Tips, tricks and ideas on drying/curing mass amounts for the guerilla grower.

[Mountain-Ninja]

Many of us have the same routine year after year when it comes to drying and curing our harvest. But there's always a guy out there struggling to find a safe secure place to dry his couple Pounds of gold or the guy out there who really went for it and came out with a whopping 30-40+ pounds when he thought there was just no way. Too good to be true. Something will prevent him from getting that lucky, but it actually happens for him! You really need a game plan long before you go chopping down all of your girls as to what your next move is how are you going to successfully dry and cure this bud?

I would like for any body with ideas, ways and or past experience with drying bud outdoors or anywhere that is practical for the "not so lucky" guy who desperately needs somewhere (besides in his home) to dry bud!

We all know the struggle we've all been there. Let's keep it practical and come up with some good ideas guys! I'll be contributing to this thread first thing in the morning after some shut eye!

 

[SilentFeet]

You can set up a campsite in the vicinity of (not next to) your grow; a tent, stockpile of food and water, gas cooker, sleeping bag etc.

Then come harvest you go to your grow, grab about 5 plants, and take them back to your campsite and trim the buds, and then put them on something to dry.

What I found good was the bread trays you can souvenir from the back of McDonads.
They are large and flat, and you can stack them on top of each other.

You need to put some sheets of newspaper on the bottom so the buds don't fall through the holes.

You spread the trimmed buds out on them and leave them sitting in the shade of a tree at your campsite.
Then at night you can stack the trays of buds on top of each other, they are stackable, and put a sheet of plastic or a tarp over the top, to keep the dew off.

When dry put in a garbage bag.

Forget about curing out in the woods, just go for a slow dry.

Or you can build a drying shed, just a frame made from local timber with a tarp over the top, and then branches on the tarp if you want.
Leave the sides open for breeze.

String thin rope along inside it and hang branches or plants on it to dry.

I prefer the first method as I find wet buds quicker to trim, and they dry quicker than if left on branches.
You might say dry trimming gives better smoke etc, but don't forget this is guerilla, there are people out there looking for your buds, you got to get them dried and in the bag and out of there asap.

 

[Limeygreen]

Depends on your climate and harvest time too. Outdoors a drying shed that keeps light off, rain off but allows air flow can work well, if it gets too cold and humid then you risk mold. I have known people who rent a house in the outskirts to dry their harvest, rent it for 2 months or so and be done, they were not smart though and you could smell it 500 m away in the driveway.

If you are struggling, why not freeze it and make bubble from fresh frozen material? This gets your excess gone, don't have to worry about drying it or losing it to mold.

 

[Mountain-Ninja]

If you look at the front of a lot of houses you'll see the roof in a "A" shape. Replicate that with rope. One rope will be up high and will run from one tree to as far away another tree as you want, this will be your peak. Another rope will go beside that rope but lower (on both sides) of your peak rope. And so on so fourth. Then drape a tarp (or multiple) depending on how wide and long you made your rope roof over everything and set rocks on the tarp to hold it to the ground. You will have both ends wide open for air to get in. Then you run string line the length of your homemade shelter to hang buds on.

I hope I explained this decent enough that you get what I'm saying.. It is a idea mostly for large quanity! All it takes is rope, a tarp or two, and string line.
P.s be sure to pull your ropes TIGHT.

 

[Mountain-Ninja]

Out in the woods you can find 4 trees in a square like pattern, nail 4 1x4 boards (which are light weight) to the trees creating a square frame.. Use a stable gun and staple in a couple sheets of screen (like the stuff on a screen door) so basically your creating a screen tray nailed to a tree.. Depending how far apart the trees are that you choose.. The bigger your tray will be. You can built however many you want on top of each other (leave about a foot gap atleast. You can cover this with a tarp however you choose.

 

[VonBudí]

Renting a house would make life easier.

endur on tarps

Tarps....
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Harvest...
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Julian threads MASSIVE OUTDOOR GROW will also have a wealth of practical info.


outdoor structure.

I dry outdoors.....But my climate is usually pretty dry in the winter.
I dry underneath a tarp, that's been setup with tent poles and spreader bars....Had three of these in action a couple years ago...

All setup in well shaded areas, so they can't be seen bye aircraft...

I thought this pic is pretty cool....I got this off icmag a good while back....Some bloke made this out around the swamp land for drying his herb....apparently it worked well...Can't remember who's pic it is .
So I'm sorry for not giving credit where it's due.

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was some on here use to use those us army hospital tents, the ones use for refugees these days, sturdy ,cheapish and camod.




hunting season when your planning to dry and cure outdoors?







.

 

[Mountain-Ninja]

Vonbudi you pretty much done the same concept as I was talking about with the tarps.. Did you camp out the whole process? Or come and go. Did all go well for you? That natural shelter is pretty killer

 

[amanda88]

Keeping a low profile is best

(http://motherboard.vice.com/read/ca...nment-proposition-64?trk_source=homepage-lede)

 

[GuerillaMonster]

I use the A frame tarp deal and use ratchet straps instead of rope. you can crank them down real quick and easy to get them tight. Make sure the tarp goes right to the ground and put rocks or logs down to keep it down tight. Both ends have to be open or it will mould. Dark or camo tarps are best hidden under big trees and dense forest. Keep it LOW key. That picture above is craziness LOL.

 

[rod58]

good information but just depends a lot on your situation . i'm in a area that is very dry and quite warm during the harvest period .i always trim wet and i've done as mountain ninja described , stretching shade cloth between four trees which gives good air flow all around the buds .
its still a big job though , especially when the planets line up and you get that 20-60lb lot .
then i camp out , generally with my long suffering wife and we just get the job done . first day we both pick and trim and after that one of us will walk amongst the plants and pull all the sunleaves off which then makes it so easy to trim and in saying that it really has a huge bearing on the type of plants you have . there's easy trimming ones and there's just bastard ones that just doesn't give me any pleasure at all !
all in all though it is , to me anyway , a very enjoyable job . its a culmination for all the sheer bloody hard work we've put into it .
and i've never had to put up with rain at this time , nor mould .its a rare thing here because of the dryness . hardest part of it all is hauling it out , and safely . cheers .

 

[DuskrayTroubador]

^damn son, whereabout ya at?

Humidity kills out here.

 

[DuskrayTroubador]

This is just an idea, but what about hanging trellis or other nets from tree branches. Or even just clothes hangers.

Hang the branches up in the trees on either nets or clothes hangers hanging from branches. Might be a dumb idea, but my very first grow (albeit a small one) I just hang the buds between trees on fishing line for a "rough dry" so they didn't stink to high fucking heaven when I brought them inside to finish drying out.

 

[rod58]

^damn son, whereabout ya at?

Humidity kills out here.

i'm in western australia on the western edge of the desert , winter wet and seriously summer dry most years . would love to have a wet area to grow in but that obviously comes with its own problems .

 

[rod58]

gives you an idea , harvest time and about 35c in the shade ..we call this open woodland and this is very wooded compared to most .

 

[Mountain-Ninja]

Well guys I've been swamped lately on top of all of my life duties I just was told yesterday that the spot I've been prepping for a couple months now (for next years grow) has been leased out. A company will be logging it. There's posted signs everywhere no trespassing no hunting blah blah. I had just finished working for the day (yesterday) and was driving out of the mtns and here came a Silverado right towards me on a narrow trail so we squeezed beside each other and talked. He started telling me about how it's leased. He wasn't rude or anything but he said he personally doesn't care about people riding around up there he just don't want to see anybody get a ticket because the game warden is suppose to be patrolling it (but he doesn't think that he actually is) and that they are in the process of putting up gates. I believe he said it was 6k acres they have leased of that particular mountain. SO I have a lot to figure out!

Back to the forum: guerilla monster, the ratchet straps are a great idea. If not ratchet straps 100% from tree to tree atleast a ratchet strap on one end. With rope tied to it that way you have the ratchet strap on your one end to crank down tight. Good one man

Rod58 I know the feeling brother

 

[Mountain-Ninja]

Duskray troubador for a small grow like you mentioned fishing line is cool, I've seen it used before. Cloths hangers on tree branches for a small grow, well there's a lot better things to use and affordable as well for a small grow then cloths hangers. I've used cloths hangers inside before but if used outside it seems like the wind would blow and all your bud would slide to one side. Cloths hangers have always just been kind of aggervating when used for any weight. Keep a open mind and keep thinking brother that's how great new ideas come to light!

 

[Mountain-Ninja]

Rod58 do you water like crazy out there? Hope you have a natural water source near by or I feel for you! Sounds like very dry hot climate

 

[Limeygreen]

if you're handy with lashing and have dead wood or brush you cleared for your grow that you kept, you can make drying racks from these, end of drying then you just simply take off the lashing and scatter the branches no evidence of it left over, jute twine is great unless you have cedar bark that is sticky and full of resin so it's good to boil it first a couple times before use.

 

[rod58]

Rod58 do you water like crazy out there? Hope you have a natural water source near by or I feel for you! Sounds like very dry hot climate

hey M-N , no water source out there . because i made the decision to make that my spot i ran a heap of 1in poly pipe to the patches and connect them to two 1000ltr shuttles with solar pressure pump and timers ..hahhaa the initial setting up was a bastard ..
BUT , that decision has been fruitful , everything is done out there so there's no need to cart any wet or unsealed product back into civilization . i even vac pack out there .

 

[Mountain-Ninja]

Rod58 sounds like a nice set up. I'm guessing your 1000 ltr shuttles are like containers that catch rain water right? If so how do you preserve your water keeping insects and small animals out and keep the water in usable condition? I've considered putting out containers to catch rain water before in case of a drought but assumed the water would stagnate or something. Years ago, not really knowing.. I set out 5 gal buckets to catch rain water and partially buried them, well, a few small field mice drowned in the buckets trying to get water and I never really gave that whole idea any more thought