Humidity Issues

[JG420JG]

Hey guys.

 

Day 3 of drying.

Hung up in my tent in the garage with all vents closed extraction fan on heater set to 21deg and a little clip fan for some circulation at the base but my RH is 30-34 %. I’m a little worried.

 

What can I do to bring it up to the 50%?

 

Cheers

 

 

 

Posted from the OZ Stoners mobile app

[Serrated edge]

Your better off having not having the heater,, they dry slower ,,better aroma and  flavours.

your better off not having the fan on them ,,,,,they dry slower ,,,read above.

 

your vents are closed ?  That’ll push the humidity up as they lose moisture,,,but got to let it escape at some stage.

Edited August 24, 2020 by Serrated edge

[merl1n]

Vents closed???? WTF??? No, no, no you want to get rid of all of that moisture. You want fresh air in, stale moist air out. The moisture will build up the buds will sweat and you have a nice big harvest of mould. You NEED airflow.

+1... +2 …….hell, + 100 to Serrated

DO NOT have a fan blowing them.  The fan will dry the outside. The outside will dry crispy but the insides will be wet.

As Serrated states slowly, slowly better tasting end product doing it slowly. You can 'try' and force dry BUT you decrease the quality if ya do.

 

Another piece of advice.

You'll find if you look at them in the morning they'll probably feel moist, but then if you test them in the arvo they'll feel drier, then the following morning they'll seem moist again.

What happens is that during the night they draw moisture into the buds from the stems, the warmth of the day draws the moisture from the outside of the bud and then they rehydrate from the stem moisture again overnight.

What I do is reduce the amount of timber, cut the stems back. I hang strings up across my shed, then make hooks with the stem to hang upside down on the strings. It allows airflow around the buds

A bit like this. Now this pic (sort of shows) how I hang it. That's all fresh cut and still has lots of stem/leaf/crap. So that's the step before I start cleaning, but it gives ya the idea.

https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners.com/topic/12055-all-join-in-just-a-pic-dump/page-363?do=findComment&comment=406564

Once the stems snap cleanly, she's done I then remove 90% of the stems and placed into newspaper lined, corrugated cardboard boxes. The corrugated cardboard draws out the remaining moisture

Then it's manicured and put in airtight coffee tins, 'burping' them every other day.

https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners.com/gallery/image/17473-bit-of-the-collection/

 

So that's what I do, but for quality it's a slowly, slowly process, don't rush it or you'll be kicking yourself.

 

Merl1n

[JG420JG]

Vents closed???? WTF??? No, no, no you want to get rid of all of that moisture. You want fresh air in, stale moist air out. The moisture will build up the buds will sweat and you have a nice big harvest of mould. You NEED airflow.

+1... +2 …….hell, + 100 to Serrated

DO NOT have a fan blowing them. The fan will dry the outside. The outside will dry crispy but the insides will be wet.

As Serrated states slowly, slowly better tasting end product doing it slowly. You can 'try' and force dry BUT you decrease the quality if ya do.

 

Another piece of advice.

You'll find if you look at them in the morning they'll probably feel moist, but then if you test them in the arvo they'll feel drier, then the following morning they'll seem moist again.

What happens is that during the night they draw moisture into the buds from the stems, the warmth of the day draws the moisture from the outside of the bud and then they rehydrate from the stem moisture again overnight.

What I do is reduce the amount of timber, cut the stems back. I hang strings up across my shed, then make hooks with the stem to hang upside down on the strings. It allows airflow around the buds

A bit like this. Now this pic (sort of shows) how I hang it. That's all fresh cut and still has lots of stem/leaf/crap. So that's the step before I start cleaning, but it gives ya the idea.

https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners.com/topic/12055-all-join-in-just-a-pic-dump/page-363?do=findComment&comment=406564

Once the stems snap cleanly, she's done I then remove 90% of the stems and placed into newspaper lined, corrugated cardboard boxes. The

corrugated cardboard draws out the remaining moisture

100_1529.JPG

Then it's manicured and put in airtight coffee tins, 'burping' them every other day.

https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners.com/gallery/image/17473-bit-of-the-collection/

 

So that's what I do, but for quality it's a slowly, slowly process, don't rush it or you'll be kicking yourself.

 

Merl1n

 

The fan isn’t blowing on them directly it’s not aimed at them. Even when I had the vents open the RH was the same. I totally understand the process and that they need to be slowly dried, hence why I am concerned that the air is too dry and they are going to dry out too quick.

 

The problem isnt too much moisture build up it’s the fact that the air is too dry....

 

Cheers

 

 

Posted from the OZ Stoners mobile app

[itchybromusic]

when you mix low humidity & high temps in your dry space that could be cause for concern 

but low humidity with lower temps is not as concerning ( im assuming your temps being it's winter ) 

 

in a perfect world you would have a climate controlled room & be able to set parameters 

anywhere you like , without total control we roll with what we got 

 

heat is a def negative , heat will cause humidity to go down , higher the heat lower the humidity

so it's doing the opposite of what your trying to achieve  

 

lots of air movement can tend to dry the outside of the bud but not the inside , once that bud is jarred 

the moisture will even out across the whole bud & jarring wet buds ain't good 

 

air movement is best done using the back of a fan , meaning the back of a fan will suck air in to blow 

out front , if you hang a box fan at the door of the tent blowing away it will gently but consistently suck 

stale air away & out of the tent 

 

there would be many ways to gently suck air out of a tent like that creating gentle air movement inside

the tent along the way 

 

i reckon temps are the most important if you wanna keep monoterpenes mostly intact , i find humidity much 

more an issue in summer wen ambient temps are allot high 

 

but hey if you can get total control , go for it , more power to ya , imho i reckon you get the best dry at lower 

temps (20c & below) with humidity a little below 50% , drying time is increased but a better product the up side 

again imho growing & drying in my part of Vic aka corona central

[JG420JG]

when you mix low humidity & high temps in your dry space that could be cause for concern

but low humidity with lower temps is not as concerning ( im assuming your temps being it's winter )

 

in a perfect world you would have a climate controlled room & be able to set parameters

anywhere you like , without total control we roll with what we got

 

heat is a def negative , heat will cause humidity to go down , higher the heat lower the humidity

so it's doing the opposite of what your trying to achieve

 

lots of air movement can tend to dry the outside of the bud but not the inside , once that bud is jarred

the moisture will even out across the whole bud & jarring wet buds ain't good

 

air movement is best done using the back of a fan , meaning the back of a fan will suck air in to blow

out front , if you hang a box fan at the door of the tent blowing away it will gently but consistently suck

stale air away & out of the tent

 

there would be many ways to gently suck air out of a tent like that creating gentle air movement inside

the tent along the way

 

i reckon temps are the most important if you wanna keep monoterpenes mostly intact , i find humidity much

more an issue in summer wen ambient temps are allot high

 

but hey if you can get total control , go for it , more power to ya , imho i reckon you get the best dry at lower

temps (20c & below) with humidity a little below 50% , drying time is increased but a better product the up side

again imho growing & drying in my part of Vic aka corona central

Temps are between 20-22 deg. The humidity is 25-35%.

 

This is my issue. How do I increase the humidity.??

 

 

 

 

Posted from the OZ Stoners mobile app

[itchybromusic]

increasing humidity could be fraught with danger cos there is no easy way to increase the water holding capacity of the air 

around your buds 

 

prob the easiest way is to decrease temps , as temps decrease humidity will increase but the flow on effect of lower temps

is longer drying times , some might even say mold promotion , pros & cons with all choices we make 

 

you seem to be of the impression that if humidity isn't at 50% something is going to be wrong or degraded with your harvest in some way 

the diff between bud dried at 21c & 30% humidity vs 21c & 50% humidity would not be noticed by the consumer , you / me 

would there be a diff on a lab test , yeah possibly but again it would be a diff on paper & a very small if any diff when consuming 

 

weight things up , adding moisture to the air which has some risks to it vs a result that you prob won't notice 

 

if you have to have higher humidity you can buy a small humidifier , you could add buckets of water to the bottom of the tent 

hang wet towels in buckets of water so they wick the water while blowing a fan at the towel , all these things will increase humidity

to a more or lesser extent but they are also not controllable , the risk of wanting 50% & getting 80% in a mostly sealed space is real    

[thorshammer]

Whats the ambient temp without the heater? I'm in Melbourne so it's fucking cold and humidity is about 80-90% so I have dehumidifiers cranking 24/7. I purchased a couple of these humidifiers from Kmart about 4 months ago and have been very happy with them. They have built in humidistat https://www.kmart.com.au/product/ultrasonic-humidifier/2998803

You would have to keep the fan going for even humidity.

[JG420JG]

Thanks for the advice guys. After everyone’s input both here and offline I sorted it out to a much better number.

 

Dropped the heater settings. Adjusted the airflow and the air extraction. 19. Deg and 40-50 % humidity.

 

Best I’ll be able to get during This cold.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using OZ Stoners

[louise]

Hi JG, 

 

I was curious to know why you thought you needed a particular temperature and rh to dry your buds. Particularly as in the last 39 years, I haven't worried about manipulating the temperature and/or rh during drying, apart for ensuring adequate ventilation via a filtered extraction fan.

 

So, I let Aunty Google find me what the cool kids are doing these days. Well colour me surprised, these do seem to be the recommendations on several of the highest ranked results. 

 

I honestly don't think the amount you tent varies from the 'optimal' conditions is going to make a noticeable difference to your end product.  Especially not if you cure the product after drying.