Harvestright freeze dryer for weed? Done and cured in a day!

Hi, Just registered after viewing this thread. My freeze dryer is on back order for a few more weeks and unfortunately my harvest is about ready. I know with our raspberries and strawberry crops we are placing them in our chest freezer (in plastic bags) ahead of time so when the Harvest Right arrives we can spread then out on the trays and eliminate the pre-freeze cycle. Can you also put fresh cannabis buds in a standard freezer a few weeks before running through the freeze dryer? I expect that no one has really tried this before but anyone have a more educated guess that I have?

I noticed that someone already asked my question a couple posts above with no response so far. Anyone have ideas on this? Thanks
 
My first try at freeze drying starts tonight. I’m using the default 9hrs freeze and 7hrs dry cycle for this session, and hopefully all goes well. So at about 8 tonight my Barney’s Farm LSD went in for the cycle and should finish roughly by noon tomorrow. I will then take my buds and place in a paper bag afterwards to regain some of its moisture for probably 2hrs (videos show 1-4hrs might be needed) Anyways it’s happening and will try to have my report on my experience tomorrow with the dry and the high.

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Ok I haven’t tried but here is what they look like when they came out at 12:30 today. Have them in a paper bag and will check on them in a couple of hours but early weight was 140g but paper bag weight wasn’t removed. They crumble and feel like styrofoam peanuts.

UPDATE 1 Hour later
Still needs time in the paper bag to regain some moisture but HOLY SHIT DOES IT SMELL! I was out playing ball with the dogs during that time. Came back inside and the whole house is just smelling like crazy. Will probably need another couple hours before I jar it
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MiOutdoorsman said:
Interesting for sure. Seems like commercial grows would do this to speed up finished product
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It really wouldn't speed up anything in a commercial grow.

How large or how many of these machines would I need to do the 109 plants cut and hung yesterday?
How long would it take to process those 109 plants?
How many people would I need to 'operate' the equipment?
How much money would I spend to get them up and running?
And, how much more money would I get for the finished product?

Without knowing the answers to all these questions, just thinking about it, I don't think it would pencil out for a commercial operation.
 
So i left them in for roughly 3 hours before jarring. In the end I had 117g of bud, or roughly 72% weight loss. They still feel like styrofoam and easily crumble in your hands, but the taste is strong on my vaporizer with a clean stem and a hell of a smooth smoke. I still used a grinder for the bud and the kief leftover is amazing. The high starts at the head like a nice scarf tied around it, happy, relaxed and blues pop, Green subdued and red becomes intense. High comes in waves after the first hour or use but I can’t wait to watch a movie on my projector soon

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Auggie said:
It really wouldn't speed up anything in a commercial grow.

How large or how many of these machines would I need to do the 109 plants cut and hung yesterday?
How long would it take to process those 109 plants?
How many people would I need to 'operate' the equipment?
How much money would I spend to get them up and running?
And, how much more money would I get for the finished product?

Without knowing the answers to all these questions, just thinking about it, I don't think it would pencil out for a commercial operation.
Click to expand...

Not from Harvest Right but there are a few industrial size units for commercial growers but cost a ton of money. Looking, I found one that can process 1100lbs of cannabis in 24-36hours and would only set you back $762K (plus tax) Thats the biggest model they sell but they also have several smaller/cheaper ones too. Not like this machine didn’t do the same with my family but it was bought mainly for food preserve in a non doomsday preppier way. You trim, wash and throw on the tray and the machine does the rest until you bag and jar your product. The product comes out looking like a millions bucks in comparison to hung dried weed by colour and size alone. The eye candy can make it come off as premium AAAA+ weed every time. It will also take away any worry of any mold developing during your dry phase too. It’s just the trimming that’s taking my times, but industrial businesses can afford trimming machines too. It’s like you would only need a handful of people to really harvest it all that way. So labor costs would be much lower too, and thus saving you a ton of money over the long haul
 
Ok my last push of this thread. Decided to bring out my digital microscope and take some closeups of the trichomes, and they look pretty. Probably could of let them go a couple more days but still great.


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fanleaf said:
That's just it. I cannot remember what I had the times set for. Yes, it can over dry quick so it needs to be checked pretty often until a system is working. I know doing it seems to preserve all terpenes for sure. I've never had such terpy weed. That part of it's great, it does lack some what you get in a long slow cure though.
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Video is private...cant view it bro
 
420inthehead said:
Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I have to say after read so few articles about drying/curing flower with a freeze dryer I broke down and bought one to test out. If I could get cured flower in 24 hours, it might be worth it. (Of course its main purpose of the machine will be preserve home grown fruits and veg... otherwise the wife would not have been so happy with the price tag).

As a test, I cut flowers fresh from the plant, put them directly into the freeze dryer. Ran the machine for 26 hours. After a quick rest in a humidor, the buds were stable at 55-57%RH. They were perfectly preserved. Bright colors. Not as bright as fresh but much brighter than traditionally dried/cured. The aroma is powerful. No grassy notes at all. Smells like the most potent stuff you've ever had.

If you run a batch of nice flowers through the machine at the default temps/times/vacuum level, you will get over dried, grassy, completely freeze dried flower. Set the machine up correctly, you can have the most amazing stuff you've ever had. Buds do not shrink all.
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Good Morning I just purchased a harvestright Medium dryer and would like to know what is the best custom settings for drying buds.
 
420inthehead said:
My first test was a tray of indica buds. They came out the exact same size as they went in. I post some pics when I do another batch next week. I ordered the Pharmaceutical Freeze dryer unit with 7 shelves. I didn't realize that the shelves were so close together when I ordered it. There is no space for medium/larger buds. I had to trim the colas into smaller individual buds because they simply are too big to fit in the pharmaceutical shelves. So I ordered another shelf system (The medium Home version's shelves). They will be here in a few days. I thought I could customize how many shelves there are. (Stackable). You can't They are riveted together and also hardwired with heaters on each shelf. Since cannabis flowers are so delicate, I don't think that having the larger size flowers will affect drying time/temps, but I'll know soon enough. People are blown away by the final results.... I am too. best purchase ever. The only con about the Freeze Dryer is the vacuum pump. You have to change the pump oil every time you use it. Kind of a pain in the butt. I'm going to build a oil filter system that will filter the oil while the pump is running and also filter out the water/moisture.
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I bought the Medium size harvestright freeze dryer. But I do not know what is the best customized settings for bud and I also bought the oil-free pump. Any help would be appreciated to custom set my machine so I can avoid over dryer buds.
 
Still trying to figure out mine for a custom setting. I just leave it on the default setting and let her run. I never went the entire full dry cycle, but was usually around 17-20hrs from start to finish. Ran longer for some buds I had to freeze ahead of time because I couldn’t fit everything in at once. So I had bud washed them, salad spinner away the extra moisture, tossed in paper bag and into the freezer until I was ready for another round. They will come out like styrofoam but a few hours in a paper bag will reconstitute some moisture back into the buds too. I’ve done some buds in jars with and without Boveda 62% packs (mostly without) and seem to make some softer like my LSD, but my American Pie got real tight and had a heftier feel to them. so far the default seem to be working ok for me, but try not to get the buds to touch the elements. (LSD outdoor, GLOOKIES which might of touched some of the element, and Blue Dream outside clone) All done using the default setting for again the 17-20hr mark, but would love to find a definite weed default setting.

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420inthehead said:
Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I have to say after read so few articles about drying/curing flower with a freeze dryer I broke down and bought one to test out. If I could get cured flower in 24 hours, it might be worth it. (Of course its main purpose of the machine will be preserve home grown fruits and veg... otherwise the wife would not have been so happy with the price tag).

As a test, I cut flowers fresh from the plant, put them directly into the freeze dryer. Ran the machine for 26 hours. After a quick rest in a humidor, the buds were stable at 55-57%RH. They were perfectly preserved. Bright colors. Not as bright as fresh but much brighter than traditionally dried/cured. The aroma is powerful. No grassy notes at all. Smells like the most potent stuff you've ever had.

If you run a batch of nice flowers through the machine at the default temps/times/vacuum level, you will get over dried, grassy, completely freeze dried flower. Set the machine up correctly, you can have the most amazing stuff you've ever had. Buds do not shrink all.
Click to expand...
What to set the freeze dryer to customize settings
 
SmokyMay said:
Awesome video and results. There’s very little information out there on freeze drying cannabis. And that video was 2 years ago, I think. What times did you set your freeze and dry for? Did you turn the temperature down? Our first batch was dried too long. But we were able to save it.
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Video says its private how can i view it?
 
fanleaf said:
Well, I tried it. What I will say is that I will be doing it again for sure. While it's dried to the right amount the colors and the smell are still just like when I chopped it down. So far it's very promising. I even made a short video of the result.
Click to expand...
Can you post video up of you doing the curing in the harvestright please
 
Auggie said:
It really wouldn't speed up anything in a commercial grow.

How large or how many of these machines would I need to do the 109 plants cut and hung yesterday?
How long would it take to process those 109 plants?
How many people would I need to 'operate' the equipment?
How much money would I spend to get them up and running?
And, how much more money would I get for the finished product?

Without knowing the answers to all these questions, just thinking about it, I don't think it would pencil out for a commercial operation.
Click to expand...
Btw they make machines specifically for a commercial harvest. IE machine is better set programmed wise for cannabis. Can get sized machines to do up to 1200 lbs at a time. Cryocure is one of these machine manufactures. Makes I think two machines one that does 30-60lbs and one that does 600-1200lbs. They also can make custom machines for the end user. So yes in short it is very viable for a commercial
Operation. Just got back Denver a few weeks ago and stopped in to Rare Dankness. They use a feeeze drying method for the end product. I picked up a few 8th from them just to sample what can be done. Major game changer imho.
 
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