DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest

Is there a contest for smallest harvest. If so I think I would win. That is from an auto flower that's all we got from it. Did we take it at the right time ?
 

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I've been lurking on this thread forever, it feels like! But now I finally get to jump in and post, I've just harvested my very first lady and chopped her up into the fridge!

My fridge has been sitting about 7-8 degrees Celsius, and when empty settles around 12% RH, although I can get that to climb to 45% if I leave the door open for 10 seconds or so, so my plan is to do this a few times a day. I've got a separate fridge for the buds, as I didn't want to sacrifice food space and risk them smelling like each other haha and i got one used online for free! Score!

Anyways, after a wash and a 4 hour drip dry, I chopped them up into manageable pieces and got them very loosely into jars with the lids off. I would've gone paper bags, but didn't plan this week's finances enough to fit that, and me and the missus spen't our very last $8 on coffee the day before harvest. Haha i guess that'll teach us to get our priorities straight!

I'm planning for them to take at least about 2 weeks, so I'll be tumbling them every 2 or 3 days, and trying not to touch or disturb them much beyond that. Can't upload pics at the moment, but I'll try and share my experiences and findings with this awesome method! I have a couple nugs that I've left reasonably big, just to see if this will allow them to successfully dry to the point i want, but all the jars are evenly dispersed with a mix of sizes
 
I actually scrounged up the coins to go get myself some paper bags, so I now have both my plants harvested and mostly into paper bags in the fridge, with a little of each in a jar to compare. My dehydrator also showed up finally!! So I'll try a little bit in there just to see how it compares! So excited to try out all the great tips and tricks we've stumbled on over the course of this thread!! :thumb: Thanks everyone!! :high-five:

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I recall, years and years ago, a method whereby rum or whiskey was poured over the hanging buds during the drying period, in an attempt to impart flavor I suppose. Has anyone heard of this? Probly slow the dry down quite a bit. I think the weed nowadays is much tastier than the 80's though. Can't quite remember for sure...twas a ways back. :hmmmm:
 
I don't think any curing takes place in the freezer, as the microbes involved in breaking down the chlorophyll probably don't survive those temperatures.
 
I think it will break down eventually because the microbes have been chilled but not frozen. Either way, whatever is happening above freezing won't below freezing!
 
InTheShed said:
I think it will break down eventually because the microbes have been chilled but not frozen. Either way, whatever is happening above freezing won't below freezing!
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Have you had buds mold in the freezer?

I’m concerned they get mold for me. I’m trimming up in a couple of days and going to put in the fridge. Any fruit I have in my fridge more than a few days always molds so I don’t know how I’m going to prevent it on the buds
 
I haven't had any bud mold in the freezer, but if you follow the steps in the low-and-slow method you shouldn't get it in the fridge either. Don't overpack the brown paper bags and open them daily in the beginning to bounce them and they should be fine. Of course it's important that there isn't any mold on them when you put them in the bags.
 
InTheShed said:
I haven't had any bud mold in the freezer, but if you follow the steps in the low-and-slow method you shouldn't get it in the fridge either. Don't overpack the brown paper bags and open them daily in the beginning to bounce them and they should be fine. Of course it's important that there isn't any mold on them when you put them in the bags.
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I don’t plan on using bags. I plan on having them on racks and I have a humidity controller to keep the humidity at a certain %.

What would you put the humidity at? I was thinking 60%?
 
SweetSue recommended humidity levels at around 45-50%. Higher than that I would think you are getting into mold growth territory.

At 60% I would just hang them in a drying box for a week!
 
The paper encourages moisture exchange with the 40% outside air. They don't stay 80% for long.
 
InTheShed said:
The paper encourages moisture exchange with the 40% outside air. They don't stay 80% for long.
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Yup. Although not my preferred method, I'll be using the paper bag treatment to dry my 1st run...just no good space anywhere else. It's sposed to work good as long as you remember to agitate at least once a day.
 
Hey Steve. Can I ask why you won't use paper bags? I'd suggest at least using some if not all.

:passitleft:
 
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