How would you dry & cure outdoor grow flowers when you also have indoor growing?

[PeterMatanzas]

Hello everyone. I've grown flowers for a few years but I have never grown indoor while also having an outdoor grow.

Eventually I'm going to have to dry/cure this current outdoor grow, and the indoor won't be finished when that happens. I have a room dedicated to dry/curing but it is right next to the room with the indoor grow. So I don't want to bring any insects or other trouble into the dry/cure room that might make it into the indoor grow.

I don't know how I'm going to handle this. I've thought about bringing the outdoor into the laundry room, which is far from the indoor grow, but this is still dangerous because there might be insects/mold pollen/etc. that migrate from the outdoor to the indoor.

Any feedback is well appreciated. Thanks, everyone.

[gbauto]

I've always used a spare bathroom shower to hang/dry my girls.
It will maintain 60%RH consistently, so it allows a slow dry and then I jar and cure from there.
So far, I haven't run into any cross-contamination.

[PeterMatanzas]

I like this idea but I don’t have a spare bathroom.

[grouchyoldman]

Hi PeterMatanzas, I know you are an experienced and talented grower so in the situation you describe you no doubt are already planning to put your harvested branches through a serious three-bath wash before bringing them indoors to dry. Done properly, that will get rid of most bug, birdshit and other nastiness. I've done this with all my outdoor grows and haven't imported any contaminants to the grow room. When I saw mold I sprayed them down heavily with a sulfur-based product then washed it off in the baths.

Didn't see it in the comments and thought it deserves mention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDgd5lhMRvw

[PeterMatanzas]

grouchyoldman those are excellent comments and the practice you describe works well for me with my very high degree of paranoia.

[DeadlyFruit]

The last time I had that predicament I cut the branches short enough to fit into one of those big stacked mesh drying racks in a screened tube that you hang up. I hung it in my garden shed. This worked pretty well for me (thankfully the humidity was decent outside at the time). I’ve seen pictures of harvests hanging from beams in an old barn so it is more protected than that. You could also hang your branches in a shed/garage but rather than a drying rack have each inside a paper bag if you are worried about bugs or similar contaminants. I hear that works pretty well, especially if your air is dry. If the air is humid you might remove the buds and dry them on the drying rack.

[DeadlyFruit]

That definitely makes it a little more complex. If the key is to avoid spreading pests you might dry the weed inside as usual but in the screened in hanging drying racks, to keep the little pests from escaping, and then when you want to do something with it just hang the tube in your garage until you close it back up again and bring it back inside. Not foolproof but it’s something if you can’t find another option.

EDIT just read you are more afraid of mold and spores - I don’t think a mesh screen will contain that. You also have a fair number of plants to process so you might have needed multiple drying tubes. If it were me and I had no other option I think I would probably just take my lumps and cut the bud from the stems to help the process and dry it on racks in the garage or garden shed, possibly with fans blowing on it if it starts out damp from rain. I have run an extension cord and carried out a dehumidifier to my shed once when it got really bad. The shed is a long way from airtight but it was enough to lower the RH to a more manageable level.

[PeterMatanzas]

DeadlyFruit taking my lumps is a good way to put it because mold and caterpillars every year means a lot of lumps. I have to accept a 75% loss if it happens. Moving favorite plants into a screened patio really helps with the bugs but not mold. If I'm crazy I guess I could roll a dehumidifier into my bedroom, find somebody to help me install a window air conditioner, move the outdoor crop in there and then *I can live with the bugs* !!

[DeadlyFruit]

Wow, 75% is a huge hit. You should be sainted for continuing to grow outside with that degree of loss from factors that are difficult to control. That has to be really frustrating. I’m going to stop giving advice because if you have been fighting with it this long you clearly already have more knowledge on the subject than I do. I hope you have better luck with it this year.

[oldjarhead100]

thats a good question ,Ive never had a problem with cross contamination and you shouldn't as long as you dont have issues before you harvest ,just check your plants first
I cut my buds off from the stem and use a bud spinner then dry them in a nylon net how you tell when there ready for jars is to separate 100 grams from the rest and weigh that hundred grams every day when it gets down to 25 grams your ready for jar curing

[PeterMatanzas]

Hello OJH, there's two dozen outdoor plants, they are not plagued by visible insects however mold typically destroys 50-75% of my outdoor crop. The air becomes stagnant, humidity is extremely high, and it rains like a biblical torrent. I'm much more afraid of mold spores getting on my clothes or somehow making its way into the indoor grow room. I am extremely paranoid about it because there is quite a few plants indoor, also.

[PeterMatanzas]

I also feel I cannot trust my eyes to identify small insects like mites and aphids. If there were thousands, yes I'd see them. But a dozen of a new infection? I might not catch that. When I was young and dumb, I brought a clone that had been lounging on a table in a screened in patio into a grow room. There were no visible insects. I dunked the entire plant into a solution of organic pesticide. I drenched the soil with it. Next thing you know I have a locust like plague of aphids in the grow room. Now, those aphids might’ve been on my clothes and then I brought them in. The source of that trauma was impossible to determine. I’m not bringing any plant dead or alive into the grow room but I am super paranoid.

[oldjarhead100]

they sell white Tyvek suits I would wear one either outside or put one on before going inside ,2 years ago I had my green house completely enclosed I fought wpm all summer with pests as well I dumped about 4000 lady bugs it took them about 2 weeks and I stopped seeing aphids, this year I have been using silver Bullitt (sulfur) I started with 1/2 tsp in 1 gallon of water sprayed them down twice 14 days apart then went up to 1 tsp and yesterday I sprayed them with 1 and 1/2 tsp . Now I dont have the sides on the green house so theirs plenty of air flow but I haven't seen any wpm (even my squash plants are clean of wpm), I did see 1 leaf that had been chewed on so I think its working as far as the mold lollypop them and pull the sides out so there is more air flow . I understand your concerns but the best we can do is what we can do years ago I bought some soil and all of a sudden I had aphids I don't know if the soil had them but I don't buy that kind under any circumstances, I learned to make my own super soil. as a grower I've seen lots and lots of problems and all you can do is research and keep trying .

are we talking wpm or bud rot if its bud rot when I see it I find a clean spot under them and cut I cut all the good bud off above and below and toss the affected bud
Heres a wild idea buy one of those 10x10 easy ups with sides and hang them in there lol

[SoOrbudgal]

Man we are total opposite 15% humidity here in our area. Hot an dry.

[PeterMatanzas]

We're burning up here in NC, plus drought, didn't get much rain from Elsa either. My cousin in TN says he already has mold. I found some mildew on the fat trunk of one outdoor here. "Some" not the right word. There was a band of it, must've been an inch wide, a band wrapped around the base of the trunk. The rain will come and it will be a deluge nearly every day. EDIT: I have fans blowing on these outdoor plants. I kid you not.

[SoOrbudgal]

Oh i believe you PeterMatanzas my Dad was from Tenn. yes it's terrible humidity during summer. Only thing i can do is canopy when they get tall so i keep them under 8ft. Mostly 6ft and under. I'd have a problem in my greenhouse with humidity if i had to shove them in there but only can fit 2 do to width of these damn plants LOL. I have a nearly 4x4 photo outdoors who's still growing wider it's a pre 98 Bubba Kush she's already being supports with bamboo poles around her an tied down. Ohhh the life of outdoor grower