Question about drying time

So I have a clone that I'm getting ready to cut down and was wondering what I should be watching out for in terms of drying time.

My first plant, that I harvested last year, finished ok but I ended up drying it too long some of it had that hay/grassy smell to it. Most of it went into edibles but I've dried a few others since then and I'm having trouble finding a sweet spot for how long the drying should be. I dry on the branch and tried to wait for the branches to snap easier but also notice the bud would put out that chlorophyll smell since it's breaking down I'm assuming.

My RH is fairly low at around 44% in this area so is it safer in that regard to cut the bud off, trim, jar it up immediately and burp as necessary? Or is the few days of drying on a rack required to make sure no mold grows? I'm still trying to learn the feel for what properly dried bud is but it seems like an easy window to miss for my area.

Hay smell is from cutting too early or bad genetics for smell, but most of the time its cutting too early.

Dont wait for the stems to snap. Read up a bit and youll find that tip is not a great one.

When i chop i take the buds right off the stem and trim to finished on the spot then i dry them onn screens for 4 to 5 days. I jar them at that point and they do get a bit of the hay smell but once they have spent 24 hours in the jars that disappears because they are still at about 70-75 % humidity in the jars.

And here is the unfun part. You have to keep a close eye on that humidity with a hygrometer (10 bux at a cigar shop). If they are over 70% i dump them out onto the screens for a few hours then back in the jars. Repeat until under 65%.

I tried those Boveda humidity packs. They suck... dont work as advertised at all...

Yea I have a bit of a hard time figuring out the right time to bottle them up. I've dried them while still attached to the main branches so I could do the bend test but I'm guessing the "bendy" category for stems refers more to the greener parts and not the fibrous main branches.

I'll be trying to dry for a few days and then jar them up. I have a couple hygrometers from my cigar boxes that I'll be using to check them every few hours.

Dry until the "small stems snap" not the big ones, that's the problem with that statement. I feel that the hay/plant smell comes from not drying long enough because i was getting the hay/plant smell but after taking the buds off the stems when i thought they were dry enough I left the stems sit around and once the stems fully dried they reaked like skunk, so i feel that the hay/planty smell comes from not drying enough

Hygrometer will def help, you'll probably see that you aren't drying long enough before jarring.

Get a hygrometer bro. It can be tricky to dry and cure if you run multiple genotypes that you aren't familiar with. Hell I've had some shit that smelt the same from harvest to cure and ive had shit go from grass to gas in 4 weeks.

Gquebed said:

I tried those Boveda humidity packs. They suck... dont work as advertised at all...

Click to expand...

They work just fine, but they release and absorb humidity at a very slow rate. If i have one that is almost dry, i put it in a masons jar with some distilled water for 4-6 weeks, sometimes longer, to recharge it. Its very slow. They will release moisture faster than they absorb it though. They're made to maintain moisture, nothing more.

driel said:

Yea I have a bit of a hard time figuring out the right time to bottle them up. I've dried them while still attached to the main branches so I could do the bend test but I'm guessing the "bendy" category for stems refers more to the greener parts and not the fibrous main branches.

I'll be trying to dry for a few days and then jar them up. I have a couple hygrometers from my cigar boxes that I'll be using to check them every few hours.

Click to expand...

Gquebed said:

Dont wait for the stems to snap. Read up a bit and youll find that tip is not a great one.

When i chop i take the buds right off the stem and trim to finished on the spot then i dry them onn screens for 4 to 5 days. I jar them at that point and they do get a bit of the hay smell but once they have spent 24 hours in the jars that disappears because they are still at about 70-75 % humidity in the jars.

And here is the unfun part. You have to keep a close eye on that humidity with a hygrometer (10 bux at a cigar shop). If they are over 70% i dump them out onto the screens for a few hours then back in the jars. Repeat until under 65%.

I tried those Boveda humidity packs. They suck... dont work as advertised at all...

Click to expand...

Did you use the right size boveda? Works everytime....for me

xmatox said:

Did you use the right size boveda? Works everytime....for me

Click to expand...

I used the 8gr packs in 1.5 qt/lt jars. Is that not right?

Gquebed said:

I used the 8gr packs in 1.5 qt/lt jars. Is that not right?

Click to expand...

That seems right to me, what % pack did you purchase? Did you just dry, then put it in without burping?

xmatox said:

That seems right to me, what % pack did you purchase? Did you just dry, then put it in without burping?

Click to expand...

The bud went in the jars and i burped down to 65% ish... some jars were as low as 60% ...

then i put the packs....

Monitored for a couple days with the hygros and none stayed at 62...

hmm interesting you do what I do when I use them. Where you using the 62% packs? Or a different % perhaps?

Gquebed said:

The bud went in the jars and i burped down to 65% ish... some jars were as low as 60% ...

then i put the packs....

Monitored for a couple days with the hygros and none stayed at 62...

Click to expand...

I will say though, I do prefer to control the RH myself vs. letting boveda have all the fun.

xmatox said:

hmm interesting you do what I do when I use them. Where you using the 62% packs? Or a different % perhaps?

Click to expand...

No...they were all 62s

Gquebed said:

No...they were all 62s

Click to expand...

Damn, how interesting. I stand corrected then... just haven't seen it fail. Cheers!

Like I think I mentioned, I use them mostly for cigars, which I open only about 1 time per week, so it has more time to stabilize. Maybe that's why I have better results.

I trust them with over a thousand dollars in cigars. I'll have to drop a pack of 8g 62%s with a hygro in my jars when i finish the 2ish week cure and see how they work for me.

Gquebed said:

Dont wait for the stems to snap. Read up a bit and youll find that tip is not a great one.

When i chop i take the buds right off the stem and trim to finished on the spot then i dry them onn screens for 4 to 5 days. I jar them at that point and they do get a bit of the hay smell but once they have spent 24 hours in the jars that disappears because they are still at about 70-75 % humidity in the jars.

And here is the unfun part. You have to keep a close eye on that humidity with a hygrometer (10 bux at a cigar shop). If they are over 70% i dump them out onto the screens for a few hours then back in the jars. Repeat until under 65%.

I tried those Boveda humidity packs. They suck... dont work as advertised at all...

Click to expand...

Boveda's rock... However, once the salt solution is saturated it won't absorb more... You are better off using a desiccant or just burping... The Boveda's come into play once you reach the RH% you want to maintain also there is no buffer in a jar besides the herb... So, normally people would use Cedar (Buffer, slow releasing), desiccant(medium speed buffer), and bovedas(RH control) for their cigars... The right amount and size boveda's should take about 24 hours in a a small air tight spot, but you have to remember there is a normalization process where the moisture has to be absorbed by whatever other materials and the exchange... Relative Humidity equalization doesn't always happen overnight... So, if you did a coolador setup ( coleman cooler) and put some cedar or cigar boxes in there and a 12 pack of bovedas in...
for example




I have that chest at 69 bovedas, with an outside RH that sticks below 30%, however inside it is floating around 70-71(hygrometer drift, and cigars). It would be easier if you had a cooler already setup at 60% with a buffer(desiccant, cedar, etc, etc) and take whatever you are using and put it in that environment.... Rather than have a space with no buffer, and a low relative humidity and expect it to equalize quickly, the buffer is probably the herb...

You could easily have a drying rack out of a thermo electric cooler like the wineadors using an active desiccant system



So in the 3rd drawer down I have 2 PC fans running with desiccant so the air is moving in a sealed environment which helps equalize the relative humidity and keeps it even throughout ( thermo electric cooling can create temp differences inside that need to be evened out).. You could easily do something similar as a curing box...

I like my herb cured for 3+ months depending on strain ( It gets tasty at 6 months, however your thc is breaking down)... Most medium to full cigars I like 3-5 years and full vacuumed sealed in the deep freeze (50°) for 10-12 years... Don't think people these days are saying I need to let my herb mellow, so I can experience the more subtle profiles

That's a nice setup. Do you have cigars and bud all in the same wine cooler?

driel said:

That's a nice setup. Do you have cigars and bud all in the same wine cooler?

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If you put Bud in with Cedar for 3 months it is going to have a smell or taste of cedar.. It compliments cigars, however I would use a less fragrant wood as a buffer and metal screen racks... Now if you have a piney or spicy strain then cedar would compliment it... That is if you are a purist type... The guy that does the drawers etc is a master cabinet maker, and they are similar to works of art the wood work it is all dove tailed, inlaid etc and he will select wood that the grain goes together for the drawer fronts etc.. wineadors.com takes a couple of months though because the guy is literally working out of his garage as a side deal... However, the craftsmanship is awesome... If you are a classy smoker and want beautiful drying drawers lol...

Yea that's what I was curious about, I have a couple 50 count boxes and the spanish cedar has a strong smell to it.