So, once again, my choice of vacation dates is proving problematic as we near the end of my first grow here in CO.
Two days ago I chopped three of my six plants (seeds of unknown origin, outdoor grow), and they are currently drying in a basement storage room (about 10x15’, lots of boxes, etc.). Temp is pretty stable at 68°, but I haven’t yet been able to get the RH above about 43%, which I know is too low (I have one Homedics humidifier running full-time). I kept all leaves on to dry trim later, knowing that they’d likely dry too quickly with our low humidity.
The problem is that I’m headed to New Orleans to visit my son at Loyola (and to see Anders Osborne at Tipitina’s!) on Thursday, returning late Monday. Currently a moisture meter has the buds on the three plants at 17-19%, so I’m doubting they’ll be ready to bag by Wednesday night (and, unfortunately, delivery of Grove bags was just delayed until the day I leave). At current settings the consumer-grade humidifier will run out of water 36 hours after I leave, although I can turn it down to prolong it by another 24 hours or so.
Any ideas? I’m guessing if I leave the plants hanging they’ll be too dry a week from now, and if I jar/bag they’ll be too wet, increasing chances of mold, etc. Although the plant I’m chopping on Weds AM is the most important one (biggest buds, etc.), I don’t want to screw up these three plants, one in particular with bright orange pistils and a great smell.
Any suggestions you might have as to an approach to this would be super-helpful, so thanks in advance!!!
I’ve already got one (larger) humidifier, and don’t really want to spend more money. Also, that smaller size would just run out of water within 24 hours or so (that’s a guess), and I’ll be gone for 4+ days.
Well, humidifier ran out of water last night just after midnight, dropped from 44 to 34% when I woke up. Buds are now around 11%, so I guess I need to scramble and go find some Grove bags locally. These plants aren’t super-dense, so I knew they’d dry quickly, but dropping from 19% to 11% in a day surprised me a bit.
The plant I’m chopping tomorrow AM is the one I really care about, and it can dry while we’re gone. I guess I’ll add two towels and turn the humidifier down so that it drains the water at a slower rate, and hope that it doesn’t dry too much in the 4+ days we’re gone.
I can’t seem to source any Grove bags locally, and my shipment was delayed a day and will arrive after I leave. I thus need to leave this harvest for 4 days right as curing should start, but am afraid to jar them without being able to burp them.
Any ideas as to the best approach for this? Something that won’t completely cut off the buds from ‘breathing’, but also won’t allow them to dry much further? Is it as simple as covering each hanging plant with a plastic garbage bag (something with a fair amount of volume), and hope for the best?
If I had Boveda packs I’d just flip a coin and jar them, but I abandoned that strategy after I learned about Grove bags.
I set wet towels out. Can set wet towels out over drip pans maybe set a fish tank water pump on a harbor freight digital timer in a large tote to pump water on towels occasionally and blow fans across towels. In my tent right now I have a wet towel on the front of a fan to get humidity up
