DrZiggy's Low And Slow Drying: Maximizing Your Harvest

[bigbudzzz420]

That one has me stumped, i'd love to know what caused to change so drasticaly.

I haven't done anything different

 

[Pennywise]

Weird

 

[bignstrange]

I haven't done anything different

Someone decided they liked your bud better and swapped it for their crack house bud :S

 

[Scoooter]

I've recently been curing my buds for a month in a mason jar with boveda and boost 62% 2 way humidity packs designed for 67 grams . Buds taste,smell and burn great that day . I recently threw some in a bag and stayed at a friend's overnight and smoked the buds in the bag the next day and they tasted,smelled and burned terrible. Like burnt rubber and chemicals . It was a day and night difference. I've been burping the jar properly , keeping them in the dark and storing the properly .
Last night I took the boveda and the boost packs out of the jars since I'm stable at 62 percent. Any ideas why and what's goin on here ?

Personally I would try and recreate the situation and throw in a couple variables. Try the same bag type, a different bag type for a different nug etc. Try and do the same amount of time as before. Think about whether the bag was left out in light, or wherever it sat for the night. Did something come in contact with it. How did it travel? Was it the only thing smoked in the pipe, bong or whatever you were using? If you can recreate then you can try and solve. Good luck!

 

[newty]

Hi .
So I cut my first ever plant down this morning trimmed and washed the bud and then let dry for 3 hours in a dark closet. It's the worlds smallest yield . so they didn't take long. Then I cleaned my fridge. (that was a job lol) I got the temp to 40 and RH is 60% but I'm hoping it will go down now that I cleaned it. I put my whole crop in 1 paper bag lol and clipped it and put it in the middle shelf at the back of my fridge. I will flip it once a day to move things around but ignore it for a week basically? Then take it out, let it sit for an hour in a jar then test the RH and if under 68 .if over then back in the fridge. Do I have the right idea? Also I put my tiny zip of trims in the freezer to figure out at another time . I'm mostly into edibles so I know it's useful. What does everyone do with fan leaves from defoliation and harvest, what about stems and such? I'm going to attempt to re-generate this girl just for shits and giggles .but I have some stems from the buds that I'm not sure about?? Thanks all for this great thread!

 

[andIhalped]

Nice looking bud!

I put my fan leaves together with frost leaves for canna-oil. Been told the fan leaves are fairly high in CBD & when I take the oil, it certainly feels that way, but who knows!

 

[newty]

I was reading about CBD in the plant matter so I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to throw it in when I make oil. Thanks!

 

[bignstrange]

Looks amazing!

 

[SweetSue]

I'm playing with drying them on the stem. My RH stabilized at 55% inside the refrigerator and being on the stem my thoughts are the stems will also slow the drying. If others think I'm wrong let me know. So far the are drying slowly and no sign of crispness.

I also needs a slightly faster than the 2 weeks people have reported in bags and jars. I have to have them stabilized curing in jars by Nov 23 when I go away for 6 weeks. I think I'm OK but will have to keep an eye on them.

I'm using the dehydrator. 48 - 50 hours on the lowest setting and they're ready to finish with super-dry rice. I'm finishing up a batch I harvested on Thursday. They had 48 hours and I just gave them 10 minutes with a bag of the rice. They're stable at 62% right now. If they vary by morning I'll use rice again. I don't think that'll be necessary, but it's no trouble.

I leave buds attached to the stems - I've actually worked up a right nice system of standing them with the stems shoved down through the grid. They look like a little canna army.

Leaving the stems on makes a lot of sense here, but I trim them for the low and slo. The buds will already be drying slow. You don't need to slow them down any more IMHO. It's a personal choice.

 

[SweetSue]

Lest anyone think "Dehydrator? Won't that destroy the terpenes we're trying to save?" I have some thoughts on that I'd like to toss out.

I've figured out ways to limit the wind damage using the sheets that came with the unit for drying small pieces. I also stack smallest buds on the bottom, working up to the largest on top. I may change that around. Haven't been experimenting all that long. This is only the fourth??? harvest I've done in it.

That brought a smile to the baby blues.

The air doesn't blow directly on the buds and most of the terpenes are inside those blossoms. My perspective is the faster you can safely dry them the better, and this method does it.

Once they're jarred the terpenes come roaring in. It's absolutely amazing. I'm still curing my first batches, but I smoke out of them already and the produce speaks for itself.

If you have a dehydrator, I encourage you to try at least once.

 

[SweetSue]

Giving it another 15-20 minutes with the rice before bed.

I love what we do.

Goodnight everyone.

 

[DrDoob]

Looking good here. I got a dehydrator to try out!

 

[SweetSue]

Looking good here. I got a dehydrator to try out!

Some tricks I've learned:

* Leave a bit of stem attached to each bud or bud group you place in the dehydrator. This will slow the drying down just enough to make it more effective for our purposes. The stem bits can be shoved down into the grid to stabalize the buds, if you stand them like I do. I'm working on finding a way to get a bud out of the dehydrator pretty enough to win a contest.

* Always use the lowest setting.

* It seems to work well with me regardless of how the buds are stacked. I've tried smallest on top, and smallest on the bottom, and that hasn't made any difference in the end.

* Cut the centers out of a couple of the trays. In this way you get a deeper space to set the buds, so they don't get smashed at the beginning. HealthFreak purchased extra trays for mine, giving me three with open centers and four with the grids intact. This works wonderfully for drying buds.

* Always have at least four trays stacked before you run the machine. That includes the open ones, so when I set up I have two complete trays and two with centers removed, giving me two drying levels. Did that make sense?

* Make certain there's space all around the dehydrator for the air to escape.

* I'm having great success at 48 hours straight and then on to super-dried rice as a finish.

* If you're like me, set an alarm, or hang a note on the dehydrator reminding you of the scheduled finish time.

Have fun, and please share your results with us.

 

[DrDoob]

Some tricks I've learned:

* Leave a bit of stem attached to each bud or bud group you place in the dehydrator. This will slow the drying down just enough to make it more effective for our purposes. The stem bits can be shoved down into the grid to stabalize the buds, if you stand them like I do. I'm working on finding a way to get a bud out of the dehydrator pretty enough to win a contest.

* Always use the lowest setting.

* It seems to work well with me regardless of how the buds are stacked. I've tried smallest on top, and smallest on the bottom, and that hasn't made any difference in the end.

* Cut the centers out of a couple of the trays. In this way you get a deeper space to set the buds, so they don't get smashed at the beginning. HealthFreak purchased extra trays for mine, giving me three with open centers and four with the grids intact. This works wonderfully for drying buds.

* Always have at least four trays stacked before you run the machine. That includes the open ones, so when I set up I have two complete trays and two with centers removed, giving me two drying levels. Did that make sense?

* Make certain there's space all around the dehydrator for the air to escape.

* I'm having great success at 48 hours straight and then on to super-dried rice as a finish.

* If you're like me, set an alarm, or hang a note on the dehydrator reminding you of the scheduled finish time.

Have fun, and please share your results with us.

Awesome thanks for the tips. My outdoor stuff is quite ready but I seeded it and don't think the dehydrator will be good for the seeds, what do you think? I have a 2'x2'x2' grow tent with a 4" fan/filter that I have been using for hang drying, my plan is to put the dehydrator inside the little tent to do it's thing hopefully smell free.

 

[SweetSue]

Giving it another 15-20 minutes with the rice before bed.

I love what we do.

Goodnight everyone.

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.

 

[Troy01]

SweetSue - Can you post a picture of your racks that you have cut the centers out. I like the idea. I will definitely be buying a dehydrator for my next harvest.

 

[SweetSue]

SweetSue - Can you post a picture of your racks that you have cut the centers out. I like the idea. I will definitely be buying a dehydrator for my next harvest.

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.

 

[Troy01]

Fantastic - Great tutorial. I have to get myself one.

 

[SLHLover]

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?

 

[Slowpuffer]

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.

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.