Slow drying my upcoming harvest

Advanced Techniques
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Just realized I’ll be harvesting (fingers crossed) just before I have to go watch my daughter’s lab while she ventures off to Coachella for a music festival. This means I have to set my stuff up to dry and then leave – and my partner, though she is my partner, is also a bit of a “gotta get my hands in there and get dirty.”

I would prefer she not do this to my stash, so I’m trying to devise a way to slow the dry down while I am gone for 10 days. (I think it should actually make for quite a GOOD dry, but I want to check with you pros.) Here’s the plan.

I usually wet trim only fan leaves – sugar leaves stay. Each individual branch will be cut and hung upside down a few inches apart on a drying rack, with LOTS of air circulation and darkness. I plan to set temp at 63-65ish, and humidity at 60% for 5 days and then 50% for 5 days.

The idea is to slow the roll and be able to depart town telling her, “Don’t even touch a thing. They’ll be fine.” This crop is shaping up to be a good one.

P.S. Don’t mean to paint her as a meddlesome bozo. She’s a great person who’s got a great green thumb and very DIY – a little TOO good, if you know what I mean. She does tend to overengineer things, but that’s a different story.

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if possible i would not alter the RH for your phase 2 down to 50%. keep it at 60% the entire time if your largest concern is delaying the drying time.

pretty cool you have the ability to mess with RH. my drying is 3rd world. hangers in the closet. i would be completely porked if i was gone 10 days during dry time. :open_mouth:

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I considered this my only other possibility, so I will go that route, buddy, unless someone chimes in with better thoughts.

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i have read and seen videos of people stretching their dry time to 12 days with 60F / 60% RH
that should fit your 10 day window

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Agree keeping rh at %60. Hang the plant whole too, don’t branch it out. That will buy you a few extra days. Set your circulation fan as low as it goes

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My standard drying move is to make the environment 60% humidity and leave it there indefinitely. All she has to do is fill the humidifier :+1:

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I would recommend staying at your first setting the whole 10 days. Everything I’ve read suggests 60°/60%. I haven’t been able to achieve that yet, but most of them claim 60/60 for 10-14 days.

Hanging the whole plant can slow drying some as well. I would still take the fans off because I would worry about mold.

My 2 cents. Edit: and what everyone else is saying.

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Reading your post I was thinking the same as the others, if you maintain 60% it’ll be fine.

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I set the dehumidifier to 60% then leave it, that ensures it doesn’t sit around wet for too long and stops it drying too much, I keep the extraction fan running slow 24hrs and a oscillating fan keeping air on the move.
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I should add its very humid where I am.

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I’m in the Portland area. It MIGHT be pretty close to 60% ambiently in April. It depends. :slight_smile:

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Slight modification: NOBODY is going to be around during the 10 days to refill humidifier.

What if I kill the lights completely a few days before the trichomes appear ready – so it’s dark 24/7 – and leave them planted? Is that better than cutting and hanging at 60F/60H?

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i think i would still opt with harvest (the devil you know)

leaving them live with no light in a humid environment might be asking for science project/mold problems?

rather have slightly dryer/crispy weed (can still use for extracts if super crispy) than science project alternates.

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This is the heart of it, I think. And this is my concern. But my thinking was, even the least-damp soil will essentially funtion like a pool of moisture the plant can essentially “wick up” as needed and should stave off root rot. Lights being off would hopefully slow the ripening/ambering of trichomes. . .

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I vote against anything that will promote mold. Damp moist soil in darkness? Nope.

What is the Temp RH like in the drying room now? How much material are you drying?
This should give you some idea what difference you’re going to have to battle to maintain 60/60.
How are you setting temp and humidity?

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Hey John: My tent is in my garage, which means temps and RH are measured from inside a moderately-insulated garage near Portland.

I try to keep RH at about 45-50 right now. When the natural, ambient RH is a LOT higher (say, 60-70% outside, it will be around 45-50% in the tent, because the heat of the light burns off a LOT of it). Earlier in this grow, when I kept RH up, I’d supplement the natural ambient RH with the humidifier.

It will be two Cheese plants – total of about 15 big colas on each plant, drying in a 5x4x8 tent, totally dark. I will roll the AC unit into it but vent the hot air outside, to hold it below 68ish. Normally, I just use my humidifer to keep it around 60 percent, but there will be nobody home from April 10 - 20.

If Portland acts like Portland, darkness and ambient RH should keep it around 50ish naturally – not quite moist enough, I think.

I can supplement with the humidifier in the tent (which is what I currently do), but it will run dry, probably (it will turn on only as-needed).

I could fill a big container of standing water in the tent, with bath towels suspended over it but dipped into the water, so they wick up water into the towel – a form of swamp cooler, kind of.

I could also humidify the entire garage (where the intake pulls from) by dragging a big plastic swimming pool in there, with fans?

Or, I trust my sweet neighbor lady to come over and refill my humidifer every few days. :slight_smile:

I will know a lot more about the weather just before I depart town, of course. I just want to have a plan. I will very likely be harvesting at the very last minute (April 9) and going with my plan.

April 9 is Day 62 since the flip to 12/12. Breeder says 8 - 10 weeks. I like my plants ~90 milky/~10 amber. So there is a slight possibility they won’t be harvested til I get home (day 72).

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Inset my dehumidifier to 55rh the temp goes to about 10-15c.

I cut the whole plant and just hang them till they are ready.

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Ok. The AC covers temp and lowering humidity.

I choose the garage humidification if you can pull it off. Swamp cooler idea with the pool?
better to test ASAP and see if it’s feasible.

What kind of tank is on the humidifier? Is it possible to feed via external reservoir?
May not be worth the trouble but if you would use it on a regular basis…
This is what I’m using to autofeed my micro octopots. Thanks to @GrouchyOldMan

This would solve your filling problem.

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Did you ever get this ironed out @navy66?