Has this been though of or am I a Genius

Has anyone ever though of using Silica Gel to dry your harvest. they are a solid that is porous and has super high surface area. If you put one in a Rubbermaid container and put it in a warm area you could probably dry bud out extremely fast right? cause the problem is with heat comes humidity, with humidity come mold. what if you could keep it at 0% 100% of the time. and silica gel is reusable for life. you just heat it up in the oven and it drys it out. Someone let me know if you think this would work?

You should give this thread a read.... https://www.rollitup.org/harvesting-curing/116157-drying-rice.html

drying fast is bad. only dry fast if you see a sign of mold... then dry it quickly to completion and a little further still.

otherwise you want ur stash to take at least a week to dry so that some of the chlorophyl and such has a chance to break down and reduce the harshness of the smoke, so ur not coughing everytime you take a hit.

thanks flordia girl for the thread. Just FYI Silica Gel is poisonous if eaten but what I'm talking about is big jars of it. they are reusable and food safe. As for chlorophyll i understand the concept behind that as well as the the concept of water curing. What if you water cure for a day or two to remove the amount of chlorophyll that would normally take probably 2 - 3 weeks and then use silica gel to dry it. could have similar smoke in 4-5days instead of a month. whats everyone else think?

DaGambler said:

drying fast is bad. only dry fast if you see a sign of mold... then dry it quickly to completion and a little further still.

otherwise you want ur stash to take at least a week to dry so that some of the chlorophyl and such has a chance to break down and reduce the harshness of the smoke, so ur not coughing everytime you take a hit.

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DougBenson said:

thanks flordia girl for the thread. Just FYI Silica Gel is poisonous if eaten but what I'm talking about is big jars of it. they are reusable and food safe. As for chlorophyll i understand the concept behind that as well as the the concept of water curing. What if you water cure for a day or two to remove the amount of chlorophyll that would normally take probably 2 - 3 weeks and then use silica gel to dry it. could have similar smoke in 4-5days instead of a month. whats everyone else think?

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Gambler is right. Water curing is a faster way but the buds loose their bag appeal, majorly. If you want weed that is at it's highest potency that tastes, smells, looks, and smokes like it was dried properly and cured the "old fashioned way" (in jars) then the best thing to do is be patient and do it the "old fashioned way". Unfortunately there is no way fast way to get that process done.

Sure there are faster ways to dry and there is water curing but those buds don't turn out like ones done the "old fashioned way". Water cured buds hold their potency but lose the bag appeal, they don't look, smell, of taste like buds cured in jars. Uncured buds are not at their most potent and tend to taste like leaves or grass when smoked and are also harsh on your throat. Drying buds fast doesn't allow the by products of photosynthesis (sugar, starches, nitrates) to break down fully.

Back to the question of Silica Gel. I have used this before but not to fully dry an entire harvest. I have used it to help absorb moisture in buds that I have got that were not fully dried by the grower. I have to say that there is nothing worse than growers who grow dank bud that are to impatient to properly dry and cure their harvest. Mostly has to do with $$$$, greedy growers do this because buds weigh more when they aren't fully dried! Anyway, I have used the small plastic pouches of Silica Gel that come in bottles of pills like Advil, Tylenol, and shit. I will stick one or two of them in a Mason jar with the buds to help absorb moisture. I only use it if I happen to get buds that are not fully dried so that it burns better in J's or blunts. I have never used it to try to speed up the drying process of one of my harvests. I would imagine that you would need ALOT of those little plastic pouches to dry a fair quanity of fresh weed though.

I use them to keep my harvest fresh, once they are dried. I have buds around for 2-4 months and don't want any mold growing in my jars. So once the cure is done, like 7-14 days, I throw in the silica packets just to rid any excess moisture. If I didn't keep buds around so long, I probably wouldn't need them. But to store buds for long periods of time, you need them to be almost bone dry.