for me because I got married 6 months ago and we rolled 100 joints of it to give out for the occasion.
We thought we were so clever. Something borrowed, something blue (Tara.) haha.
But it’s also just really nice smoke.
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I remember that and it was quite clever!
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Congratulations on another successful harvest @Dirt_Wizard! I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the Blue Tara!
@Foreigner congratulations on the nuptials!
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Beautiful work DW
Great job
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