What's new
  • ICMag with help from Phlizon, Landrace Warden and The Vault is running a NEW contest for Christmas! You can check it here. Prizes are: full spectrum led light, seeds & forum premium access. Come join in!

A perfect cure every time

PaulieWaulie

PaulieWaulie

Well-known member
Veteran
DAY 7 UPDATE. So far so good, no musky smell. Hay smell but that is more like tea, and not that musky smell that I have experienced in the past. This smell is part of the drying process I believe. Stems are super bendy still, and there is moisture inside, but outside pretty bone crispy dry on some parts of the plants, I think the colas and tops of the plants more so, not sure why they dry like that.

ROOM TEMPS 55F/35RH, now that we are in the later stages of the drying process I have turned the circulating fan off.

Filled up 2 Totes with 6 plants ea, layered between newspaper.

The other half is still hanging. Will open lids if RH climbs over 65%

picture.php
 
Last edited:
Aspenou812

Aspenou812

Well-known member
Veteran
Y’all really over complicated all of this... the process works flawlessly as described in this thread... I routinely dry and cure 8 to 10 pounds perfectly... drying and curing are two separate steps... it’s so easy to get perfect results with 5 gallon buckets and gamma seal lids...10 to 14 days drying and 8 to 10 weeks curing... you can’t rush the process
 
Jellyfish

Jellyfish

Invertebrata Inebriata
Veteran
Aspenou812 said:
Y’all really over complicated all of this... the process works flawlessly as described in this thread... I routinely dry and cure 8 to 10 pounds perfectly... drying and curing are two separate steps... it’s so easy to get perfect results with 5 gallon buckets and gamma seal lids...10 to 14 days drying and 8 to 10 weeks curing... you can’t rush the process
Click to expand...


That's true, but there is so much bad info out there, on ICMAG, YouTube and many others. And people always over-complicate things and/or think they can move the process along faster.


I mean, you're right- you dry it and then you cure it, and it's all pretty simple.:tiphat:
 
Old Toker

Old Toker

Well-known member
Aspenou812 said:
... I routinely dry and cure 8 to 10 pounds perfectly... drying and curing are two separate steps... it’s so easy to get perfect results with 5 gallon buckets and gamma seal lids...10 to 14 days drying and 8 to 10 weeks curing... you can’t rush the process
Click to expand...
It might help some people that are having difficulties if you describe how you are drying/curing in 5 gal buckets. I'd certainly be interested! :tiphat:
 
enter sandman

enter sandman

Active member
PaulieWaulie said:
Yes, I rather just get a good dry, and not worry about drying to cure too early at high RH still.

I have had nugs that fall off the plant during harvest, and then sit on my hallway floor for a month getting stepped on and dirty, and I have found those nugs turned out way way better than my "curing disasters"!

and more than once I noticed that haha, so will wait till stems are snapping before putting in airtight container, and monitor and open if it goes above 60RH immediately.
Click to expand...

I thought that I was alone in experiencing that too. I'm always finding little nugs under chairs or under dressers when I move them...and they turned out better sometimes than my carefully dried and cured bud. This has me confounded. I would drop small nugs - unknowingly - after harvesting and moving throughout my home and they would roll under stuff. I have found them that were over a year old that looked better, smelled better and smoked better than my carefully attended bud.
 
Jellyfish

Jellyfish

Invertebrata Inebriata
Veteran
enter sandman said:
I thought that I was alone in experiencing that too. I'm always finding little nugs under chairs or under dressers when I move them...and they turned out better sometimes than my carefully dried and cured bud. This has me confounded. I would drop small nugs - unknowingly - after harvesting and moving throughout my home and they would roll under stuff. I have found them that were over a year old that looked better, smelled better and smoked better than my carefully attended bud.
Click to expand...


My guess is those nugs were given the chance to DRY properly before being put in jars. Most people (including me, in the past), try to hurry the drying process. They are in a hurry, or they are nervous about getting their product too dry. So they put it in jars too soon, and then it takes forever for weed to dry in jars.

When I put my weed in jars, it is DRY. Dryer than it seems like it should be. But then it miraculously re-hydrates in the jars.
You have to make that leap of faith that your weed IS going to re-hydrate in the jars. I believe this is the main cause of 90% of the issues of drying/curing.

Also remember- some of the advice being given on weed sites is for commercial growers, whose bottom line (profit) isn't necessarily the same as yours (great weed).

Thank you.:tiphat:
 
Aspenou812

Aspenou812

Well-known member
Veteran
Jellyfish said:
My guess is those nugs were given the chance to DRY properly before being put in jars. Most people (including me, in the past), try to hurry the drying process. They are in a hurry, or they are nervous about getting their product too dry. So they put it in jars too soon, and then it takes forever for weed to dry in jars.

When I put my weed in jars, it is DRY. Dryer than it seems like it should be. But then it miraculously re-hydrates in the jars.
You have to make that leap of faith that your weed IS going to re-hydrate in the jars. I believe this is the main cause of 90% of the issues of drying/curing.

Also remember- some of the advice being given on weed sites is for commercial growers, whose bottom line (profit) isn't necessarily the same as yours (great weed).

Thank you.:tiphat:
Click to expand...

I think your right... I dry in my flower rooms that are controlled by TrolMaster but I add one piece of equipment... a Fogger set up to add humidity back to the room... 7 days at 65 degrees 70% rh 7 more at 65 degrees 65% rh and it may take an additional week drying to be right the buds will be crispy all the small stem will crack the larger ones will not... but at this point the pot is dry and sitting at an even rh throughout the material... then I start the trim as I trim the pot goes into curing buckets with a caliber rh meter... I check these twice a day and burp as needed... a bucket will hold 2 pounds of pot I also line the buckets with goose bags... you have to burp those buckets in a humidity controlled room too... after about 2 to 3 weeks the pot is sitting at around 62% rh and ready to sell or put up In the freezer... I’ll let the pot sit in the buckets a few weeks at 62% rh and they are perfect... a bud at 62% is a little damp to smoke... grind it up and let it sit in the air for 5 minutes and joints burn slowly and perfectly with a light grey ash... never let the pot see dry conditions and from my experience the most important thing is having a low stable low rh through out the drying material before you attempt the cure... that takes two to three weeks minimum with the plant’s intact... that all happens before I trim... Another thing I’ve noticed I can’t do this without adding moisture back to the rooms and I live in hot muggy Florida... temp and rh control is paramount throughout the process... It takes time but for a real grower taking the time to do it right always pays off the biggest... If I were to crack a container with a few grams in a crowded room the funk just envelops everyone... take your time and add humidity back to your drying rooms and see what happens...
 
Jellyfish

Jellyfish

Invertebrata Inebriata
Veteran
I can do the same thing with jars that you're doing with the buckets, because I don't have the humidity issue you do being in FLA. I still might try the bucket method next time.
 
TychoMonolyth

TychoMonolyth

Boreal Curing
With quart jars, it's not so deep, and slightly drying the top layer isn't so bad because the humidity from the bottom buds will migrate up through the cure. With totes, you flip them, with buckets it's different and can't fill them so much.

The only danger to using buckets and you are burping them by hand, is filling them too much. How much is too much? It depends on whether it's a tight indica or loose sativa. But with a manual burp, I'd say 2 lbs like Aspenou812 said. That would be about half a bucket.
 
R

redlaser

Active member
Veteran
Have probably mentioned it before, but not all 5 gal buckets fit the same with the gamma lids. The Home Depot and Lowe’s ones weren’t as good as the Kmart for tight fit. (Air tight). Still ended up caulking all with silicone. This was five years ago though, so things likely aren’t the same.
Mylar can’t be beat imo. If you want to be impressed, heat seal some bud in mylar for an extended period of time (6-12 months or more) ideally keeping it cool.
They make five gal resealable bags that can be used the same as the gamma buckets.
Buckets are still good to protect the Mylar bags
 
amanda88

amanda88

Well-known member

(45mins)Allison Justice, PhD presents "The Science of Drying and Curing" at CannMed 2022. Drying and curing is an extremely important step to smokable flower production. In this session, the science of drying and curing will be discussed. Traditional methods and current research covering everything from gas exchange to water activity will be discussed.
Vital movie for noobs and a big help and peace of mind for me, yes you can dry and cure 6-6-6
rather than the 7-7-7 of those in the desert. ideal for post harvesters in a cooler climates many great graphs

​

​


​

​

 
WelderDan

WelderDan

Well-known member
Veteran
Ya know, I read this thread quite some time ago. And I ended up using your Humidity Guide, if you will. 70 or under and it should not mold. Holding it between 65 and 68 seems to me to be the sweet spot, but I'm using a cheap Amazon meter. Anyway, my cures are pretty consistent now I adapted this method. It's solid and it works.
 
PlastikeRubba

PlastikeRubba

Active member
amanda88 said:
Allison Justice, PhD presents "The Science of Drying and Curing" at CannMed 2022. Drying and curing is an extremely important step to smokable flower production. In this session, the science of drying and curing will be discussed. Traditional methods and current research covering everything from gas exchange to water activity will be discussed.
Vital movie for noobs and a big help and peace of mind for me, yes you can dry and cure 6-6-6
rather than the 7-7-7 of those in the desert. ideal for post harvesters in a cooler climates many great graphs
Click to expand...


Stoner sis science is worse than bro science. They're still pretending we give a shit about myrcene and linalool limonene. Allison Justice doesn't even know what beta oxidation is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top