Drying your marijuana in a dehydrator?

A question from a fellow grower:

Once the buds or leaves are cut, can you dry them in a dehydrator?

You can do this but it is not the best way, the buds will probably pretty harsh to smoke without a proper kinda slow cure.

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I have been curious about this too! However; I have not taken the chance. The biggest issue is, and along the lines of MacG’s thoughts; If you dehydrate the pot; Do it as slow as possible. Perhaps over days instead of overnight. ???

After dehydrated; I feel you would definitely still have to cure for a month or so to obtain a quality finished product.

I’ve had so far good results using brown paper bags.I put about 1-2 inches of trimmed buds with stem on and then put bags in a cool dry place.
In about 4-6 days stems snap then in mason jars for curing.The stems may not snap after a few days but that just means insides of buds are still drying.After a few weeks buds start smelling sweet but still has cannabis smell.

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I was going to start a new thread about something similar. But I was wondering Ed if you had any problems with mold doing that? My plants are not going to finish at the same time and was wondering what to do since I don’t know what to do about the smell when I take it out to dry. I wanted to ask Latewood or MacG if I could freeze the buds and trim until everything is done and use my tent to finish the drying with the fans and filter. Also thank you Latewood for those kind words in my other posts. Apologies to Claire as this was not my thread.

I’ve not heard of people trying to dry after being frozen. I suspect it is not the best way as the plant cells will be killed during freezing. Part of the slow drying process is getting the still alive plant cells to use up the rest of the nutrients trapped in the plant’s tissue, just because you cut that part off the plant doesn’t mean the cells die right away, just as you can clone it and turn it into a whole new plant, or similar to roses cut off and then put in a glass of water, the bright colors and fresh look of the plant will stay for days as the cells in the plant stay alive as long as they have moisture and nutrients. This is part of the key of getting the plant to use up its stored chlorophyll by keeping it in the dark and to use up other nutrients by keeping the plant cells in the tissues moist.

Yeah, thanks MacG. I figured it wouldn’t work but I wasn’t sure if anyone’s tried it before. I’m certainly not going to be the first and I don’t plan on making my first plant into all hash. I just don’t know what to do about the smell. Ed’s plan of action sounds good as I could still keep it in the tent to avoid the smell problem but I’m worried about mold. I would have to fold up the bags to keep light out and put them directly below the plants in there to keep it in the shade. Any thoughts on this?

I always use paper bags. I also have never had a mold issue when using papar bags to dry/cure.

Great thread.

Nothing wrong with joining a thread. To you members who replied in kind. Peace lw :slight_smile:

I use a small kids canvas play tent put dehydrator in tent and let run hang buds from top. Dry in about 48 hours. Taste great smokes great :+1:!!!

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Before you can start curing your harvest, you first have to dry it properly. Drying is the most important process to make sure your marijuana gets a nice flavor and a powerful effect. Check out this guide to read more about drying.

Trim your buds
To dry your buds, you first need to trim them. Doing so removes excess plant material from your nugs, making drying much faster.

Hanging your buds
The optimal temperature for your drying room should be between 65-75°F (or 18-23°C). In terms of humidity, maintain 45-55% humidity.
After a week of drying, the surface of your buds should have the texture of popcorn.

Dry Yield
Always take a deviation of 10% into consideration, but it basically comes down to this:
1 completely cut Sativa plant yields about 11 percent of dry weed
1 completely cut Indica plant yields about 13 percent of dry weed

Imagine waiting over 3 years for a reply to a question lmao

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