Dry & Curing Science

Interesting - so what is the ideal temp/RH bandwidth and where should vapor pressure(or VPD?) be during the different points of the process?

Yeah thats why shes teasing. At the Emerald Cup shell have a panel where shes going to explain her findings @US3RNAM3

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Holy shit peoples. peep your eyes on this fantabulous study if you havenā€™t.

Itā€™s a really recent study from simon fraser thatā€¦ answers questions I didnā€™t even know to ask. Just read that thing, itā€™ll change your life.

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Just read through it, seems major takeaway was hand trim > machine trim?

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Yep, the machine trim really fucks up the trichomes. I was more focused on the growth stages of the trichome themselves. In the end the cuticle turns cloudy, and then the resins start leaking out from the cap. Definitely a sign itā€™s done!

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for drying this works well
hang till dry (strain specific)
but trimmed buds in a plastic tub (you are ā€œsweatingā€ it (getting the extra moisture out of it) ) keep sealed - check every day (generally 2-3days) then jar once your buds have" hardened" so to say.
jar them for the cure

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Didnā€™t want to start a whole new thread so Iā€™ll just post it here:

I was curious how many people get good quality end product when you arenā€™t able to accomplish a perfect 2 week+ whole plant hang dry at 60/60 like everyone says is required.

Whatā€™s the fastest youā€™ve had bud dry and it still turned out good?

I myself am starting to think itā€™s cultivar specific, meaning some plants just hold their terps better when in less than ideal conditions than others. Iā€™ve dried a plant perfectly at 60/60 or whatever and the terps were just meh, while completely messing up a grow and the dry and the plant smelled amazing in the jars.

Just curious yā€™allā€™s thoughts on this.

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Iā€™ve had them at 30% RH for 5 days and they were fine for hashing.

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If I have already posted in this thread I apologise. ( I have seen so many they all look alike.) :crazy_face: Anyway, I understand that we all want the ā€œperfectā€ cure. But I think it is very easy to overthink this. We used to cut and hang it until it was dry enough to smoke and no one ever brought it back. End of story. I have literally seen hundreds of plants hanging in an old barn to dry and cure. That is how people did it for thousands of years. We never had fancy monitors or ā€œCannatrolā€ space age wine fridge crap. I know That is going to ruffle some feathers but I see no improvement over the way we did it from the 1960s until now. ā€œTune in, Turn on, Drop out.ā€ :rainbow:

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My preference is 68-70f 55%rh for 10-12 days and I feel like the bud is stickier and stinkier than 60/60 for me.

Edited: Hah guess I didnā€™t answer though. Iā€™d say 5-6 days is the fastest Iā€™ve had it dry and it still be pretty decent, but definitely harsher and less long lasting flavor

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Iā€™m wondering why length of time matters, as long as the end result is the same: ideal moisture levels for long term storage.

Iā€™m sure thereā€™s some scientific document that goes over it somewhere, lol

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I canā€™t give you a document but I can tell you my stash stays fresh for up to 3 years at 60% RH

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I donā€™t have an article for you at the moment but itā€™s got to do with chlorophyll breaking down and shorter dries leave more chlorophyll in the final product. Longer, higher humidity dries encourage all the chlorophyll to breakdown without drying out the bud

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Makes senseā€¦ but does chlorophyll stop breaking down once in jars?

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From what Iā€™m seeing as I read around a bit, it takes somewhere between 4-6 weeks for the chlorophyll to totally break down most of the time.

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So theoretically, you could use jarring to slow down the dry if you canā€™t get an ideal environment for slow drying. Just have to be really good at burping and monitoring rhā€¦ essentially?

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In theoryā€¦ Iā€™d think so. My buddy made one of those auto-burping buckets a few years ago because he couldnā€™t keep his humidity high. It seemed to work well. Had another friend who talked and talked for years about a system using nitrogen gas to dry and cure, but never saw any hard products hah

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The nitrogen gas is used a lot in commercial packaging it removes all the oxygen and stops the drying and curing to keep the bud fresh.

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Drying - removing the excessive water.
Curing - stabilizing the moisture content.
Aging - allowing the chemistry to convert, mainly through oxidation.

I think Iā€™m the only person who makes these distinctions. Curing isnā€™t aging. Aging is degradation. Chlorophyll doesnā€™t stay green when it breaks down.

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Yeah I know itā€™s used in packaging aspects, he was more on about using it exclusively during the dry process. If I remember correctly, he wanted to have a vac sealed area and measure the CO2/oxygen released, vent it out and replace it with n gas. His claim was only chlorophyll evaporation without terpenes degradation but it always sounds like a stretch. It made some sense though. Was fun.

Lol why do you think youā€™re the only one who cares, lusid? Weirdā€¦ lol and you didnā€™t mention chlorophyll during your dry/cure/aging issue. Iā€™m just confused is all. Who claimed it stays green. Who said aging? Aging isnā€™t for cannabis.