Drying & Curing Question
- Thread starter StoneOtter
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- #42
Sweet on deck bunch!
Bobby Blunt
Well-Known Member
Great article, I just finished a auto Glueberry OG and getting ready to put it into drying and cure. I flushed it and put it in the closet/dark for 3days, trimmed and hung to dry for 3days, should have been 5days maybe. I don't wait for a stem to be able to snap I feel the bud, it felt firm spongy with no crumpling of the sugar leaves but not wet, I want to get it more dry through curing. I will start burping 30mins twice a day for 2wks, today is day 2 of curing. its easier to take away "drying", than it is to add "rehydrating". I have a auto Sour Diesel that will be coming up for harvest in a month I will let it hang dry a little longer, no grassy smell and does smoke when lit unlike moist bud. My question is how much longer will I have to cure to get dryer.
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- #44
Hi Bobby, I bought a/some hygrometers off amazon inexpensively and when I dry and cure I use them to tell me that.
First when I think, like you did, they are dry enough to put in jars I de-bud the stems and put them in jars with a hygrometer. If it reads over 70% relative humidity I dump the buds out in the open for another day. That goes until about 65% for me. Then they stay in the jars getting burped once or twice a day.
With relative humidity we have to know the room too. If the room is 70% rh the bud will never get below that. Can work the other way too. That's why I have a humidifier and a de-humidifier. It's a chore.
Bobby Blunt
Well-Known Member
I know I have a Frigidaire 70 pint de-humidifier It keeps a steady 60% rh @ 78F. in the basement, I read in one of the forums someone used a zip lock bag to dry the buds out to where they wanted them then they put them in the jars. I can see how you could dry them more evenly than being packed in a jar. How dry should your bud when done, you shouldn't have to keep lighting it, should it crumble when you squeeze it, should it be spongy or does it matter.
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- #47
I like it around 58 to 62%. It takes some time curing at that rh. In a few weeks or so they get better or more stable or something and become more smokable.
Hey Stone. Curious which hygrometers you got and also are you using novena packs in the jars? Thank you...
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- #49
I use ones like this from amazon. Sometimes they have a deal of 10 for a good price. I use more than I thought at the same time so I find having a bunch around good. I think the minimum is 2. I use Boveda Packs 58 or 62% in the jars unless I get lucky and end with the perfect rh. Then I vacuum seal the jars with nothing.
Thanks so much. I saw those and will go back and pick some up. I am currently using a couple of hygrometers from my husbands cigar boxes so I need to put them back!I use ones like this from amazon. Sometimes they have a deal of 10 for a good price. I use more than I thought at the same time so I find having a bunch around good. I think the minimum is 2. I use Boveda Packs 58 or 62% in the jars unless I get lucky and end with the perfect rh. Then I vacuum seal the jars with nothing.
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- #51
Haha, my first one was from my cigar box too!
Hey Mr Otter.
So I do the same as Shed. twice a day first week and then once for the second week and thats it. seal and forget until I find it and want to open again. lol.
I dont use bovida or hygrometers ever and my buds smell and taste like heaven. Anything thats not used and starts to loose its shine gets put into coco oil or butter etc. Usually only notice a decline after a year or so. To be honest its not really much of my harvest tat makes it past a year.
So I do the same as Shed. twice a day first week and then once for the second week and thats it. seal and forget until I find it and want to open again. lol.
I dont use bovida or hygrometers ever and my buds smell and taste like heaven. Anything thats not used and starts to loose its shine gets put into coco oil or butter etc. Usually only notice a decline after a year or so. To be honest its not really much of my harvest tat makes it past a year.
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- #53
Hi Lerugged, nice to see you. Sheds formula looks right. If I get my memory in shape that's a sound recommendation.
Dang brother, no fancy tools and your bud is fine? Nice! My rh fluxuations can get weird so I think I need them. We can go from 95% rh to 10.
once they are sealed in air tight jars they shouldn't have any variation in humidity unless you open them a lot in which case they will dry out. once the burping is done thats it. they stay closed in my cupboard until I want some.
mumps
Well-Known Member
My tent Is 55% humiity and temperature goes from 75 to 83..
Would that be a good place to dry?
I got a few mason jars and some boveda packs..i think i should also get the mini igrometers you guys are using..
Ty
Would that be a good place to dry?
I got a few mason jars and some boveda packs..i think i should also get the mini igrometers you guys are using..
Ty
- Thread starter
- #56
It would. And you can play the openings too. More closed will make higher rh inside. 55 sounds fine but if I could get it to 60 with thoughtful closing of the tent, it would be better. Don't go crazy trying to get to 60, we do what we can and that's good enough. A fan moving air in there is good too.
I like to use those tools to get dry. Some folks don't seem to need them but I get a good feeling when my pot is a proper rh and won't spoil .
I finally dug out those jars of Strawberry Blue today and inspected them and just smoked a bunch. This is one of those large fluffy sativa strains. Spicy Thai smell and happy effect, with distinct strawberry smell as well. This has been my go- to bud for the last half year, for a sweet mild happy buzz.
A very unscientific test, which I think I decided to do because of chat on @Pinktiger777 ‘s thread (?)
Edit - yes, here
Pink's Perpetual Experiments
Thanks. Sounds like some basis for the idea then, though I would expect those same fungi and bacteria are capable of reestablishing themselves. I haven’t ever noticed the effect in my buds, but I’ve been meaning to test it out. I’ve got a couple harvests in the dryer right now. I will purposely...www.420magazine.com
So anyway.... the overdried then rehydrated bud definitely seems to lack some terpenes. It seems less fumey in the nose, and I think also has a bit of a bitter off-note in the scent. I also detected this difference when smoking it.
I don’t put much faith in my own stoned judgement in a one-time comparison, without further inspection and tests. And neither should you. Will keep testing and report back, in the name of science.....
A thread that came up today made me curious to revisit this bud experiment another ten months on.
So- The original experiment 15 months ago was to dry some Strawberry Blue bud the normal way. Then I took some of it and kept on drying it on the shelf for several more days till it was completely crispy.
-I jarred half the crispy stuff and put it away to cure (or not).
-I rehydrated the other half of the crispy stuff back to 62% RH and jarred that as well.
———————
Anyway....... today.
The stuff that was stored crispy still smells bad. Hardly surprising. Has a sharp bitter almost chemical smell not really like bud at all. A smell I now recognize as the smell of over-dried uncured bud.
Big surprise though when I opened the jar of rehydrated crispy bud just now. It smells good. Seems to have slowly recovered a bit. It doesn’t smell as good as the Strawberry Blue should smell but it’s still quite decent. The smell of the rehydrated bud is night and day compared to the perma- crispy jar. I’ll smoke some later on to see how it tastes
And thanks for this test. I always meant to come back and find out what happened with it but I lost track of the thread.Hello, @InTheShed and all. I did the burping of the appleberries test where I had a plant finished and had not burped. I just put it in jars and vac sealed, and opened one jar next to a burped one. There's no confusing the burped one is definitely more fragrant. I know two different plants from two seeds aren't a true test but it's a close second to one. So yes to burping and terpene retention vs no burping. In these jars there's a huge difference. The room fills up with stank almost immediately with burpy, not so much with vacuumy.
for checking back in on your experiment! I'm really curious to see how smoking the re-hydryrated stuff compares to the original cured bud. That's the true test of what Mr. Krip talked about with the 50-55% RH limit.
The overdrying tends to kill the terpenes, obviously. But especially on the outside. If you start crumbling the crispy bud up, in the center you can find some nice terps still hiding.
I think this might relate back to how sometimes people have a bit of a hay smell at first because by their drying methods (outside of the bud dries too quickly) they’ve obliterated the terpenes on the outside of their buds, and it takes time for the smell to permeate back through again. I don’t know- just a theory.
I don’t really know why the smell it would have improved in the reconstituted bud over the last 10 months. Because when I first tried it after five months in the jar - it really didn’t smell very good at all. Five months should have been enough for it to figure out whatever it was gonna do.
But anyway- it’s vastly improved after another ten. And the stuff was mega crispy before I rehydrated it.
I think this might relate back to how sometimes people have a bit of a hay smell at first because by their drying methods (outside of the bud dries too quickly) they’ve obliterated the terpenes on the outside of their buds, and it takes time for the smell to permeate back through again. I don’t know- just a theory.
I don’t really know why the smell it would have improved in the reconstituted bud over the last 10 months. Because when I first tried it after five months in the jar - it really didn’t smell very good at all. Five months should have been enough for it to figure out whatever it was gonna do.
But anyway- it’s vastly improved after another ten. And the stuff was mega crispy before I rehydrated it.
