Freeze Drying Bud and Commercial Freeze Dryers

According to Ed Rosenthal's Marijuana Grower's Handbook, which on a side note is hands down the best growing book I've read and I've read 7 or 8, the best way to dry/cure your bud is by freeze drying. After letting it hang for a few days you put it in a freeze dryer. Freeze drying uses sublimation to remove the moisture from the bud. It's suppose to preserve the terpenes (did I spell that right?), which will preserve great flavor and aroma. Freeze dry cured bud is supposed to be incredibly smooth.

Since the book has been so great I tend to believe it, and I've heard this before else where. I actually saw a post on RIU of someone using dry ice to cure the bud. You put dry ice in the bottom of a container (the container must have holes on the lid. Don't think anyone is going to read this little post and try it without further research, but just making sure.), put a thin layer then put your bud on top. I think this uses sublimation as well, just in a different way. That would be very inefficient way to cure a lot of bud and very expensive. A commercial freeze dryer uses a vacuum to dry the bud.

That's where the problem lies. I want to try this, but a commercial freeze dryer cost $9,000.00 +++. How hard would it be to make one of these? Take a normal freezer, put a vacuum chamber made of reinforced steel in there, hook up some pumps, and boom freeze dryer. Obviously there's probably a few more steps in there, and a fridge might actually work better since a freezer may get too cold, but do I have the right idea? Any engineering folks around here, am I on the right track? Can a commercial freeze dryer be made at home if the right amount skill and care is put into the vacuum chamber so there are no implosions?

My other question to anybody is has anyone ever seen freeze dry cured weed or done it themselves. I don't want to spend $2000 on parts or god forbid $10,000 on a commercial freeze dryer and find out Ed was lying to me.

the frost free freezers has a dehumidifier built in them that take all the moisture out of it, more less freeze drying. you could do a small sample bud and report back. i've never tried it myself.

.......This has me very interested! I personally have never heard of a technique like that but I'm sure its worth a shot! When you freeze dry produce and such it retains alot of the nutrients that would be expelled when you use the sun, air, ..etc...... NASA sends their astronauts up with food that has all been freeze dried because of the weight that has been removed. This could be a breakthrough in curing weed on a mass scale! My only concern is that the freeze drying method is so good at what it does by removing all water is that, the weed would have absolutely no water and would end up burning faster than a cali wild fire! Not all of the water is removed from the weed in the curing/ drying process. You would have to come up with some way of knowing when the bud was ready before you cure it too long and it ends up like some crispy potato chip lol. If you could figure out how long the process takes and you have it down to a science (without destroying the weed) I really do belive it could cut the standard curing/ drying process time into fractions! Like I said this could be a breakthrough! I do have a meat freezer in storage and this conversation has me thinking of going and getting it out and than designing the freezer into a drier. I myself find work as a drafter, and I tend to think of myself as an amateur engineer. I Believe with a little time, effort, and some more input from people, I could get this done in a week or so. Now to make it work and work right the way you want.......I have no idea rofl!

I just got done hang drying some buds in some really cold weather and it took 26 days and the flavor is the best ever and ive been growin that strain a while.

I have extensive freeze-drying experience when it comes to plant parts; the main reason that DIY freeze-drying may not work well is that unless there's a trap in there to capture the moisture, you dump the water into the pump oil and it gets foamy and messy. Just as important, once there's water in the oil, the effectiveness of the pump is shot because of the vapor pressure of the water: you can't draw a good vacuum with gunked up pump oil.

Traps don't have to be sophisticated or expensive, but unless you like recharging your trap with dry ice (for a dry ice + acetone trap, which will give you something like -79C) on a regular basis, a refrigerated trap is recommended- hence the cost.

There's also an implosion hazard; of course, one can use good plastic (or even metal), which greatly reduces the risk.

Bump! I would like to see some more recent info on this topic!

Old topic but one I have some interest in and may be able to help. I've recently taken up interest in freeze drying and been doing some research into applications and of course drying bud quickley came to mind to which led me to this place. Being a refrigeration mechanic by trade I have some knowledge about pulling vacuums and what not. My idea for you guys if your serious about trying to rig up a cheap setup is as follows.

Pressure cooker drilled and tapped with brass MIPxflare fittings hooked up to a copper coil that has been looped inside a freezer. Copeer coil the exits said freezer and is hooked into vacuum pump. The pressure cooker should solve the implosion risk and be able to withstand deep vacuum. The freezer with looped copper coil would remove the moisture from air before hitting vacuum pump and contaminating oil. From what i understand of the process the material should be frozen as well so maybe pressure cooker and coil setup could all be inside a deep freeze?

Anyways if you guys are still into this topic lemme know what you think and if your going to try id like to know results.

Hello EVERYONE! I own a commercial freeze dryer, AND I have freeze dried medical cannabis. It was dried in less, than 12 hours and came out BEAUTIFUL!!! The color was electric, the smell was VERY fragrant, it broke up perfectly, AND THE TASTE WAS AMAZING!! Did NOT trim before hand, as you can trim after with ONLY using your fingers to easily break off the leaves, which are perfectly dried, IN A FRACTION(1/10th of the time) of the time needed doing it wet. The "clippings" were ready for making edibles. NO MOLD OR FUNGUS OR DANDER WORRIES ( compromised immune systems)/ NO WORRY OF SMELL WHILE DRYING/ NO TIME HARDLY/ NO WORRY OF TOO HIGH OF TEMP WHILE DRYING!!! THIS IS THE FUTURE!!! ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS????

Interesting....

This is the one I would go with...Spend it to make it/save it....

http://harvestright.com/store/

japanese made I believe...all the hash makers on Hashchurch...drool all over these...

This is an interesting concept. I know a lot of people freeze their bud/trim before making butter or oil for edibles because it (supposedly) makes it easier for the trichomes to fall off. So would drying with this process and then handling it not make your bud less potent the same way using an automatic trimmer would? By knocking all the trichs off? I'm not trying to insult anybody's methods. Just curious.

Danielle Sheridan said:

Hello EVERYONE! I own a commercial freeze dryer, AND I have freeze dried medical cannabis. It was dried in less, than 12 hours and came out BEAUTIFUL!!! The color was electric, the smell was VERY fragrant, it broke up perfectly, AND THE TASTE WAS AMAZING!! Did NOT trim before hand, as you can trim after with ONLY using your fingers to easily break off the leaves, which are perfectly dried, IN A FRACTION(1/10th of the time) of the time needed doing it wet. The "clippings" were ready for making edibles. NO MOLD OR FUNGUS OR DANDER WORRIES ( compromised immune systems)/ NO WORRY OF SMELL WHILE DRYING/ NO TIME HARDLY/ NO WORRY OF TOO HIGH OF TEMP WHILE DRYING!!! THIS IS THE FUTURE!!! ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS????

Click to expand...

I would love to know more about your process.. What type of Freeze dryer did you use?

Smot360 said:

.......This has me very interested! I personally have never heard of a technique like that but I'm sure its worth a shot! When you freeze dry produce and such it retains alot of the nutrients that would be expelled when you use the sun, air, ..etc...... NASA sends their astronauts up with food that has all been freeze dried because of the weight that has been removed. This could be a breakthrough in curing weed on a mass scale! My only concern is that the freeze drying method is so good at what it does by removing all water is that, the weed would have absolutely no water and would end up burning faster than a cali wild fire! Not all of the water is removed from the weed in the curing/ drying process. You would have to come up with some way of knowing when the bud was ready before you cure it too long and it ends up like some crispy potato chip lol. If you could figure out how long the process takes and you have it down to a science (without destroying the weed) I really do belive it could cut the standard curing/ drying process time into fractions! Like I said this could be a breakthrough! I do have a meat freezer in storage and this conversation has me thinking of going and getting it out and than designing the freezer into a drier. I myself find work as a drafter, and I tend to think of myself as an amateur engineer. I Believe with a little time, effort, and some more input from people, I could get this done in a week or so. Now to make it work and work right the way you want.......I have no idea rofl!

Click to expand...

u still don't believe in nasa do u

its fact they didn't go to the moon

fact they don't go to space

google nasa commercial

where they talk about needing to invent electronics to pass through the van belt of radiation to get to mars
if they went to the moon they would have passed through this belt

so why do they need to invent something they had 50years ago


mr kubric famous movie maker clockwork orange


came out and proved he made phony video for nasa about moon landing

just google the subject learn for ur self

they got caught using green screens a dozen times

their videos of space walk are actually done in water tanks also proven by footage

SunnyGarden said:

I would love to know more about your process.. What type of Freeze dryer did you use?

Click to expand...

nice\\\\

im buy-in one tomorrow

u just rehydrate it to smoke or is it smooth as is

Smot360 said:

.......This has me very interested! I personally have never heard of a technique like that but I'm sure its worth a shot! When you freeze dry produce and such it retains alot of the nutrients that would be expelled when you use the sun, air, ..etc...... NASA sends their astronauts up with food that has all been freeze dried because of the weight that has been removed. This could be a breakthrough in curing weed on a mass scale! My only concern is that the freeze drying method is so good at what it does by removing all water is that, the weed would have absolutely no water and would end up burning faster than a cali wild fire! Not all of the water is removed from the weed in the curing/ drying process. You would have to come up with some way of knowing when the bud was ready before you cure it too long and it ends up like some crispy potato chip lol. If you could figure out how long the process takes and you have it down to a science (without destroying the weed) I really do belive it could cut the standard curing/ drying process time into fractions! Like I said this could be a breakthrough! I do have a meat freezer in storage and this conversation has me thinking of going and getting it out and than designing the freezer into a drier. I myself find work as a drafter, and I tend to think of myself as an amateur engineer. I Believe with a little time, effort, and some more input from people, I could get this done in a week or so. Now to make it work and work right the way you want.......I have no idea rofl!

Click to expand...

nasa is a scam
moon landing hoax

google it

stately kubric famous movie maker clockwork orange came out admitted he did fake moon movie footage

time to open our eyes

Stoner Smurf said:

According to Ed Rosenthal's Marijuana Grower's Handbook, which on a side note is hands down the best growing book I've read and I've read 7 or 8, the best way to dry/cure your bud is by freeze drying. After letting it hang for a few days you put it in a freeze dryer. Freeze drying uses sublimation to remove the moisture from the bud. It's suppose to preserve the terpenes (did I spell that right?), which will preserve great flavor and aroma. Freeze dry cured bud is supposed to be incredibly smooth.

Since the book has been so great I tend to believe it, and I've heard this before else where. I actually saw a post on RIU of someone using dry ice to cure the bud. You put dry ice in the bottom of a container (the container must have holes on the lid. Don't think anyone is going to read this little post and try it without further research, but just making sure.), put a thin layer then put your bud on top. I think this uses sublimation as well, just in a different way. That would be very inefficient way to cure a lot of bud and very expensive. A commercial freeze dryer uses a vacuum to dry the bud.

That's where the problem lies. I want to try this, but a commercial freeze dryer cost $9,000.00 +++. How hard would it be to make one of these? Take a normal freezer, put a vacuum chamber made of reinforced steel in there, hook up some pumps, and boom freeze dryer. Obviously there's probably a few more steps in there, and a fridge might actually work better since a freezer may get too cold, but do I have the right idea? Any engineering folks around here, am I on the right track? Can a commercial freeze dryer be made at home if the right amount skill and care is put into the vacuum chamber so there are no implosions?

My other question to anybody is has anyone ever seen freeze dry cured weed or done it themselves. I don't want to spend $2000 on parts or god forbid $10,000 on a commercial freeze dryer and find out Ed was lying to me.

Click to expand...

FREEZE DRYING IS THE ONLY WAY TO DRY UR BUD

EVEN WITH UT A CURE ITS SMOOTH SMOKE TASTEY AND SMELLY TERPENES OUT UR ASS IF THAT THE BUZZ WORD OF TODAY

WE USED TO SAY DANK

HARVEST RIGHT HAS FREEZE DRYERS FOR $3500

HERE HOW TO MAKE UR OWN

DIP UR BUD IN LQUID NITROGEN

PUT IT IN A VAC OVEN BY BEST BUY VACS ($100) SET HEAT MATT TO LOWEST SETTING


PUTTING YOUR HERB IN A FROST FREE FREEZER WOULOD TAKE MONTHS TO GET THE MOISTURE OUT

FREEZE DRYERS USE MINMAL HEAT TO SUBLIMATE REMOVE WATER UNDER VACUME

NO TERPENE LOSS WITH FREEZE DRYERS

WE TESTED BEFORE AND AFTER WITH A GC UNIT AND NO TERPENSE LOSS LIKE TRADTIONAL DRYING METHODS

GO TO BEST BUY VACS SMALL SCALE BUT MOST ONLY NEED SMALL SCALE

FREEZE DRYING

kevin said:

the frost free freezers has a dehumidifier built in them that take all the moisture out of it, more less freeze drying. you could do a small sample bud and report back. i've never tried it myself.

Click to expand...

THAT WOULOD TAKE MONTHS TO SUBLIMATE THE MOISTURE BUT IN THEORY YES IT WILL WORK BUT MONTHS LIKE 6 MONTHS TO DO IT THAT WAY

HENCE THE TERM FREEZER BURN ON MEATS
ITS BECOME DRY FROM MOISTURE LOSS

DIP IT IN LIQUID NITROGEN THEN SET ON A Rack over a minimal heat source the moisture will vape via straight to gas and leave u with bone dry herb

then put in jars with humi patch to get back to 60 % or so RH in ur jar and u have best connoisseur bud around

we still do 4 month cure not for terpenes taste but to allow chlorophyll to breakdown true connoisseur bud.



even with out the cure our freeze dried bud is smooth


side benefit 4month into cure it look like its still alive

I have some data on this

Stoner Smurf said:

According to Ed Rosenthal's Marijuana Grower's Handbook, which on a side note is hands down the best growing book I've read and I've read 7 or 8, the best way to dry/cure your bud is by freeze drying. After letting it hang for a few days you put it in a freeze dryer. Freeze drying uses sublimation to remove the moisture from the bud. It's suppose to preserve the terpenes (did I spell that right?), which will preserve great flavor and aroma. Freeze dry cured bud is supposed to be incredibly smooth.

Since the book has been so great I tend to believe it, and I've heard this before else where. I actually saw a post on RIU of someone using dry ice to cure the bud. You put dry ice in the bottom of a container (the container must have holes on the lid. Don't think anyone is going to read this little post and try it without further research, but just making sure.), put a thin layer then put your bud on top. I think this uses sublimation as well, just in a different way. That would be very inefficient way to cure a lot of bud and very expensive. A commercial freeze dryer uses a vacuum to dry the bud.

That's where the problem lies. I want to try this, but a commercial freeze dryer cost $9,000.00 +++. How hard would it be to make one of these? Take a normal freezer, put a vacuum chamber made of reinforced steel in there, hook up some pumps, and boom freeze dryer. Obviously there's probably a few more steps in there, and a fridge might actually work better since a freezer may get too cold, but do I have the right idea? Any engineering folks around here, am I on the right track? Can a commercial freeze dryer be made at home if the right amount skill and care is put into the vacuum chamber so there are no implosions?

My other question to anybody is has anyone ever seen freeze dry cured weed or done it themselves. I don't want to spend $2000 on parts or god forbid $10,000 on a commercial freeze dryer and find out Ed was lying to me.

Click to expand...

This method I derived to handle 400 lbs per cycle

U can scale it down

Like this for home use

In a closest or entire room
Depending on quantity

Seal room


Get hanging rack with scale
Load rack with1100 grams

Use liquid nitrogen spraying
$1200
Spray product

Use small space heater 65f
Blow towards wall thT has rack above it
Keep heater going for 7 minutes

Start dehumidifier on highest setting
When rack weighs 280 g
Place in plastic bin
With hygro meter inside

RHshould b60-65 RH
If it stay at 65rh for 24hr
Move to jars
It's already smooth from freeze drying
Super smooth
But the jars take an already wow terpene profile and super cure that taste and aroma in
Moisture allows anaerobic degradation. Of the chlorophyll
Which = bomb connoisseur bud

Cure for 3 -6 months

This method u can stop drying before its solid dry no moister
Dry bud. Though smooth. Is smoother with a nice perfectly hydrated bud
Joints. Not smoke nice all dry ass

Bonus way cheaper than commercial unit
Plus it can accommodate any room u can fill
Not to many homegrown dry n cure more than 5lb personal harvest

300lld can lb easy in a large bedroom
With
Adequate dehumidifier

Another bonus.
Less handling


The bud ur going to sell later or smoke later if ur harvest to large to sell within a month
Freeze dry after first 3 week cure Til
.....
Bone dry
Then rehydrate with fresh bud or RH gel pack prir to needing it

Bonus again
The
Buds 6 months later appear days old when u store them bone dry n rehydrate to smoke or sell


Shatter. Dehydrate bud Til
bone dry


I use this from this method for shatter to keep insane terpene profile

Dry seive buds
Collect kief
Use 160 then 90 then 70 screens
Use 90 kief
Large and small plant material is caught

U can add more ethanol and filter plant material if u choose
Only if u have plant. Matter
Avoid plant matter by min sieve time

Then use reading lace over bud and discarded kief for edibles


Decarb in VAC sealed bag in boiling water

For kief that's high end
Use for shatter
Add just enough ethanol to dissolve kief to thick oil consistency
Super thick
Warm to pour out easier
Place on. Blast Matt
Then put Matt on griddle at 45f
12 hrs per side

Wam. Best tasting. N smelling shatter ever
No terpenes lost

None

No chlorophyll leach

We avoid it with using kief

Stoner Smurf said:

According to Ed Rosenthal's Marijuana Grower's Handbook, which on a side note is hands down the best growing book I've read and I've read 7 or 8, the best way to dry/cure your bud is by freeze drying. After letting it hang for a few days you put it in a freeze dryer. Freeze drying uses sublimation to remove the moisture from the bud. It's suppose to preserve the terpenes (did I spell that right?), which will preserve great flavor and aroma. Freeze dry cured bud is supposed to be incredibly smooth.

Since the book has been so great I tend to believe it, and I've heard this before else where. I actually saw a post on RIU of someone using dry ice to cure the bud. You put dry ice in the bottom of a container (the container must have holes on the lid. Don't think anyone is going to read this little post and try it without further research, but just making sure.), put a thin layer then put your bud on top. I think this uses sublimation as well, just in a different way. That would be very inefficient way to cure a lot of bud and very expensive. A commercial freeze dryer uses a vacuum to dry the bud.

That's where the problem lies. I want to try this, but a commercial freeze dryer cost $9,000.00 +++. How hard would it be to make one of these? Take a normal freezer, put a vacuum chamber made of reinforced steel in there, hook up some pumps, and boom freeze dryer. Obviously there's probably a few more steps in there, and a fridge might actually work better since a freezer may get too cold, but do I have the right idea? Any engineering folks around here, am I on the right track? Can a commercial freeze dryer be made at home if the right amount skill and care is put into the vacuum chamber so there are no implosions?

My other question to anybody is has anyone ever seen freeze dry cured weed or done it themselves. I don't want to spend $2000 on parts or god forbid $10,000 on a commercial freeze dryer and find out Ed was lying to me.

Click to expand...

LATE: Stoner Smurf, Jan 13, 2011
https://www.rollitup.org/members/stoner-smurf.283293/
There's always a hidden cost ..for this is why I prefer water cured weed
https://www.rollitup.org/t/freeze-drying-bud-and-commercial-freeze-dryers.400138/
done and dusted in 10 days

no lengthy hangs

no messing with Bovedas

good luck