5-Day Progress Report/Update:
Smelling good, the temps and rain have been wild outside but the cabinet has remained between 59 and 70F, 59-71% RH. The fluctuations have been pretty extreme but on average we’re staying near the 60/60 mark. Stems still flexible.
.Phone isn’t the best at pictures, but it’s all I got
We’re at the 1-week mark for the initial dry run. This morning I took about 10g of each SLH and Runtz XL and trimmed a bit for a cure test. Stems are snapping when bent (the sound) but not breaking in half. I’ll let the other nugs go for a few more weeks so I can compare side-by-side.
I’m excited. This smells SO MUCH BETTER than last year. It’s a dramatic difference in stank, feel, everything. Probably going to smoke a little today 
It’s only been a week, there’s almost certainly more to be gained with another week in dry. I’ll be letting some other samples stay for 2 and 3 weeks so I can figure out what works best qualititatively. I’ll only have enough Runtz for another 10g jar, but the SLH will fill at least 2 more jars for the full 2 and 3 week comparisons. They’ll all be having plenty of time for a full month+ cure before I have to start dealing with Croptober, and I’ll use what worked best.
Threw some tobacco leaves in there the other night, we’ll see how those fare too. Totally home-grown spliffs inbound 
Week 2 nugs are out. They are dry, I’m not going to continue the experiment to week 3 nugs. Almost out anyway
The temps got a little high last week because it was hot outside. Like up to 80 at least one afternoon. I’d need some real cooling capacity to keep it 60F inside there. Next time, I’m going to convert a fridge. Can’t believe I didn’t think of that before, it would have been cheaper/easier/better. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for next season, I can just retrofit pretty much everything.
In terms of differences between the two:
1 week dried that I’ve been negligently burping smell kinda of hay but slightly stronger overall, which is super dissappointing. 2 week dried, despite the excursions to 70-80F in the late afternoons, smells really nice. So did the 1 week going into the jars, so we’ll see after some more jar time where we get with that. Appearance is pretty much identical, the buds jarred at 1 week look slightly puffier maybe.
I like it!.. 
Like a Kegerator for weed…
(…why didn’t I think of that… 
)
Cheers
G
Well done Sir 
…very impressive, Im glad I finally took the time to actually check your link, probably spent the last three hours really getting into this. Some areas were frankly beyond my comprehension and made my pee brain hurt, but its good to know we have a legit gangsta genius in our midst. Thanks for the lesson homie! Looks like she works great And the next time you bring up a project of yours? Just give me a sec to grab my pen and paper! Lol, definitely got my attention, a very intelligent yet humble man you are bro! Very glad to have met ya 
2 weeks is the target time at 60/60 before trim/jar. Another week for the CK and starting the 2 week clock on the SAD today 
Liking this, nice work.
Update: Have now dried 4 plants and happy with the investment made in the cabinet. I basically just put weed in it and come back to trim 2 weeks later. It’s probably ready to trim a few days earlier but since the environment is basically ideal for curing, seems no harm waiting some extra days. They are preserving their smell wonderfully. Very happy having homegrown dank actually smoke and smell like this.
My main hindsight clarity - I should have done this with a fridge. Would have been cheaper to try to keep 60 degrees, mine just wasn’t intended for that, but it’s something I definitely would have put more thought into. People above suggested it, I’d basically build a tray and circulation system into a cheap fridge and you’d be SET. I’d bypass the thermostat and use the relay output for the compressor.
Wish I had a less crap camera, spent all my money on growing weed 
Another option to consider is a TEC cooler, that may be sufficient to cool a small volume to the temperatures you are trying to achieve. Some fairly decent surplus OEM units can be usually be found on Ebay (te technology peltier cooler, for instance).
Yeah, I actually already integrated one. That’s how it’s working with the high temperatures. Just way less efficient ($$ and time) than it would have been to just use a fridge from the beginning.
what do you guys think of these units:
looks like it has RH and temp control. I’d get rid of the cedar but any reason this wouldn’t do what we need?
It looks pretty nice. Unfortunately, it may not be the greatest fit for the application.
The humidity control only allows a 65% minimum setpoint. This is a surmountable obstacle, 63F at 65% has the same VPD, and may perform just as well as 60F/60% in terms of evaporation rate
I’m curious what the solution is for dehumidification - the manual suggests there isn’t one, rather it’s the chilling that reduces the RH of the air inside. https://images.homedepot-static.com/catalog/pdfImages/1f/1f58bf61-39d3-4f2c-86d7-44142d5dbbbf.pdf
I’m super curious how it would work as well. I think the moisture removal would be the largest potential issue. Think about it - say you have a pound of wet herb to dry. 16oz yields about 6oz dry, so you are wanting to remove 10oz of water over the course of 10 days. That’s an ounce of water every day that needs to be extracted. It really depends if their system is designed to dehumidify that fast, it’s quite a bit.
Nice dry system! Definitely useful for those with harsh climates, tho for your process I would suggest removing the lemon/baking soda bath, aint worth it, just do the usual peroxide bath and that should be it.
Try it and maybe you will get improved taste and potency, the peroxide will do its job, and lemon/bs wont remove more dust than plain water will do without damaging the product. Besides that cool experiment with the rack! How did those tobacco leaves turned?
Interesting. I thought the lemon/baking soda was always a dubious step but following guidance. Most of the garbage does collect in that first bucket though, for sure. You are saying the “wash” properties of that solution are no better than water, or that the flavor is affected by using this? Or both?
The tobacco has turned out nice (look and smell anyway), although I haven’t smoked any of it yet. Most tobacco that I smoke (cigars) is aged for many years, I’ve been trying hold out as much patience as possible. Maybe I’ll try a spliff today
I usually try to aim for a 14 day dry down at 60 f and 60% humidity. 10 days for me isn’t long enough.
I’d happily take you up on that if you still have any boards! I’d be surprised if you still do but I too spent much of my life in electronics.
Still have boards, shoot me a PM with your address and I’ll mail one this week
I agree with that, 10/10 just made the math convenient and is about average from what I’ve read. The rate of desorption is non-linear anyway, approximation probably doesn’t matter. I just worry it may not be able to keep the humidity low enough to prevent mold during the initial few days.
The wash properties of the lemon/baking soda indeed are too much compared to water, and yeah, the flavour is affected by it, I think because you damage the trichs, but sure you can find more here on OG.
How many time it took to dry the tobacco?? I dried mine in the sun, and when on a spliff, its a really smooth smoke, it was there for about a month or more.
Roger that, I’ll try it with just the H2O2. The trichs look fine on the buds that are dried and washed, is it a different effect (like dissolves them partially or something) than physical damage? Thanks for the input!
The tobacco has been in there for a few months, at least the older stuff. The newer stuff is a few weeks old. The color gives it away.
I think I’ll be harvesting some plants this weekend, I’ll post pics of that and the tobacco.
i love the concept but im with phil way to much for my brain ill just use my growroom for drying drop the ac down to 65 and humidity controller to ar rh 60 ill have my next grow in a tent as seedlings and when done drying put in jars and move seedings to grow room way less complicated for this brain but like i said before great concept
