Hello All: Need some advice. I had four plants growing and I thought I had them timed just right. My Aurora didn't cooperate with my plan and took longer to ripen than I thought. I'm going on vacation and the weed needs to be cured and there is no one I can trust to cure it. I am so disappointed. Great smelling grow is now drying, but I will be leaving for ten days just about the time it goes from drying into the quart jars and I'm not going to be able to burp them. I'm going to have to leave them for ten days without opening the jars. I may be able to air the jars for a day or two at the most and then I need to take off. Any suggestions on what I should do so I don't ruin the grow? Will leaving it in the jar just after drying for ten days without burping the jars cause a problem? Any other ideas?? Thanks.
Given those choices I would put in jars without lids and consider whether they are too dry on return. Bodiva packs to remoisten if necessary. You can fix too dry but not mold.
Silica packs I have heard work just leave 1 in each jar put in a dark place Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
Yep. Dry them on the too dry side and put them in a container. When you get back, you could use the Boveda 70% packs to rehydrate them enough to resume curing. Then when you feel it's done, use the Boveda 62% packs to keep them just right.
What's the humidity in your house? If it's around 50-60% they probably won't get too dry even with the lids off.
Appreciate the info. I always cure in the jars after drying with Boveda 62%. So I'll just put bud in jar with lids off and start again when I get home. So if I have them in SEALED jars with the Boveda, would that still cause a mold problem if not able to burp jars for ten days? I always put the Boveda packs in the jar when curing them...should I not do that when curing normally and letting them get air daily? I usually just pop the lids and swirl the buds around and let them sit for a minute or two and then re-seal.
So Jerry you're saying with normal curing where you are burping jars you should have the Boveda packs in there from the beginning and not AFTER you have cured for couple weeks?
The 62% packs should be used once the bud is done curing. 62% pretty much stops the curing. As your going through the curing, you are very slowly letting the humidity drop. So you want it above 62% for curing to happen. Once they are at 62% you only have to burp them mostly or so. They'll stay good at that level for a long time without mold happening.
Damn...I've been curing wrong. Thanks for the education Fennario. So what is a ball park time for curing in the jars...two weeks? I've been burping for two weeks to a month.
Two or three months burping every day? I didn't think you burped/cured that frequently for that long. I typically have burped for two weeks to a month daily and then once a month thereafter. You burp every day for three months and then once a month after that? I want to do it right because I know it is important part of process. Thanks Fennario.
No, I do it pretty much the same. While it's burping, it's dropping it's humidity. After a month it's pretty close to 62%, so yeah, then it doesn't need to be done daily at all.
So you start curing without the Boveda and then when do you add them into the jar? A month or couple weeks?
If I was leaving like that as several people have suggested I would order some Bovita humidity packs. Mike is giving you good info. Order 70% and 62%. Some people actually like 58% for long term storage. Dry your weed hanging or on a rack for 5-6 days before you leave or till it's pretty crispy. Maybe more dry then you usually would jar it at. Then jar it up. If you have time before you leave to rack dry it and then jar it for a day that would be ideal. I usually have to dump out the jars after the first day into either a rack or paper bag because the first day in the jar brings new moisture to the surface even if the bud feels dry when I first put it in there. Jar it up a second time and put 62 or 58% packs in there and go on vacation. When you come back open them up and put the 70% packs back in there and burp the jars daily for a few days to wake back up the curing process. Then go back to 62 or 58 after a week or so with 70. I bet its fine after that. You could also leave the lids on loose to allow a little air exchange but I think if you rack dry it crispy, jar it for a day, remove it for an hour or so, and jar it again with 58% packs it's probably out of mold danger for your trip. I store mine in an unused cabinet in my bedroom so it's dark and cool and I've never had mold issues.
What I've read is when you use bovita packs there is a level that will cure and a level for storage. You hang or rack dry slightly past where you would without the packs. The high 60's or 70% pack will keep the cure process going as you burp jars daily for shorter and shorter periods. After a week or two you can drop it down to the 62 or 58% level for storage. After that you really only have to open them every once in a while or not at all. That's the beauty of the packs. They will add and take away humidity from the bud to maintain the percentage on the pack. It's best to put the bud in slightly dryer then usual to give the pack some room to work. As Mike mentioned curing is a funny thing. What you're essentially trying to do with jar burping is slowly drying the bud. You don't want to dry it too quickly. When you keep it in the moist but not quite dry state an anerobic breakdown process happens where the chlorophyll and other bad flavors are dissolved. If you allow it to get too dry those flavors are trapped in there. At 58% or 62% that breakdown process will stop or be very slow. The longer you spend in the 70% range in the jars burping them daily the faster the bad flavors are consumed.