The success of your commercial cannabis grow depends greatly on your dry room. It’s the place where fresh flowers transform into dry, usable products. A well-designed dry room setup can help you finish your crop effortlessly and beautifully, while a poor setup can cause mold growth and ruin your buds. To avoid complications during drying, it’s crucial to pay attention to your HVAC settings and understand the process.
After harvesting your cannabis crop, it’s essential to dry it properly to preserve the buds and remove chlorophyll. This is done in a dry room by suspending the plants upside down for fifteen days. Improper drying can result in less potent cannabis with a hay-like taste. Use a rack or clothesline to suspend the plants, depending on the quantity and budget. Racks are more expensive but better for larger quantities.
Dry Room Conditions
In the dry room, your drying success depends on the mechanical setup, with heat, light, and humidity as common issues. Overly hot and dry conditions cause fast-drying and hay-like crops, while hot and wet environments lead to mold, fungus, and contamination. Constant light exposure damages THC content and preserves chlorophyll.
Dry Room Setup
To achieve optimal crop finishing, we suggest a dedicated dry room. Keep in mind that seasonal factors like temperature, elevation, humidity fluctuations, and barometric pressure changes, as well as cultivar differences, can impact the drying process. Ensure your dry room has proper ventilation, temperature control, and humidity adjustment for consistent success in crop drying.
Temperature
You want your dry room to be fairly cool so that your plants dry slowly and uniformly. A temperature of 68ºF/20ºC is ideal for your dry room. You want to avoid going over 75ºF/24ºC, as this will dry the buds unevenly and far too quickly.
Humidity
If your room is too humid, your buds will not dry. If your room is dry, the flowers will not dry uniformly, leading to a crumbly outside, a too-damp inside, and a reduction in terpenes due to evaporation. You want to keep your humidity between 40% and 50%, to get your plants’ moisture content down to around 20%. Some growers prefer to dry between 50% and 60%, which is often advisable at higher elevations.
Air Flow
A good dry room has light, fresh air flowing into it, but not directed directly at the flowers. If you use a fan, point it at the floor or ceiling away from the drying buds. That way, the harvest doesn’t dry out too quickly, which leads to a harsh taste. An airflow limiter can be very helpful here. You also want to control the odors in your exhausted air, which is best done through filtering, either through carbon filters or another medium.
If you’re interested in setting up the perfect dry room, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. At Vulcan Squad, we’ve been in the business of optimizing your growing operation for over a decade. We’re nationally licensed contractors whose business is your business, and our industry knowledge lets us optimize your facility. Schedule a consultation with us today!