Drying and curing in the southwests 10% humidity. I have ???s

Newbie grower here and about a week from flowering I believe buying a microscope this afternoon. But I have been reading about the difficulties in curing/drying in The desert. I have the closet I am flowering and can use that for drying as my vegging clones won't be ready (just rooted yesterday) I can add one or two humidifiers and already have two fans, two exhaust fans, a 1 ton and a 5 ton ac unit all in there. That being said I can create almost any climate I would like. As a newbie I am curious as to the best method to help my buds but also a (as much as possible) fool proof method to prevent mold and such. Any input would be greatly appreciate.
 

blackforest

Well-Known Member
Here in CO, humidity is very low too. I dried mine in a 4x4 tent w/ minimal air movement, no fans. With material in the tent, humidity ranged from 35% to 65% although I could control it kinda. You should jar when stems still bend but the bud is crispy. You might have to put in/take out a few times. The trick is to not let the humidity get too low (when jarred), like below 52% when drying because you will reach a point where it will not gain moisture any more and the smell is gone and the smoke is harsh. I put small $4 hygrometers and bovida 62 packs in my jars and monitored them. If they got too moist, I might take them out and paper bag em for a little bit, but never let them get too low. Right now all buds are in jars w/ boveda packs and are stable at about 58% humidity. Perfect point IMO. Good Luck!
 

makisupa

Active Member
here in CO when the RH is around 10-20% outside the RH in my house is rarely above 35%

i trim the plant then hang the whole thing for 3 days, sometimes up to 5 if theres a lot of material drying at once but i dont usually harvest all at once because i hate trimming. once the outsides start feeling like theyre drying out i clip them from the stems and put buds in 2qt jars w/ a 60 gram 69% boveda pack for 3-5 days tossing them around if they start to stick. once the rh in the jars is stable at 69% (usually 3 days) i swap it out for a 60gram 62% boveda. i check the smell every few days to check their progress. after a couple weeks like this when the smell / taste is proper i break them down into smaller jars at 1 oz each w/ an 8g 62% boveda in each jar. from there i pull buds out 2 - 3 days at a time.

i dont have time to check and burp and pull buds out to paper bags and all these things that people do. i find that for my schedule the boveda packs make it pretty effortless as long as the material has dried for a few days before jarring w/ the 69% packets. i use the 60 gram packets for the first stages to make sure they work quickly, for a couple ounces of material theyre usually stable within 3 - 5 days. the drop to 62% from there usually takes another 3 days w/ the 60g packets. from there it can take weeks to cure to perfection but you have no risk of mold and patience usually pays off in the end with a really clean, smooth smoke.
 
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