DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest

[SweetSue]

High Sue, you are so good at documenting !! My question is, do you cut every other tray & when you're done, how many colas can I dry at once. Ronco has them with as many trays as you want. Wish I could remember who I loaned mine to.

It's a powerful machine, and I'd bet you could stack them higher. I'll have to check the literature on that.

Yes, every other tray is cut out. The last harvest was approx 450-500 grams in weight at harvest. If you have a larger one than that you could start what wouldn't fit low and slo and then transfer to the dehydrator when the first batch was done.

 

[SweetSue]

October's NOTM was dried low and slo!

I don't know which excited me more, that I won the contest, or that it was a bud dried low and slo.

 

[DrZiggy]

October's NOTM was dried low and slo!

I don't know which excited me more, that I won the contest, or that it was a bud dried low and slo.

 

[kelticBlue]

I don't know which excited me more, that I won the contest, or that it was a bud dried low and slo.

Tis a tough choice. great color in the piccys.

 

[InTheShed]

Congratulations SweetSue! You are always breaking new ground here

 

[bignstrange]

Congrats Sue!

That is a damn fine looking nug, well deserved! . .

 

[Troy01]

Congratulations! Now see if you can win next month with a Dehydrator Bud..

 

[SweetSue]

Hi .

newty, I missed your post. Missed pretty much all of that page. Some days it moves faster than others. Lol!

Welcome to the process. How's I going so far? I break my harvest up into small lunch bags, figuring the more surface area I can expose the better. Hadn't tried it all in one bag yet, so I'm following your dry with increased interest.

Nice tat, by the way. I have a fondness for traditional motifs in any setting. They used to be my favorite pieces to design. When my husband passed I didn't feel the urge to seek out another tattooist. The man had an amazingly gentle touch and did brilliant ink. These days I'd rather direct funds to the garden than to my skin.

 

[newty]

newty, I missed your post. Missed pretty much all of that page. Some days it moves faster than others. Lol!

Welcome to the process. How's I going so far? I break my harvest up into small lunch bags, figuring the more surface area I can expose the better. Hadn't tried it all in one bag yet, so I'm following your dry with increased interest.

Nice tat, by the way. I have a fondness for traditional motifs in any setting. They used to be my favorite pieces to design. When my husband passed I didn't feel the urge to seek out another tattooist. The man had an amazingly gentle touch and did brilliant ink. These days I'd rather direct funds to the garden than to my skin.

Thanks so much Sue! I have a love for tats and stars but like you said, all my fun money goes to the garden For the process.
My crop did really well all in one bag, I flipped it every day and checked the smaller buds after 4 days at about 35 degrees at 45%humidity and the smaller ones were ready and were delicious! I chopped 2 more yesterday and the biggest buds from my tiny yeild. (first grow) went into 1 bag and I'll leave them for a week I think, flipping them daily. I also follow your FHO thread and I made it with coconut oil in the oven and wowsa!! I got stoned for realz! I'll update there later here is some pics of the fun day I had yesterday.

These all went into one lunch bag.
The oil! Yay and wow it's greeeeeen

And today will be day 9 for this bud in the fridge

I put them with the rest of my girl in the jar with a bodeva pack. The smoke that I have smoked is smooth and potent! Success I say, although I haven't tried any other way. Happy growing

 

[Slowpuffer]

October's NOTM was dried low and slo!

I don't know which excited me more, that I won the contest, or that it was a bud dried low and slo.

Congratulations !!

 

[overlord]

Upon waking I checked the jar, and found the buds floating around 70% RH. I rehung the rice ball.

After 30 minutes.

At 45 minutes I pulled the rice and closed the buds up with the hygrometer for a time.

Just checked it, an hour later.

I'll use rice for another 30 minutes. I remembered to set the alarm.

I'm fascinated at how effectively the rice finishes off the drying process. What a delightful thing to learn.

I'll be back later to let you know what and how long it took to completely stabalize the jar.

Hi Sue

First, CONGRATS on NOTM!!

Second, did you manage to finally stabilize the bud in the jar? How long did it take and what was your impression of it?

Thanks

 

[Bode]

High SweetSue,

Nice looking nug. Congratulations on Nug'o'month. Btw, glad to hear you'll be here as long as magazine is here. I would miss your enthusiasm, if you weren't here!

Have you tried just using rice to dehydrate buds? Maybe low and slow with rice? Had to share the thought.

 

[HealthFreak]

Your so helpful SuperSue .... Thank you

Certainly Troy.

An unadulterated tray.

A modified tray. I left the outer ring because I felt it would lend stability. You could probably take that ring off too, but I've not found it to be a concern.

I used a razor saw, but only because that's what I had on hand. It was easy to cut the grids out.

Left unadulterated you only have a small space between the grids.

With a trimmed tray you gain all this additional room, plus the bit between the bottom of the next ring and the next tray.

Cutting the centers out substantially increased the capabilities as a bud dryer.

 

[SweetSue]

Thank you everyone

It was quite a contest. Scared the bejeezus out of me coming up against Cola Monster. Whew! Lol! Now I can't get away with saying I'm a novice.

fascinating read Sue. Thank you
I am really happy with the slow'n'low method of drying for our extremely hot summers but am intrigued by the dehydrator. Would you say it's worth investing the $70 or that it'll cost to buy one?

Absolutely. Make sure you get extra trays to increase usability.

Hi Sue

First, CONGRATS on NOTM!!

Second, did you manage to finally stabilize the bud in the jar? How long did it take and what was your impression of it?

Thanks

My answer follows.

High SweetSue,

Nice looking nug. Congratulations on Nug'o'month. Btw, glad to hear you'll be here as long as magazine is here. I would miss your enthusiasm, if you weren't here!

Have you tried just using rice to dehydrate buds? Maybe low and slow with rice? Had to share the thought.

Yes I have gentlemen. Had a good deal of fun playing with it.

The first batch, the one overlord asked about, took another hour to get down to 60%, then I took the rice out and waited until it got up to 65% before putting rice back in.

My records show I dropped the rice back in at 2:44 PM.

I started playing with the rice at 8:15 AM that day and at 6 PM I jarred them up. Total time was about 10 hours playing around with the rice, and the buds have been stable with a Boveda since then.

I did another batch of buds yesterday. These were my recent Carnival harvest, dried for the past two weeks in the fridge, in paper bags.

At 10 PM Saturday night I took them out of the bags and jarred them up overnight with a hygrometer. I made certain the rice was dry a couple days earlier, in preparation for this run.

By morning, the buds were over 70%. Dropped in the rice and watched the hygrometer.

By noon it was creeping down to 60%. My policy's become drop to 60%, take the rice out and seal it up with the hygrometer and wait until it hits 65%. Toggle back and forth like that until it doesn't shift above 65%. You'll get it lower with the curing process.

At 5:30 PM they were stable enough at 60% that I got a final dry weight on them.

At 8 PM they hadn't moved from 65%. I'm good with that.

Just now I checked, and they're still stable at 65%.

All in all, this one took about 11 hours or so to get to 65%. In both cases they've stayed stable after jarring up at the end of the day. I'd say this a method worth exploring. It cuts at least another week from the low and slo and gets a dehydrated harvest in the jar in three days.

 

[CCOiler]

QUESTION: What do you guys think is the best grinder for a oz. or more (for decarb)?

 

[Troy01]

I use a Cuisinart DLC-1SS Mini-Prep Processor. Available on Amazon for about $35.

 

[CCOiler]

I use a Cuisinart DLC-1SS Mini-Prep Processor. Available on Amazon for about $35.

Thank you Troy01, I'll look it up. Short burst or long burst?

 

[Troy01]

Thank you Troy01, I'll look it up. Short burst or long burst?

I do short bursts until where I want it.

It is interesting that the MB manual recommends that you don't grind down in advance.

 

[CCOiler]

I do short bursts until where I want it.

It is interesting that the MB manual recommends that you don't grind down in advance.

I just picked one up, thank you for the info.

 

[Slowpuffer]

QUESTION: What do you guys think is the best grinder for a oz. or more (for decarb)?

I think a good pair of scissors would be the quickest.