Here's my dilemma... I will be out for about 2 weeks with no one to tend to my growth and it comes at the time when it's about time to harvest (if I calculated correctly). I may be able to get it drying out for a few days before I leave but then I won't be around to monitor it for mold/moisture during curing. Questions... Is it ok to dry for more then 2 weeks? Maybe by keeping the humidity up? Is there a no maintenance method for curing in which I don't need to let mason jars burp or do anything for 2 weeks? Any advice appreciated for a 2 week absence!
Alright. This is a bit out there and I do not consider myself an expert by any means. If you can harvest a little bit early so that they are ready for the jars, maybe you could figure out a way to automatically burp them using a digital timer and something that would open the jars for a little bit each day. You'd have to think of a way to rig the jars with something that opens when turned on, and then closes when turned off. Again, this is by no means a full blown answer and I can't think of something off the top of my head, but maybe you will see something and have that engineering eureka moment. If I think of anything, I'll let you know.
Okay. So after looking around, turns out you're not the first guy with this dilemma. Other suggestions were to make a drying chamber with an environmental controller that triggers a small pc exhaust fan when RH dictates. Another guy claims that if you remove the metal center disc on the mason lid and replace it with a paper towel that the jar will still be able to slowly breathe and that the RH in the jar stays right around 60%, providing a slow consistent drying effect. No word on what his ambient RH is though and you'd essentially be taking a risk that it works properly while you're gone.
experts don't normally think outside of the box. In the contextualization of design there currently is a movement from using experts to using amateurs. The reason for this is to facilitate the creation of new paradigms for products and services. To tie the above back to our situation damn good idea, what else can we think of; were smart people GC. Under the assumption that you have no trusted 3rd party, I would say another possibility would be Harvest as late as possible, leave ALL leaves on to slow down the drying process and then go take your trip. I am not sure how you safely raise the RH, without a negative feedback loop. (Something to shut off the device when the RH is too high)
In my opinion it'd be better to be over dry than under dry and risking mold. Not that its ideal, but if worse comes to worse XD
I've been in the same situation before. What I ended up doing was getting a partial hang dry (too wet to go in a sealed jar) and then stored the partially dried buds in open containers in a frost free freezer. This is a slow drying method and there is an explanation in a Ed Rosenthal growing book that explains why it works with a frost free freezer. It has something to do with how frost free freezers suck the moisture out of air in the freezer. Anyway ... when I got back home I just put the buds back out to hang dry for a couple more days and then they were ready for jars and curing. I don't think you want to do this with overly fresh buds and you want to avoid opening the freezer too much (which shouldn't be a problem if you aren't there). There is a pretty good thread about the subject on icmag if you do a little searching. Also, I live in a very dry environment and even the thickest donkey dick buds will be too dry after a week at the normal humidity. I use a humidifier to keep the humidity around 50% and that stretches out the drying process quite a bit. Keeping the drying environment very cool helps. Leaving the plants whole or at least keeping the buds attached to the thick stems will slow down drying as well. Just a few more tips if you don't trust the freezer with your buds. Good luck.