Ten Days -- Still Not Quite Dry

[600m]

My harvest (such as it is) seems to be stuck in the drying process at the point right before the small stems snap, and has been for almost a week.

This business about keeping them in the dark is really creating problems as the only place that's suitable for that is the garage, and though it's over 80° during the day it gets down around 50° at night and this somehow stops the drying process at the "not-quite-there" stage.

After all I've been through with this growing experiment, I'd hate to lose it all to a problem like this.

All, 100%, of this little crop of mine is going into ingestibles, so that may make this problem easier to solve if I'm not concerned with subtle smoking qualities.

Thanks for any help!

[Canuck147]

I don't wait for the 'snapping stem' - I've had stems from harvesting laying around the back for weeks and they never snapped when I tried. So I dry for 4 or 5 days and jar. This will bring the moisture from the middle to the rest of the bud. Next day they are too moist for the jar, so spread buds back onto drying screen and jar the next day. Sometimes I will do this once or twice or more.
Most important is having some kind of air movement where you are drying - not blowing on the buds - but moving the air.

[Obi-Wan]

I wouldn't be concerned with complete darkness, mostly dark is sufficient. I would however be concerned about your temperature swings if it is also accompanied by swings in your humidity. I generally snip the buds off the stems when they get to the point where yours are. I then put them in a small tote with the lid cracked and let the humidity in the tote slowly come down until I can maintain 65% overnight with the lid sealed.

[600m]

If I took these out in the back yard, they'd be dry to the point of total, powdery, crumbled desiccation in an hour -- 87°, 30% humidity! I still don't get that total darkness business.

Your air flow comment makes perfect sense. I just set out an oscillating fan arranged to just circulate the air underneath the branches, not on them.

One of the things I wonder about is if most of this is wasted effort for processing ingestibles.

From what I read (always slightly contradictory, of course!), there's no point in curing or even being overly concerned with the drying process itself.

The "scientific" pages I've seen on this with all the graphs and what not say that the raw material should be reasonably dry and milled, then after being uniformly distributed on a flat surface, briefly taking a final dehydration at a lower temperature prior to decarboxylization at ~220° for ~17-20 minutes. I'm not sure why they bother with a final dehydration of material headed for decarboxylization anyway, unless maybe it's to to keep that second process absolutely consistent.

For that matter, I don't see why you can't do that before milling.

Beyond that point, you move on to rendering your product, by whatever process you use.

This is all pretty confusing, but at least it looks like I haven't ruined my stuff yet. It's definitely not as green as it was a week ago, though.

[Dutchman1]

I agree that you dont need to cure your weed all the way if your making tinctures or edibles. I havent seen any difference in curing for tinctures I make personally. Just make sure they are reasonably dry. Then decarboxylate. I use 250 degrees for 30 minutes. Forget where I got this from, props to whoever made it and sorry I stole it without credit, ha.
How to Decarboxylating Cannabis Flower Recipe & Video

4/21/2016 2 Comments

Decarboxylating Cannabis Recipe
Decarboxylating cannabis (aka "decarbing") uses heat to convert the acid form of cannababnoids like THC, CBD, CBN, into their non-acid counterpart. Cannabis that is smoked in a joint is decarboxylated at the moment of ignition, and so a separate decarb step is not necessary. However, patients interested in using cannabis in an sub-lingual tincture or infused-edible will need to decarb their cannabis before consuming.

Decarbing is an easy process to master, however a quick search of the internet will reveal lots of different opinions on how to decarboxylate cannabis. After doing my own research and tests, I've developed the method that we believe offers up the best conversion of your cannabanoids into their active counterparts. We hope this guide serves as the final definitive way to decarb your cannabis.

Check out my decarbing video on my youtube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/CulinarySolvent

Both time and temperature must be set and monitored for an optimum conversion. Too little is as bad as too much heat. Whether you choose to go "low and slow" or "hot and fast", the conversion from THC-A to THC will follow the following trajectory.
Picture
THC Content vs Timp according to Temperature. "Effect of heating time and temperature on the THC content of n-hexane [cannabis] extract after heating the glass surface in an open reactor" Journal of Chromatography 520 (1990)
My Decarboxylating Recipe
I decarb using the following steps:
Keep the cannabis flower mostly whole, de-stem large pieces but do not crush, grind, or muddle. (See Footnote 1)
Spread out cannabis flowers evenly on a cookie sheet and cover tightly with a sheet of foil.
Confirm temperature of your oven is 250 degrees using an oven thermometer (important!, See Footnote 2)
Place cookie sheet in the oven, close the door, and observe the temperature of the oven again. Don't adjust your temperature, just wait for it to get back up.
Once the temperature of the oven returns to 250 degrees, bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before unwrapping (See Footnote 3).
Unwrap cookie sheet and transfer to an air tight, light blocking, mason jar (See Footnote 4).
Done.

[RobM]

Id assume thats in Fahrenheit? If Celsius thats bloody hot

[Ell]

Put buds in paper bags , roll tops of bags. Not a good method for smoke though.

[Dutchman1]

That wont work if humidity is high where the bag is kept.

[600m]

More checking and this stuff has apparently reached its limit for drying, which is about where it's been for a week. I'll try the paper bag thing (if I can find one -- they're rare these days!) and see if dries any more. If not, I'm going to that quick oven dry to get the last bit before decarbing and then just do a batch. and see where it takes me. I don't think it'll be a problem, as it's almost dry as it is...it just doesn't want to go as far as the snappy twig thing.

Thanks for the ideas!

[Dutchman1]

Well, you can jar it with a small humidity checker to see where you stand or you could use Humidipacks sold on amazon. They bring moisture content up or down depending on how dry the material is.You can get 10 or so for about 12 bucks on Amazon.

[Dutchman1]

If its 70% humidity where your drying, the cannabis cant go below that. The material can only go as low as the humidity is where its drying. .My house was at 68 and I got my buds down to about that but then the humidity rose to 75 the next day when I was gone all day. They actually absorbed more water and were at a higher level than they had been.