Curing - Cvault and Boveda packet review journal

So recently, after a mediocre attempt at curing I posted a thread to pick everyone's brains about curing and got a lot of useful information. Now I am going to try and put what I learned into practice on my most recent crop of Purple Diesel I cut down yesterday. I will be comparing different curing techniques and sharing my results with any who wish to follow. In particular, I am curious as to the usefulness of the Cvault storage humidifier and the Boveda 62% humidity packets.

This time around I got some new equipment:

- large mason jars
- Cvault 4-liter
- hygrometer
- Boveda 62% humidity packets

What I learned last time is that I put my flowers into jars too early, leaving the buds with a grassy taste.

I hung the plants up in branches with about a "3/4 trim".

This time I will be drying longer, until the stem fully snaps, before putting the flowers into jars. Afterwards I will no longer have to guess about my dryness with the hygrometer. And after the burping process, I will be using Boveda packets to maintain the desired 62% RH.

* I will be splitting up my crop between the mason jars with the Boveda packets and the Cvault system to see if there is a noticeable difference.

I've included a picture of the Purple Diesel I took with my phone.

Hopefully my experience will be useful to some of you.

I just purchased an HD camera so stay tuned for some sweet curing picks.

I will post when the go into jars and start the humidity logging.

Im looking forward too seeing how you like the cvault, looks really nice. I was recently turned on too the boveda packs, been using the 8 gram packets in 1/2g mason jars. I hang for 3 or 4 days and straight too jars with the boveda. Its been a month in the jars with the boveda and the taste and smell is fantastic. Im looking forward too seeing the humidity logging, i don't yet use a humidity meter, remember too let us know your ambient RH too. That nug is looking good!

I am at five month's of curing my last harvest with Bovedas and the same process of drying / burping.

They have performed excellent and I hope you have similar results. I just replaced the packs with fresh.

Good point RPM the ambient Rh in my climate this time year is about 50% +/- 3%, with high temps in the mid 80s and lows in the high 50s.

And Prosperian, I definitely remember you. Your easier to undertand version of SimoneD's curing guidelines, and introducing me to Boveda is a lot of what inspired me make this thread, so thank you. Much props to your masterful curing. Please post your process again for this thread. It's very helpful.

They've been drying for 2 days. Not much to report. They smell like gasoline!!! (in a good way)

Okay, so here is an update for my curing log.

I finished drying my plants yesterday afternoon and have put the buds into jars. After the first burping the humidity is holding at 67% so I figure I have about another week of burping to get the jars to hold at 62%, at which point I will use either the Cvault, or the Boveda packs.

I have put a small dehumidifier in the area where the jars are being stored because the ambient humidity in my area has spiked big time. Today is a rainy summer day and the ambient humidity is 67%, which means if I want those jars to get below 67%, I'm going to need some help.

All in all everything is going really well. The smell and color are great. I've tried a little; it tastes great and it's strong too!

So far so good.

Learning as we go is a huge part of all this, and I have recently learned a couple of things: first off, recommendations for lengths of time to burp your jars are really just shots in the dark, and secondly, you can have vastly different RH levels within THE SAME HOUSE.

What does this mean? Basically it means you NEED a hygrometer!!! They cost $15.

So most recommendations say you want to burp your jars for about 2-4 hours... Well, is that in Washington or Arizona? Summer or Winter? In a bathroom cabinet or a garden shed? My point; all these variables will greatly change what happens in a particular length of time and you can't rely on generalizations.

For example I live in WA, and even under the driest conditions the best I can ask for is a drop of 1% per hour when jars are open. This means if I'm at 66% and I'm looking for <62%, it will take a minimum of 4 hours. I imagine people in Arizona have much different results.

Again, get a hygrometer.

I found my RH in the jars seemed to hit a wall and wasn't getting any lower after a certain point when I was burping them in an available cabinet. A cabinet seems like the perfect place right? It's dark, cool, clean, and it closes. Perfect, right? Wrong. A cabinet is essentially a food storage device, not unlike a jar, and although it isn't air tight, it does keep things fresh. So a cabinet is a terrible place to let things dry out, if that is your goal.

So after using my hygrometer around different locations around my house I settled on under a couch in my living room. It seems weird I suppose but it's cool, it's dark, and most importantly, it's DRY! Not the most obvious choice but a cheap tool and some simple experimentation has led me to believe it's the best choice for me. What's yours.

If you don't have a hygrometer already, get one.

I'm in WA as well and today the humidity outside is 89%!! I am on day three of drying and the humidity was 78 where my pot is drying. I've gotten it down some but was thinking of other ways to reduce it. I bought some Boveda packs but most people it seems use them to rehydrate but not bring down the rh. Any ideas? It's funny as I was afraid of humidity being low and it being hot until today

subd

I have about 7-14 days before chopping and will deffinately need some heads up on the curing process.

Shortybus

Yes, the days when we have those super high Rh are tricky. I posted a separate thread about exactly that a few weeks ago and learned a couple of things. Using a fan to circulate air over the tops of your jars can help bring down the humidity during burping, this helps a lot. I was afraid it would somehow have negative effects on the color or smell but there was no problem. Also, I found Boveda packs did help shorten the burping time, it by no means eliminates it though. Lastly, spend some time in your house finding the driest spot, it might not be where you'd expect. Do you have a hygrometer yet?

Are they all finished and turn out good?

Yes they have turned themselves into excellent smoke. I will post pictures this evening and give my preliminary review of the Cvault. Spoiler alert: I am not impressed with the Cvault

Subscribed. Thanks for putting up the side by side comparison.

yeppers, much appreciated here too.

Here are my pics... if anyone has any pointers on taking close ups I'd love to hear them. I'm quite happy with these results, it is by far my best. They smell and taste great, quite pleasant. More then anything I think I owe it to having a hygrometer. I know I have been plugging this quite a bit but why anyone wouldn't want one is beyond me. I realized that when I thought it was "dry" before, I turned out to be way off.
The Boveda packets definitely are worth it at about $1 a piece. I feel like it help even out the drying and curing process leaving a more consistent result. I basically have no shake, at least very little. Even the small nugs held their shape.
As far as the Cvault... meh. It's pretty pricey at about $60 shipped for the 4 liter model, good for about a QP, and as best I can tell, it does exactly the same thing a jar with a Boveda packet in it. I haven't made up my mind on this completely. I just cut down some more purple diesels yesterday and I am going to give it another try... but so far I would not recommend running out and buying a Cvault. And maybe I'm crazy but I swear it smelled slightly different. I can't call this one yet, there are too many variables.

As a conclusion: for someone who has only cured a couple of times, I think the information I picked up on RIU really pointed me in the right direction. The most important tip I got was to let your plants dry completely before putting them in jars. This seems to be the key in getting the smell right. I don't think I ever would have gotten it right without the hygrometer either. What was recommended to be 2 hour burping times, turned out to be 4-6 hour burping times for me. If I had simply followed a generic formula my flowers never would have completely dried out and entered the curing process. I hope to do even better next time. Hopefully the bumbling attempts of a rookie like me will help some of you out there.