How to cure a large harvest

[ziggyross]

Hey everyone long time no see. Okay the question is how would you dry and cure a very large harvest? 1000 plus plants? I thought about 55 gal metal drums.

 

[Rosebud]

They have mesh drying racks that are pretty huge, maybe if you got a few of those. The mesh ones have like 6 layers. take a look here: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...refix=mesh+drying+,aps,235&crid=1WHQH0ALDPII9

Then turkey bags to store.

 

[ziggyross]

Thanks Rose but I'm not sure even the biggest one would handle this much. Last years was hung and dried like tobacco. The main problem is storage for curing. I'm talking like 6 55 Gal drums full. Will metal drums cause any damage?

 

[Rosebud]

I wouldn't use it but I am a ridiculous purist. Hanging like tobacco is good. What a problem to have, huh? :vap-Bong_smoker: I am thinking here. Others will be by. Shrink wrap lbs?

 

[RubyRed]

that many plants I would not know. I will say I like to use Turkey roasting bags. for the cure. they hold close to 1/2 pound trimmed and dried bud. and IMO drums of the size your stating would be to much product in a large space to cure right. ( center may mold ). Hope this helps.


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[pcduck]

Hang them to dry.
Sealed room to cure.

 

[ziggyross]

Thanks everyone Rose yes it's such a great problem to have. I see lots of RSO in my future.

 

[Aggie007]

Drying is so very important, low and slow. 65 degrees with major air movement. I use a storage container insulated with 2inch thick marine grade Rmax. It's a must. Air conditioners throughout and dehumidifier(just in the beginning). 6 days is ideal. To really utilize the space I like using the netting it makes it very easy to move each row back-and-forth, also allows good air movement. As with everything you must be attentive every few hours to come out with a fantastic outcome. Good luck.

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[ziggyross]

Aggie007, What type of storage container? Is it a purchased one or something you built. I'm sure it's not a rental storage unit, lol. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Aggie007]

I've gone thru a few shipping containers. Depends on your budget but it's worth to by a "one trip" high cube container that basically band new. Shop around and you can find a deal. You must use insulation to achieve long controlled curing. I use the 40 feet long ones. Gives good room to move in.

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[ziggyross]

Very cool Aggie I'm going to look into one of these.

 

[techrons78]

Damn sweet guys i want in on all that ��������

 

[Surfer Joe]

The main problem is storage for curing. I'm talking like 6 55 Gal drums full. Will metal drums cause any damage?

Use large square plastic bins with lids and maybe do 12 of those instead of 6 metal drums.

 

[orangesunshine]

burping 55 gal drums to cure makes sense to me

 

[Gorilla]

Drying is so very important, low and slow. 65 degrees with major air movement. I use a storage container insulated with 2inch thick marine grade Rmax. It's a must. Air conditioners throughout and dehumidifier(just in the beginning). 6 days is ideal. To really utilize the space I like using the netting it makes it very easy to move each row back-and-forth, also allows good air movement. As with everything you must be attentive every few hours to come out with a fantastic outcome. Good luck.

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Aggie, you really nailed it! Thank you for taking the time to show budding new big growers how to do it right the first time with your accurate words and awesome pictures! It still amazes me how some folks get from hobby growers to big-time producers over night—like from growing a basement full of 20+ plants to a bunker or a set of greenhouses with 1000+ plants—and then realize, “Hey, what the **** am I going to do with all my ****?!!!” I’ve heard some wild stories with many of these guys drying in the same area they harvested in.



Personally I expanded gradually so I always had a plan in place. The next big hurdle came when we got to the point of hand-trimming all our Buds for sale. By “We”, I mean my family and a few close friends. We shared the growing jobs and harvesting and trimming jobs to avoid hiring strangers.



But as we creeped up to the 1000 plant mark, the prospect of hand-trimming got overwhelming for our tastes! I decided to invest in an expensive auto-trimmer. I won’t mention which one so I won’t be accused of bashing a certain brand, but it only worked perfectly the first harvest and then we’d have to stop and clean it. The next harvest it gummed up and broke down before we were done even though we ran it according to instructions dry. If you haven’t seen these big auto-trimmers, they’re wild complicated looking and VERY expensive, like, $10,000 and over!



By this point we were making plenty of money, so we’d just replace the broke-down one with a new brand. Same story. They all gave us trouble eventually and we felt like it was just too crazy: repeating the mistake but expecting different results. That’s when I realized these things all had complicated machinery and blades and it was these two factors that were giving us grief.



Then I found a TTT, a “Tom’s Tumble Trimmer” at a trade show. It looked too simple to accomplish big trimming jobs but I was fascinated because it was not complicated and didn’t use blades. I met the designer Tom and he said his large model was only a couple of grand and could trim over a hundred pounds an hour with ZERO maintenance. So we gave it a try and it blew us away the first harvest and has been running smooth ever since!



It’s basically just a mesh drum that spins with a little quite motor. But it's not just a mesh. It's an amazing three part system. It trims with a half inch holed inter-changable mesh that wraps around the spin barrel. It separates popcorn pieces from the trim with the 1/4 inch mesh and it extracts kief with the 110 micron mesh. The way it works is the Buds actually trim each other as they tumble in the soft mesh barrel environment. This thing is quite and never breaks down and like I said, needs basically no maintenence, just a bit of pam cooking spray on the zippers once in awhile. It paid for itself in the first day we used it. Now we got 3 more cause we've grown up to 4000 plants per harvest!



So growing big comes with many problems but also great rewards. As long as you don't rush it, and expand slowly and plan everything before you do it, you should be OK. The bigger you get, good planning and automation with the right equipment, you'll be set.