Hello,
Drying my first harvest. Looks like 7-10 days drying is common among many growers. I have to dry outdoors, so temp fluctuates between 70 and 90 degrees during the day. Yeah, I know that’s not good, BUT, looking for any ideas on slowing down the process. First 2 plants dried in 3 days after cutting stem, fans, and bigger sugar leaves. Second 2 plants, I left everything on, and that stretched me to 4 days. I’ve got 2 more plants to cut this weekend, and I’m thinking of hanging them with roots intact (just hosing/trimming them a bit to remove debris). I figure the roots hold moisture, so that could buy me another day or two. Am I wasting my time? Will there be a noticeable difference? I’m still curing the other stuff, so haven’t tasted anything yet. Any thoughts appreciated.
Big paper bags. Gotta move the flower around in the bags daily but that will slow down drying.
Whole plant in the bag or just the buds? I can put a digital hygrometer in the bag to track. Thanks.
I wish I could find the video, but on YouTube there was a video of someone in a commercial grow in a similar situation, warm and dry area. They did like you described, just uprooted the plant, shook off most the soil, and hung the entire thing upside down. Then, they covered them with plastic trash bags to help control the speed of the moisture leaving the bag. I thought it was sketchy, holding the moisture in there like that. But perhaps you could modify that method.
Are you wet trimming and drying, or dry trimming after drying?
I wet trimmed the first batch, and that took 3 days to dry. I dry trimmed 2nd batch, which took 4 days to dry. Trying to find a way to slow it down a few more days.
Leave more fan leaves on the plant. The more plant material there, the more moisture.
That’s what I did the second time. Just really painful to trim when dry. Since my 2 remaining plants are same size, I’ll try the paper bag for one and hang dry with roots for the other, and see where I’m at in a week. Thanks for ideas all!
Leaving the roots on will allow nutrients stored there to migrate into the flower making it harsh.
Leaving fans on and buds attached to stems will help. A cardboard box works too.
Would that be the case even after a good cure? The paper bag is sounding better and better lol
Yeah, I ended up going with friendis410 recommendation. Hygrometer is showing 90% in the bag now at 82 degrees. I’ll try to manage humidity reduction, shake the bag often, and check for mold. So, it’s kinda like I’m curing right from the start.
If you can get it a little cooler, even better. 
Ya definitely leave as much on the plant as possible to slow the dry down. Maybe just cut at the bottom of the trunk and hang… man I could NEVER dry outside. The wife won’t let me bring them inside to dry so I gotta do the shed but it’s got AC. I hope it all works out good for you and no one swipes them. His I would cry!! I wish you the best of luck hombre!
Thanks Locobro. Same here, wife says no to dying in house, and it’s in the 80s outdoors here. I actually went around the yard with a thermometer, and found a spot under an orange tree that seems to stay 3-5 degrees cooler low to the ground. Hey, at least I’m having fun!
You run a severe risk of mildew on your crop by being that high. It would be a shame after all of that work. Really need to be in the mid '60’s to be safe with ambient RH around 55 to 60%.