Hey folks, first time grower of 3 plants and rather excited at the prospect of the harvest. However I’ve run into a snag, these plants have been grown outside and looking good and healthy too, if only 2 foot tall. Anyway, my dilemma is that I’m away from the plants for almost 6 weeks (it’ll be all of August and I’m in northern France).
These plants are self-flowering from feminised seeds bought online. No idea of variety, but by the looks of the plants and buds are quite different to each other. These are literally the first things I’ve never even grown since I grew a daffodil when I was 6 for school. I’m amazed they’re still alive.
So I’m looking at the plants and figuring cut my losses and harvest them soon and hope they’ll be OK. I’ll get some decent drying time in before I actually leave. But for the time away I had planned on curing the buds suspended in separate jars with small holes punched in the lids with a spoonful of rice or salt in each jar to help with moisture absorption and hope they’ll have cured OK and not a moldy mess when I come back mid Sept. I’ll store them all in the dark in a cardboard box under my workbench. Might even put some dehumidifier crystals in the box with the jars too.
I did have all these fancy schmancy ideas of building an air filter system with sealed jars with air piped in and out via the lids to refresh the air and take away any moisture. But before I went off on that route I thought I’d ask some advice from folks who are likely to know a simpler set up.
Anyway, do you think will the method I’ve proposed above will work OK? But willing to hear any helpful advice. Thanks in advance, folks.
Looks like I hit the jackpot when it comes to cannabis info here. Well pleased!
It may work curing is supposed to be in air tight jars, if you decide to go with that method have a source of fresh air the hose or line can draw from.
Its not that flowers necessarily release moisture during curing but rather a gas called ethylene which is dangerous and needs to be aired out that’s why I think your method could potentially work @Bikerbloke
@Bikerbloke, assuming you get your harvest properly dry so mold isn’t an issue, a small hole to vent any buildup while you’re gone should be just fine. A question though: what about refrigeration after drying and hold off on curing until you get back? Or part of it?
Sounds good if it can be done, I’ll do some research about this refrigeration process. Thanks for the advice, I’m a total newbie to this so anything’s better than losing the whole lot to blind chance.
just go with the holes in te jar’s not much else you can do at this point.
But if your going to leave plan your grow, Next time try ILGM Auto Flowering Plants.
You will have less time growing and more time to cure it.
Thanks again for the advice. Yes, planning my grow would have been wise, but as I said, this is my first grow and I honestly didn’t know how fast, or even if they would grow. I’ll check out the seeds for sale here, I assume they ship worldwide?
Anyway, after spending time browsing and reading some threads here, I’ve built myself a modest sized drying box 600 x 400 x 300mm. When turned on its side it doubles as a curing box with ducted inlet pipe and an outlet pipe to the outside. The pierced lidded jars will sit nestled in 10 litres of odor killing kitty litter in darkness in there for 5 weeks, hopefully curing nicely.
I took some photos, should anyone be interested in critiquing it. The 40w bulb and the fan won’t be left on while I’m away this is just in case I need to tweak the drying process a bit.