Drying in a fridge

Rwomen

Well-Known Member
Just to add, I'm doing nowt special. It's a bog standard fridge with a few bits/pieces for me (no stinking fruit or veg anywhere in house let alone fridge).

I'm gonna do it like curing. Take all out of fridge once per day, open bags for 5 mins, re-peg, stick back in fridge.

If it works...Great. if it doesn't, I'll just be vaping bad weed for a few months. Don't nobody else get any of it (and will have other 2 plants dried/cured as normal).

But hope it does work as it's less labour intensive. If there was an award for laziness, I'd send someone to pick it up for me.

Will report back in new year as harvested on Fri/Sat 10/11th Dec.
How are things going with the fridge dry?
 

Apostatize

Well-Known Member
In a frost-free fridge, would you still see differences in dry times/quality that you see in hanging whole plant v. cut up sections v. smaller pieces v. (a worse option) nugs on mesh? Fridge adds time to drying? I guess you'd have to see which size plant/branches/tops would work best drying by frost-free fridge.

Interesting, you might have one fridge for drying and one for jars. Article suggests a freezer for jars. Wow. Hmm. I'd just be so pissed if it ruined my bud. So mad.

Portable ACs work well enough but, depending on the room/house (size/age/condition), a fridge should be easier to control.
 

Rwomen

Well-Known Member
I wish ""Oucheeeeee"" would of got back to us on this one.
I'll be choppin' in a day or two. I'm thinking I want to try :weed:
 

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
The unit I built worked remarkably well tbh, I dried half of one pheno my usual way at 16-18c 60rh with ac infinity exhaust and inkbird controlling humidifier and it was ready at day 15. The other half went in the fridge at 9-12c with 62rh and it took around 20 days before it was at the point where I’d usually jar.

I can post up some side by side pics but appearance wise there isn’t much difference, I would say that the buds dried in the fridge shrunk less but not by much.

now for quality, the fridge dried buds are miles better smelling, much more depth to it terps profile wise, definitely more candy and fruit smell. When it comes to taste the difference isn’t huge but certainly noticeable. The strain seems to be a pretty nice tasting cultivar regardless of how I dried it. I would say maybe a creamier and again deeper experience came from the fridge.

Both methods produced a clean smooth white ash burning smoke, there is little to no difference at all, now both samples have been curing in the fridge since the day the traditional method buds were ready to be jarred.

I will be continuing to use this method for the buds I personally smoke but I can only fit around 15 oz of wet buds in the unit so I may still hang dry the excess for rso or freeze for hash.

the unit lends itself well to curing/storage aswell as it dries imo. It’s super handy not having to burpjars too and I like that I don’t need to mess on creating the ideal environment in which to burp the jars.

All in all the experiment was a success and there were no mold or bacteria problems at all.

hopefully I’ve inspired one or two of you to give low temp drying a try, next time I build a unit I’ll be trying to get my temps lower again and hopefully it’ll be something where I can fit a whole harvest in. But for now I’m happy with the results from my diy cannatrol wine fridge haha
 

Rwomen

Well-Known Member
The unit I built worked remarkably well tbh, I dried half of one pheno my usual way at 16-18c 60rh with ac infinity exhaust and inkbird controlling humidifier and it was ready at day 15. The other half went in the fridge at 9-12c with 62rh and it took around 20 days before it was at the point where I’d usually jar.

I can post up some side by side pics but appearance wise there isn’t much difference, I would say that the buds dried in the fridge shrunk less but not by much.

now for quality, the fridge dried buds are miles better smelling, much more depth to it terps profile wise, definitely more candy and fruit smell. When it comes to taste the difference isn’t huge but certainly noticeable. The strain seems to be a pretty nice tasting cultivar regardless of how I dried it. I would say maybe a creamier and again deeper experience came from the fridge.

Both methods produced a clean smooth white ash burning smoke, there is little to no difference at all, now both samples have been curing in the fridge since the day the traditional method buds were ready to be jarred.

I will be continuing to use this method for the buds I personally smoke but I can only fit around 15 oz of wet buds in the unit so I may still hang dry the excess for rso or freeze for hash.

the unit lends itself well to curing/storage aswell as it dries imo. It’s super handy not having to burpjars too and I like that I don’t need to mess on creating the ideal environment in which to burp the jars.

All in all the experiment was a success and there were no mold or bacteria problems at all.

hopefully I’ve inspired one or two of you to give low temp drying a try, next time I build a unit I’ll be trying to get my temps lower again and hopefully it’ll be something where I can fit a whole harvest in. But for now I’m happy with the results from my diy cannatrol wine fridge haha
OK, I'm in. Just to be sure:
Around 20 days for it to dry,
about how many more days
under the same conditions do
you leave in fridge to be cured?
 

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
OK, I'm in. Just to be sure:
Around 20 days for it to dry,
about how many more days
under the same conditions do
you leave in fridge to be cured?
It’s still in there. The environment is totally self regulated, I open it to fill a jar every other day, and I keep the unit in a grow tent that contains a humidifier so as not to fill the unit with dry air when I open it. It’s been 5 weeks since i first put the freshly chopped buds in the fridge and both the traditionally dried buds and the fridge dried buds are getting better by the day.
 

Rwomen

Well-Known Member
I wish I had the perfect conditions like
your setup. My plan, just open the bag
every couple of days for like 30 seconds
and give it a shake. If it takes a turn after
a week or so I'll just rack dry it.
 

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
I wish I had the perfect conditions like
your setup. My plan, just open the bag
every couple of days for like 30 seconds
and give it a shake. If it takes a turn after
a week or so I'll just rack dry it.
Any way you can check the rh of the bag remotely? Even a probe in the bag with the display outside of the fridge? That would be a good move in my opinion mate.
 

Rwomen

Well-Known Member
Any way you can check the rh of the bag remotely? Even a probe in the bag with the display outside of the fridge? That would be a good move in my opinion mate.
Can't remotely, I'm not high tech (:
I'll just play around with it.
I also got some water curing.
 

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
Can't remotely, I'm not high tech (:
I'll just play around with it.
I also got some water curing.
I’d love to see your water cure when it’s done, you got any plans to add terps back to it? I’d maybe like to try a water cure one day
 
Well I've enjoyed this thread lol, both for the OTT reactions and for the idea itself. I have to admit though, when people have said "huimdity in a fridge fluctuates" all I can think of is my little drying area with its tiny humidifier struggling its ass off to maintain 65% RH in the winter. My fluctuations are from like 30% - 85% RH on a daily basis and the weed still comes out incredible. I am curious about cold temp drying because it makes a lot of sense in general but it would have to be a miraculous improvement to get me to put that much effort in to it I think.
 

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
Well I've enjoyed this thread lol, both for the OTT reactions and for the idea itself. I have to admit though, when people have said "huimdity in a fridge fluctuates" all I can think of is my little drying area with its tiny humidifier struggling its ass off to maintain 65% RH in the winter. My fluctuations are from like 30% - 85% RH on a daily basis and the weed still comes out incredible. I am curious about cold temp drying because it makes a lot of sense in general but it would have to be a miraculous improvement to get me to put that much effort in to it I think.
im glad you've enjoyed the thread, it has been wild:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
could be easy enough to put a few buds in a grove bag and put it in ur household fridge
colder is definitely better in my experience, although I went to a fair bit of effort I feel its all in the pursuit of better finished flower, I put a lot more effort into them at various stages throughout their lives for the same reason, and now the fridge is set it and forget it, wet trim and fill the shelves with almost a lb and it cost me £245 and a fun days labour to build. that's about the price of an oz of bud and a taxi to and from the reputable source.
 

Zellmet

Well-Known Member
What's the purpose of drying in the fridge, what do you expect from it?
Exactly SD, curing is about letting moisture escape while excluding ingress of oxygen to prevent H2O-catalysed oxidation of sensitive compounds.

The further reactions which occur without the interference of oxygen raise the potency significantly...

And lower temperatures slow down the entire process!
 
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