DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest

Here is my latest harvest about 2 weeks out of the fridge and into the jar with some of the nicer tops in front of the jars.

they retain good color and terp smell is very smooth and herbal. herbalicious even :yummy:

PCK by KaliChina harvest

PCK by KaliChina harvest


Sorry i was too tired and busy to take pictures during the bag up and dry process. I have lots of work to do keeping me super busy.

EDIT: that is about as big a flower top as I leave, I try for mostly uniform size but the best tops get left pretty big, {{maybe 3 inch??}}. In a perfect set up I would keep all the bigger tops in the same bag and just have less volume in that bag so they dry uniformly. but things happen and you do your best with what ya got.
 
My low and slow buds are in the cure stage now. Just watch that RH at the end of the dry! Mine went from like 70 to 60 in one day. I had to add a little moisture back in.
It is very dry where I am so the humidity in the fridge was in the 30’s, air RH can be as low as 10. Bumping consists of opening the jars long enough to fan some air in and then shutting it, lol. I smelled the fridge dried bud compared to my hang dry bud and the difference is remarkable. You really can smell those terpenes. I thank @BigD13 for leading me to this thread and method.
 
I have a dedicated frost free fridge, I generally have an 18 pack of Heineken and a case of yogurt in it and a frozen 20 pound pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts along with some gallon zip lock bags of gumbo in the freezer. It is a 21 cubic foot Kenmore fridg with the freezer on top. I keep the setting on 1 with 5 being the coldest in the fridg and the freezer on 4 with 5 being the coldest. The only time it is opened is when I flip the paper bags every 3 or 4 days and when my son comes home from work late in the evening to get a couple of beers. I use the small lunch bags and only put 25 to 30 grams in each bag after I cut the buds off the colas. I mainly grow sativa strains. I have found that 2 weeks is a bit too much, they get too dry, so I generally leave the bags upright and open for about 3 days then fold the top of the bag over with a binder clip holding the bag shut and lay them in their side then flip to the other side in about 3 days. after about 7 to 10 days I will transfer the buds into 2 liter CVaults with size 67, 62RH Boveda packs. I burp the CVaults once a day for 15 minutes or so for about 3 weeks then burp them every few days, I just roll the buds over with my hand each time I burp the cans. I feel that using my hand gives me a better feel of where the buds are at in their cure. Try sticking your hand in a mason jar, plus I get a bit fucked up on bourbon sometimes and don't want to be messing with glass other than the glass the bourbon is in and it is thick and hit the floor many times without breaking. You can't smell anything using CVaults until the first latch is opened of the 3 latches that hold the lid on. The first few days in the CVault the RH may fluctuate a bit and if it is too high just take take lid off and put it back in the fridge for a day or two. I haven't had to do this but once or twice when I first starting using my method over a year ago. My last batch stayed in the fridge a couple of days longer because of a screw up on my part. It was real dry in the low 30RH range but the Boveda brought it back to 62 in just a few days.
 
InTheShed said:
Is it possible that this:

is caused by this:

If you keep them closed you can prolong the time in the fridge, making the slow more effective.
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You might be right because the last plants I harvested (the dry ones) were the first ones I did like that. Seems that I read that Sweet Sue used that method somewhere in this thread. May have been her last post when she went over the steps for her dry process. Most of my buds will be squeezed once they cure for several months. Because of my COPD the less I hit the less I cough.
 
OilFieldTrash said:
You might be right because the last plants I harvested (the dry ones) were the first ones I did like that. Seems that I read that Sweet Sue used that method somewhere in this thread. May have been her last post when she went over the steps for her dry process. Most of my buds will be squeezed once they cure for several months. Because of my COPD the less I hit the less I cough.
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This is my go-to post for low and slow instructions.
 
InTheShed said:
This is my go-to post for low and slow instructions.
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Thanks Shed, that is about what I do but I do not put big buds into my bags, not that I have any as big as MrSauga. I have had them bigger back when I was growing outside but that was a long time ago in a much crazzzier time in my life. When it starts getting hot I will probably put the CVaults back into the fridge for storage, I might even buy a new fridge to go along with the two I already have. Does it hurt to put them in a freezer once they have cured?
 
OilFieldTrash said:
Thanks Shed, that is about what I do but I do not put big buds into my bags, not that I have any as big as MrSauga. I have had them bigger back when I was growing outside but that was a long time ago in a much crazzzier time in my life. When it starts getting hot I will probably put the CVaults back into the fridge for storage, I might even buy a new fridge to go along with the two I already have. Does it hurt to put them in a freezer once they have cured?
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I'd be concerned about putting the cvault in the fridge, since colder air holds less moisture which means the buds well be much wetter. I'd just find a cool spot in the house and leave the jars there for the cure.

If you want to freeze them after curing (at least a month after sealing the jars) I would go with a vacuum sealer, which will get the air out of them and lessen the chance for rot.
 
InTheShed said:
I'd be concerned about putting the cvault in the fridge, since colder air holds less moisture which means the buds well be much wetter. I'd just find a cool spot in the house and leave the jars there for the cure.

If you want to freeze them after curing (at least a month after sealing the jars) I would go with a vacuum sealer, which will get the air out of them and lessen the chance for rot.
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I will probably just squeeze them all and freeze the rosin.
 
Much easier, and takes up a heck of a lot less space too!
 
:thumb:
 
Glad i found this thread. I always end up harvesting around September when its hot. Even with an AC i can never dry my plants more than 5 days. Ive sourced a small 4.4cu ft auto defrost mini fridge (no freezer) and look forward to trying this method

Is it a must to wash the buds using this method? I grow indoors in a tent and don't use any foliar sprays
 
Washing your flowers after harvest makes them dry more evenly, in or out of the fridge!

It might even a day or two to your hang dry time.
 
HELP! I did the low and slow method and got mold! A whole plant ruined, I'm so bummed! I was so excited for this method and know it DOES work so I want to figure out what I did wrong. I'm hoping you guys can help me figure out where I went wrong. I'm going to describe exactly what I did, along with a couple things that happened while it was in the fridge.

It will be 3 weeks tomorrow that the jars were put in the fridge (hygrometers still showing 99% humidity).

I used quart size Mason jars with nylon pantyhose stretched over top. Jars were ½ to ⅔ full. I removed fan leaves and cut buds off the stems. I tried to keep the size of the buds fairly uniform in each jar. I didn't have enough time to jar up the buds right when the plant was chopped so the whole plant hung upside down in what used to be our drying tent for about 12 hours.

I put them in the crisper drawer of our kitchen fridge. The fridge is about 5 years old. The fridge is fairly full but everything is in closed or covered containers, nothing odorous. We did have some leftovers in Tupperware containers get a little moldly, that happened almost 2 weeks ago.

I rolled the jars once a day. While I didn't open and inspect everyday, I would look closely through the jar for any signs of mold. Saw none, until today.

The temp in the fridge was usually around 48°F (I'm thinking this may have been a tad too high). Humidity varied quite a bit. First thing in the morning, it could be as low as 30% but during the day since it's opened periodically, it would range from 40% to the high 60's (highest I saw was 68% but that's not to say it didn't get higher).

2 things happened that likely effected it, possibly causing this problem.

First, the fridge door didn't shut all the way one night and we didn't realize it until morning. Best guess it was like that about 8 to 10 hours. Everything still felt cold and we didn't feel like anything needed to be thrown out. Stupidly, I didn't think to check the temp in the fridge when I noticed the door so I don't know how warm it got. The milk was still good so it didn't get warm enough to spoil that. This happened about a week ago.

Second, we chopped another plant 5 days ago and I jarred it up that night and put in the crisper with the other jars. As of now, this plant doesn't have any visible mold. We took it out of the fridge after noticing the mold in the other jars and put the buds on racks in our drying tent. Hopefully that one is okay.

That's everything I can think of. Sorry it's so long, I wanted to include every detail I could.

My initial thinking was the issue with the fridge door not shutting all the way that one night. Then thought it could have been the extra moisture from adding the new plant. But then I started thinking about it still being 99% humidity in the jars after 3 weeks, and that maybe it's a issue with my fridge or the temp being a little too warm.

I welcome any insight or ideas! I was thinking about getting a mini fridge for buds exclusively and only trying 1 or 2 jars next time. I'm not ready to give up on this idea because we live in Florida and getting the temp low enough is very difficult. I thought this method was going to be the answer to our problems!

Also, I'm assuming all of this bud is a lost cause. I can spot a handful of buds in each jar with mold. I'm inclined to throw it all out but if there is a way to save some, I'm open to it.

Thanks in advance and if you get to this point, thank you for taking the time to read all of this.
 
A couple of things.

gatorgrl84 said:
with nylon pantyhose stretched over top.
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I don’t use panty hose. I think the mesh is too fine. I use window screening because it has larger openings for better air flow.

gatorgrl84 said:
I put them in the crisper drawer of our kitchen fridge.
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Here’s a quote from Wikipedia:

“Crisper drawers operate by creating an environment of greater humidity than the rest of the refrigerator. Crisper drawers which do not have a humidity control are, by default, high humidity crispers.”

I don’t know what kind of crisper set up you have but it may have contributed to your high rH and the mold problem. Also, I have found that moisture collects on the inside of the jars when laid on their side for the first week or two. I have a dedicated fridge with a temperature controller for L&S. On the wire shelves I put a 2X4 that is the width as the shelves. I then prop the jars on the 2X4 so they are at a 45* angle. That stopped the moisture build up in the jars for me. I use only wide mouth jars because I have found that the regular mouth jars don't provide enough of an opening for good air flow. I also tumble the jars twice a day and that is the only time the fridge is opened.

I hope some of this may help and/or provide some food for thought.
 
BigD13 said:
A couple of things.


I don’t use panty hose. I think the mesh is too fine. I use window screening because it has larger openings for better air flow.


Here’s a quote from Wikipedia:

“Crisper drawers operate by creating an environment of greater humidity than the rest of the refrigerator. Crisper drawers which do not have a humidity control are, by default, high humidity crispers.”

I don’t know what kind of crisper set up you have but it may have contributed to your high rH and the mold problem. Also, I have found that moisture collects on the inside of the jars when laid on their side for the first week or two. I have a dedicated fridge with a temperature controller for L&S. On the wire shelves I put a 2X4 that is the width as the shelves. I then prop the jars on the 2X4 so they are at a 45* angle. That stopped the moisture build up in the jars for me. I use only wide mouth jars because I have found that the regular mouth jars don't provide enough of an opening for good air flow. I also tumble the jars twice a day and that is the only time the fridge is opened.

I hope some of this may help and/or provide some food for thought.
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Thanks for this. I did kind of wonder about how much air flow was getting to it and like the idea of using a screen. I am using wide mouth jars. I noticed the condensation/moisture in the jars in the beginning and did switch them out for fresh jars once during the first week, probably should have done it more.
The part that trips me up, is they were in there for 3 weeks and just now got mold. I would think it would have happened sooner, which is why I was looking at what has changed in the last week.
Oh and my crisper draw does have a little slide thing with high humidity on one side and low on the other. I had it set for low but who knows how much that really helps. Another reason for having a dedicated fridge or mini fridge.
Thanks again!
 
gatorgrl84 said:
I put them in the crisper drawer of our kitchen fridge.
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Like BigD said, low and slow relies on the open air in the fridge rather than an rH controlled area.
gatorgrl84 said:
The temp in the fridge was usually around 48°F
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That's probably 10º+ F too high!
gatorgrl84 said:
Also, I'm assuming all of this bud is a lost cause. I can spot a handful of buds in each jar with mold. I'm inclined to throw it all out but if there is a way to save some, I'm open to it.
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You could try drying the non-moldy stuff and see if it continues to spread, but for your health and the health of the folks you share with, tossing it all and starting again is the safest.
 
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