I am sorta a geek when it comes to my setup. I started my drying process 4 days ago. Ran my 3 plants to 12-1/2 weeks from the first sign of flowering then chopped them.
I was shooting for 60 degrees F at 60% relative humidity. I have been averaging about 69 degrees at 60% RH. I use one of those portable AC units with the hose that pokes outside. I am not real happy with this setup and hope to come up with something better before I need it again. Summer is about over now.
If you look at this chart it is interesting how the humidity spikes when the AC compressor cycles on, then drops down when it cycles off. The blue is temperature and the orange is humidity. It is definitely short cycling which is causing the poor humidity control. Longer runtimes would remove more humidity and I would probably need a humidity to bump it back up to my goal of 60%.
I am hoping to get a 7 - 10 day drying period; checked the moisture level yesterday with my meter and the buds are about 18-20%. When they hit about 11% in the grove bags they go.
Anyway, just thought I would share a lil with the fine the folks here.
Indubitably!! Im not the most sciency guy… heck not the most sciency Mod on this site… thats confuddling. Normally ud expect the opposite. N i have no idea why lol.
Honestly. Chiming to say those are some sexy buds! Digging the colors. 12.5 weeks in flower
Thanks @PurpNGold74 for the compliment. I did one each of white widow, bubble gum and ak-47. I am going to estimate about 25% or so of the trics where amber when i did the chop.
This will be my third harvest and I am interested to see the final weight i get. I am excited!
I think I figured it out. “Warning nerd stuff to follow”
The relative humidity is rising because the temperature is dropping. Most people know this, I just didn’t expect a 4 degree drop in temperature would result in a 10% rise in humidity. That is assuming the absolute moisture content of the air remains the same.
My AC and dehumidifier condensate water are pumped into a 5 gallon bucket that I empty periodically. The water level in the bucket hasn’t risen noticeably in almost a week so I am get very little dehumidification right now.
Sorry if I geeked out on you’all… Think I am gonna go smoke a lil.
This is just my 3rd harvest so please take my inexperience into account with my response. Like a lot of new folks, I have done a lot of research on every subject associated with growing. And one thing I have learned is opinions can vary; even contradict one another.
My take on the ‘drying phase’ is low and slow. Low temperature (60-70 deg. F @ 55-65% RH), Slow drying (7-10 days and even up to 14 days). Low temperatures help keep some of the terpenes from evaporating, my target temperature is 60 deg @ 60% RH. If humidity drops below 50% for an extended time you risk drying too fast. Too high on the humidity you risk mold.
I feel most people agree the final moisture content should be around 10-15% after the drying phase. I use a moisture meter for measuring the moisture content in lumber products like this:
I am on day 6 of drying and my meter is still reading 18-20% water content. I did do a good watering prior to the cut to help slow down the drying period. There is a very good thread here: Anyone using "grove bags" to cure? - #289 by Hellraiser that I recommend you read through. I learned a lot from it.
This is strictly a hobby for me, personal use and giving to friends. So, financials really don’t enter into my equations. Like this website says “I love growing marijuana”
Thanks AxisCat.
I’m newbie, as well.
I do not have much control over my dry space. Monitoring jars all day. Trying to get RH between 60-65%.
I have about 5.6oz curing now. Blue Dream, it was a nice outdoor grow. How much will my finish height lower?
I use a portable ac unit as well. One of the more higher end ones it was pricey. Dual hose unit. I also ran into the same problem thinking my ac would work as a dehumidifier as well as cooling the room and was sadly mistaken. When I ran my ac around 65-66 F my humidity was in the mid 80s and I instantly went to lowes and got a big dehumidifier to throw in the room. Now I know this isn’t the most cost effective method as I see my electric bill shoot up to 350+ a month sometimes but im also doing a perpetual grow and have 3 tents. The usual temp and humidity i shoot for is 65-70 F and 55-60 RH (during flower). Hopefully this is helpful to you because I don’t think I could of made that situation work for me without the dehumidifier as I had previous issues with high humidity and PM
Hmm, looks like auto correct kicked in on your reply and I don’t completely understand your question. I believe you are asking me how much your weight will end up when finished?? If you are curing then you have pretty much reached your final weight. Does that help?
Yes sir, I did the exact same thing as you. When I realized the portable AC by itself wasn’t cutting it I added a dedicated dehumidifier. I knew when I got the AC it was going to be a problem. I have one tent in a 5’x5’ space. The 8,000 btu AC unit is way oversized; it comes on runs a few minutes to reach the setpoint then shuts off. It never runs long enough to do any dehumidification. What I did with some success was the hose that dumps the hot air outside, I allowed a portion of that air back into the room to put more load on the AC unit and get some good runtimes and better humidity control. I had to hack the AC a bit because the unit drips the condensate on the condenser coil which is hot to evaporate it and keep the internal pan from filling up all the time. So in effect the humidity from the room is transferred to the air that dumps outside. I intercepted the internal drain line so I could pee it out of the unit before it gets evaporated and dispose of it. I have some ideas on a better way to do it, just gonna take some money and a lot of time building and tweaking to make it work.
At that point it almost seems easier to have your ac drain runoff to a bucket thats inside your tent to help maintain humidity. That was a lot for me to comprehend this early in the morning tho so ik still trying to understand it. I just went the lazy route and got a dehumidifier that was just as big as the ac unit lmao
AxisCat, thanks for info.
I did mean final weight after curing.
Here is my 4 month prize. I had 25% seedling rate. Killed one, over watering, two never developed. From this pic, harvested 5.66oz. Waiting for good results by curing. Hopefully next year is better. (Although this year was bountiful)
