Humidity too high to get harvest dry enough

We’ve been harvesting for the last two weeks (21 plants/2 people to harvest.....whew!). The most I ever had before was 10.

I had the most beautiful plants I’ve ever had (18 White Widow & 3 Amnesia Haze) until two weeks ago when it started to rain. Then, I went out just before harvest was going to start and I had BUD ROT! It was in my largest colas, of course, and some were about 3 1/2” or wider. It was devastating. Later, also saw mold. We ended up harvesting a lot of plants before they were mature because they were rotting, and had to save them.

Anyway, back to after cutting & drying...... & putting in jars. I cut the buds too soon, and they were still 70-78% wet. So, I had them sitting out in pans all over the place. Even after setting them out a day, they only went down a little. I got them down to 66%, and that’s it. Well, turns out my 47% inside humidity went up to 66%, and that’s why. So, even with the AC on (no running much since it’s cooled down a lot. It’ll be warm this weekend, so maybe that’ll help, but....). How can I get them to dry down below 65% so they don’t mold inside the jars if I can’t get it lower in the room?

Oh, and I’m letting the rest hang in the ‘drying room’ longer. The stuff I’ve cut for hash can dry as much as it can. It doesn’t have to cure. Boy, there sure is a lot hanging up there right now!

thanks, as always!

Split big stems right down the middle into 2 strands. This will allow moisture to leave the big stems faster.

SnidleyBluntash said:

Split big stems right down the middle into 2 strands. This will allow moisture to leave the big stems faster.

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This, you could break the buds into small pieces, i.e. more surface area to allow it to dry out quicker, but it will still only be as low as your rooms ambient RH %.... If you want that lower, you would need a dehumidifier or just bring in dry stuff, such as brown paper bags, cardboard, etc. Things that can pull moisture from the air/bud, same thing in reverse, wet sheets/towels/slow cooker with water evaporating in the room, etc. if you wanted to introduce more moisture into the air... But dehumidifiers can be found on craigslist for 30-40 bucks quite often, most of the time a good cleaning and maybe new filter is all they need. But you said you recently cut, and your RH is only at 66%.... which, isnt really that bad I would say, after a couple days it will likely drop. I generally keep my dry around 60% so you're not far off at all. I would definitely inspect, cut out and clean out any mold or rot though, dont mix that in with the rest of the dry. Once you take care of that, salvage what you can from what you already harvested early, and dry it slowly as you would/should normally. Just hope that it had enough time to develop to get you high. But either way, keep a vigilant eye on it, and take care of that rot before it spreads itself to any other plants.


Also... forget the jars if theyre not dry.. even if the number of days people say (7-10...14 or whatever have come and gone... get a cheap hygrometer and wait until they're dry and stable, the longer it takes the better... Id say this is a good situation(drying env.) on your hands barring the budrot and early harvest...)
Good luck

I was dealing with a similar issue on my last - high ambient rh (yes, I'm getting a dehu for this current grow)

Mornings here have been FOGGY - the can't see across the street kind of fog. 98%rh outside & wet streets, high 70's inside.
Afternoons are usually dry. So, I jarred my crop one afternoon & found the driest spot in my house - the bottom of a closet - and moved my jars there for afternoon burping (Thanks to C-19, I have my afternoons pretty free lately...).

I'd open the jars inside the closet for 3-4 hours a day - exchanging the humid air inside the jar for the dry air of the closet. Now, they are on the gummy/sticky side of cured - right where I like em!
Since it's also a room that is rarely accessed or lit, I decided to store the bulk of my jars there until they're needed.

SnidleyBluntash said:

Split big stems right down the middle into 2 strands. This will allow moisture to le

Click to expand...

dunphy said:

I would definitely inspect, cut out and clean out any mold or rot though, dont mix that in with the rest of the dry. Once you take care of that, salvage what you can from what you already harvested early, and dry it slowly as you would/should normally. Just hope that it had enough time to develop to get you high. But either way, keep a vigilant eye on it, and take care of that rot before it spreads itself to any other plants.

Good luck

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Thanks, we had to throw out some of the largest colas as they caught the moisture & wasn't able to dry on the plant. Each day, we'd cut out the brown rot or will do..... at the grow site so it didn't spread (hopefully getting it all). Then, we had to cut entire plants since they would have been rotten the next day & when inside inspected them again. I threw out a very heavy trash can full of rotten buds.....so sad! It was VERY hard not to get VERY angry, too....but, I managed .

We have two whole plants left, 2 halves & some parts........they don't have any rot......yet. They won't be ready until next week if they can hold out. The rain is over (Hurricanes gone for now!)
thanks again!

Tough (REALLY tough!), but wise decision.

dehumidifier

Lockedin said:

I was dealing with a similar issue on my last - high ambient rh (yes, I'm getting a dehu for this current grow)

Mornings here have been FOGGY - the can't see across the street kind of fog. 98%rh outside & wet streets, high 70's inside.
Afternoons are usually dry. So, I jarred my crop one afternoon & found the driest spot in my house - the bottom of a closet - and moved my jars there for afternoon burping (Thanks to C-19, I have my afternoons pretty free lately...).

I'd open the jars inside the closet for 3-4 hours a day - exchanging the humid air inside the jar for the dry air of the closet. Now, they are on the gummy/sticky side of cured - right where I like em!
Since it's also a room that is rarely accessed or lit, I decided to store the bulk of my jars there until they're needed.

Click to expand...

That’s a good idea! The back/bottom of the closet isn’t accessed by our ‘humid’ bodies as is the rest of the house. Can’t hurt. I’ll put the hygrometer in there & see if it’s better.

Thanks!

I also purchased 4 hygrometers from Amazon and they all read different from each other plus lower humidity than the one I’ve been using. If they’re right on the humidity, which is nearly unanimous on all of them, then my stuff is good! But, I don’t have anything else to compare it with except the one I already have. They also read a little differently on the temperature on each so they have to go back anyway. That won’t work.

Maybe another brand. These were Veanic (yeah, well-known brand ...LOL.

Pi tv

Susanne said:

I also purchased 4 hygrometers from Amazon and they all read different from each other plus lower humidity than the one I’ve been using. If they’re right on the humidity, which is nearly unanimous on all of them, then my stuff is good! But, I don’t have anything else to compare it with except the one I already have. They also read a little differently on the temperature on each so they have to go back anyway. That won’t work.

Maybe another brand. These were Veanic (yeah, well-known brand ...LOL.

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mine if the same brand are great I’ve compared them to a nicer hygrometers always within the 2% Accuracy range.

has anyone tried curing in a tent w some kind of small desiccant dehuidifieer... i know quest has a legit one but im not a rich dude... i know a seena couple small desicant dehus out their for a few 100 dollars... sometimes i consider trying to reduce the size of the cure room to like a 4x4 tent squeeze quite a bit in their and run the dehu... u get down to like 60f and i have a hard time believing any dehu is going to over cure..

JonCreighton said:

has anyone tried curing in a tent w some kind of small desiccant dehuidifieer... i know quest has a legit one but im not a rich dude... i know a seena couple small desicant dehus out their for a few 100 dollars... sometimes i consider trying to reduce the size of the cure room to like a 4x4 tent squeeze quite a bit in their and run the dehu... u get down to like 60f and i have a hard time believing any dehu is going to over cure..

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I dont have any experience with them, and not too sure how exactly they work... But what I would say is be careful using certain things to dry and (de)humidify certain things can leave a taste on the buds that is disgusting and harsh... Such as people who store their weed in a backpack with a dryer sheet or something, that smell from the oils or whatever is on it, will migrate, even through baggies into the bud and you'll smell and taste it. So I would be wary of using certain desiccants and anything other than a regular dehumidifier/humidifier.. which can be found for cheap (or rent the large flood restoration dehumidifiers for a couple weeks from home depot if you have a very large area.

JonCreighton said:

has anyone tried curing in a tent w some kind of small desiccant dehuidifieer... i know quest has a legit one but im not a rich dude... i know a seena couple small desicant dehus out their for a few 100 dollars... sometimes i consider trying to reduce the size of the cure room to like a 4x4 tent squeeze quite a bit in their and run the dehu... u get down to like 60f and i have a hard time believing any dehu is going to over cure..

Click to expand...

I had the same issue - took FOREVER to moisture down.

I'm planning to get a dehu, but had considered putting a damp-rid or similar product under the "in" side of my intake. I figure that would hav been gentler than placing it in the tent. -- Fortunately, ambient rh finally came down, but I know I'll need a dehu when I get to flower on this run.

Susanne said:

I also purchased 4 hygrometers from Amazon and they all read different from each other plus lower humidity than the one I’ve been using. If they’re right on the humidity, which is nearly unanimous on all of them, then my stuff is good! But, I don’t have anything else to compare it with except the one I already have. They also read a little differently on the temperature on each so they have to go back anyway. That won’t work.

Maybe another brand. These were Veanic (yeah, well-known brand ...LOL.

Click to expand...

To get accurate rh% you need a quality hygrometer and they have a limited life span, if you mix salt and distilled water into a paste (wet sand) in a cup/tub then put your hygrometers in a bag with the cup at 25c/77f the rh% should be 75%.
You can mark the deficit on them once you have checked/calibrated them.

waterproof808 said:

dehumidifier

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Exactly at some point ya bite the bullet and buy a $100 humidifier
Cutting corners after all my hard work is not in my DNA

A dehumidifier doubles as a heater, it was frosty last night and I still maintained 18/19c 48/50% rh, that has to one of the most economical tools available to me, heat and dehumidified for 180w.

I've got a habitat heat controller, it doesn't turn power on/off it turns the power up and down so it uses minimal energy and maintains the set heat but its not as economical as my dehum, the thought of it breaking down worries me!

Susanne said:

I also purchased 4 hygrometers from Amazon and they all read different from each other plus lower humidity than the one I’ve been using. If they’re right on the humidity, which is nearly unanimous on all of them, then my stuff is good! But, I don’t have anything else to compare it with except the one I already have. They also read a little differently on the temperature on each so they have to go back anyway. That won’t work.

Maybe another brand. These were Veanic (yeah, well-known brand ...LOL.

Click to expand...

While it may be too late for you guys to do this year... I'd highly recommend this vendor on AliExpress.... I ordered 50 of these a few months ago and they came surprisingly quick (I think it was about 4.5 weeks shipped from china)

They are dirt cheap, and once received, I put them all in 2 jars with my more expensive and accurate hygrometers.... There was only 2 out of the lot of 50 that were off by only 2%... This was stable over 4 days, and then tested again with a bit of bud in the jars and they all had readings of 54-56% RH and my nice hygrometers were reading 56%... So while they might be off a little bit, they are close enough... And these are awesome to cut holes in metal lids or just small enough where I toss them inside the jar, still able to read the temp and RH and able to keep the lid intact.

The temp is in Celsius but its not a big deal, I mainly just use it for the RH anyways...

Heres the vendor I bought from... I forget what my final price was but they were very cheap. I believe they were like .20 something cents... which came out to under $1 including shipping at the time.

ALIEXPRESS VENDOR LINK:


Unfortunately it looks like this vendor only has 5 left ( I grabbed the black rectangle ones ) So you may have to find another bulk supplier and you could likely get them for this year if you find a vendor in the US that will ship quicker... may cost you a little more but still cheaper than most places, if you can find the same ones (black rectangle, RH and temp (C°)) they are definitely worth it even if they only last me one season.

They do not come with batteries from this vendor you will need to purchase the common LR44 button batteries that are in watches and other small electronics.. Those are cheap as well, amazon has their own brand of batteries and the 20/40 packs are reasonably priced.
Each of these hygrometers requires two 1.5v LR44 batteries

Herb & Suds said:

Exactly at some point ya bite the bullet and buy a $100 humidifier
Cutting corners after all my hard work is not in my DNA

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Ugh Dehumidifier

A bunch of wet weed will raise your humidity. Get a dehumidifier before you ruin everything.

Do you have a fan moving air across them?