Burping...the love hate relationship

Someone’s gotta do it. :sweat_smile: Do you burp daily? weekly? Never? Open quick? Open, let breathe? Flip over or not? How long in cure? What’s your fave technique @mastergrowers?

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Ruben,

I’m still of the old school, so to speak.After a good flush… Post-harvest: I whole plant hang at 55%-63% RH until branches are light-snap, not full-break. Drying generally takes 10 days to 2 weeks. I then buck down the plant, separating the branches and water leaves (for vermiposting) from the buds. The buds are then fully trimmed and the trimmed buds are placed in mason jars for curing. The trim is bagged, labeled, and frozen for storage prior to extraction. I’ll burp the jars once or twice a day - usually for about ten minutes at a time - for a week or so. At this point the buds are ready for the shelves.

I’ve tried a lot of drying/curing techniques…this seems to work great!

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I follow Nick’s process too. Perhaps I don’t burp as often as he does but at least once a week, I dump each jar into a huge S/S mixing bowl and visually inspect for any mold or mildew forming. This is the equivalent of a super burp so to speak since all the buds are exposed to fresh air. I also do it under a UV light to expose any mold and to help keep the air sanitary. Spores are literally everywhere!

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I think our climactic difference have a bit of influence on our burping process. My dry AZ climate means I’m only exposing my finished flowers to dry air for a very short period of time (albeit I’m opening the jar more frequently) to try to sloooooow cure the buds. We have the same basic process, but I suspect your higher RH means you need to bring the buds back out of the jars. I love the addition of the UV light! Great idea!

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Thanks so much for the willingness to share good information! We shoot for around the same RH and dry time, though it tends to happen quicker. We don’t have very great control over our temperature… the AC is only able to keep the temps down to mid/upper 70s at the coolest and has been spiking in the low 80s. I feel like we might be losing potency, though I haven’t seen any supporting data on this assumption. I know terpenes start to be affected above 70F. Can I ask what everyone thinks about that topic? And would you mind sharing what temperature you initially dry at before moving to containers, and also how often you fail/pass contaminant tests? Thanks GN!

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Oh yeah and also! What about air movement? Full exchange vs circulation, how often/much? And do you purify the air before bringing it in or while it’s circulating in the room?

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Thanks for the reply and similar willingness to collaborate! Isn’t that the beauty of GNET??

I try to stay in the low 70’s for the entirety of the drying/curing phase and stay consistently in the 55%-60% range (never exceeding the 63% threshold). I try to take as long as I can with the dry phase (as long as two weeks).

With our extracts we are always very careful to stay in the low lemps to preserve terp profiles. Myrcene, for instance, has a very low boiling point (about 90º F) so we always err on the side of a longer purge at a lower temp. The same properties of extracts are true for the flower.

To answer your final Q: I have NEVER failed a pest/path screen because I operate a clean facility with organic feeding and IPM protocols :smiley:

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Minimal air movement to lengthen dry time…but always be mindful of RH! Dehu may me vital to success and avoiding mold/mildew issues. FYI I dry in the lung room (which in turn helps maintain those ideal RH levels in my dry AZ climate) which is a perfect space for drying/curing/environmental perfection.