Many people swear by the 60/60 rule. That's 60% RH under 60F temperature. Often times it's hard to get that low of a temperature so don't beat yourself up if you can't get down that far. One could argue that you don't start to significantly lose terpenes until 75F or above. If your dry environment is 80F+ then you are definitely losing terpenes.
Dr. Bugsbee stated in the interview that drying could be done in as little as 24 hours or less. I've been drying on the branch and using the snap test. Drying has taken 5-9 days normally in this way. It seems to me that getting the water activity down to the .6 water activity level to eliminate possible microbes would be more favorable than slow drying and risking microbial infection.
I plan to watch closely and dry only the flowers using a dehumidifier and a scale on my next harvest. However I will be winging it because I don't understand what Dr. Bugsbee meant by "water activity". Therefore I'm unsure of what a "good" weight would be when the flower normally contains 75-80% water upon harvest.
I'm looking forward to the Utah State drying studies and hoping you will post more on this topic.
@cpa4llc I believe when he says buds dry 1-2 days, he means just a drastic enough reduction to where it's not wet and mold is a concern. I'm pretty sure he didn't mean full dry in 1-2 days. Or maybe he does mean a full dry in 1-2 days and isn't considering the quality reducing from drying too fast.
Oh and for the record, it is “ready” to be smoked after it‘s dried so you don’t actually HAVE to cure it but I makes for a more pleasant experience. Have fun with it. Grow within yourself while the plants grow. Skål.
Dry it slowly with the temp in the upper 60’s to low 70’s (Fahrenheit) with a 50-60% Rh in a darkish to dark room with indirect air movement. Slowly drying preserves terpene and THC profile better than dehydrating it quickly. Curing is subjective to an extent but I jar mine after drying, put a Bóveda 62% pack in and burp it daily for at least 10 days. Then it “cures” until we get ready to use it. Some of the stuff I have cured for months and it comes out the smoothest smoke but at the cost of the long wait. Once I have had it jarred for the 10 days it is pretty well cured but the wait makes it better, IMH. Experiment with it and go from there.
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Many people swear by the 60/60 rule. That's 60% RH under 60F temperature. Often times it's hard to get that low of a temperature so don't beat yourself up if you can't get down that far. One could argue that you don't start to significantly lose terpenes until 75F or above. If your dry environment is 80F+ then you are definitely losing terpenes.
Oh and for the record, it is “ready” to be smoked after it‘s dried so you don’t actually HAVE to cure it but I makes for a more pleasant experience. Have fun with it. Grow within yourself while the plants grow. Skål.
🌱🪴🤙🏻
Dry it slowly with the temp in the upper 60’s to low 70’s (Fahrenheit) with a 50-60% Rh in a darkish to dark room with indirect air movement. Slowly drying preserves terpene and THC profile better than dehydrating it quickly. Curing is subjective to an extent but I jar mine after drying, put a Bóveda 62% pack in and burp it daily for at least 10 days. Then it “cures” until we get ready to use it. Some of the stuff I have cured for months and it comes out the smoothest smoke but at the cost of the long wait. Once I have had it jarred for the 10 days it is pretty well cured but the wait makes it better, IMH. Experiment with it and go from there.
good luck
🌱🪴🤙🏻