So trying to get a dry room setup so I can start slow drying my girls. Anyway will be using a 2x2x4 grow tent as the drying room. Set it up with a 4" outtake at the bottom of the tent and a 4" intake coming in from the top. Have a 4" fan inside the tent pointed at the floor, so it's moving air but no breeze directly on the buds. The RH in the room the tent is in comes in between 25-35% RH. Currently have just a couple lower branches hanging in it now and they aren't even coming close to getting me to the correct RH. What I did for the time being is put a big bowl of water on the floor of the tent, hooked my 4" exhaust fan to an inkbird controller and set it to maintain 55% humidity. Seems to be working well so far, but left me with a few questions. 1. Is it OK to use a bowl of water on the floor like I am to raise humidity to the correct range? 2. Sometimes the tent will sit perfectly at right around 54-57% for the majority of the day so the exhaust fan does not kick on at all. Is it OK to have it sitting sealed with just the 4" fan inside blowing at the floor for that long or will it increase my chances of mold? 3. Caught bud mold very early on one of my girls and removed the infected parts, haven't seen any sign of it since and it's been about a week. Do you think it is safe to slow dry the rest of the plant? Thanks in advance guys
What Factors a Cause an "Earth" Smell What does curing your bud do? How I get a perfect dry. Days out exposed to our low humidity. Nights in a closed container sweats more moisture from deep in the buds. I shorten the time exposed about an hour per day so the last day they will only need an hour exposure. At the end of the week they are ready to jar with no burping needed as they are at the perfect humidity point. BNW
A perfect drying room is 777 7 days at 70 degrees and 70% humidity. 666 works just about as well.. BNW
This is very similar to how I was doing mine before but they were only taking 4-5 days to be dried enough for jars. When you say you have low rh, how low are you talking? The room I will be drying in gets as low as 25% RH some days.
Your bud rot may complicate the drying process. I like drying at 70% humidity but in your case with possible budrot I'd be hesitant to dry in such a humid environment. It may work fine, I just don't know. I'd probably go for 60-65% humidity. The bowl of water will help a little. I live in an arid climate so I dump water on the concrete floor of my grow room and if that doesn't do it I place wet cloths in front of fans. It takes a day or so for the humidity to stabilize but that's when the plants are fresh cut so a little less humidity at that stage is a good thing. If your humidity is low you don't really want an exhaust fan, just a circulation fan.
I have read that 10-14 days is actually better, some even go as long as 20+ days. I'm going to shoot for a minimum of 14 days on the dry. I do think 60F is too cold so I'll be sitting between 65-70F. Most people don't realize bud rot actually likes colder temps. Do you think having standing water in the tent will have a negative impact if I keep the RH inside on point? Plan is 65-70F, 55-60% RH for hopefully 10-14 days. Then paper bag sweat them for a couple days before jarring up.
I'm in southern California and we get a condition called a Santa Ana Wind what brings in stone dry, smoking hot desert air and blasts us for about a week or two with single number humidity. Never fails it starts the day I harvest. Mid to late Oct. The rest of the year we still are in the 25-40% range at best. I'm just a mile from the ocean so it keeps the RH a bit higher then it is further inland. BNW
You really will need to tailor your dry to your local conditions. I used gauges in the early days and that works when your figuring out just what you are working in. Now I can just squeeze the buds and tell where I am in the dry. BNW
Hang a wet towel in your tent instead of the bucket of water on floor.. towel will give off more humidity than a bucket will.
Exhaust fan only kicks on if humidity level breaches my set point, so it's really not running much. I was going to shoot for 55-60% for thw rest of my girls and do this one at 40-50%
For sure, I might have to try your method. Do you worry at all about mold when you seal them up for the night to sweat? I have all the goauges and controls for now to keep me in the know, but hopefully will get a better feel for it.
Yeah, I like the exhaust fan on auto feature. I control my humidity with a dehumidifier set on 70% so we're basically doing the same thing, just with different approaches. Once I finally tried drying at 70% humidity I was so satisfied with the results I'll never do it any other way. Even if you don't try it this harvest you should eventually try it.
Everything I am reading seems to say 55-60% is the golden number for slow drying. Why 70% if you don't mind me asking? Do you not worry at all about mold at that high?
I dried at about 50% for many years but was never satisfied because the outsides of the buds would feel crisp while the insides were still damp. I read about the 777 method but didn't try it for a couple of years until I finally got the courage to do it. Drying at 70% keeps the outsides from becoming crisp, it gives an even dry insides and out. I've also read many drying guides that say dry at 55-60% and some even suggest 50% humidity and I'd have no problem drying at 60% but 55% is too dry, IMO. I did worry about mold the first time I tried it but everything was fine. Here's one source that recommends 777, just to show you I'm not nuts Drying In 60 - 70% Humidity?? - Harvesting and Curing - UK420
Beautiful, might have to give it a try. Think I will do the mold risk one wet trimmed and dried @ 50%/70F, and then the rest of the crop dry trimmed and dry at 70/70. Honestly prior to this I was wet trimming every time and then hang drying in 35% RH for about 3 days, bag sweating for 2 and then onto cure. Never really noticed my stuff tasting bad or being harsh, but if I can do better why not right.
The one thing I am a little confused on as well is the 7 days. Can't help but feel like if I go 70/70 it's going to take them 14+ days to dry, which I'm totally fine with, but just wondering how people are getting them dried in 7 days at 70/70.
I had that concern too and leave mine to dry a couple more days. You can leave them hanging for some time after they are dry and at 70% they simply stop drying further and start curing.