Drying - is 65% RH too high?

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yosim

Well-Known Member
Hi, as per title, is this too high for drying or maybe I should let the RH go up to 70% ?

temp is about 70F, I am lucky with the weather here at the moment

I'm afraid of getting mold so have my exhaust fan set to kick in > 65%, have a small fan blowing underneath my buds (which are hanging upside down) just to keep the air circulating - some of the buds are fairly fat also

Interested to hear opinions, normally I'm drying in 77F plus temps and maybe i'll get 50-60 RH, never really get that nice weed smell off my buds... so trying to make the most of current conditions, thanks
 
refriedbeano

refriedbeano

Active Member
the difference between 65 and 70% isn't such a big deal, really. When you first cut down the plant, you can store it for atleast two days before any mold will grow on them (thats because its still alive). The period between that and getting to a moisture level that mold won't grow on can be taken anyway you want, fast or slow, but if you go below a certain level than the plant dies for good, and the bud will no longer taste good. Its not like tobacco where you cure by fermentation. This cures by eating itself until purified of the sugars and will give you a clean burn. You can't find anything thats cured on the shelves, so you might not even know what I'm talking about. But if your worried about 65 or 70 percent, I would go with some ideas from food science. They have a mold curve that shows you what grows at certain levels of humidity. Please note that for curing the type of mold you have to worry about only grows when you don't refresh the air often enough. So you generally want to can it at such a moisture content that you can refresh the air at to keep mold at bay. The earlier you get to canning the bud, the better the result, but the more you have to be there. Which is why I built the Arduiana, an automatic curing machine that can prolong the drying process. Well, I'm still in development mode, but I'll have it done in a few months.
 
TCH

TCH

Well-Known Member
refriedbeano said:
the difference between 65 and 70% isn't such a big deal, really. When you first cut down the plant, you can store it for atleast two days before any mold will grow on them (thats because its still alive). The period between that and getting to a moisture level that mold won't grow on can be taken anyway you want, fast or slow, but if you go below a certain level than the plant dies for good, and the bud will no longer taste good. Its not like tobacco where you cure by fermentation. This cures by eating itself until purified of the sugars and will give you a clean burn. You can't find anything thats cured on the shelves, so you might not even know what I'm talking about. But if your worried about 65 or 70 percent, I would go with some ideas from food science. They have a mold curve that shows you what grows at certain levels of humidity. Please note that for curing the type of mold you have to worry about only grows when you don't refresh the air often enough. So you generally want to can it at such a moisture content that you can refresh the air at to keep mold at bay. The earlier you get to canning the bud, the better the result, but the more you have to be there. Which is why I built the Arduiana, an automatic curing machine that can prolong the drying process. Well, I'm still in development mode, but I'll have it done in a few months.
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Sooooo, is that a yes?
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
refriedbeano said:
the difference between 65 and 70% isn't such a big deal, really. When you first cut down the plant, you can store it for atleast two days before any mold will grow on them (thats because its still alive). The period between that and getting to a moisture level that mold won't grow on can be taken anyway you want, fast or slow, but if you go below a certain level than the plant dies for good, and the bud will no longer taste good. Its not like tobacco where you cure by fermentation. This cures by eating itself until purified of the sugars and will give you a clean burn. You can't find anything thats cured on the shelves, so you might not even know what I'm talking about. But if your worried about 65 or 70 percent, I would go with some ideas from food science. They have a mold curve that shows you what grows at certain levels of humidity. Please note that for curing the type of mold you have to worry about only grows when you don't refresh the air often enough. So you generally want to can it at such a moisture content that you can refresh the air at to keep mold at bay. The earlier you get to canning the bud, the better the result, but the more you have to be there. Which is why I built the Arduiana, an automatic curing machine that can prolong the drying process. Well, I'm still in development mode, but I'll have it done in a few months.
Click to expand...
Way ahead of ya.....

Thermoelectric wine cooler drying and curing - DIY

Well I loaded the new cooler up again, this time I chopped the rest of Bubba Kush 2. I packed it in this time, everything off the stems and fans removed, longer sugar leaves trimmed a bit. I almost got it all in, a bit of mids left to hang dry. Here’s just a couple shelves loaded And here it...
www.rollitup.org
 
Week4@inCharge

Week4@inCharge

Well-Known Member
yosim said:
Hi, as per title, is this too high for drying or maybe I should let the RH go up to 70% ?

temp is about 70F, I am lucky with the weather here at the moment

I'm afraid of getting mold so have my exhaust fan set to kick in > 65%, have a small fan blowing underneath my buds (which are hanging upside down) just to keep the air circulating - some of the buds are fairly fat also

Interested to hear opinions, normally I'm drying in 77F plus temps and maybe i'll get 50-60 RH, never really get that nice weed smell off my buds... so trying to make the most of current conditions, thanks
Click to expand...
I'd keep it at 60 to be safe. and your lucky to get 70 degrees.. the home growers dilemma. How to get that 60 - 60 in the middle of the summer without breaking the bank. Also make sure that air movement is low and not pointed at any hanging plant. The exhaust fan alone might be enough for air movement needed. I've cured in worse conditions with some really good weed. None of my neighbors have complained so..
 
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refriedbeano

refriedbeano

Active Member
Hollatchaboy said:
Way ahead of ya.....

Thermoelectric wine cooler drying and curing - DIY

Well I loaded the new cooler up again, this time I chopped the rest of Bubba Kush 2. I packed it in this time, everything off the stems and fans removed, longer sugar leaves trimmed a bit. I almost got it all in, a bit of mids left to hang dry. Here’s just a couple shelves loaded And here it...
www.rollitup.org
Click to expand...
I've been away for a while, I went looking for anyone making a curing chamber but never found anything. The cannatrol is def what you want. I mean probably because they don't actually say whats going on inside. But my target audience are relatively small time growers that have an extra 175$ for something that can potentially deliver something better than simply controlling the humidity. My theory is that you can measure O2 to be able to tell exactly when the plant dies. And then also the idea is to prolong the amount of time it takes to dry to your target moisture content, which can only be achieved with something like ozone. So I make it easy to get perfectly cured marijuana while those guys are just throwing what they got at me and I don't even know what it is really. Oh well, I had an idea for your method of using fans, you should look into getting a personal swamp cooler in there. Put some kind of antiseptic or peroxide in with the water. You really only get mold in stagnet air, i.e. at the curing stage.
 
refriedbeano

refriedbeano

Active Member
Bud man 43 said:
Mold begins to grow at 65% rh
You should dry at 60 degrees/60% rh ideally.
I like 58%
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yosim said:
Thanks all, think I will drop it down to 60% just to be on the safe side
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I'd recommend taking a small amount of your bud before its been dried too much, and just put a hydrometer in the jar and carry it around with you. Just to get a feel for how air exchange impacts mold growth. That is the critical factor, as long as your exchanging the air you can get away with higher rh.
 

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yosim

Well-Known Member
so this is day 4 of drying - stuck my head into the tent this morning and all I can smell is that hay smell - the buds still feels soft to the touch, stems still bendy??

sigh
 
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