I was caught a little bit unprepared yesterday and had to chop and trim two plants and found myself without a good place to dry them. I do have a spare refrigerator that works just fine so I decided to try the fridge method
It was pretty late and I was kind of stoned and I forgot to turn the temperature as high as it would go on the fridge and this morning I went to check on my buds and some had frozen. I’ve since turning the fridge Temp up as high as it goes but I’m wondering what damage I’ve done and if it’s recoverable or if I’ve just created a quarter pound of bubble hash fodder
Was not planning to make bubble hash unless I’ve ruined my buds.
Part of the reason for me asking is because all this weed is going to turn into a pile of frozen gout when it thaws I might as well just jam it in the freezer and freeze it solid and plan to bubble it
Well in the end it worked out. The buds that froze only froze lightly and thawed gently and wound up drying and curing wonderfully. No harm.
I had a good enough result that I wound up drying my whole crop in the fridge. Works great. I don’t think I’d go out and buy a fridge for drying my herb but since I have one that’s not doing anything but chilling a few bottles of white wine and seltzer hey what the hell.
Should also say that this has been my best crop in years. Not perfect by any means but the grow went well and this different drying method has done a good job of preserving aroma.
I realize I’m trying this method under the best possible conditions. My fridge has no other food in it to produce funny smells and is nice and clean. I’ve heard that having other stuff in the fridge can impart a taste or smell.
WOW We have a fridge next to our grow tent and I was hoping to use it to dry out 1st harvest . I can set temp on it is 60-65 right and how long should they stay in there? Yes I will spray it down with H2O and what else to brighten the smell Old Musky from not being used.
All I can say is do it. When I first looked into this whole shooting match I found very little information on the Internet at large other than some general recommendations on how to do it. Nothing related to results and certainly nothing claiming this was a better method than anything people do traditionally.
The only other thing I really saw about fridge drying was a threat here on ILGM forums Where a user I took some buds off the same plant and fridge dried some while traditionally drying the others. That person preferred the traditional results however it was pretty clear that there was a lot of room for improvement in there usage of the fridge. Chief among those things is to make sure there’s nothing else in the fridge. Beer is fine or like some other kind of canned or bottled beverage but definitely no food in. Even if you don’t think it makes food odors, it does. To that end, my fridge is the pretty standard old style freezer on top fridge on the bottom, and with the majority of those styles of refrigerators there is some air exchange between the top freezer and lower fridge. The whole no food rule extends to the freezer as well. If you have frozen food in that freezer the odors will definitely make their way down into the fridge
When I turn my fridge up to its highest temperature setting it’s around 50 in there. Humidity is right around 50% as well. I have removed all the shelves from inside and have strung up a bunch of line to hang buds from. I find with a full fridge of flowers that are rough trimmed before going in, it usually takes 12 to 14 days to be at the point where things are crispy and crunchy to the touch. Stems aren’t totally snappy at that point but are definitely getting pretty dry.
At that point I do my final trim and stick them into paper bags for another week back into the fridge. After another Week the stems are snappy and it’s time for jars
I disagree with this, only because it’s a controlled and sealed environment. I think taking the proper precautions like you did, this method would work well. Especially for hot humid environments like down south.
I decided to try the fridge method. I plugged it in and removed the drawers and shelves. I just have to figure out how to hook up line on top. Maybe the 3M Velcro’s things is what I think and What did you do?
Typo on my part. It was a THREAD I read on this forum.
Anyhow I have been happy with the results and continue to use the method when capacity allows. My fridge holds about 3/4 lb hanging and drying at once. If I have more than that I’m making other plans.
Yes for about 6 months I used those 3m Velcro things. And looped thread through them. I’ve been using surveyors twine because it’s reasonably strong. More recently I put the very top shelf back in and have looped the twine through the grates which works well. I use the top shelf to put paper bags when I load them up with trimmed bud.
I use the freezer for freezing trim and larf only. No keeping frozen seafood in there.
This fridge is a older one just shelfs and drawers. So I will look for some sturdy Velcro . Can’t put holes in it. I do have a rack I may be able to Adapt to fit inside.
Just for turds and laughs I decided to take one of my Govee sensors and stick it in the fridge I use to dry herb. It’s colder than I thought. And drier than I thought. 43° and 12% humidity all damn day. you would think that would be too cold and too low but it seems to work fine. Typical dry time is 12 days
