I live in Florida where humidity is an issue. I've just harvested my first-ever grow and decided to try putting a couple of containers of DampRid in the closet to keep the humidity under control. I've never seen this approach discussed. Has anyone tried this? Is it a good idea or am I missing something?
In a place like florida, I don't see how a little desiccant could hurt. It's so humid down there. Mildew has to be a serious problem. But i've never tried it personally.
about 4 years ago I did this actually. I wasnt part of the forums then but I had a friend into making shrooms and he used damprid to dry them out. When I got around to my first harvest he suggested we use some to quick dry some stuff quick to test quality mostly because it sucks to harvest a killer plant all day but have nothing to smoke after you are done. It worked to remove excess humidity but didnt dry out the plant for a couple days with the ammount we were using. I used plastic shoeboxes and put the damprid in a few caps of Aquafina 1 liter bottles that were flipped over. You could check it and notice it was drying out the fresh plant fairly well. However in the dry climate I am in it was probably overkill. Might work well for you in Florida though. Start with small ammounts and work your way up. Remember you want to slowly dry the harvest over 7-10 days to get a good cure going. Hope this helps.
While i was living in florida out near cocoa beach i fould theres a cheaper way of drying in a humid environment! You can use Silica gel and its fairly inexpensive. And you can reuse it! Heres how it works... hang dry your buds for a day or so to remove the immediate moisture. 1. use a large tote something like a 30 gallon tote and place a layer of newspaper on the bottom couple of sheets. 2. Layer the silica gel on the newspaper fairly thick 1/4 incht hen alternate in layers the newspaper and buds you want to dry out. close the lid and check on your drying buds every few hours. 3. Stir your layers at least once a day. If you get the larger silica gel "shards" you can alternately make pouches with silkscreen or panty hose footies like at shoe stores and toss them in on the buds about a cup each package. The silica will dry out your buds fairly fast and the closed environment means you have to be aware of mold.. but if you keep the lid closed the humidity will drop dramatically...if you cant get silica gel or cant find any good ol walmart has it as a cat litter product, in shards and beads works great and non toxic!! the silica will work until its completly opaque, and since its silica you can so ive heard bake them off at a low temp to dry them out... but they are soo ocheap just buy more.. Alternately... you can place the buds in your silkscreen bags or layers and completly cover with the shards or beads... Hope this helps