Derbybud
Well-Known Member
It's the moisture still in the buds.
DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest
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- #1,822
Ok... I don’t know what happened there.
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- #1,823
So I’ve chosen a fridge ordered this one:
I plan to remove all the shelves and just stack pizza boxes full of buds from bottom to top.
How often do you guys flip the buds to prevent them going flat?
Was thinking with pizza boxes I can just flip the boxes
The pizza box idea is a little brilliant.
it’ll dry different than bagsthough, so be alert to sudden drops in humidity. This was excellent! You don’t mind if I reformat, do you?
What you smell are the terpenes, which are isomers, and are lighter than air. When you harvest you’re waving the branches about and the isomers are flying off the plant like a snowstorm!
When you hang to dry about 50% of the monoterpenes evaporate right out of the material. The rest stay tightly bound in the undisturbed swollen calyxes of the buds.
Cold will bind terpenes to the plant material too, and as the chlorophyll smell dissipates during the cure the terpenes inside the buds begin working their way out so they too can float off.
The smell doesn’t come back so much as come out. That’s why you’ll get a burst of perfume when you break a bud open. Terpenes are freed and go flying off, right smack into your olfactory system!
Derbybud
Well-Known Member
Please do Sue.
eggsman
Well-Known Member
I have only done a couple low and slow dries. I have learned so much from everyone that if I can help anyone that would be great. All I can do is confirm what has all ready been said but here it is. My last low and slow I had 2 GG4 plants, plant #1 I let one grow with out any LSTing and it had a lot of medium size buds that when put in bags after washing and hanging for 4 hours were single buds cut off the stem. Plant #2 I trained and LSTed, its buds were clustered tightly together on the main stems, and that's how I bagged them. A lot of 4 inch clusters still on the stem. After only about 10 days plant #1 with single buds which were also on the top shelves I took 1 bag out put it in a jar and read 55% rh, The bags with the clusters on the lower shelves where still at 78%. So next time when they go into the bags I will make sure they are cut the same and I will be rotating the bags on the upper and lower shelves, or I feel each bag should be checked separately. I should say I have not yet played with the temps to see what it does to my rh it currently runs between 30 - 40% rh. This method really does work and this GG4 smells amazing but the room that this frig is in there was no hiding that crazy good smell. Thanks again.
Hey all, just wanted to put the instructions up to a) clarify for myself and b) shortcut for others wanting to join in 
Am I correct in understanding that the process is:
1) Harvest, Wash, Hang dry for 4 - 24 hours
2) Place in brown paper bag
or jar with open lid covered by cheesecloth (only covering surface area of jar)
3) Don't open fridge for two weeks
or only open once a day to rotate buds
Am I correct in understanding that the process is:
1) Harvest, Wash, Hang dry for 4 - 24 hours
2) Place in brown paper bag
or jar with open lid covered by cheesecloth (only covering surface area of jar)
3) Don't open fridge for two weeks
or only open once a day to rotate buds
- at 2. do you leave the brown bags open? I have some in the fridge that are pretty moist at humidity gets upto 70+% with the bag closed, or do I keep it closed and just burp if frequently?
- how have you all found the jars vs the brown paper bags for slow drying?
I have harvested this week and just found this technique yesterday (thank you), so i've put mine in the fridge hastely
- I'm running out of room here haha
mstraka919
420 Member
Hey all, just wanted to put the instructions up to a) clarify for myself and b) shortcut for others wanting to join in
Am I correct in understanding that the process is:
1) Harvest, Wash, Hang dry for 4 - 24 hours
2) Place in brown paper bag
or jar with open lid covered by cheesecloth (only covering surface area of jar)
3) Don't open fridge for two weeks
or only open once a day to rotate buds
- at 2. do you leave the brown bags open? I have some in the fridge that are pretty moist at humidity gets upto 70+% with the bag closed, or do I keep it closed and just burp if frequently?
- how have you all found the jars vs the brown paper bags for slow drying?
I have harvested this week and just found this technique yesterday (thank you), so i've put mine in the fridge hastely
- I'm running out of room here haha
I have only done this once (this winter) due to the RH in my basement being in the low 20's and it worked so well, I will only be drying this method moving forward. Someone else can give you better advice but, I clipped the bags closed with a binder clip and inspected them daily. At day 10, I took them all out and let them come to room temp and then put them back in. At 2 weeks I was still over 70% during the jar test so I laid them on a dry rack and about 8 hours later they were ready for the jar. You can also use the rice ball trick to get them in range.
One issue was mold. I had a really large bud in one of the bags and it developed a bit of mold so next run, I will trim them down to a smaller size.
This is an amazing thread btw with amazing contributors.
Hi again @HiDro420! Saw you in the fresh harvest oil thread this am.
Go ahead and close the bags. I like mstrakas binder clip idea! I simply rolled the ends closed. It does look like you have a little too much bud in each bag. You want those buds to have room to breath. Check them in 3 days, bounce them around in the bags, check again in 3 more days then after that you don't have to. I put an rh meter in my mini fridge and checked it often, changing temp, colder lowers rh and warmer raises it. You're gonna love it!
Since you're learning about all these great things, ill throw a plug out for Doc Buds High Brix Blend of soil/organic nutrients. It's very easy to use, affordable and the end product is very high quality. Let me know if you want more info.
Go ahead and close the bags. I like mstrakas binder clip idea! I simply rolled the ends closed. It does look like you have a little too much bud in each bag. You want those buds to have room to breath. Check them in 3 days, bounce them around in the bags, check again in 3 more days then after that you don't have to. I put an rh meter in my mini fridge and checked it often, changing temp, colder lowers rh and warmer raises it. You're gonna love it!
Since you're learning about all these great things, ill throw a plug out for Doc Buds High Brix Blend of soil/organic nutrients. It's very easy to use, affordable and the end product is very high quality. Let me know if you want more info.
kelticBlue
Well-Known Member
+1
I have also used a small cardboard box in the fridge works good but does absorb moisture, i watched it close.
This is some of my last batch of Zamaldelica fresh out of the fridge, playing with my new scale. just fooling around.
still some trimming needed on the dead leaves. The color and smell are still fresh. I didnt watch how many days in the fridge, 12-15 ish.
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- #1,830
@eggsman , Excellent! Exciting, isn’t it? 
@kelticBlue, you create the sweetest buds for that lucky wife.
@HiDro420, I do my best to limit the volume in each bag to around 28 grams per. This means for every four bags I’ll pull an ounce dry, and it’s just the perfect volume for creating enough surface area for an even dry when laid on their sides.
It’s really important, IMO, to get the buds to a consistent size, as much as possible. We’re so tempted by the big, chunky buds, and I’ve discovered they do best when scattered through the smaller buds. Lumped together they create too much of a moisture cloud or something while the moisture evaporated. That’s too much risk for me.
Scattered about among the smaller buds I’ve found they all level out and dry more uniformly, although big buds will always demand more time.
Guys.... some wonderful news. As some of you know, I’ve been in transition the past six months, staying in another member’s home while I wait on an apartment in the area. During this time I haven’t had the option to dry low and slo.
Well... tomorrow I sign my lease right before flying off to California, and that means when I return and harvest my monster Carnival I’ll be able to dry it in my new fridge.
Ahhh... bit by bit life falls back into bliss.
@kelticBlue, you create the sweetest buds for that lucky wife.
@HiDro420, I do my best to limit the volume in each bag to around 28 grams per. This means for every four bags I’ll pull an ounce dry, and it’s just the perfect volume for creating enough surface area for an even dry when laid on their sides.
It’s really important, IMO, to get the buds to a consistent size, as much as possible. We’re so tempted by the big, chunky buds, and I’ve discovered they do best when scattered through the smaller buds. Lumped together they create too much of a moisture cloud or something while the moisture evaporated. That’s too much risk for me.
Scattered about among the smaller buds I’ve found they all level out and dry more uniformly, although big buds will always demand more time.
Guys.... some wonderful news. As some of you know, I’ve been in transition the past six months, staying in another member’s home while I wait on an apartment in the area. During this time I haven’t had the option to dry low and slo.
Well... tomorrow I sign my lease right before flying off to California, and that means when I return and harvest my monster Carnival I’ll be able to dry it in my new fridge.
Ahhh... bit by bit life falls back into bliss.
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- #1,831
Derbybud’s reformatted instructions:
After drying them they go in the bag. I usually consider drying done at about 65-68%.
I keep my humidity in my house right at 50% because of some high dollar hard wood floors my wife wanted.
Once in the bags I burp twice a day for the first week while watching how much humidity I'm losing from burping.
Let's say the first day I burp them I leave more 50% air in the bags to help bring the rh down some so as not to be worrying about mold. And once I'm seeing the rh drop when I burp them I might just leave enough air to just cover the buds.
If I see my rh go below 60% I might take them outside to burp where my rh around here is usually in the 80% at night and might leave more air in the bag to rehydrate them some.
A few things that make it a much better process are
I'm not the most advanced grower but I'm always looking to do things better and quicker as I usually work 60 plus hours a week, so burping a couple dozen jars a few times a day got really annoying and at times I would get called away and come back to some over dried product.
With bags taking seconds to burp people can wait a minute or 2 and I'm done.
After drying them they go in the bag. I usually consider drying done at about 65-68%.
I keep my humidity in my house right at 50% because of some high dollar hard wood floors my wife wanted.
Once in the bags I burp twice a day for the first week while watching how much humidity I'm losing from burping.
Let's say the first day I burp them I leave more 50% air in the bags to help bring the rh down some so as not to be worrying about mold. And once I'm seeing the rh drop when I burp them I might just leave enough air to just cover the buds.
If I see my rh go below 60% I might take them outside to burp where my rh around here is usually in the 80% at night and might leave more air in the bag to rehydrate them some.
A few things that make it a much better process are
1) takes seconds to replenish the air in the bag not minutes with a jar cause all you have to do is open the bag and take the top and bottom and use the ends as a bellows and 3-4 times of opening and closing the bellows the air has exchanged.
2) you can put a hell of allot of product in a turkey bag while even gallon jars take quite a few with a good harvest.
3) keeping the buds from sticking is super easy as I just flip the bag over my fingers and bump it around some.
4) aromas tend to be much more consistent than from jar to jar. 5) control of the whole thing is super simple.
If you have high humidity in your house you can turn on the air conditioning in your car and burp the bag in there. I've done up to 12 zips in a bag before and had some of the best product to date. I'm not the most advanced grower but I'm always looking to do things better and quicker as I usually work 60 plus hours a week, so burping a couple dozen jars a few times a day got really annoying and at times I would get called away and come back to some over dried product.
With bags taking seconds to burp people can wait a minute or 2 and I'm done.
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- #1,832
@HiDro420, a question that I don’t believe got answered was, how did we find the bags as opposed to the jars?
Just about everyone started out without bags. Bags let the moisture escape so well it cut a week or more from most of our drying times. Now, most jar up, or put the buds into roasting bags for the cure at or near two weeks.
One by one we settled on the bags.
Just about everyone started out without bags. Bags let the moisture escape so well it cut a week or more from most of our drying times. Now, most jar up, or put the buds into roasting bags for the cure at or near two weeks.
One by one we settled on the bags.
Derbybud
Well-Known Member
Great job Sue and thanks so much for cleaning up my mess. Nicely done. Have a great evening.
I love that you left that in the reformatted version
.
kelticBlue
Well-Known Member
I'm here for the ride!
Just pulled out 25g of blue dream auto from the fridge. They had been in there 9 days. Buds were washed and left to dry for about 8 hours before going into jars. A trick I learned from Keltic is using a paper bag instead of the jars. This to me seems a little safer route if you can't be around to tend the jars. I did a small test run with this. I put in jars first for 3 days so initial wetness was gone and from there into a small paper bag and into the fridge. After 6 days it was dry enough for curing and smoking (if you can't wait)
Oooops-ie-- I think that was me. I didnt have any jars. Glad it worked and didnt speed it up to much.
All my jars are now full of buds, lovely buds
so happy with me buds lo n slo, this method and vacuum cob is my future.
....... I have turkey bags, I need to integrate them, most definite. Good stuff
01way
Well-Known Member
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- #1,837
Congratulations @01way, she’s an enticing one. I was so impressed that you read the thread twice that I stopped on my way to bed to respond.
The secret of my own success is in limiting each bag to 28 grams of buds and doing my best to leave them alone after that initial bouncing apart on day three.
Everyone of us has our own tweaks that work best for us. Don’t be afraid to play a little. Have fun.
I was so impressed that you read the thread twice that I stopped on my way to bed to respond. The secret of my own success is in limiting each bag to 28 grams of buds and doing my best to leave them alone after that initial bouncing apart on day three.
Everyone of us has our own tweaks that work best for us. Don’t be afraid to play a little. Have fun.
01way
Well-Known Member
Thx SWEET SWEET SUE! You are SO awesome ! Sorry to have multiples of the same pic yikes ! You have been a constant thread of inspiration and uplifting every time I run across you ! You have got to be AWESOME to hang out with in person ! Thank you for taking a moment out of your day to MAKE mine ! Sweeeeeet dreams sweet sue!Congratulations @01way, she’s an enticing one.
The secret of my own success is in limiting each bag to 28 grams of buds and doing my best to leave them alone after that initial bouncing apart on day three.
Everyone of us has our own tweaks that work best for us. Don’t be afraid to play a little. Have fun.
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- #1,839
And thank you for that outpouring of love.
I do a lot of traveling, you know. If you’re in the U.S. there’s a very good likelihood I’ll be in your area someday. If so, I’d love to meet you. I’m pretty sure you’re just as awesome as you believe me to be. And thank you as well for the upbeat start to my own day. I’m sharing coffee with another member over the digital waves and was already feeling warm and fuzzy.
01way
Well-Known Member
So I found a H2O2 with 34%.... anybody know the dilution for 3 gallons ?
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