"Freeze Dried" Buds - Putting partially dried buds in the freezer to finish drying

[berrypilot]

In The Marijuana Grower's Handbook 📗 by Ed Rosenthal, the author talks about something I've never heard of before. 🤔

He says one of the best way to dry buds so you get maximum smell and flavor is to first trim your buds, then hang them upside down to dry at 65 F and 50% humidity for a few days, then put the partially dried buds on racks and leave them the freezer for 10-20 days until they're completely dry. Then jar up your buds and finish curing it as normal.

This seemed crazy that a regular freezer could dry buds out but I went online and saw that it totally works to freeze dry fruits, meals, etc that way. They recommend using the lowest temperature ⛄ possible and not having anything else in your freezer because the smell can spread back and forth. They also recommend cutting fruits 🍎 into small pieces so it dries evenly, so I bet you should do that with bud too. With fruit or spaghetti they say it takes about a week to freeze dry. ⌚

Have any of you ever "freeze-dried" your buds in the freezer?

[insomniaczzz]

You will get some controversial replies to this, I'm sure. Handling frozen buds can knock the trichomes right off the buds. I don't have any experience with it nor an opinion.

[berrypilot]

That's a really good point! 💡 If you do it, I imagine you want to be really, really careful whenever you're handling the buds. Maybe it would be a good idea to take them out of the freezer while they're on the racks and let them warm up to room temperature before handling them to put in jars. 🍀

[9fingerleafs]

I personally think that's true But does not achieve the results you are looking for. Freezing will stop molecular movement such as chlorophyll degradation. Once you freeze it there's is no way to cure it. The freezer might get the moisture out but the buds will stay the same for ever after . Its a good technique for long term storage only

[insomniaczzz]

Yes, definitely. Let come to room temp before handling.

I had started a thread about using a seal-a-meal on buds and some were very adamant that that would harm the trichs also. It does make sense, since ice or dry ice is used to make hash. It freezes the trichs and breaks them off.

[Gelato]

I have never heard of that technique before. The most I would do is get the temperature as low as I can during the last few days before chopping and that's it. Then hang dry the plants with exhaust fan on and fans circulating the room without blowing at the plants