DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest

George2324 said:
So you put all your buds in paper bags and just leave them?
Do you burp them?
If so how often?
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The first few days I do fluff them twice a day as rh is really thru the roof during those days. I also leave the end of the bag open some to breath. After 3 days i close the bags after I flip the buds. After 5 days I just let them go until they are close to my cure humidity.
 
Derbybud said:
The first few days I do fluff them twice a day as rh is really thru the roof during those days. I also leave the end of the bag open some to breath. After 3 days i close the bags after I flip the buds. After 5 days I just let them go until they are close to my cure humidity.
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I’m no expert but bags would just keep the humidity higher right?

Am I right in thinking that the exact same can be achieved by maintaining a higher humidity directly in the fridge compartment?

For example keeping the buds on racks and maintaining a 70-75% humidity in the fridge?
 
I think if you can really control the humidity in there accurately, you could do it however you want. I think a lot of us lack that luxury. I keep a hygrometer in the fridge all the time. Sometimes I open it and it reads mid 60’s. Sometimes it’s low 40’s. If you can get your buds to the desired humidity and it takes you at least 10 days....then I would think you would have all the benefits of the low and slow method. Unless the bag somehow preserves terpenes. Not sure about that. If it does then I’d use bags. I always start with an oz in the bag and end up with at least 1/4.
 
I was researching how to make your own curing fridge and came across some good information.

If your struggling with humidity being too high.

You can add a tiny tube heater at the bottom of the fridge connected to a humidity controller.
When humidity rises too high it heats up ever so slightly which forces the fridge to start dehumidifying the air in the fridge and reduce it back down
 
Here is one example of drying without bagging. There are others thru the thread. The paper bag is not a necessity for me, more of a convenience.

I do it like derby said.
Watch em the first week but not much.
I am a space cadet so I have forgot to check but never a problem. But I have relatively small harvests. :goodluck:
SweetSue said:
viola'!

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kelticBlue said:
Here is one example of drying without bagging. There are others thru the thread. The paper bag is not a necessity for me, more of a convenience.

I do it like derby said.
Watch em the first week but not much.
I am a space cadet so I have forgot to check but never a problem. But I have relatively small harvests. :goodluck:
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I’ll have to buy a dedicated larder fridge and stack racks on top of each other.

If you can maintain humidity of 62% can you also cure in the fridge without jars?
 
kelticBlue said:
That is a really good question.
I would wonder if tobacco/ cigar makers it do like that.
Long term seems reasonable.
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I guess if you put a tube heater at the bottom of your fridge to control the humidity and if you have issues with low humidity you could put a refillable tray of water at the bottom aswell.

I doubt I’ll have issues with low humidity as humidity here is always over 60% ambient so when fridge door is opened I guess humidity will spike in there
 
They make wonderful humidor units, but most of us won’t go to that expense. :laughtwo: If I didn’t use jars for long-term storage I’d probably vacuum seal them.
 
George2324 said:
I’m not suggesting using the fridge for long term storage by the way. Only for the curing stage.

If you can maintain a humidity of 62% during drying. You’d automatically switch from drying to curing when the buds reach the 62%
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What we're attempting here is much more than drying. By maintaining the cooler temps and lower RH you preserve more of the volitile terpenes. The increased heat would contribute to more terpene loss.
 
SweetSue said:
What we're attempting here is much more than drying. By maintaining the cooler temps and lower RH you preserve more of the volitile terpenes. The increased heat would contribute to more terpene loss.
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I meant using the fridge without jars for long term storage.

Using fridge without jars/bags for drying / curing would be the same with or without bags if you can control humidity I think

When you guys use boveda packs for storage do you store them in the cure zone “62%” or do you lower the humidity to 55% when storing?
Is 62% not quite wet?
 
I store with 62% Bovedas. That's a little moist for my smoking preference, so I typically keep a bit of selection out in the morning to dry some.
 
Mr. Magoo said:
I like the turkey bag for curing. I do have the DDA and GSC in jars though. Only because there is less than a half oz of each . Lol
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I did a batch in roasting bags before I moved, and was very impressed with the method. It really can’t be beat for a large crop. I prefer to dry them low and slo and toss them straight into jars with Bovedas. I don’t often mess with them after that. I seem to recall Boveda claims that you don’t have to burp them.

To be honest, I haven’t had lots of excess until recently. Most of what I’ve grown over the past four years got used right up as infused oils.
 
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