Drying/Curing in cold weather

As title says... Looking for any good tips for drying/curing up in the states where its cold.

Where i am we are seeing teens at best and negatives at night right now. windchills up to -30. My setup is located in the basement. Tent regulated fine at 75 lights on and 70 lights off. I have the basement heated and stays around 60-70 pending weather outside and if house heat is running. ( we supplement with elec heat over propane house heater to save on propane when we can )

I chopped 2 plants down and my problem is dealing with the temps and humidity for drying. my humidity is 25-35% right now in my home due to the weather outside. I chopped 1 plant on wednesday and she was ready to jar last nite. During the day she still felt moist, but then when i checked about 8 hours later they almost seemed to dry. I am following GanjaLuvrs stickied how to. The buds where dry on outside and stem bends but DOESNT BREAK.

Jar'd them up and went to burp this morning and they did retain their moisture again, but my buds dont seem to be as dense as they where fresh, and have lost their citrusy smell to them ( random bag seeds ). They seem a bit airy now, not hard/dense like it was fresh. Is this due to the humidity?

I at least know that I didnt over dry since they are still pulling moisture from the centers, but im worried my humidity here with the low temps may affect my curing.

Any tips would be great for us people suffering in the cold right now! ( only nice tihng is the cool temps made some of my buds go purple lol )

Thanks!

I dry in temps of 45-60F with humidity somewhere around where yours is at. I like it. If you have to dry in lower humidity, a lower temp can really slow down the drying process, which is good. At the really low temps they dry so slow I will often have to bring them in the house to help them along. What I don't want to see with cooler drying temps is a high humidity level because mold control becomes a larger issue.

It is normal for your wonderful harvest smell to go away as the dry time goes on. If the weed is good it will come back strong as the moisture content drops closer to equilibrium (55-60%ish). You just have to keep burping and be patient. If they feel really damp after jarring, put them in a paper bag for a few hours until the outside starts to feel a little crisp again. Repeat as needed.

thanks bugeye!

I like to read alot and make sure im doing everything right the first time, and ive been reading alot about certian humidities. I dont have hygrometers for my jars yet so thats why i was a bit concerned but i am doing the 12/4 burping cycle.

Another thing i forgot to ask about was how come i lost some density in the bud? seemed to become slightly airy.

And should these hang dry in a sealed area or can i use something like my grow tent and leave my carbon scrubber running to keep from smelling up. I currently have them hanging in my old DIY tent i made with a fan 12" away outside the tent down by the intake opening. very small amount of air pressure coming out the top exhuast hole. Not sure if my drying setup affects anything as well.

thanks yal!

crawlintbss said:

Another thing i forgot to ask about was how come i lost some density in the bud? seemed to become slightly airy.

And should these hang dry in a sealed area or can i use something like my grow tent and leave my carbon scrubber running to keep from smelling up. I currently have them hanging in my old DIY tent i made with a fan 12" away outside the tent down by the intake opening. very small amount of air pressure coming out the top exhuast hole. Not sure if my drying setup affects anything as well.

thanks yal!

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You are on the right track imo. I'm getting ready to harvest again soon myself. I've tried all sorts of drying/curing techniques, and have had good success. I believe the dry/cure is just as important as the grow. I've tried Tent drying, rack drying, paper bags, boveda packs, you name it. The idea I keep in my head is that you want to dry slowly, over a longer period of time, which is technically a cure. I dry for a couple of days, in an enclosed space, like a tent (to boost humidity) because here in CO in the winter the humidity is only like 18%. I try to acheive a humidity of about 50-60% if possible for like 4-5 days. I wait until the outside gets fairly crispy then jar it. When it gets all wet again, I will take out and either air dry it, or put it all in a paper bag (depending on room rh). Basically I let it crisp, then jar it and it might get wet, then take it out, let it dry, then jar again, etc. until I can put it in a jar and the rh is naturally around 58% consistently. It's like a wet>dry>wet>dry>wet >dry cycle until it does not really get wet anymore after I jar it. I use paper bags and jars to achieve a nice natural rh. If I store long term, I'll add 1x 8g boveda 62 pack pack to 1.5-2oz jarred bud to keep the rh consistent over a long period of time. If it dries too fast, it loses most/all taste and smell, and if it's too wet, it will get mold. Have to find that happy medium!