Drying in a vacuum?

BlueFish

Active Member
So, reducing air pressure should increase the rate at which moisture is removed from the buds. I happen to have a little vacuum marinading thing and a harvest coming up in a few weeks. Has anybody ever tried drying in a vacuum (not those food saver bags that would crush the buds)? I'm planning to put an ounce or two in my marinader and see how it turns out.
 

Bigol'Bong

Well-Known Member
id say with that logic you should avoid putting it into the marinader. To get tastey buds u want to prolong the drying process. If u have larger amounts go for it but thats ur entire crop id say take a small test batch first to see what happends
 

KoolCat

Active Member
I would love to see the results of this little experiment. Pic's or it didn't happen.......lol jk....but pics would be nice. :P
 

BlueFish

Active Member
id say with that logic you should avoid putting it into the marinader. To get tastey buds u want to prolong the drying process. If u have larger amounts go for it but thats ur entire crop id say take a small test batch first to see what happends
I'm just going to put an ounce or two of Big Bud in there. The rest I'll dry normally.

Anyway, about the drying slowly. I see a lot of people saying it, and I have no doubt as to its truth. However, I don't see anybody asking why. It's possible that drying more quickly in one way will reduce the quality while drying quickly in another may not. The unfortunate status cannabis has prevents any real research into the area. For example, perhaps being able to lower the temperature while vacuum drying will offset the damage done by drying too quickly. Hell, you could probably dry in a refrigerator if you had a good enough vacuum.

So, my goal is to see if vacuum drying has an impact on quality, if so how much, if vacuum drying is noticeably faster than normal drying, and if so by how much. The lack of empirical data on growing is a major hindrance to the development of new techniques and the refinement of old ones, and I plan to do my part to rectify that.
 

d.s.m.

Well-Known Member
I'm interested to see how this turns out. One thing I can tell you is that it's a great way to store your finished product.

With on of these attachments for you vacuum sealer and a couple cases of mason jars, your stuff will stay fresh for years. http://tinyurl.com/ya4wfam

Highly recommended.
 

BlueFish

Active Member
Heh, I wish I had a year's supply to store. I started growing as an economical alternative to buying high priced weed. I put about 600 USD into the box, lights, aeroponics, etc. So, if I produce just a few ounces of White Widow, it's already paid for itself on the first grow. My plants are nice and healthy though, and I'm hoping for a qp or more (about 1 cubic meter of space, 4 plants at 1 meter tall, two more at about 2/3 of a meter tall, all nice and bushy). I'm estimating that I'll harvest in about 3-4 weeks, so you can look forward to results then.
 

raptor22

Active Member
I'm just going to put an ounce or two of Big Bud in there. The rest I'll dry normally.

Anyway, about the drying slowly. I see a lot of people saying it, and I have no doubt as to its truth. However, I don't see anybody asking why. It's possible that drying more quickly in one way will reduce the quality while drying quickly in another may not. The unfortunate status cannabis has prevents any real research into the area. For example, perhaps being able to lower the temperature while vacuum drying will offset the damage done by drying too quickly. Hell, you could probably dry in a refrigerator if you had a good enough vacuum.

So, my goal is to see if vacuum drying has an impact on quality, if so how much, if vacuum drying is noticeably faster than normal drying, and if so by how much. The lack of empirical data on growing is a major hindrance to the development of new techniques and the refinement of old ones, and I plan to do my part to rectify that.
You can technically dry buds at any temperature above freezing as long as the humidity is low enough...and below freezing under reduced pressure.

Drying in a fridge with a de-icer to pull out excess humidity actually works quite well, and helps preserve aromatics.

Lastly, the reason for slow drying is no mystery. Without it, the outside of the bud dries way faster than the inside, and you have to overdry it to get the inside smokeable. With the slow dry then cure, you preserve aromatics and get the perfect moisture content distributed throughout the bud.

--Alex
 

EvansInUK

Well-Known Member
You can technically dry buds at any temperature above freezing as long as the humidity is low enough...and below freezing under reduced pressure.

Drying in a fridge with a de-icer to pull out excess humidity actually works quite well, and helps preserve aromatics.

Lastly, the reason for slow drying is no mystery. Without it, the outside of the bud dries way faster than the inside, and you have to overdry it to get the inside smokeable. With the slow dry then cure, you preserve aromatics and get the perfect moisture content distributed throughout the bud.

--Alex
Hey mate, could you explain your slow process of drying and then curing. I' I just starting out and looking into various methods that I might use one day.
 

waterproof808

Well-Known Member
You cannot dry in a vacuum unless you also have a way to remove the moisture. Just sitting in a vacuum sealed jar will not allow the moisture to escape.
 

rollitupuser666

New Member
I have used a vac chamber to dry flowers for processing, im telling you all now it works!, not as well as i had hoped but it definitely pulled the moisture out from the centre allowing a full yeild of oil.

Used dehydrator to achieve the same goal and it often comes out a little crispy, im thinking i will use the vac in future, you do need to drain it every hour though.
 
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