Bud Washing

Nikki1991 said:
Sweet 😊 I'm only going to do the one plant tomorrow so I'll do one branch at a time and I'll make sure i dunk em good 😁.

My last grow i hung the whole plant and it took a week to dry, how much faster are we talking ? I Thought it would take longer as thats what I've read ( ive gone down too many rabbit holes ) 😂 there is so much info out there, im glad i found this thread 😌
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I break mine down into one foot lengths to fit my sink and hang them in a dimly lit dry room. They'll be dry enough to jar in 4 days. My humidity is usually pretty low so your results will vary, but a lot of people have been surprised, as you said, that they dry more quickly, if anything.
 
Wow that fast 😳 ill keep a good eye on them then thankyou 😊.
I've just checked my dry room and the temp is 18°C and 55% Humidity atm. Im sure that will shoot up once i hang my buds in there tho.
Ive read to let them hang out to dry a little first with a oscillated fan going over them for a while immediately after wash to get excess water off, says it wont spike your dry room humidity as much and to help prevent mould a little too, is that recommended? 😊
 
Nikki1991 said:
Wow that fast 😳 ill keep a good eye on them then thankyou 😊.
I've just checked my dry room and the temp is 18°C and 55% Humidity atm. Im sure that will shoot up once i hang my buds in there tho.
Ive read to let them hang out to dry a little first with a oscillated fan going over them for a while immediately after wash to get excess water off, says it wont spike your dry room humidity as much and to help prevent mould a little too, is that recommended? 😊
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The surface moisture you introduced with the washing will dry quickly. Mine usually drip for an hour or two. Like the others, mine seem to dry faster when I wash. I usually only get 3-4 days before the outsides get crispy at which point I put them in a sweat box with a hygrometer to slow the drying down and even out the moisture levels in the buds.

After those 3-4 days mine are typically in the high 60's for humidity levels when enclosed in a box and from there I try to get down to the low 60's as slowly as I can by leaving the lid off the box for short periods each day. Once I get down to low 60's I start burping the boxes, and at about 60% I jar them up.
 
Ahh okay thanks, ive washed them now, couldn't believe the amount of flies and dirt that came off 🤢. I've left them to hang for a while to drip and then ill get them in my dry room, she smells absolutely lovely 😍. Cant believe how clean they come out looking too, definitely glad i washed and cant wait to taste 😋. I wish i could post pictures 😓, but it wont let me do it off my phone on here .

by sweat box do you mean like a plastic tupperware box?
 
Nikki1991 said:
Ahh okay thanks, ive washed them now, couldn't believe the amount of flies and dirt that came off 🤢. I've left them to hang for a while to drip and then ill get them in my dry room, she smells absolutely lovely 😍. Cant believe how clean they come out looking too, definitely glad i washed and cant wait to taste 😋. I wish i could post pictures 😓, but it wont let me do it off my phone on here .

by sweat box do you mean like a plastic tupperware box?
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Cardboard box. It breathes.
 
Nikki1991 said:
by sweat box do you mean like a plastic tupperware box?
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Yes, that's what I use, but jiggi's cardboard box option will work as well. There's an entire thread on using brown paper bags in the fridge to dry your buds. Supposed to be fantastic though I haven't tried it yet.

The idea is to slow the air exchange around the buds so they don't dry too quickly since if they dry out too much the cure stops and can't be restarted so you get what you have at that point. But putting them in a sealed container with a hygromter for a bit allows the moisture to even out across the buds since the exterior will be crispy dry while the interior is still way wet.

The first time you do it you'll be surprised at how wet the dried, crispy buds got after you enclosed them. Then open the box and let the outsides dry again and then close it back up. Moisture will go from wet to dry again so the interior moisture will even out across the buds all the way to the outer edges when closed up. Then you open the box, dry the outsides and repeat until you get close to 60% humidity in the container which is close to 11% moisture content in your buds if you're using a moisture meter used for wood or farm crops.

Then you jar them up and burp them briefly to reoxygenate the air in the jar so the microbes that handle the cure can do their thing. They consume the oxygen in the jar and transpire CO2 so the air needs to be exchanged periodically to keep them going for a full cure.

Some growers dump the contents and re-jar to be sure there's good air exchange but that bounces the buds too much for me leading to unnecessary damage, so i open the jar and use a folded paper bag as a hand fan to force air exchange deeper into the jar than I'd get from simply taking the lid off.
 
Azimuth said:
Yes, that's what I use, but jiggi's cardboard option will work as well. There's an entire thread on using brown paper bags in the fridge to dry your buds. Supposed to be fantastic though I haven't tried it yet.

The idea is to slow the air exchange around the buds so they don't dry too quickly since if they dry out too much the cure stops and can't be restarted so you get what you have at that point. But putting them in a sealed container for a bit it allows the moisture to even out across the buds since the exterior will be crispy dry while the interior is still way wet.

The first time you do it you'll be surprised at how wet the dried, crispy buds got after you enclosed them. Then open the box and let the outsides dry again. Moisture will go from wet to dry so the interior moisture will even out when closed up. Then you open the box, dry the outsides and repeat until you get close to 60% humidity in the container which is close to 11% moisture content in your buds if you're using a moisture meter used for wood or farm crops.

Then you jar them up and burp them briefly to reoxygenate the air in the jar so the microbes that handle the cure can do their thing. They consume oxygen and transpire CO2 so the air needs to be exchanged periodically to keep them going for a full cure.

Some growers dump the contents and re-jar to be sure there's good air exchange but that bounces the buds too much for me leading to unnecessary damage, so i open the jar and use a folded paper bag as a hand fan to force air exchange deeper into the jar than I'd get from simply taking the lid off.
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I did not know you could do this so awesome thank you!!
 
Thankyou so much for your info 💚
Sorry i have taken so much of this thread up talking about different topics🫶.

Ill check out the other threads for more info on my next steps . I cured my last grow, but im not 100% sure i did it properly. But i want to make sure i nail the cure this time for sure 💚 i cant use the fridge unfortunately 😔

Thanks again everyone 💚💚💚
 
Nikki1991 said:
Ahh okay thanks, ive washed them now, couldn't believe the amount of flies and dirt that came off 🤢.
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Yeah, most of us who have tried bud washing once will never not do it again. Especially outdoor growers, but even indoor with intake filters it helps, especially if you have pets.
 
InTheShed said:
I haven't found that washing in diluted 3% H2O2 has any effect on aphids or any other pests. These days I spray my plants down with Dr Bronners unscented castille soap (4Tbs/gallon) the day before I harvest. Then I wash in plain water to get the soap and dead bugs off.
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I just found this note in a search on bud washing. Shed, I have some salts of fatty acids mixed up. Can I use that or is it too strong? Would it damage trichomes?

I haven't done a bud wash in a while. Please remind me how you do it these days. I have a bottle of 40 Volume hydrogen peroxide.
 
Carmen Ray said:
Shed, I have some salts of fatty acids mixed up. Can I use that or is it too strong? Would it damage trichomes?
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That's one of the things I'm washing off, not with!
Carmen Ray said:
I haven't done a bud wash in a while. Please remind me how you do it these days. I have a bottle of 40 Volume hydrogen peroxide.
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Unless you have PM you can skip the H2O2 and just go with the lemon juice and baking soda mix. Or if you haven't sprayed anything on them, try a bucket of plain warm tap water. That's what I've been using lately since mostly I'm rinsing off the Dr Bronner's unscented castile soap.
 
InTheShed said:
That's one of the things I'm washing off, not with!
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Lol, Yes I realized that. I wondered if I shouldn't do a spray before I harvest and leave it another day or two, but by the sounds of it the warm water is going to be my best option.
InTheShed said:
Unless you have PM you can skip the H2O2 and just go with the lemon juice and baking soda mix. Or if you haven't sprayed anything on them, try a bucket of plain warm tap water. That's what I've been using lately since mostly I'm rinsing off the Dr Bronner's unscented castile soap.
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Thank you.
 
Carmen Ray said:
Lol, Yes I realized that. I wondered if I shouldn't do a spray before I harvest and leave it another day or two, but by the sounds of it the warm water is going to be my best option.

Thank you.
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Hi Everyone.

Docbud here in Uruguay checkin' in with the bud wash thread.
Iḿ not sure where the idea that H202 helps with pests came from.....I only use it IF there is PM on the harvest. I always used only the Real Lemon (or equivalent that contains sulfites) and baking soda.....1/4 to 1/2 cup of each in 5 gallons of water, followed by two plain water washes.

In my opinion, any wash is a good thing as long as it it water based! Which leads me to the the next thing:

Fatty acid spray on buds. I have not heard of this----of course I have not heard of anything in the past 4 years, I am completely separate from the US cannabis industry. However I do understand physics and chemistry.....and trichomes are fat soluble. I do not know the effect spraying fatty acids has on the trichome, but it absolutely MUST have an effect, by definition; it is a fatty acid.

If anyone is doing this I can also say that inhaling fats and oils (fatty acid foliar sprays included) is bad for your lungs. I suggest making a point to wash it all off very, very thoroughly.

Down here there are now 3 of us who are washing buds and it is just beginning to catch on. It rains so much we do not need to worry about outdoor crops---I am 100% outdoor---but the indoor crops and greenhouse crops are pretty filthy and the wash is revolutionary.

Anyways, I'm sure happy people are washing buds! That might just be the best idea I ever had.
 
Doc Bud’s High Brix Blend said:
Fatty acid spray on buds. I have not heard of this----of course I have not heard of anything in the past 4 years, I am completely separate from the US cannabis industry. However I do understand physics and chemistry.....and trichomes are fat soluble. I do not know the effect spraying fatty acids has on the trichome, but it absolutely MUST have an effect, by definition; it is a fatty acid.
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I would have thought so. I was being curious. I would think the trichomes could even "melt".

It's been raining a bit here lately and I was concerned about bud rot and pm, so I read about them and discovered that I had nothing to be worried about in my garden and the plant seemed to enjoy the rain :)
 
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