One of my plants is ready, and due to me having a small house and relatives staying in my extra bedroom periodically till the holidays are over, I have no place to dry it. My question is does the room have to be completely dark when drying? My grow is going in a closet which is in the only bedroom that will be empty, but the light shines out of the closet and at night I have to turn the light in the room on to make it to the closet door. I also have my weights in this room and work out often. It only has 1 20w CFL bulb in the light fixture so I was considering doing it in this room, but will that one bulb being on for maybe 3 hours out of the day and the little bit of light shining out of the closet going to mess up my drying process? I'm not in a hurry, I just want to dry it the best way possible. Thanks.
Dark is ideal. Drying will stink. One possible solution is to put it in brown paper grocery bags, roll top down loosely, and put it in the grow room -- at least you will keep the odor in your established ventilation/filter system. But, that won't ventilate very well, even with stirring often. You could add a boil-n-bag of rice (uncooked) in each paper bag to absorb moisture. If possible, depending on your grow space configuration you could put a box over the grow space's intake, put the drying harvest in the box on layers of screens, have a hole on the other end of the box that will vent out to become the intake to the grow space. In other words, build a crude enclosed drying rack that is part of the intake air channel. That way you will have lots of cool air venting over them, you are channeling the odor into your existing odor control, and you can keep them dark.
[quote name='"toastybiz"'] If possible, depending on your grow space configuration you could put a box over the grow space's intake, put the drying harvest in the box on layers of screens, have a hole on the other end of the box that will vent out to become the intake to the grow space. In other words, build a crude enclosed drying rack that is part of the intake air channel. That way you will have lots of cool air venting over them, you are channeling the odor into your existing odor control, and you can keep them dark.[/quote] I did kind of the same thing. Took a 50 gallon storage container from Walmart. Cut a 6" outlet and put in a cheap duct booster fan. Sealed it with spray foam and exhausted in to my tent.Then put holes on each side of the container all the way across the top of the sides. I took metal coat hangers and straightened them to make hanging rods. Just hung the buds from clothespins. Worked pretty well, could easily do 1/4 lb at a time. Here it is torn down.
I appreciate it but I don't have the cash to buy a container and fan and stuff. When I started things were great, I even bought extra lights and extra soil and nutes because I had the money. Since starting this one I have been laid off, my unemployment was delayed 3 weeks because of an address mistake, and I had to go to Utah for a funeral and ended up assisting some family with some of the costs. I'm in a pinch right now but only till January. Problem is that this one is more then 50/50 and needs to be done now, not to mention lighting it up would sure make my days a lot easier. I would try the paper bag but it kind of sounds like I may be asking for mold. My grow room temperature is between 68-78 and the humidity is between 32-50, has been since I started, which seems like the ideal temp and humidity, but everything I read says a different number so IDK. As for the smell, it's not an issue at all. That room is at the other end of the house, my house has an air purification system that kicks ass, and I have a bathroom style ceiling vent that vents that room out to the gutters. My wife and I have never smelt anything inside or outside except when the closet is open and we are in it, so at least we're not limited by scent. Thanks.
You don't have a cardboard box and some wire coat hangers? Or some other McGyver materials around the house? As for a fan, if you don't have one already you probably are SOL regardless of cost, not too many brick-and-mortars sell fans in December. But you need ventilation ventilation to dry (and to grow BTW), don't know what to tell ya.
That one little light being on for X amount of hours a day wont hurt anything. Drying is pretty fast if your not in a humid environment. Ive dried in a box, bathroom, closet, grow tent etc. Usually takes me 3-5 days then I brown bag them sometimes for a day or so then jar them. Easy process.
Obviously I have some plants that I'm using in my grow, I meant another exhaust fan. Simply putting a fan in a box is not ventilation, it's just blowing the same old air around. Rhapsody that's the answer I was hoping to hear. It's very minimal light, most of the time the only light will be a just a little bit shining through the intake for the closet and I'll make sure that I turn the light on in the room as little as possible. I didn't think one 20w cfl 20 feet away would cause much of a problem, but I figured it's better to ask then to make a noob mistake. This room stays at about 65-68 with a humidity usually around 25-30. I know it make take a bit longer to dry in those conditions, but is there any other downside?
I assume you meant you have some fans you are using in your grow. Very true, which is why you haven't seen anyone, myself in particular, suggesting that you do it that way. Your complaint was about expense. My suggestion was that you could use any kind of box you already have, any kind of wire or material you have to make drying or hanging racks, and retrofit it onto your existing ventilation system. Zero cost, addresses your issue. Of course you can do what you want, just don't understand your other post asking the same question and disparaging the people who replied elsewhere (here), which would mean mostly me.