1st time drying n Need to pick some brains!

Ive seen several ways to dry, low n slow, fast and furious. I wanna go cold but not slow. What my intentions to do unless, yall help me see the error in my ways lol, use my lil fallout mini fridge. Ill “burp” the fridge and use a wifi hygrometer to turn the fridge on and off for temp. A cabinet fan inside to circulate air and hopefully dry it a bit quicker, but more importantly avoid mold. Ill also rotate any buds resting on anything.

Humidity i think will handle itself but if not, i have a charcoal bag(RH) and a wet wash cloth(RH) lol.

Curing is going to be groove bags, they seemed cheeper and better.(can only be used 3x apparently)

Is this a bad idea or spectacular lol. To be fair, im going wiith this option to keep it cold. My original place was going to be my closet. But its stuck at like a 19 to 21c temp and RH around 45 to 50.

id like to bring the temp down around 16 or 17. A fridge is about my only go to. And i have one just sitting in a box waiting on a remodel lol so maaaaaaybe?

Further information that may help you help me!
Going to wet trim and harvest some buds at a time as the rippen. And well some rippen more, i wanna try the bud both ways! Lol

But any advice Is welcome lol i just would hate to faceplant at the finish line.

19-21c is almost the perfect range as far as temps go and if you could boost the rh to around 60% you would have the perfect spot in my eyes, its not a fast dry but not super slow either. When it comes to curing you already have the best thing i have found with the grove bags and they can be infinitely reused if you are careful to not break the zip lock and give them a good wash in between uses.

See my grow tent would pull those number easy but Ill need to do a full harvest, and was hopeing to be selective. But maybe ill harlrvest th a bit late, the mid would be about perfect timing and the lower a bit less and the top a bit more. I have a setup for it, but my grow went off the rails, and took my plans with it haha.

Groove bags, can be reused?! Heck yeah, cleanings should be easy, I got food grade sanatizers that should do the trick. This is great news, I was hoping this was the case!

Now it doesn’t seem too scary again lol. Thanks!

I’ve just done a wine fridge dry. Am undecided on it so far. It works but takes a LONG time to dry, like 3 weeks.

You also need to burp the fridges, 4x in the first few days, then 2x then daily.

If I do it again it will be purely to avoid excess heat if the room is too hot, but I would prefer to add a small dehumidifier next time to try to keep it to 60% RH.

Personally, I think if you can get the drying room to 60-70F and 60%, then you are good.

And I am planning on testing grove bags, burping jars is a PITA

oh and if you want to read more on the fridge method, its called a “lotus dry/cure”.

A name! Yes, always helpful thank you! I may try both?

Ok, new thought, got an old camping tent, set up down stairs, put a fan pulling air out the top, have the heuy sitting on the outside of the intake to pull the air moist air in? Whold the huey hurt in the tent with the drying buds?

It feels off making the “drying” room less dry haha, but i totally get it.

In my studies, I’ve found there’s so many things going on during the drying n curing. Chlorophyll evaporation at certain temps, certain terps abnd other 3 letter things that also go away atnother temps.

Apparently the right dry n cure and yer bud can taste like berries haha so cant say im not curious.

I’ve spent hours on this and there are many people who swear by their methods even though they are completely different.

Some swear that it has to be dried at 60-60 for two weeks.

Others say to dry fast (5-7 days), and get into jars to cure.

Some people say to dry in a fridge, some stuff it in a tube and put it behind the TV (I shit you not haha, its called a Malawi Cure lol).

My next run I am just gonna use the tent and try to get the temps under 70F and RH around 55%. As soon as they feel crisp I will jar them until cured.

Drying and curing is the most important step. You’ve spent all this time growing this plant and caring for it’s every need, don’t throw that out the window just trying to get a speedy dry.

Oh i don’t want that speedy, and its definitely not my main goal! I know as a 1st time grower, ill most likely wanna jump the gun on every step. Ive done good thus far with that.

Mainly I need to find a place or structure in my home I can make work with little to no cost. The bank, as my dad would say, is closed. Lol

The orginal plan was to convert my grow tent over, however the current state of my plants, ill be harvesting only portions at a time. So i need to find a place to dry em safely and properly. I totally agree it would be a huge waste to let impatients ruin it now.

@Wargoat do you have a preferred method? Im going to end up trying a few ways, to see what works best in my environment over here.

@SJ1 I totally agree, so many ways, I’m not a fan of heaters and dried combustibles in a inclosed room, so I certain wanna work more with colder temps, that and I keep it cold in my home.

At this point im leaning towards a water heater box, vent fan on side top pulling air out, and a vent on the floor with a huey blowing in, controled by wifi hygrometer. In theory this would give me a good 60/60. The cardboard i think will help, notnsure how but it feels like it would.

Best thing I’ve found is to keep things simple. Follow a proven plan - aim for a simple chamber (spare room, tent, closet, whatevs) kept as near 60-60 with minimal but consistent airflow and no light. Check after 7-10 days, when they start feeling crispy jar a few nugs with a hydrometer.

Wait a few hours and if it reads 64% or under you are good to start the cure.

Once you know what to do, and what you are looking for, you can tweak from there.

But keeping it simple and paying no attention are not the same thing. I did not pay anywhere near enough importance to the dry/cure on my first run and ended up with weed that tasted of wet card. Absolute shite lol. Don’t be me.

Oh, the cure and dry is the first real on the edge of my seat situation. After reading post and articles, I realized a while back that its extremely important. Actually i think the grow yer speaking of, you posted about the dry previously and it got me researching more. KISS for the win, I like it, I’ll be repurpsing an old tent, use a nice simple fan and a huey.

I feel like having the huey, in the tent would help promote moisture and therefor mold. So it’d need to be outside of the tent and the humidty rich air pulled in? And out through the top?

Depends on the size of the tent. If the humidifier fits put it inside, but with the mist not blowing directly on the plants. Use a fan to disperse it as it exits the machine.

And then out through the top, yeah.

We’re fist timers as well , we hung ours upside down in the tent and was “crispy” in 3 days, harvested and put in a jar,it looks and smells great, good luck