Dry & Curing Science

Indoor Growing
#185

Hey guys. I usually wet trim. I can’t see for shit and small leaves right next to the buds after drying is too much for me. However, i have an auto I took down this last week as a dry trim test as I haven’t done it that way in about 10 years. My last wet trim dry I had to do a bunch of stuff to keep the bud from drying out too fast. had to buck at day 4 and put into brown paper bags, waking up at night to check them. it was not nice and I think the paper affects the smell. to keep it from drying in like 3 or 4 days, I can start the tent at 65rh and work down a pct each day. by day 4 the plants can’t even keep the tent at 60rh. by 55% rh it’s ready to jar and then i have to burp over the next month.

I am at day 4 of drying a whole hung plant. I started at 62% on the controller. one day the humidity was higher than 60% in the house. i had to run humidifier for a bit. already the rh level is 57% in the tent and I am guessing I might make it to day 5 before i have to buck and trim. since i have like 20 plants to trim, i was hoping i would have freedom to pull out plants or parts of plants when I felt like it because the wet trim would ‘extend’ the dry process so much. some people it seems are pre drying their crop on the vine before chop just to dry in 14 days. I can’t make it a week and i water just before chop.

3 Likes
#186

What’s the temp? Even if your RH is around 60 temperature makes a big difference. 80F will go about twice the rate 60F will

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#187

temp is 60 to 67ish. it’s good. i’ve dried before. best was in the spring during series of rain storms. humidity was so high i ran a dehumidifier. it seems like the lung room needs to be 60, not the dry tent per se. i just setup a humidifier in the lung room to get the rh back up to 55ish. that way i don’t have to pull it down. 55 is ok, below that is not in my experience. but I don’t know much…

2 Likes
#188

So what does the science say? How do we lose the hay smell and retain that potent weed smell? Am I really doing more harm than good jarring my buds with a bit of extra moisture and burping daily?
Usually takes about 4-5 days (depending on bud density) to “dry” to my liking, and then I jar it and burp occasionally until the buds feel right.

1 Like
#189

i got some hay, green, herbal stuff. i package all my bud into quarters in mylar packs. they are sealed. after about 2 months in a bag the bud smell good. it had about 50 or more days in a jar before going into the mylar bag. it’s way different now. not sure that would fix it all, but some bud needs a long time i guess. i have other bud, most of it, that is best the earlier you smoke it. perhaps dessert buds need less time.

1 Like
#190

For me, if I can get a 10-14+ day hang dry, my terps are wild. With a quick dry, I’ve got some grassy shit, no coming back from that.

I also get a better result, with, the dryer the better before the jar.

Friend handed me some weed to ‘test’, i smelled it and asked how long he dried it for. 2-3 days :roll_eyes:

$0.02

4 Likes
#191

I agree with the two week goal for ultimate terps, and I’m working on getting a drying box setup back assembled today to get more on it, the terps are ultimately much more complex, even without adjusting temperature down. I will say that I’ve gotten a bit loose and wild with drying lately and been experimenting with just letting things hang in the dry basement and go quick then catch them and bin them in Rubbermaids or the like. The catching them is the hard part, I’ve forgotten for a day and had stuff go way dry, but when I can get them with crispy outer leaves and semi-cracking stems and start the controlled burping down in bins I think it’s ALMOST as good.

3 Likes
#192

Hum de dum just doing my thing. I found that if you cut the plants down early they will always smell like hay after drying. You have to use the smell as one of the harvest indicators. PEak stink == harvest time basically. If the plant goes for 69 days and you cut it down at day 45, it’s ruined hay weed.

10 Likes
#193

i had an early chop, f44 on a 68 day strain. it cured really nice. it was super sweet, but the strain was usually skunky/kushy. the smoke was ok too. idk, i liked it. reminded me of the mersh i got in school which was probably cut way too early. noting others here, i have also successfully got dank on a 3 to 4 day dry several times. one of my keeper cuts always comes out dank…like you can’t mess it up. i’ve cut at different times. the smells changes very slightly, like tropical cherry to more of a tangie tang with food smells, but it never hays out. I gave the cut to a dude that is not good at drying/curing yet. It will be a good test as to whether it’s the process or the cut.

6 Likes
#194

I compare it to picking a tomato before it’s ripe. If you pick it at the right time if it’s green, you can let it ripen on the shelf and be acceptable. If you let it ripen on the vine though, that’s when it’s peak flavor.

4 Likes
#195

I agree with Joe, as I grow tomatoes too. The curing science of so many things intrigues me. I’ve even tried to make goose prosciutto :open_mouth:

Gonna try cooler storage temps this winter on some weed, not quite fridge cold, but close. Hope it improves the terps and longevity of the ‘sweet spot’ during storage.

Will report back if I remember.

6 Likes
#196

I’ve been doing this for a year plus now with a dorm fridge set to 40-45F and anecdotally, it works great after a room temp cure for a couple months to let the microbial things microbe and etc etc then in the fridge it goes! Seems to pretty much hold stasis in there on terp freshness while the cure continues slowly, maybe 10% the rate of room temp. It definitely makes for well-cured buds with an unusual freshness to the matured terpene profile IMO, I love it.

3 Likes
#197

Yes, this is what I was hoping to hear, thanks for sharing:) Got a couple of jars that are ready for the chill right now. Time to preserve that terpy goodness.

2 Likes
#198

In the winter cure temps are 60% (+/-) ((place under the bed for curing) I have plastic tubs were I place strainsin own “tub” and then sweat them for 3 + days - burping tubs daily and moving bud around _ After the sweat I place in jars Note: this is all done after the initial drying (hanging) FYI

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#199

I’ve been monitoring the temp and rh in my drying area. It currently sits around 20c-22c and 30%-35%rh…a vpd of 1.5. But my harvested plants dry really fast (3-4 days)…what’s the deal with drying and curing at vpd rather than 60f/60%rh?

#200

The way I look at it is, I want to get the the ambient RH under 65% to prevent mold (70% is the real number)
I want the temperature as low as I can to preserve the temps.
My best results seem to be when I can drag out the drying time to a week plus ( before jarring)

Cheers
G

7 Likes
#201

Really two totally different numbers there. When curing your vpd target would be far different than when flowering.

1 Like
#202

Which vpd chart do people follow for curing?

1 Like
#203

the target would be whatever it looks like at 60/60 somewhere around 0.65 as a wag.

edit- chart shows at around 0.7 for 60/60

#204

So vpd is basically irrelevant then?..just do 60/60?