I have much more control over drying conditions than I do growing conditions.
For growing I have no choice but to let temp and humidity ride.
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Thereās always options. Not always good options.
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Iāve tried them all and eventually just learned to live with it.
For context I basically live in a poorly insulated full sun getting greenhouse.
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Yeah thereās a special type of tool for that. Itās a dehumidifier/AC/fan unit thatās placed above head height in actual greenhouses, in a cube shape the size of 2 large double door fridges. Costs a shitload too. But they are effective as hell, just canāt remember their name and I suspect itās not gonna be a solution to you either 
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I have a very expensive dehumidifier that pulls a ton of water and does nothing to change humidity.
The room has its own AC that does very little to change temperature.
I donāt have the square footage for standalone units nor do I have walls I could use to cut vents/ports. Itās all glass.
Itās pretty nice actually but shitty for optimizing grow conditions.
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Sorry to hijack the thread by the way, so back to conditioning our beloved buds!
How about you stick a test bud in a jar (the better the bud fits the jar the better the test will be) and leave it in overnight from the moment you think they are near their end. When the bud is back to fluffy and moist the next day, youāre a bit soon. When itās no longer crispy but remains firm, youāre right around the perfect moment so then itās time to jar it all up.
Airflow but not direct wind and keeping the air from becoming too moist and the buds from getting too dry are the most important keys IME to getting the perfect buds.
Unless you live in a very dry place or a very humid place, IME, no extra humidity measuring or tools are needed. Once your method is dialed in and with a couple years experience youāll be able to call the exact hour when theyāre done 8 hours or more ahead of time.
Sounds cool @Foreigner
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I wish i could dry in a true 60/60 environment, but as we approach Summer, LMAO Iām lucky if I get 78Ā°f with like low 40s RH 
I donāt have a way to cool an isolated portion of my house, and running my AC below 77 is just insane for our utility bill. What helps most for me; finding the coolest darkest place in the house (for me, our walk-in closet or the laundry room) and then just rig up a way to hang-dry, run an offset fan and in the case of the laundry room but NOT my closet, running a small humidifier.
āClose enoughā is good enough, since all Iām trying to do is grow the best weed I can BUT in the most cost effective way possible. Like, for me, cost effectiveness supercedes even quality, because if quality was my absolute top goal, then Iād just continue to buy
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Iām gonna be blasphemous here again. I run my herb drier (actually my wifeās herb drier) at 78Ā°F. It is running inside a room where itās usually around 60 RH though. But that thing dries my buds to a perfect state after ābottle conditioningā (I call it that cause in brewing bottle conditioning is getting the drinks primed with carbon in the bottle).
I was really on the fence about using the thing for buds when my wife first got it but as I noticed our regular herbs were a shitload more fragrant after going in the herbdrier vs hang dried I decided to do a side by side and I shit you not the herb drier gave me better results (my usual being drying in a walk in closet above head height with a fan running on the ground, the room I was drying in back then was closer to 50RH and temps were usually around 62F)
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We actually just started drying our own herbs as well. Whatās your herb dryer brand name or model?
We have a 3 tier Stockli model
Iām quite happy with it. Dƶrrex could be the brand or Stockli, Iām not sure. Maybe Dƶrrex is the model name, IDK.
Swiss made thing. Iām in Europe so IDK if theyāre available in the US or CA
Never put it over 20Ā°C for buds though. 25Ā°C max if you want to push it but the temp control isnāt very tight so itāll go over for some time and then drop below again so I like to stick to 20Ā°C and think of it as 25
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This tool is a part of my curve of learning to automate the process. Freeze dryer was the last step to date.
4 digits a good one ā¦ so old fashioned drying while iām saving bucks ^^
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Iāve heard stories of freeze drying buds. Also heard the people finetuning that process had a hard time with it. Donāt know the exact details but it wasnāt as straightforward as they had hoped.
The great thing about the herb driers (not just the dƶrrex model, most driers do this AFAIK) is you can just buy extra tiers if you want more space and stack more on, and if you are staggering harvests, if things arenāt dry yet you can just stack fresh tiers on top after checking how long the bottom ones still have to go.
Iāve compared many buds with sometimes insane drying process, they are the both remaining valuable in my book.
For the freeze drying, you get machines that are totally autonomous now. They probe RH, temps ā¦ you can even set the type of stuff that is inside for some models, and the freezer do its magic. Since iāve tasted one of my old clone from it ā¦ i just canāt wash it from my mind. The bigger job is to get used to the machine mostly. In a way itās less risky and picky than stuff like the dƶrrex, but far more expensive. True luxury.
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curing is just a form of drying afaik. tobacco is cured/dried in a similar fashion. jarring might often be fermentation, but could also be curing if it is still drying. i wonder if there is some relationship between esters and jar time.
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Iāve often noticed that when my bud comes out of the drier, itās not really good to smoke. I mean, you can smoke it, and itāll burn and get you high, but it needs time in a jar for the flavors to come out. Not months or anything, a day or two will bring out the most of it, though some strains really do benefit from a months long cure. For example there was Misty, not to be confused with Misty Kush. I say was because itās no longer sold though I hold a few beans in my stash still. Misty is a real nanner prone strain that is just alright and slightly quirky in taste when fresh, and it retains the quirkiness but becomes smoother and goes from alright to absolutely marvelous after a 2 month cure, but not a day before it seems. Not to say itās exactly 2 months, but experience has taught me that this strain will have a shifting point where itās effect goes from being a common everyday smoke without anything special to an absolute creeper that makes you so happy and prone to bouts of absolutely uncontrollable laughter itās frankly ridiculous.
The first time I smoked this strain was in the 00ās, a well cured baggy gotten from a guy who knew some of my own larger circle friends. I was smoking it out on a bridge and after getting stupidly high of one joint I was repeatedle smashing a plastic water bottle against the bridge and I started laughing and while laughing I kept smashing the bottle until I missed and my hand hit the concrete side wall of the bridge. Blood was seeping from my hand but I could not stop laughing frantically while looking at my friends and pointing at my hand. My friends were laughing just as hard too cause they had both just smoked the same bud. Good times. My hand was blue and sore for a week but still, good times.
Then when I first grew it years later right before it got canceled I was surprised I got the taste but not the same high. Little did I know my stash would turn into gold right when I was at the last few buds.
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Iāve been looking at electric cigar humidor coolers that use peltier cooler/heaters along with a standalone small dehumidifier mounted inside. Control them both through a ramp/soak PID similar to an annealing oven (many have a self tuning function that learn the over/undershoot aka wild swings.) Still early days in my research and a standalone dehumidifier may not even be needed but could probably help speed up the drying process of fresh bud.
Thereās a company making bank off doing something similar.
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To declare my intentions, my favorite blunts are made with Panatelas that take up to twos hours to prepare and a couple damned months to cure heavenly. Iāve certain type of weed that only work with certain type of tobacco leafs/cigars ā¦ Iāve pushed this far the love.
When i donāt roll them directly, the cuban way, with imported leafs (click on my nickname ^^). I know that for US stoners iām the antichrist but iām equally love tobacco (not the industrial one) and weed (same). And i mix both often.
Both products are fairly close in many ways, and in term of conservation storing your weed with your high end cigars will not end with a disaster in term of technical result (except to screw the authentic taste of your cigars).
Itās why iām considering that using an automated unit for cigars is a smart move economically, instead using those recycled/re-branded for cannabis ^^ On my side, iām using thick wood box that iām storing in a cold/dark/dry place. I donāt do speculation on cigars and i only store a maximum of 6 months of treats, this kind of tool is overkill for my use. But large scale ones are totally necessary for a cigar shop.
And thatās finally my point : Itās where the tobacco and the weed are not anymore friends. The concept of curing is totally different, alkaloids and fermentations work differently, even if in the end ā¦ perfect temps and RH of conservation are pretty close.
Another unpopular opinion : i consider the weed like the tobacco leafs in term of potential. If the weed/tobacco leaf is not already flavorful when the drying process is done ā¦ itās just a bad plant.
Not even a bad grow. Good phenos can fight against overfert management and bad grow skills. The first that come in my mind and that is enough well known to be clear in all minds is the SD. You can grow it like a total beginner, dry it badly and overfert it ā¦ when you lit the blunt, all stoners of the block you walk are hunting you like DEA dogs. Considering it, for me if the weed of the plant need ācuringā to develop a taste ā¦ i just remove the plant from my book. A bunch of beginners are torturing themselves with it by the way, whipping themselves to get a taste with a bland plant by the drying process ā¦ over to get the right genetic to refine. I donāt know, like curing in a high end cigar unit ā¦ industrial cigarettes given to soldiers with rations ^^
Tools like freeze dryers and dessicant machine are the step before in fact, when your final product is heavenly finished and that you want to keep it in this state for a long term.
I donāt find cigar units specially impressive or efficient for the drying process, except the āstore and forgetā aspect. Freeze dryer are, the gap of quality is not even possible to compare + incredible gain of time.
Just an opinion of course, and that have to be linked with my specific use ^^
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So when the humidity is low (every winter here) buds tend to dry faster. When the buds are smaller they dry faster. To slow that process down when working with small batch harvests I will remove the bud and place it in a cooking bag. Throw in a hygrometer and choke the opening down to something that slows the drying. Gently move the buds in the bag every 8 hours or so to get an even dry before jarring and burping.
@fuel I cannot mix tobacco and cannabis any better than alcohol and cannabis. Though I am certain for some it is very enjoyable.
75-82Ā° @ 50-60%rh.
I have another small tent with clones vegging in the room and I believe that causes the higher temp.
I think the slow drying we have all been striving to accomplish is counterproductive and freeze drying proves that while taking it to the max at the same time.A herb drier is the cheap intermediate when used right (20-25Ā°C / ~75Ā°F and leaving enough moisture in branches for a cure)
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