Best techniques for drying??

7/7/7...
7 days, at 70 degrees Fahrenheit, at 70 percent humidity.


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I wet trim then hang dry on a line for 5-7 days (until small stems "snap") then finish trimming. jar for 2 weeks burping every couple days and bam killer cured bud


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Buy a dehumidifier is the advice I'd give you.Hang in a DARk place,and you should aim for 65-70 degrees Fahrenheit and a RH of between 50-60. Also,have a small fan to create a small circulation breeze in the drying area,although not pointing directly at the buds.If you do this for 5-7 days,you should be dry enough to put in airtight jars for curing. (I use 62% Humidipaks in the jars too,available on Amazon. ✌

 

Burping means opening the jars momentarily to replace any stale air/decomposition gases from the jar with fresh air.

 

You shouldn't aim fans at your drying buds,as they will dry too quickly and you get the hay smells. (if you dry/cure as I said,your hay smell will disappear once the curing starts)

 

just giving my 2cents since I do things a little different.

I trim everything fresh.. and put the buds in a flat cardboard box..like a monopoly gamebox lid or something similar in shape. After day 2 or so, I flip the buds around in the box to make sure they dry on all sides. After everything feels dry to the touch(another 2-3 days), I put the buds in a close container for a few hours. This ends up leaching all the moisture back to the outside of the bud. Then I put em back out on a tray again till they feel dry to the touch. Then they keep going back into a closed container for a few hours till they finally feel dry to the touch again. From there I start curing...'burping' once per day...making sure not to overfill jars. total drying time tends to be about 6 days.

I'm not saying this is a better way or anything. I harvest about once a week, so this is just a method I use that keeps everything organized and uniform...especially since I need to dry in my grow box so it doesn't stink up the house.

for a fool proof method, put a humidity gauge in the jar with the buds once you think they're dry...give it an hour or 2 and check the humidity. Prime humidity level (IN the buds,IN the jar) for curing is 55-60%. Over 60% will be squishy, 50% or less will be crispy dry. If buds ever get drier than 55% or so you can add a fresh weed leaf in the closed container to re-moisten them. I usually use about 1 big fan leaf per ounce to re-hydrate buds a little if they need it.

 

theres a ton of different ways and methods, as you can tell by the replys. Personally, with my most recent harvest, I hung everything on hangers in my grow tent. I kept my ventilation running and a fan for air. After about 5 days they were crispy to the touch and the small stems snapped. I took them and put them in mason jars with the humipacks. Burp every day, and after about a week in the jar, its perfect. The longer you cure it, the better it tastes and smokes.

 

Don't use a fan when you hang it you're drying it too fast and trapping chlorophyll in the buds making it taste bad. As others have said part of the idea of a good curing process is to slow the drying process down. Don't get in too much of a hurry. That's when it tastes like crap.

I use a hanging drying rack. It puts flat spots on the buds if you're super picky about appearance but it certainly doesn't bother me. I picked one up from amazon. To me it beats hanging them. It's just easier.


I trim wet and leave buds on the stems. Once they are dry enough to break off a piece and smoke a bowl they go in jars. Usually about 4-5 days. The first day in the jar is tricky because the jar will cause it to sweat and bring moisture up to the surface. I typically have to dump the jar out back onto the rack after the first 4 hours or so in the jar because it becomes too moist again. After I dump it out once it usually settles into a routine of opening the jars once in the morning before I go to work and for 15 minutes or so when I get home. I do this for a few days. After they're good and dry you can just open the jars once or twice a day and roll/shake the buds apart from each other.

They taste best about 2-3 weeks in the jars. My bud is smooth after the 5 drying rack though because I cut nitro at about 6 weeks. It makes a giant difference in flavor.
Autumn Color Effect

 

You definitely want to use a fan in the drying area to promote air movement and exchange. Just point the fan at the floor or away from the drying branches.
I dry in my spare bathroom with the bathroom ceiling fan on to pull air out and I have a small desk fan pointed away from the branches. I pull down after 9 days hanging then they go into plastic totes to stabilize the RH.

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I really does depend on your local conditions how the first hanging stage goes. It's winter time here and indoor it's too dry for me to use a fan. It dries up no problem in 4-5 days. You don't want it to go faster than that for the hanging stage. If I used a fan they would be dry in 2 days and taste like grass.

Mine also dry in the same room as my tent exhaust fan so they do get lots of air circulation by proxy. I hang the drying rack over my amplifier and near my TV. The additional heat from those items helps.

 

That's right! Set you fan on low oscillate. A light breeze to circulate the air around the buds is fine. You don't need a gale force wind blowing your buds into desert sand.

 

You want to jar them up when they appear to already be dry. I've been scared a few time that I left them hanging too long and ruined a few buds because they felt so crispy on the rack. Once they sit in the jars for a few hours they moisten back up again.

The period with the most danger of mold is the first day or two in the jars. Many people don't realize how they become moist again and don't vent the jars enough in the first few days. The first few days they need to be open quite a bit to keep them from getting too moist. Also before you open the jar shake and roll the buds apart from each other. As they sit they compact and stick to each other. You have to shake them apart to get air circulating between them.

The process that breaks down the chlorophyll should be done with the jar closed. It's an anaerobic breakdown process that removes the bad flavors in absence of oxygen. You have to get the humidity level of the buds down low enough to get this started though. They will mold instead if you close up the jar too tight too early. Usually after a week in jars you are totally safe from mold and can go to just cracking the jars for a few minutes a day. Starting off first few days I may leave them open for an hour or more.

 

There is lots of methods out there. My buddy jars them up for a few hours after hanging them and then dumps them in a paper bag overnight. They go back and forth between the jar and paper bag overnight for 2 days before he starts just burping the jars. That can help get you over the initial period in the jars where mold is a danger. They also sell humidity packs that can be added to the jars to keep the buds at a certain humidity level. Some people like to add these after a certain period in jars to keep them dialed in to the perfect humidity level for curing instead of just guessing.

I also heard of running paper bags through a shredder. Mixing the cuttings with the buds and bagging it all in a paper bag rotating bags every day for the first couple of days after hanging.

Some people hang their buds inside of a cardboard box full of holes from fishing line with a fan blowing through it. The cardboard helps absorb some of the moisture.

 

Some great info here about drying so i wont add to that. But i will add that when trimming, i only do a light trim before the drying process where i remove the bigger and smallish fan leaves, leaving the little sugar leaves. Once its dry only then i will do my final trim to remove the sugar leaves. The buds always look much nicer this way if you are into nice looking nugs plus you can then make some hash with the dry trim.