Drying in heatwave

Everything is on track for what is looking like In about 4 weeks time I will have a great harvest.

However I am foreseeing a problem. In four weeks time the temperature where I now live will be insane. Every day will be over 30 degrees and many will be 40 or even more (thats 86 - 104 degrees for my Fahrenheit grow brothers and sisters). Ive never had a harvest here since I just recently moved here however Ive heard stories of people drying their bud in extreme heat and ending up with a bud smelling like hay. This would be gutting after all the work and time invested (not to mention money)

Unfortunately I dont own an air conditioner nor a nice cool basement to set up my dry racks in. Its been bugging me what I could do and short of trimming dry to slow down the drying process a bit Im pretty much out of ideas. Hence I turn to you fine folk for some ideias on how to prevent a tragedy

Thanx in advance for anyone reading this

Hi@DaSofaSurfer, I think the best thing you could do would be to harvest and hang whole plants as this will slow the process as much as possible in your current situation. Grab a thermometer and over the next couple of days find the coolest room in the house and plan to do your drying in there. I have heard of people taping a wet sponge around the freshly cut stem to provide the plant with a tiny amount of moisture for a few days, supposedly slows down the drying process a bit , but could also facilitate the growth of mould so be watchfull.

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Drying is much more a product of humidity than heat. If you can make an airtight box and keep the drying stalks at about 62% RH, than that will be fine. You can buy a cheap humidity meter on amazon for $9. It’s very easy to increase humidity in a box just by adding a damp towel. Keep them at 62% for about two weeks, so the buds are uniformly that level of dryness. Then trim and jar them with 62% Boveda packs (also available on amazon.)

If you plan to make edibles or oil or hash, don’t bother. Curing is just for smoother smoking.

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@1BigFella is on point
I perfer a 55%- 60% drying environment myself
A dehumidifier will help in this case
Boveda packs work well also when cureing
58% is a good starting number 62% at most tho

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Ive been using them boveda 62s for a while now. As for what @1BigFella said I was actually thinking or making a box type thing made out of cork (there is alot of cork available where I live) it is very good for keeping things cool. Sheep herders fill these bottle type things with cool water and it keeps it cool throughout the day despite tremendous heat so they and quench their thirst and cool down. The problem is the “air tight” part which sows some confusion in my mind. If its air tight the humidity wont have way to leave this box and this may raise a whole new set of problems at (least in my mind) As I said im a bit confused and dont know how this would work. ive never had to do anything like this. Where I lived before I just had a thermostat to regulate the temperature. Id set it to 20ºC (68ºF) and didnt have to worry about this. Leaving a boveda pack inside the box could be a good answer. It would soak up the humidity trapped inside. In the past Ive only used them in the curing process. This time they might come in handy for the drying itself tho.

Trying to make an automatic drying system would take a humidifier and dehumdifier tied to a humidity sensor. Lots of money. It would be very cheap to do manually. Just make a box with a little window so you can read your cheapo humidity sensor. Then open the box when the RH room air is right or a bit drier, and put a damp sponge in there when it is too dry. It’s not going to change drastically very fast as long as the box is well sealed.