Hang whole plant and dry trim. It’s actually pretty humid where I live. Maybe it’s possible I was just drying too fast or too long before.
I’m 100% down for your experiment. Everyone’s environment is different and results may vary.
That being said, I dry in a 4x2 on its side. So 7ft long, 4ft high, 2ft wide. I have one viviosun fan in there on setting 3(of 10), and one govee life dehumidifier set at 57%. I wipe it out with iso and a rag between every dry cycle. It’s done me very well so far. It is mostly sealed, but I have one vent totally open and one just cracked. My temps are usually anywhere from 68-75(outside temps have been anywhere from 55-90)…I’m lucky my basement is fairly cool and humid naturally
How many days do you usually dry for until you get to the 58-62%?
I don’t test my Rh inside the bud. There are definitely tools and I should, but I pull pretty much everything out around day 10 or 11. Then it takes me a day or two to trim and they are in jars by day 14. Faster stuff takes 9-10 days. Longer stuff takes the full 14. I wait until I hear snaps on all side branches. I like to pull and trim stuff up the day before the main branches begin to snap. A lot of it is by feel, but 10-13 days consistently
Good to know. Thank you for the info!
Always, my friend. Eager to see where you end up
Following along mate!
Just to throw my method in the mix… it’s super hot and humid half the year where I am, so I converted a fridge into a cure chamber (can also be used for cheese, salami, etc). It sits in the corner of my vegg room so smell isn’t too much of an issue.
I found the biggest, cheapest fridge I could find. Used a hole saw to drill vent holes top and bottom, PC fan drawing air out. I then have a little dehumidifier sitting in the bottom.
I connect the dehumidifier and fridge to a temp and humidity controller and bobs your uncle! My tan currently turns on every 30mins because outdoor temps aren’t too bad, but this can also be connected to a controller or left on depending on your environment.
I cut, trim all big fan leaves, and hang plants in there on the stem, then dry trim just before smoking or jarring.
It definitely takes some tweaking to get the balance of fan, fridge, and humidity right. But when it’s dialed, it’s fool proof!
I have a friend whos fridge doesn’t have vent holes because of smell worries, and he just leaves his on his back deck and just opens the door every day without an issue.
I’d think this wouldn’t be hard to accomplish with it at all
In theory, I agree. My concern is only being able to dry one plant per unit. 🫠 The cost makes me nauseous
@MrDobalina I love this. When I was stuck in a hot spot without resources to do anything else, I rigged a bedroom with fans, a humidifier and a dehu and always had the windows open. Dried some damn good herb in that room. Using a fridge sounds like it would work really well. Clever folks exist out here. I hard head everything
Lol I smoke to not fuck other people up
That’s true… but I’m curious about your findings with whole plant drying/curing… it seems you’ve found a major difference and that is intriguing to me…
So… what you are saying is … harvesting is best when done with the entire plant for terps strength and shelf life?
Yessir that’s my opinion. More surface area means more even dry and smoother smoke. One reason fan leaves exist is to protect sugar leaves, too. So I let them continue their job in the afterlife. I’m a fan of protecting the trichomes basically up until jarring or consumption. Direct air/light exposure degrades their contents, so why expose them sooner than necessary, in my mind.
A dedicated room like that would be the dream! All free space gets filled with plants usually unfortunately. Haha.
Thanks mate. There is definitely more ideal curing conditions but this allows me a good balance of being able to cure year round and still achieve a product I’m really happy with.
I hadn’t seen this particular setup used for cannabis before and found it so easy to setup. Might solve someone else’s problems one day too.
I have thought about this a little as well.
Do you reckon there is more chance of disturbing or knocking off trichomes once the plants dry vs wet?
Obviously wet trimming results in a ton of scissor hash too, but just thinking of how much comes off with dry screen vs trying to screen wet plant. Definitely don’t disagree with anything you said.
I use a poor mans cannatrol and have great results when I remove all the buds from the big stems and branches instead of drying them. When I leave the stems on during drying I think the pulling of water out of the stems and branches makes the process wonky, longer than needed and requires putting more water through the plant material during drying than necessary. I get great terps and dry most buds to 62% within 5 to 7 days. i usually leave a lot of sugar leaves on the plant because I like them for joint rolling and they help in drying. My weed dries stinky af and cures well in jars. I notice no difference in smell or potency from doing a hang dry and running all that the water through the buds but if there is science (a falsifiable theory) behind the idea and not just anecdote I’d love to hear it. People going to start hanging it up by it roots, watch.
Your anecdotes are welcome here too, my friend. I don’t know when slower dries got a bad reputation, but shoot. I’m glad you like your stuff I don’t like the way facilities dry their stuff or how it smokes. So that’s not how I do it
I’ve tried it ten different ways, I’m open to the idea that I got the technique wrong. Idk. I’m not taking a side. Sharing method, that’s all, and I like science
I don’t really see a method…just that you buck your stuff down. No mal-intent. Do you use a tent? Dehus? A fan? What is your poor man’s cannatrol, I guess, is what I’m asking.
I’m curious. I really don’t know on this one! My very uninformed guess would be it’s pretty much equally as easy to knock them off.
@DirtySlowToes So interesting mate! Love the chat around this subject though as I’m still so unsure.
My equally uninformed guess would actually be that they fall off easier when dry. Reason being that all plant matter (leaves, fruit, etc.) comes away from stalks/stems easier when the and/or the plant is dry. Plants are dried before screening/sifting because of this, to allow the resin head to more easily fall off. Where as plants are rubbed to wipe or smear the heads off when still green?
I dunno man. I wet trimmed for ages without any complaints or noticeable difference when I did a side by side, but all my mates and everyone I talk to dry trim