DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest

sativuhhh said:
Slowly working my way thru this thread with a harvest coming up in a little over 2 weeks and deciding what to do. Has anyone used a wine fridge for this? I think this is the one I have, it would seem pretty good, you set the precise temp to hold at and such, would be easy to see how the buds are coming along without having to open the door since it's glass. I don't have another small fridge so it's a normal tent dry and cure (and maybe a couple cobs to try) or low and slow in the wine fridge.

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I think that would work fine too as long as RH was in a good range for a slow dry like Ween said. But you won’t be able to see the buds through there because they will be in paper bags. I think earlier in this thread they may have been visible but most people have settled into using brown paper bags to hold the buds.
 
My thoughts are the paper bags help to stabilize the environment around the buds and allow slower release of the moisture. More like a dripping faucet instead of a drain.
 
Beautiful ween. :high-five:
 
I'll throw a hygro in and see what it can do. Thanks all!
 
InTheShed said:
Thanks, I'll look it up and add it to the list of experiments to try!
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Hey Shed/ Anyone Else Who’s Done Shock Ripening:

Did you ever end up trying this in DWC? I’ve been considering trying shock ripening with the following plan, but I’ve heard very mixed reviews - some ppl love it and some of my friends said they tried it and it didn’t do anything...

Plan: Last 3 days go pitch black and chill water to as cold as I can get it, then chop and hang full plant.

Concerns:
  1. Will cold water do anything if the air temp isn’t also cooled? I know cooling the air towards the end helps buds ripen and that’s typically an organic outcome from when I lower the light intensity towards the end anyway - but if I don’t do a dramatic air temp change during the shock ripening 3 day period, is there even a point?
  2. I’ve heard going lights out for 3 days could have the adverse effect of causing the plant to make one final stretch in an attempt to find light, which would not be desired. Have any of you experienced this?
  3. Is the juice really worth the squeeze on this, or if the DWC plant looks good should I just harvest?

Thanks.
 
No wonder I had no idea what I was talking about...that was from August 2017!

I tried an extended dark period on one of my plants (48 hours) and found no difference in the number of trichomes or thickness of buds from before it went into the dark and when it came out. I have never done it since. I just harvest first thing in the morning when I can.
 
Yeah alright, this aligns with what I’ve heard from friends so I’ll just chop when ready. Interesting how this still seems to be a “dwc standard” on some forums but seems like snake oil. Thanks guys. Shed, you and I are forever bonded in the bullshit known as FIMming, so I trust ya :)
 
:high-five:
 
Got a good chuckle reading this morning gentlemen. I also found no value in the dark period preceding harvest, and never went back to it after the first try.

From a botanical view the terpenes are at their highest value coming out of the daily dark period. I can’t for the life of me think of how a three-day stay in darkness could make an appreciable difference in a mature plant. It makes no biological sense to expect that rapid-fire a response out of a girl on her last legs, you know.
 
So I'm using a mini fridge, no freezer. Rh in there gets pretty high, like right now it's reading 75! Buds have been on there for 10 days. Still very moist on the bigger buds, not to touch on the outside but have a squishy/springy feel to them when you squeeze.

I did the bounce/rotate at 3, 6 and 9 days. Each time I took them all out and left bags opened for about 10 minutes, burping of sorts. I also took the opportunity to wipe off the condensation built up on back of fridge.

Question, should I stay the course or move to my regular fridge?
 
I would think if the rh of the buds measured in the low 70’s after 2 weeks, then it would be good to use the rice balls to pull Rh down to wherever you want it. My mini fridge gets up to about 68 at its most humid...usually sitting around the 55% mark. Even at those levels it takes it a few weeks to get below 75% when I jar/bag up the buds to check rh. But from that point I’ve just used the rice balls and it gets it down into curing range within a few hrs......at least it’s worked that way so far. My fridge also has no freezer and gets condensation built up on the back wall. I’m not sure if it would do better in a different fridge. I don’t have that luxury. Lol. There’s 2 teenage boys that don’t know any of this is going on in the house! Haha. They aren’t there every night. Just a couple nights per week so I try to work around that. But that definitely make the main refrigerator a no-no. Lol
 
Thanks,Magoo! No, I've not put them in jars yet. The 75 rh is in my fridge. No kids here just a bunch of food I'd rather not have smellin/tasting like weed but I can do that if it is suggested. I'm not too worried about the buds, they seem fine but I'm guessing at least another 2 weeks which is not problem, Im not in a rush just don't want to ruin the crop. maybe this one is super low and super slow, ha!:rofl:
 
weenmeoff said:
Thanks,Magoo! No, I've not put them in jars yet. The 75 rh is in my fridge. No kids here just a bunch of food I'd rather not have smellin/tasting like weed but I can do that if it is suggested. I'm not too worried about the buds, they seem fine but I'm guessing at least another 2 weeks which is not problem, Im not in a rush just don't want to ruin the crop. maybe this one is super low and super slow, ha!:rofl:
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Haha. Mine always take at least 3 weeks. 75% seems pretty high for the fridge.
 
If it were me ween I might consider rice balls in the fridge to get the humidity down a bit, but if you keep doing what you’re doing they should be fine in the end, IMO.
 
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