Help me build the perfect drying closet!

paddyrahl

Member
Greetings all!

I have the good fortune of living in a state where it has been legalized (Alaska), but consistently run into the trouble of my cabin being far too dry to dry my weed as slowly as I'd like (humidity sometimes as low as in the low 20s...great for flowering, not so great for drying slowly).

Currently, I am growing Blue Dream, Cherry Bomb, Green Crack, and Tangerine Dream. I have them in 7 gallon smart pots, in pro-mix organic soil, and am using Earth Juice (I'll be mixing and "cooking" about 100lbs of organic super soil [an updated, more refined version of SubCool's recipe (no rock phosphate, for example) starting in June for use as a base for the August planting...no more fertilizer headaches, just add water!). Turns out the 7 gallon smart pots were a good call...I made the ridiculous rookie mistake of trying a new fertilizer without researching it THOROUGHLY and wound up creating some pretty unfortunate pH problems simply by following the instructions on the bottles.

You see, Earth Juice pH runs pretty low. The solution is to buy an aquarium pump and some air stones, and bubble the mixture for 24-48 hours. Anyhow, the girls are pretty much recovered now...planted in January (yep) and they've been in a tent since then. I've used LST, defoliation (clipping leaves that block branch growth sites), topping, and supercropping to create bushy, even canopies. I see no point in trying to count the number of future colas.

In two or three more weeks, once I'm certain they've recovered from the pH shock (the stems had turned red and leaves had started to yellow at the worst), I'll move them out of the tent and on to the floor in a room about 7 feet by 5 feet, where I'll have a 1000 watt HPS suspended from the ceiling and 3 trifold presentation boards with mylar carefully affixed to their surfaces facing and surrounding the girls as they flower.

All well and good.

However, the issue comes with harvest time...and that's where you come in!

I am sick and tired of the nervewracking rush and wastefulness of a dry at 20/30% humidity.

What I want to do...is buy PVC pipe, thick plastic covering, and cut a hole in the plastic sheeting at the top large enough so that the humidity equalizes at 65%. My goal is a dry for 7 days, at 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and 65% humidity. I have 3 weeks plus flowering to get this perfected.

Any advice? I'm completely willing to change my approach (meaning building materials, etc), so long as you get where I'm going with this and use the information/goals I've provided to come up with a better way of getting there. Otherwise, can anyone help me figure out where to start regarding the rate of airflow leaving the "closet", relative to the humidity being added by a humidifier inside, relative to the low humidity outside of the closet?

You may say, why go to all this trouble, just accept an inferior product or whatever...you can say that, and that's fine, but if I were interested in not having a consistent way of drying my bud perfectly harvest after harvest, I wouldn't be suggesting this in the first place. I enjoy challenges, and part of this is simply for fun and the experience, as well...so for those of you with a helpful attitude, let's do this together!

In summary: my goal is to build some sort of enclosure where I can hang my harvested bud in a way that is humidity controlled. So far, I've thought of a structure wrapped in plastic sheeting with a circular hole of yet to be determined diameter cut into the top to let out moist air (and I suppose one at the bottom to bring in dry air, huh?) generated by the humidifier inside, in such a way that a percentage of humidity is maintained at...let's say 65%, +/-...4%, depending on the humidity changes of the air outside of it?

Come on all you builders and engineers, I know you've got me on this one...=)
 

The Nine

Active Member
Greetings all!

I have the good fortune of living in a state where it has been legalized (Alaska), but consistently run into the trouble of my cabin being far too dry to dry my weed as slowly as I'd like (humidity sometimes as low as in the low 20s...great for flowering, not so great for drying slowly).

Currently, I am growing Blue Dream, Cherry Bomb, Green Crack, and Tangerine Dream. I have them in 7 gallon smart pots, in pro-mix organic soil, and am using Earth Juice (I'll be mixing and "cooking" about 100lbs of organic super soil [an updated, more refined version of SubCool's recipe (no rock phosphate, for example) starting in June for use as a base for the August planting...no more fertilizer headaches, just add water!). Turns out the 7 gallon smart pots were a good call...I made the ridiculous rookie mistake of trying a new fertilizer without researching it THOROUGHLY and wound up creating some pretty unfortunate pH problems simply by following the instructions on the bottles.

You see, Earth Juice pH runs pretty low. The solution is to buy an aquarium pump and some air stones, and bubble the mixture for 24-48 hours. Anyhow, the girls are pretty much recovered now...planted in January (yep) and they've been in a tent since then. I've used LST, defoliation (clipping leaves that block branch growth sites), topping, and supercropping to create bushy, even canopies. I see no point in trying to count the number of future colas.

In two or three more weeks, once I'm certain they've recovered from the pH shock (the stems had turned red and leaves had started to yellow at the worst), I'll move them out of the tent and on to the floor in a room about 7 feet by 5 feet, where I'll have a 1000 watt HPS suspended from the ceiling and 3 trifold presentation boards with mylar carefully affixed to their surfaces facing and surrounding the girls as they flower.

All well and good.

However, the issue comes with harvest time...and that's where you come in!

I am sick and tired of the nervewracking rush and wastefulness of a dry at 20/30% humidity.

What I want to do...is buy PVC pipe, thick plastic covering, and cut a hole in the plastic sheeting at the top large enough so that the humidity equalizes at 65%. My goal is a dry for 7 days, at 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and 65% humidity. I have 3 weeks plus flowering to get this perfected.

Any advice? I'm completely willing to change my approach (meaning building materials, etc), so long as you get where I'm going with this and use the information/goals I've provided to come up with a better way of getting there. Otherwise, can anyone help me figure out where to start regarding the rate of airflow leaving the "closet", relative to the humidity being added by a humidifier inside, relative to the low humidity outside of the closet?

You may say, why go to all this trouble, just accept an inferior product or whatever...you can say that, and that's fine, but if I were interested in not having a consistent way of drying my bud perfectly harvest after harvest, I wouldn't be suggesting this in the first place. I enjoy challenges, and part of this is simply for fun and the experience, as well...so for those of you with a helpful attitude, let's do this together!

In summary: my goal is to build some sort of enclosure where I can hang my harvested bud in a way that is humidity controlled. So far, I've thought of a structure wrapped in plastic sheeting with a circular hole of yet to be determined diameter cut into the top to let out moist air (and I suppose one at the bottom to bring in dry air, huh?) generated by the humidifier inside, in such a way that a percentage of humidity is maintained at...let's say 65%, +/-...4%, depending on the humidity changes of the air outside of it?

Come on all you builders and engineers, I know you've got me on this one...=)
What are the temps here?
20- 30% humidity is lovely bud time, you could have huge colas risk free there mate :)

A sealed environment will equalibrialise if in it is placed material of a higher or lower humidity. The relative temperature will also have a significant effect. I think taking readings of the natural environment where you plan to stage this drying room is critical to understanding the requirements.

If you place a temperature/humidity reader in the area and keep recording the differences in a 24 hour period over, then over several days to record any fluctuations. This will give you a clear understanding of your parameters and requirements.

There are many ways to control an environment for temps and humidity. How much you want to spend and how much time and effort are you willing to put in?

How much bud are you estimating drying each time?
 

RM3

Well-Known Member
Greetings all!

I have the good fortune of living in a state where it has been legalized (Alaska), but consistently run into the trouble of my cabin being far too dry to dry my weed as slowly as I'd like (humidity sometimes as low as in the low 20s...great for flowering, not so great for drying slowly).

Currently, I am growing Blue Dream, Cherry Bomb, Green Crack, and Tangerine Dream. I have them in 7 gallon smart pots, in pro-mix organic soil, and am using Earth Juice (I'll be mixing and "cooking" about 100lbs of organic super soil [an updated, more refined version of SubCool's recipe (no rock phosphate, for example) starting in June for use as a base for the August planting...no more fertilizer headaches, just add water!). Turns out the 7 gallon smart pots were a good call...I made the ridiculous rookie mistake of trying a new fertilizer without researching it THOROUGHLY and wound up creating some pretty unfortunate pH problems simply by following the instructions on the bottles.

You see, Earth Juice pH runs pretty low. The solution is to buy an aquarium pump and some air stones, and bubble the mixture for 24-48 hours. Anyhow, the girls are pretty much recovered now...planted in January (yep) and they've been in a tent since then. I've used LST, defoliation (clipping leaves that block branch growth sites), topping, and supercropping to create bushy, even canopies. I see no point in trying to count the number of future colas.

In two or three more weeks, once I'm certain they've recovered from the pH shock (the stems had turned red and leaves had started to yellow at the worst), I'll move them out of the tent and on to the floor in a room about 7 feet by 5 feet, where I'll have a 1000 watt HPS suspended from the ceiling and 3 trifold presentation boards with mylar carefully affixed to their surfaces facing and surrounding the girls as they flower.

All well and good.

However, the issue comes with harvest time...and that's where you come in!

I am sick and tired of the nervewracking rush and wastefulness of a dry at 20/30% humidity.

What I want to do...is buy PVC pipe, thick plastic covering, and cut a hole in the plastic sheeting at the top large enough so that the humidity equalizes at 65%. My goal is a dry for 7 days, at 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and 65% humidity. I have 3 weeks plus flowering to get this perfected.

Any advice? I'm completely willing to change my approach (meaning building materials, etc), so long as you get where I'm going with this and use the information/goals I've provided to come up with a better way of getting there. Otherwise, can anyone help me figure out where to start regarding the rate of airflow leaving the "closet", relative to the humidity being added by a humidifier inside, relative to the low humidity outside of the closet?

You may say, why go to all this trouble, just accept an inferior product or whatever...you can say that, and that's fine, but if I were interested in not having a consistent way of drying my bud perfectly harvest after harvest, I wouldn't be suggesting this in the first place. I enjoy challenges, and part of this is simply for fun and the experience, as well...so for those of you with a helpful attitude, let's do this together!

In summary: my goal is to build some sort of enclosure where I can hang my harvested bud in a way that is humidity controlled. So far, I've thought of a structure wrapped in plastic sheeting with a circular hole of yet to be determined diameter cut into the top to let out moist air (and I suppose one at the bottom to bring in dry air, huh?) generated by the humidifier inside, in such a way that a percentage of humidity is maintained at...let's say 65%, +/-...4%, depending on the humidity changes of the air outside of it?

Come on all you builders and engineers, I know you've got me on this one...=)
I invented a fermentation chamber years ago that controls temp, humidity, air flow but since it is a chapter in one of my books I don't share it openly here (or anywhere) but I will tell ya that I adjust the temp to be 4 points above ambient and keep the RH between 55 & 60 basically it is a giant jar that burps itself 8)
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
I use a room that stays in the 60-65% range for drying and works well to extend the dry. I can also bump it up a bit if I need to hold them for a bit until I have the time to trim. Sounds like you'll need a humidifier for sure and either a built-in or external humidistat to control when it goes on/off.

The reason that room stays in that range is I have a veg cabinet in there that exhausts into the room and helps maintain the high RH. Any chance you can exhaust one of your rooms/tents (veg?) into the drying room?
 
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