I left half of each plant to air dry the regular way and half in the fridge. Of the half in the fridge, I cut the buds from the stems and left half to dry directly on the fridge rack shelf and half went into small brown bags (I like my croissants hehe) which were filled a third of the way, left open and placed next to the free drying herb on the fridge rack shelf. Averaged 3.5-5 Celsius with 47-55% RH. At day 13 the free drying herb was dry enough to jar - the paper bag herb was dry a couple of days later.
Drying Results
I had a cheeky taster of two buds from the same plant; one was air dried bud for 7 days and jar cured for 8 days and the other was slow & low dried bud 15 days in paper bag in fridge and 2 days jar cured in fridge. I have to say that the slow & low dried bud was by far the better bud from all aspects. After sampling some buds from other plants (to be sure the first test wasn't a fluke) I have to conclude that the slow and low method of drying beats air drying hands down on looks, aroma, strength and taste! I'm converted. I did prefer the herb dried in paper bags over that dried straight on the fridge shelf though.
Now for the cure..
This is what I have been doing for the cure and it seems ok so far, but I welcome comments or suggestions that will help me refine this.
Since it is very hot here with wildly fluctuating RH, I am attempting to cure IN the fridge.
My brother is in his mid-50s, and hasn't grown cannabis to any real extent (other than the one they tried growing in their vegetable garden about six years ago, which taught both him and his spouse that smell... travels, and that paranoia is a thing
) since a certain patch of woods disappeared 30 years ago. But when he did, he used to dry in the traditional "brown paper sacks" after hanging for a very short period of time. They'd be open... and then they were closed. And there the buds stayed, for a while. There was no "remove buds from drying area and move to the curing area" mentality.
But, looking back, I think there was a curing process that took place. Brown paper sacks with their tops folded a couple of times aren't, to my knowledge, airtight. But they would seem to slow moisture loss. I vaguely remember that he'd mess with them "once or twice" initially, then leave them alone after that. Strikes me as being a lot like our "burp the jars once/day for a while, then seal for storage."
cure in the fridge!
i find it takes a little longer; worth it in every way..
Some time back, I saw a post/magazine article /Internet article/IDFK about curing. It listed the humidity (or moisture content, maybe?) and temperature ranges for curing cannabis and stated that curing would not take place above or below the ranges. I've looked in my bookmarks, but cannot find it. I wanted to pull it up here, because it seems like something that'd be good to discuss when talking about curing at lower temperatures.
I'm just not feeling at my best today, lol. For proof: I cannot even remember off the top of my head whether the curing process is aerobic or aerobic :rolleyes3 . I just sat here for a minute trying to remember... Nope. The only thing that came to mind was people in Columbia placing their cannabis in piles back in the day (Columbian Gold). But that probably would have been... akin to
composting, I'd think, with the resulting high temperatures in the heart of the pile. <SCRATCHES HEAD> Or fermenting, maybe, IDK. I was up much of the night wishing that I hadn't mowed two yards yesterday with a walk across town before and after the second one, lol.
BtW (yes, it's off-topic), HtH do people with poor vision mow their lawns?!? I couldn't (or... won't
) tell you how many times I stopped, squinted, bent down... and realized I was pushing the mower along the same strip
that I had just mowed.
You have a tremendous opportunity here to be of great assistance and see your years of hard work come to some serious good. 
And then today I offered yet another friend some pain cream. Apparently, there's no stopping it. Lol! 
I'd been considering curing in the fridge, although that's not necessary in my environment. I may do a couple jars to compare with what I cure normally. 
It makes sense for me to try It
