DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest

pZy said:
So I know a thing or two about theory AND in practice when it comes to mold.
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Truly pZy, no one is stopping you or even trying to stop you from doing whatever it is you want with your harvest in a couple of months. Feel free to have your fridge at room temp when you load the buds and turn it on whenever you like. Come back and tell us about it too! In the meantime, what we have described in this thread is a method that works, and is practically foolproof if done without modification.

pZy said:
How do you guys do it? I read some use mild h2o2 dillutied in one bucket (or lemon juice and baking soda) and then a dip into hot and then into cold water with shaking the water gently between each soak? Then stir it a bit inside each bucket so the water permiates through buds? 10-20 secs should be enough or too much?

Also, when I hang them to dry after, NO FAN over right? Can I wrap paper towel GENTLY around it, so its barely touching the weed so it acts as moisture absorbant as when you wrap regular spice herbs after washing to get rid of excess water?
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Don't use hot water, warm will do. Wash them in either diluted H2O2 or the lemon juice/baking soda method, rinse well (never touching the sides of the bucket), I swing them to get the water off, and then hang them to dry for four hours unless you are in a very hot and dry place. Then less time. Don't wrap them or blot them. Any contact with the trichomes damages them. Herbs don't have trichomes! If you're a wet-trimmer, trim now and put them in bags. If you're a dry trimmer, into bags they go.
pZy said:
I would be more willing to go with 6 hours to be sure no water drops remain inside or under the buds... man the idea of dipping fat bud coals inside water then letting them dry is really making me nervous more then this whole fridge drying thing guys. Because I cannot be sure the water from the inside will properly leave the bud before I put in the fridge...
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You don't want them drying too long or you lose the advantage of low and slow, which is to keep the volatile terpenes from floating away.

And putting your buds in a closed fridge will spike the RH up close to 100% in the early hours, regardless of the temp when you start. Buds are wet right off the plant, and wetter after washing. All of this is taken into account with the original instructions, which is why we are recommending against going too far afield.

Here is a great summary of the low and slow method.
 
InTheShed said:
Truly pZy, no one is stopping you or even trying to stop you from doing whatever it is you want with your harvest in a couple of months. Feel free to have your fridge at room temp when you load the buds and turn it on whenever you like. Come back and tell us about it too! In the meantime, what we have described in this thread is a method that works, and is practically foolproof if done without modification.


Don't use hot water, warm will do. Wash them in either diluted H2O2 or the lemon juice/baking soda method, rinse well (never touching the sides of the bucket), I swing them to get the water off, and then hang them to dry for four hours unless you are in a very hot and dry place. Then less time. Don't wrap them or blot them. Any contact with the trichomes damages them. Herbs don't have trichomes! If you're a wet-trimmer, trim now and put them in bags. If you're a dry trimmer, into bags they go.

You don't want them drying too long or you lose the advantage of low and slow, which is to keep the volatile terpenes from floating away.

And putting your buds in a closed fridge will spike the RH up close to 100% in the early hours, regardless of the temp when you start. Buds are wet right off the plant, and wetter after washing. All of this is taken into account with the original instructions, which is why we are recommending against going too far afield.

Here is a great summary of the low and slow method.
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True bro, I'll refrain from speculation until I try the idea first then. But you are absolutely right, why even tweak a full proof method. Its just I like to entertain ideas. :)

Ah yea I ment warm water, and yes I am a dry trimmer :) I was gonna ask about that part too but you just answered it.

Yea I was kind of sceptic about the paper towel method around buds but I decided to ask anyway.

so 4 hours is enough to get the water off for you guys? at what room temperature humidity if you don't mind... you think all that water will evaporate in 4 hours at 18 degrees celsius? Or you do let it dry at regular room temperature? :S your room RH is about 50% also?

My harvest is always done in 19-20 celsius environment and then they are left to hang dry in those same conditions at 50% RH because I try to avoid the temperature going over 20c because thats when decomposition of volatile terps begins....

Yea now that you mention it like that, sealing them inside will surely make the humidity rise before the fridge will have time to cycle it out... you guys convinced me, I will do it your way first time then practice once I get a hang of it. Thats a more sensible approach for sure. I will still talk to my mate / former boss once he is back from vacation, that guy knows all about microbilogical processes and environment, he is literally designing laboratories for living so he needs to know all about airflow and environmental conditions to keep everything sterile. I learned everything I know about mold prevention from him and that was basically my job for 2 years at that lab but yea, it will only be to further entertain the idea.

I won't bug you guys here anymore with it, there will be time for upgrading the method in the future. Besides I need to first finish my grow so priorities there first ^^

Also thanks for this summary link even tho I have it already screenshoted and in my reference folder to review before I start (I took the liberty of screenshotting all comments in this thread I founded useful and compiled them inside a folder to check out like 1 week before my harvest day to start preparation for this method so I can follow the procedure once I will be sure fully what it is XD).

But yea, won't tweak the starting condition of turned on fridge then, makes sense, humidity will spike anyway once closed and probably get up to 80-100% anyway before the fridge gets proper time to start working properly.

Thanks for bearing with me folks, really wanted to get my mind straight, this helped a lot.
Please don't mind if I have any more questions no matter how stupid its all in the name of better understanding the whole process.

Anyway I am convinced, there will be time for experimenting with it in the future, I will do it your way first guys. Sorry for the conversation turmoil :D but its important to ask questions always!!! :) I am just glad you guys don't seem to mind ^^

Again sorry for my doubts ( not even that else I wouldn't even be trying this if I doubted it was a better procedure) its just all my experience with mold and reading about this technique my mind just asked the question of would it be better to start with the fridge turned off because it seems more logical to me based on everything I know about mold.

But yea, first time your way 100%, there will be time for experiments once I get a hang of it.

What a community!!! Love you guys already :)

Cheers :)
 
No worries! Keep the questions coming.

Easy pZy!

:passitleft:
 
Been in bags, in fridge since Friday..
Today 4 hours at room temp,then back to fridge.
 

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RheinRover said:
Heres a few pictures of my Royal Kush Automatic. Was dried using lo and slo 8 days in the fridge. This method has drastically improved my herb. Drying was always the weak link in my chain, not any more.
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Looks nice,
I have some chocolate skunk in the fridge for 9 days...
When you Jared yours. Did your rh spike?
I was below 50 rh in the fridge , in the jar at room temp ,it raised to hi 80s..
So it's back in the fridge...
My 1 time doing this..
 
JSP 714 said:
Looks nice,
I have some chocolate skunk in the fridge for 9 days...
When you Jared yours. Did your rh spike?
I was below 50 rh in the fridge , in the jar at room temp ,it raised to hi 80s..
So it's back in the fridge...
My 1 time doing this..
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The humidity will spike like that until you’ve had enough time in the cold. Every time you take them out let them sit for a while. Before I jar I let them sit overnight and check again in the morning. How long has it been since you went into the bags JSP? I usually give them at least two weeks before I even check rh.
 
Hey folks of the low and slow clan, I’d just like to stop in for something very interesting to share with you all.

The other day I was cleaning my kitchen and doing house chores while listening to a talk by a collective in trinity county CA. They were talking about the drying, curing, and storing process for farmers who work their whole crop around an annual cycle. They talked a lot about how, when you go from harvesting to drying, you want to impact the buds and the trichomes as little as possible. Every time you touch the flower at that point, you are bruising the plant material and the trichomes. It’s this bruising that leads to Increased oxidation and faster degradation of the flower. they equated it to an apple. If an apple gets squeezed, throw around, tumbled together with other apples, and sat in a big pile for hours it’s going to go brown and have soft spots later. The same is true for cannabis.

*we usually don’t have problems with big piles of fresh flower sitting around to be trimmed because we are mostly home growers, but the principles are what’s important here.

They go on to talking about the specifics of drying and curing, and this is the part that got my attention. These licensed, professional sungrown cannabis farms are drying their craft buds at temperature ranges of 45F-55F. Exactly what we are talking about here. They trim all large fan leaves and hang entire plants at these temps. After 9 days the product is dry trimmed and put into totes to sweat out the remainder of the extra moisture.

They go on to talk about how, what we are doing is not actually curing the plant material. We are drying the plant material quickly and thoroughly enough to allow the cannabinoids to age without facing mold problems. It’s this aging action that allows more robust terpene profiles to evolve. With that in mind, it’s better to dry the plant material a bit more initially. The biggest mistake they see is bud that’s still got a good bit of moisture in it going into the jar and not curing out right as it should.

This has shaped my view of how to harvest in the following ways:
1) I will be only taking off fan leaves and washing before drying no more wet trimming
2) I will be drying my buds on the stem in the fridge. I’ll only take the buds down off the stem when they’ve reached that crispy, dense state
3) I will probably be buying large shallow Tupperware containers to sweat in. I don’t want buds stacking up putting pressure on each other and causing bruising

That’s it everybody. I thought @SweetSue might get a kick out of just how on-the-right-path we all are!
 
Fresh out of their last jar test with 68% into the curing station. Guys, I'm so in love with them, their colors & their hairs :circle-of-love: They dried for 7 days, went back for 1 more day after jar test and then passed with 68% this morning. A total of 96g went in wet and it came back at 16g after a good trim. Not sure if that's good, but I'm happy with them. They look and smell promising. Now letting them cure for a couple of weeks. Can't wait.
Thank you to this forum and the great people contributing :love:
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Over an hour of reading...lots of info here...just want to confirm what needs to be done for low and slow....here what i gathered...

1. Wash buds
2. Hang buds for 4-8hours - what should humidity at here?
3. Place buds in paper bag in flat even layer with top of bag folded, avoid stacking buds over top each other.
4. Leave in fridge for 1-2 weeks, lightly shake around once a day
5. Check humidity of buds, if around 62% put in glass jar with boveda and cure as normal (burp once a day for a week, then burp every 3 days for a couple weeks)
 
780grow said:
Over an hour of reading...lots of info here...just want to confirm what needs to be done for low and slow....here what i gathered...

1. Wash buds
2. Hang buds for 4-8hours - what should humidity at here?
3. Place buds in paper bag in flat even layer with top of bag folded, avoid stacking buds over top each other.
4. Leave in fridge for 1-2 weeks, lightly shake around once a day
5. Check humidity of buds, if around 62% put in glass jar with boveda and cure as normal (burp once a day for a week, then burp every 3 days for a couple weeks)
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This is pretty much right. I wouldn’t add the boveda until you are done burping. They don’t like being exposed to fresh air.
 
ChefDGreen said:
This is pretty much right. I wouldn’t add the boveda until you are done burping. They don’t like being exposed to fresh air.
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Hilarious u say this because a couple local pot shops ive been to store their boveda packs in an open bucket, i didnt think this made sense either but i wasnt going to try and convince them otherwise!
 
Either way, try it both ways and see which you prefer. I like dry trimming but others prefer wet trimming. Strictly personal preference.
 
I take the fan leaves off before going in the fridge then trim sugar leaves after it’s dry and ready for the cure.
 
Pennywise said:
I take the fan leaves off before going in the fridge then trim sugar leaves after it’s dry and ready for the cure.
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This is my preferred method as well. Bonus points if you can leave the buds on the stem as well.
 
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