Drying and curing

[Rootsruler]

In our quest to provide the best conditions for the dry and cure portion of the grow I've always wondered what temp and humidity spikes do to the process? Will a temperature spike cook off terpenes or does it have to be consitently high temps for a particular period of time that will do that? I'd venture to guess a humidity spike is not as critical but was curious as my temp and humidity vary throughout the day.

 

[GoodShit97]

In our quest to provide the best conditions for the dry and cure portion of the grow I've always wondered what temp and humidity spikes do to the process? Will a temperature spike cook off terpenes or does it have to be consitently high temps for a particular period of time that will do that? I'd venture to guess a humidity spike is not as critical but was curious as my temp and humidity vary throughout the day.

I have this happen too. Ill get it to 62-65 and my wife shuts the ac off
Then it jumps back up to 70-72 for an hour or so. Its never seemed to mess up the end result but idk for sure.

 

[budsofmadison]

same with me i stop worrying about fluctuations through out the day and worry more about the overall temp and humidity

 

[Bandit420]

My g/room also houses my drying tent and is not on the same HVAC as the rest of the house so temp is independently controlled.
I basically just adjust everything in my room from grow to dry settings.
I take the AC off day night control and set it to 65*F 24/7. Exhaust stays on at the lowest setting on the speed controller to take out odor and RH but the AC also acts as a dehuey so RH usually stays in the 50-55% range.
Add a small fan and an air purifier to the drying tent and in about 2-3 weeks the buds will be dry and ready to cure.

As long as it's cool to cold, terps won't go away or be diminished. Heat will do it though so avoid a warm and fast dry. The slower the dry, the better the results and you slow it down with cold temps

 

[Rootsruler]

My g/room also houses my drying tent and is not on the same HVAC as the rest of the house so temp is independently controlled.
I basically just adjust everything in my room from grow to dry settings.
I take the AC off day night control and set it to 65*F 24/7. Exhaust stays on at the lowest setting on the speed controller to take out odor and RH but the AC also acts as a dehuey so RH usually stays in the 50-55% range.
Add a small fan and an air purifier to the drying tent and in about 2-3 weeks the buds will be dry and ready to cure.

As long as it's cool to cold, terps won't go away or be diminished. Heat will do it though so avoid a warm and fast dry. The slower the dry, the better the results and you slow it down with cold temps

Understood but if you're dry room isn't as controllable and your temperature fluctuates throughout the day will these short spurts affect terpenes? In my case temps can fluctuate as much as 5* within a few hours. My temps will hover in the 67* - 73* range with spikes usually lasting around an hour or so. The dehumidifier in the lung room is adding some heat to the room. I may turn it off or down to see if it is affecting lung room temps.

 

[CannaGranny]

This is a fantastic question.
I dry and cure at a steady 60-62* and humidity running at 55-60. I have never had a temp change to speak of, but I have had a humidity change that made a great deal of difference.
My humidifier runs constantly, but if the electric flicks off or goes out, it must be manually turned back on. Meaning you don’t always catch it. This happened. I was gone overnight and do not know if it was a night and a full day, half a day or otherwise so can’t offer a timeline. My temp stayed consistent leaving me to believe it was a flickering of power.
My humidity dropped to 32 and flowers that only had four days dry time on them were crunchy dry. Normally this is an eleven to sixteen day process. They had to run a full two days of 60% humidity in order to regain any moisture.
The outcome, unusually harsh. Not the smooth and limonene terp filled orange delight.
From this it leads me to believe that humidity is super important in the drying, curing process, and fluctuations do have consequences.

 

[freezeland]

Understood but if you're dry room isn't as controllable and your temperature fluctuates throughout the day will these short spurts affect terpenes? In my case temps can fluctuate as much as 5* within a few hours. My temps will hover in the 67* - 73* range with spikes usually lasting around an hour or so. The dehumidifier in the lung room is adding some heat to the room. I may turn it off or down to see if it is affecting lung room temps.

My palette is not sensitive enough to notice a difference in taste with small temp fluctuations. I think I would though notice if dried in 5 days versus a slower 10 day dry for example.

 

[MDK]

I'm going through the process now. One thing I've found when it comes to the stem snap method. The amount of hands you use will give different results. If I use one hand to try and snap the stem it just bends. If I hold the stem with one hand and use the other to try and bend the stem I get a snap.

May have fucked up though as I was using one hand and not getting a true snap but the buds seemed dry enough. Once I used 2 hands and was getting snapping sounds I pulled all the buds off the stems and threw them in jars.

All my jars are at 55% humidity which I feel is a bit low. Anyone ever jar up and have it below the 60% range? How's the bud turn out?

 

[Rootsruler]

I'm going through the process now. One thing I've found when it comes to the stem snap method. The amount of hands you use will give different results. If I use one hand to try and snap the stem it just bends. If I hold the stem with one hand and use the other to try and bend the stem I get a snap.

May have fucked up though as I was using one hand and not getting a true snap but the buds seemed dry enough. Once I used 2 hands and was getting snapping sounds I pulled all the buds off the stems and threw them in jars.

All my jars are at 55% humidity which I feel is a bit low. Anyone ever jar up and have it below the 60% range? How's the bud turn out?

55% is still ok but 60% would be better.

 

[MDK]

I'm keeping and eye on it 56% and slowly rising

 

[smoke]

No science to back it up but ive read curing stops below 57%

 

[MDK]

I'm gonna fill the jars up a bit more see if that doesn't bring it up some

 

[moe.red]

Different terpenes act differently. The most volatile terps will start to evaporate at 70*F or even a little less. The volatile ones are usually the hydrocarbon based terps.

Humidity also plays a role. There is a good read here

Terpenes | Save the Terps

savetheterps.org

PREVENTING THE LOSS OF TERPENES

Research into this deterioration identified that a monolayer of moisture on the surface of the trichomes blocks these harmful end results from occurring.

The monolayer accumulates the water layer by layer. At this point, thick layers of water can block the oxidation process and terpene evaporation losses. The monolayer becomes a protective shield that slows down the losses. And when the relative humidity (RH) in the surrounding atmosphere is between 55-65%, flower achieves equilibration with the adjacent air, which dramatically slows evaporation.

Because the air in the headspace of the container now has sufficient water molecules, there’s little room for the terpenes. So those terpenes remain inside the trichome until they’re released by the consumer by grinding, smoking, breaking, etc.

 

[Amnesia]

I'm gonna fill the jars up a bit more see if that doesn't bring it up some

I haven't seen this mentioned much, but back in the dark ages, we would wrap a piece of fruit in foil and poke holes in the foil with a pin. We used this method a few months ago using pieces of baby carrots to humidify some store-bought weed. It seemed to work well. We raised the RH to about 64% (IIRC) and then removed the carrot and let it drop back to 62% as the moisture penetrated the buds.

 

[MDK]

@Amnesia I have done that before with lettuce and carrot both worked fine I'm just trying to avoid adding any back in. Currently got 2 jars one at 57% the other at 58%. So I'm gonna hold there and see if the percentage raises more throughout the day. Just jarred them this morning...adding in more flower (condensing jars) helped quite a bit, I think it'll work out. Took a quick crack and sniff and it smelled good. Let it bathe in its essence long as I can

 

[Amnesia]

@Amnesia I have done that before with lettuce and carrot both worked fine I'm just trying to avoid adding any back in. Currently got 2 jars one at 57% the other at 58%. So I'm gonna hold there and see if the percentage raises more throughout the day. Just jarred them this morning...adding in more flower (condensing jars) helped quite a bit, I think it'll work out. Took a quick crack and sniff and it smelled good. Let it bathe in its essence long as I can

Okay. Sounds good. You got this!

 

[freezeland]

Sorry to high Jack. Here is peanut butter breath on day 5 at 64.4 degrees and 58.4% rh. This particular bud is now combustible, lol. Guess what’s happening to it now.

 

[Rootsruler]

Different terpenes act differently. The most volatile terps will start to evaporate at 70*F or even a little less. The volatile ones are usually the hydrocarbon based terps.

Does this also apply to when the plants are alive and growing? I get that we grow at temperatures well about 70*F so are these volatiles constantly being evaporated then replaced by the plant while it's still alive?

 

[moe.red]

Does this also apply to when the plants are alive and growing? I get that we grow at temperatures well about 70*F so are these volatiles constantly being evaporated then replaced by the plant while it's still alive?

Yup, the reason we run carbon filters. If your grow room doesn't stink, you are doing something wrong. That is the terps evaporating and becoming odor.

 

[moe.red]

Sorry to high Jack. Here is peanut butter breath on day 5 at 64.4 degrees and 58.4% rh. This particular bud is now combustible, lol. Guess what’s happening to it now.

Please let me know if there is any resemblance to Jiff. I would also accept Peter Pan. Just no skippy.

 

[freezeland]

Please let me know if there is any resemblance to Jiff. I would also accept Peter Pan. Just no skippy.

How about Great Value brand, lol. On the serious side it’s very nice, good uplift.

 

[moe.red]

How about Great Value brand, lol. On the serious side it’s very nice, good uplift.

I just laugh at the names they come up with. Like the weed I'm growing now will actually taste like Watermelon Gelato. I know the one I got into after work did not taste like Han Solo either.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

 

[Bandit420]

I just laugh at the names they come up with. Like the weed I'm growing now will actually taste like Watermelon Gelato. I know the one I got into after work did not taste like Han Solo either.

That's what's kept the strain "Cat Piss" out of my room for all these years. I just have a fear it might be the one time where name matches aroma or flavor.
But for some reason "Road Kill Skunk" gives me a gardening boner

 

[MDK]

That's what's kept the strain "Cat Piss" out of my room for all these years. I just have a fear it might be the one time where name matches aroma or flavor.
But for some reason "Road Kill Skunk" gives me a gardening boner

I can confirm it does. My buddies dad grew it in the late 90s they also had like 10 cats and piss poor litter box ethics. Never knew if it was the weed or the cats. Sometimes the smell got stronger lol

 

[SiamSam]

Curing question inside these paper bags; shake em daily, easy check. Do the bags remain closed as they are hanging up in this dandy illustration? That makes it seem more like a cure. I am actually doing what onedrop did before he vanished along with the silver. Open ? Or leave sealed? Bought some dispo weed in town today. Smoked harsh but good indica.

 

[Max]

Yup, the reason we run carbon filters. If your grow room doesn't stink, you are doing something wrong. That is the terps evaporating and becoming odor.

mine doesnt through the grow as the filters doing there job..but from about week 7 onwards if you are in the vicinity of my shed you will smell it like my filters not working lol,but you go in the room …nothing…same when it’s drying,,specially from day 7 till dry…the ol girls is always on my case about it lol.always nag,nag nag..

 

[Pipecarver]

Right now I'm drying at 25c or 77f @ 62% its all I have to work with....I intend on using this stuff for oils but some will inevitably get smoked, as long as it gets me high I'll be good with it, if its too harsh I guess I can mix it with something else.

 

[CannaGranny]

Right now I'm drying at 25c or 77f @ 62% its all I have to work with....I intend on using this stuff for oils but some will inevitably get smoked, as long as it gets me high I'll be good with it, if its too harsh I guess I can mix it with something else.

I personally think the humidity is more important than the ambient temps.

 

[Zen_seeker]

Right now I'm drying at 25c or 77f @ 62% its all I have to work with....I intend on using this stuff for oils but some will inevitably get smoked, as long as it gets me high I'll be good with it, if its too harsh I guess I can mix it with something else.

Solo got 6 good days drying in the tent. Then rain and humidity had me going back to the Lotus method.

Drying in the fridge is okay if you have more than one. 30oz takes up a bit or room. But so far so good. I keep a little hygrometer in at least one paper bag.