I’ve actually had good luck drying this way when my humidity was really low. I had brown paper bags, bottoms lined with nugs no bigger than a golf ball with a little room between the nugs.
Then put the paper bags in a cardboard box so they aren’t sitting on the floor.
This is actually a popular drying method over at AFN. Comes out great IMO, but the only issue is that there is a flat side of the buds where they were sitting. I think you could mitigate that if you rolled them around once a day but I was too lazy.
Well with short SOG plants that’s one way to do it…
Trimming wet fan leaves off will result in faster drying, which leads to faster cell death and keeping chlorophyll (grass/hay taste). Faster drying also looses volition terps (use to just be called flavor/aroma) but the paper bag (closed around top) will slow it down enough if the temps aren’t too high.
I’ve gone straight to hanging in paper bags in summer, but still kept all but biggest fan leaves on.
The storage container size matters too, if you want to cure or store for longer, do have too much head space, as that’s just more air that could dry out your product. Man, this is sounding more like my wine making hobby too.
Properly stored/cured product should be moist enough to to be pliable, not crumbling, but dry enough to smoke and not mold. Once you open that jar and start pulling stuff out, the more often you open it or more head space it has, the faster it’ll start to crumble. That’s when the humidor comes in, if you just store buds in that vs using it as your active use, it’ll most likely mold if you let the humidity stay higher
In my own experience, wet trimming does not cause the hay smell. I’ve been wet trimming for thirty years and only had that happen once. I think it was due to excessive heat and high humidity in the first phase of drying, but I’m not certain since it never happened again.
Since I use Boveda packs (62%) in all my jars, I am very interested in the claim that they reduce terps, as mentioned here. I did some research in a few forums and found that most people say there is no difference and a few claim a huge difference. I’ll probably try Boost packs the next time I restock and see for myself. However, I did find this from Boveda addressing the issue: Terpenes Safer with Boveda - Boveda® Official Site
I think it’s also important to point out that what works well for someone might not work well for someone else. Everyone’s environment’s different.
For me, wet trimming absolutely caused the hay smell. But my environment is really hot and dry, so it makes sense that without all the extra green mass it dries out too quickly.
Likewise, those growing in cold/humid conditions (like indoors in winter) will absolutely have to wet trim, because otherwise the flower won’t dry faster than it molds.
Really, knowing the cause of the hay smell (seems to be a consensus on drying too fast) and knowing how your environment will affect that (by knowing your RH and temp range), you can make a decision that works for you.
@beacher , How densely do you pack the paper bags? Like your packing a jar? or laid out flat and only one layer thick of buds? I might try this as I always have troubles with it drying to fast.
Ta!
Just a single layer, you don’t want to smoosh the buds and you want air to move around it. Either hang a branch and wrap the bag around it, or put a single layer down and then close the bag up.
You can stack layers into the bag, as long as you get that crunch first. Dry for 2-4 days, when the buds get a dry exterior kinda krispy and the stems are still pliable not yet snapping is when you want that bag.
I have a small or medium paper bag with 40 grams crammed in it. Make sure to rotate your buds let the bottom feel the top a while, vice versa for the rest, just keep an eye on em.
If your bud is still wet it will get flat spots and possibly mold on ya. Timing and YOUR environment is relative.
Yeah for sure, a common sense approach. I am super careful when drying. Check them every few hours. Checking for damp musty smells, humidity, etc. Catch the issues before they happen. I might start stacking them once they are getting crispy on the outside
Yes, under “average” conditions, you bag it when they start to loose that moist feeling on the outside, then you can layer gently. The idea is to let it dry slowly over the course of a few days to a week before jars. But if everything tends to dry too quick, that’s when they go straight in the bag, but single layered. Jar when “popcorn dry”, before anything starts to crumble. Check regularly for condensation, use a coffee filter or cheese cloth as a top for the first day or two if necessary. The idea is to “sweat” the material, allowing moisture from inside the bud to evenly move to the outer/drier part. Open the jar for a few minutes to breath daily until everything is evenly dry, check the nugs at the bottom, center, and the top of jar. Then break open a decent sized jug to check the consistency and center of the bud. Test it, (oh so much trouble). It should be moist enough to not crumble when you pinch it, but dry enough to smoke without trouble lighting. Once your satisfied that it’s dried enough, loosely fill various size containers and use as is, or let them age and cure in a cool dark place. Once you start pulling any amount of buds from the jar, or open it too many times, you should consider it your active jar, or transfer it all into a smaller jar with less headspace. Treat it like a bottle of wine or fine liquor.
Only add hydration to stuff your going to be smoking soon. But, If you really over dried your stuff before curing, and feel you absolutely need to rehydrate, one of those humidor hydration/humidity pucks can be used in a larger jar briefly. Some extra air space is your friend in the case. Check regularly and put the buds in smaller jars once your happy with the moisture level, and proceed with burping if needed.
Wow I got wordy. I Figured I’d sum up my process from back in the day. Again, I haven’t done this myself in over a decade, sorry if I sound like I’m repeating the basics.
Yeah i have all that part down pat in my usual technique of hanging, moving to open jars, then closed with regular breathing, getting the whole sweating part to even the moisture. I have RH meters in all jars. I had to go to the jars to early for my liking though. I am trying to dial in a drying cabinet I have set up. I work on using my bedroom as a lung room which I dial in to the right RH/temp and the cabinet is in my room and slowly draws air into it and out through a carbon filter. It has helped my drying time to go from 5 days to 7 days.Unfortunately I cant dial the temp down enough as it is my bedroom and dialing the temp down while I sleep aggravates my injuries too much to justify it. So I am slowly improving the situation but I have not used paper bags before. But after chats with you and @Indoornesian I feel I will give it a go. I can hopefully slow it to 10 days then I will be happy at that.The above is good info for all. Thanks.
Thanks