Using a dehumidifier to dry

[hops]

HI guys,

I understand that a lot of people actually dry their buds in the same room they have been grown in, hence wanting to keep the extractor fans/inlet fans on for odour control. I do however recommend if you can, using another room for drying. I seal off my drying room with tape and run a dehumidifier along with oscillating fans to circulate the same air. This way I have complete control to remove the humidity in the air and the moisture from deep within my buds. Rather than constantly drawing in potentially cold, wet air from outside the drying room (something that can slow the drying process or worse still introduce mould spores to the buds). The trick is to make sure you have adequate dehumidifing power for the size room you're using + taking into account that you are filling this room with wet organic matter, i.e you are introducing more moisture to the room than normal, and so the dehumidifier will need to be more powerful than the sized room would normally require.

Im just offering an alternative method,

Hope this can help

[Embryo]

[iWeed]

Drying should be done as slowly as possible, Dehumidifier? No thanks buddy!

[bolt]

Two questions what happens if you haven't got a spare room to do that? More importantly what about the smell of your precious bud?

[Jimboo]

taking into account that you are filling this room with wet organic matter, i.e you are introducing more moisture to the room than normal, and so the dehumidifier will need to be more powerful than the sized room would normally require.

Im just offering an alternative method,

how are you introducing more moisture to the room than normal ? When normally you are adding lts of water/feed every few days and you are drying the same bud that was already in the room

Edited September 4, 2014 by Jimboo

[K-B]

Jimboo nailed it. Plus as someone else mentioned you want to dry your buds slowly. Dehumidifier you are quick drying and sucking the smell and flavour from them buds you put at least a couple months effort in to. Credit to you for genuinely trying to help and share an idea but it's not a good idea for drying buds properly I'm afraid.

[thedemon]

no offence but your advice is flawed for most......no offence but it might work for you but that is very poor advice to post on a forum

Dehumidifier is such a big no no in the drying process I cant state enough that this is really terrible advice especially for beginners.

MY advice is DO NOT USE A DEHUMIDIFIER...unless you want your grass TOTALLY void of most of its Terpenes......and smelling/smoking like dried lawn grass.

[EasyKush1]

I am a complete newbie when it comes to drying curing but from all the research i ve done on here and from peoples personal statements i was under the impression you should dry your buds slowly to keep them from tasteing basically like crap think ill stick with that method as it sounds more logical but if it works for you all good man

[hops]

Hi guys,

bolt - Simple, if you don’t have the room, carry on doing what ever you currently do, I have a ducted air vent in my ceiling that i can run a small fan and filter to if required in warmer times. Im lucky, I don’t live in close proximity to neighbours.

Jimboo - i was referring to a ‘drying’ room not the growroom plants were grown in. Meaning that a drying room now has wet buds in it and so a dehumidifier would need to be powerful enough to take this into consideration.

There was 95% humidity 2 nights ago where i am - in the past this has spelt doom for me attempting to dry and already (grey mould) infected harvest. Im not suggesting people flash dry their buds in a day, simply that if you have had a mould outbreak and you have these kind of RH levels, then this adapted method might help you. If you had buds dried even 80% then popped them into mason jars for slow curing the final stage slowly this IMO works well. Also I’ve never ended up with ‘hay’, and it most definitely doesn’t effect your aromatic terpenes - they are still there :-)

[thedemon]

hey hops, I didn't mean to say one way was right or not and if your humidity in the part of the world where you live is that high, better options would be

"getter a decent natural airflow and try and dry somewhere like a shed or barn or similar/ Humidifiers remove the Terpenes in plants and your weed will be SHITE, I promise you, I know from experience my man....

....but if you are drying in your tent....your extraction should help in reducing humidity and ONLY your extraction should be on, no ACTIVE intake and TURN YOUR FANS off (I mean your oscillating or similar fans NOT your air system)...only extraction on the lowest setting you can you to help adjust adjust your temp / humidity and leave em for at least 10 days to 14 days.....in the dark

IF you try to adjust your enviro with fans, or dehumids, or powerful extraction, your crop will be near unsmokable...all that effort for horrible shit.....we are trying to help you avoid that depressing mistake, ones which we have made before so we know......

Good luck to mate!

[Ape]

I have a high average RH where I live, so use a dehumidifier at the beginning. The way I do it doesn't affect the smell, all those delicious scents remain. Usually I'll set it on a low setting, around 55%. Hasn't wrecked my buds yet. I dry until they are close to done, then let them cure in a jar for up to a week or so. Trust me, done this way they turn out exactly the same as curing with no dehumidifier. I think people run into problems when they crank a dehumidifier at the highest setting and then leave it. I've also let them dry out too far, but thanks to my RH the moisture quickly returns and the scents are still there. Like every other aspect of growing and curing, there is a refined technique that works better than others. Most people have tried and disliked the results and so given up completely. I didn't have that luxury and now I'm glad I didn't. The way I do it now is faster but had the same results. The only downside is I have to pay a little more attention and pay for a little bit of power, but it's a good trade off for me.

[GeneralDark]

Nothing worse than bud thats been dried too quick.

[Ape]

Agreed, I've smoked some awful quick dried bud in my time. But like anything else, there's a right way and a wrong way. Done correctly, (relatively) quick dried bud is no different to slow. I'm not talking about bud dried in a day or two, that'll always be terrible.

Edited September 8, 2014 by Ape

[Briar Fox]

Wow. So many hostile people saying "No! you're ruining your bud because you don't do the same as me!"

I live somewhere very wet. Every piece of advice on drying says you need somewhere dry to... errr.... dry. Like, 50% Rh dry.

So I too use a dehumidifier. All it does is hold the ambient humidity at around 50% in the part of the house I do my drying. At 18C & 50rh it takes about 10 days to get it to "jar at 60" 10 days is not "too quick dried hay"

Really you people. Everyone's environment is different. I, personally would like to thank the original poster for contributing something that would have saved me a cunt load of mouldy bud if someone had only mentioned it to me about 5 years ago. +1 OP.

*e2a I Do step the dehumidifier up from 50% to 60% after 7 days. should probably mention that.

Edited September 10, 2014 by Briar Fox

[Embryo]

Nobody has said anything of the sort and you can fuck off with the "you people" shit as well