On average, how long should it take for the humidity level to reach peak when you fill it with buds?
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If you dry per typical then when they go in the bags, they should be and stay at 58 to 62%
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I test the buds and stems with moisture meter. When it gets to 12 ish, put in bags and they stay at a good rh
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So I placed my bud in the grove bag. The grove bag started out at 56% humidity and raised quickly to 59%. Over the next hour it went up to 62% and has been there for about 40 minutes. What I’m asking is can I anticipate it continuing to rise? I only filled one bag just to test. If I thought it has stopped rising I would bag the rest tonight. If it’s likely to still rise, I’ll obviously wait a day or two. So on average, how long does it take to reach peak humidity in the bag and not go higher?
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As i said before if you dry for 7-10 days at 70 F and 60% humidity with constant indirect airflow, which is typical, that should put them right where they need to be to maintain 58 62% in the bags. A moisture meter takes out the guess work. I need one before my next harvest. Also if you are at 63, leave the bag open for a few hours then seal and check in an hour.
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My conditions have for the most part 65 temp and 55% humidity. I feel like my smaller buds are close, it’s been about 4 days, and my larger buds have a couple more days. I have a meter, but it seems to jump a good bit depending how I hold the bud. I figured I would just fill a bag and let my meter tell me where I’m at. Seems to be good now on my loose and smaller buds, as long as it doesn’t continue to rise. Thanks.
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If it does climb too high, you can pull em out and sweat the buds (put em into a cardboard box or paper bag) for a good 10-12 hrs, then return em to the Grove Bag.
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Thanks. It did climb too high. By this morning they were at 67%. I left just enough stem to rehang for a few more days. At least I now know they are drying slowly. However, some loose buds I had in a dry bag are still at 62%, so they seem good.
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It is hard to just go by the number of days until dry. I have had it dry in 4 days and as much as 14. It depends on temperature, humidity, and air flow. You should learn the snap test. While it is drying on the stem, pick a dime sized bud and bend it sideways. If the bud bends but doesn’t snap it is still too damp. If the bud breaks off clean it is getting too dry, and if the bud bends a little before it snaps it is were you want it.
The problem with my moisture meter is that it will not trigger on until it senses a moisture level above 10%. Since you are looking for 12% this doesn’t leave much room on the scale to work with. So as a result I have found that the meter is just OK for checking damp buds only. But I can just feel the bud and determine that.
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So you are judging the stem to dime sized bud, but would that also mean the much larger buds are done as well? I would think they would be behind the smaller buds by a couple days?
Yes, when the dime sized are good the larger buds are usually good also. The moisture is moving from the stem into the buds when drying, like it does when growing. So the snap test is checking how much moisture is left in the stems, and the stems deliver moisture to the buds in proportion to their size. So the buds dry fairly uniformly. But as you have seen the bottom smaller branches will dry faster than the bigger upper ones. When you hang a whole plant to dry there is less time between the lower and upper branches drying.
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Ok. Thanks. I was hoping the meter would help me but it just seems to jump around a good bit. Sometimes I think it might be picking up the humidity from my hand as I hold the bud. It gives me a more stable reading when I put the pins into the stem right before the bud, and some have suggested that gives an accurate reading.
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Also hanging the whole plant to dry is a good way to slow down the drying process. Since it has to pull the moisture out of the trunk before it can dry completely.
The time that it took 14 days. I hung three plants back in the tent with a small fan in the floor, and set the exhaust fan to run 15 minutes per hour. This slow dry seemed to help with the final taste and smoke ably.
Some people love the moisture meter, and some don’t. These meters were designed to read the moisture in a 2x4 or drywall. Once the manufacturers realize that there is a huge market for reading the moisture of weed buds. They will come out with meters that have longer probes, and better parameters for the task.
After a 48 year career working on large water chillers. I have learned whenever you pick up any meter. You need someway to double check what it tells you!
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I couldn’t do that with these plants. The plants are wider than the 2’ wide closet they are in. Also, being an outdoor grow, I did wash the buds before hanging. I was hoping to go 7-10 days, and it appears that it’s going to take at least that long.
I give them 24 hours to settle in. Dont over stuff bags they need some “headroom”.
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Thanks. That is basically what I ended up seeing myself. I thought I had them too dry at first, but it does take a good while for the humidity to get released and rise.
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This meter has a calibration tester in the cap.
This meter has been dead on for 3 grows at reading down to 10/13% reflected to 58/62% Rh in the bags everytime.
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Thanks, I will give it a try. When you test a bud and it comes out at 15%, on average, how much time does it take to drop into the 12% range? And if you think the level is where it needs to be, but in the bag it goes up to 65%, what step do you take? What if you bag it and it’s too low, around 55% or so?
If too high simple remove and re bag when they dry a little more. If too low you can add a leif or orange peel to add moisture. But if you dried to 11% on the meter your good. Remember the (Ă—-) as much 5% on the Rh meters.
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