DIY AUTOMATED CURE BUCKET

treefarmercharlie

🍆
Admin
I'll have to do a search for grove bags I have never heard of them...
I looked into them awhile back and just couldn’t get myself to spend the cash on them for a two reasons. The first reason is their bags that hold up to a QP are around $3.50 each. That’s $3.50 for a ziplock style bag where the zipper can fail and they only guarantee freshness if you heat seal them which basically makes them one or two time use bags. The other reason is they rape you on shipping. Ten of those bags comes to a little over $35 and then they charge over $14 to ship them to you which brings the price closer to $5 a bag. People who use them seem to love them but I’m sticking to bucket curing and reusable glass jars for long term storage. I figure it’s less plastic waste sticking to jars, too.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I added a inkbird humidity monitor to control the air pump instead of the timer
One thing about that is if the humidity stays right you don't get the necessary air exchange. That's where you need a computer hacker to get in there and add a extra "if-then" function. If it doesn't kick on for the humidity in "X" hours then run for "X" minutes.
 

treefarmercharlie

🍆
Admin
One thing about that is if the humidity stays right you don't get the necessary air exchange. That's where you need a computer hacker to get in there and add a extra "if-then" function. If it doesn't kick on for the humidity in "X" hours then run for "X" minutes.
Yup, a lot of people don’t realize you still need air exchange during curing even if the humidity stays optimal.
 

Old ST1R

Grow Yer Own Stone
Yup, a lot of people don’t realize you still need air exchange during curing even if the humidity stays optimal.
That’s one of the nice things about Grove bags is that you don’t have to do any burping. Just get it ball park dry and put it in the grove bag and let it cure. No opening and closing required. They take up a lot less space than jars too.

I’ve had some Oil Spill in the bags for a couple of weeks now. I think I’ll give it a test today.

As for the price, I bought them at my local hydro store for about two bucks each. Peanuts really. And that’s CDN dollars.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
Yup, a lot of people don’t realize you still need air exchange during curing even if the humidity stays optimal.
I think that's the unspoken downside of the grove bags. They breathe. That's good during the "burp" phase of curing but at some point you want it sealed up.

I have a dorm-fridge size wine fridge for storage of the cured stuff. I don't put stuff in there that I need to burp regularly. It's only set at 60f so I am not really refridgerating my weed so much as keeping it cool and dark with consistency.

I have shifted to stainless steel bento boxes if various sizes, some with dividers or multiple compartments. Think C-vault but cheaper and with no lid-hanger for an rH pack.

Nothing wrong with the jars except they take up a lot of room. I have enough of the boxes that I can down-size as a strain gets smoked. And they stack in the fridge. And this stoner hasn't broken one yet ;)

I use an rH pack in each, but I have started varying them. I have 55%, 58% and 62%. I got the lower two for weed that seems to stay stickier. It seems to help out.

Last bit is I rotate through what I smoke so it all gets opened regularly for occasional air exchange.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I also got a few grove bags free with orders. A few 1oz and a 4oz I think. I will probably give them a try on one plant that I don't mind losing. I have one that was close but nannered that I hung instead of composting. That might be the one to just see if it works not opening the bag after the weed is dried.
 

Old ST1R

Grow Yer Own Stone
I opened one today after a couple of weeks. It seemed very dry to me - dryer than I like, but it wasn’t bone dry and I did over dry it a bit in the first place. Warrants another go.

The weed smoked well, very, very little green taste and smooth after only two weeks in the bag. It had really good flavor too, which I attribute to the Grove Bags “Terploc”.

If they work as good as they did with the over dried weed with moister product, and maintain a little more during the cure, then I can see the Grove Bags being worth the investment. Nothing saying you can’t move to jars after the cure and reuse the bag again.
 

Nobighurry

PICK YOUR OWN
I opened one today after a couple of weeks. It seemed very dry to me - dryer than I like, but it wasn’t bone dry and I did over dry it a bit in the first place. Warrants another go.

The weed smoked well, very, very little green taste and smooth after only two weeks in the bag. It had really good flavor too, which I attribute to the Grove Bags “Terploc”.

If they work as good as they did with the over dried weed with moister product, and maintain a little more during the cure, then I can see the Grove Bags being worth the investment. Nothing saying you can’t move to jars after the cure and reuse the bag again.
With the up swing in wide mouth quart jar prices I was thinking an alternative for the stuff that goes out the door to my buddy's is warranted the jars eventually make it back but it can be months I likely have totes of gallon & 1/2 gallon jars for curing and my stash
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I forgot to mention that my snooty "wine fridge" was cheaper than a pack of beans from Freeborn. The reason for the wine fridge was that there's no freezer like a regular mini fridge. I think we have all seen those growing arctic tundra around the little ice trays. Same thing for the humidor fridge I have for seeds. That one is about the size of an old computer tower, maybe a little wider but the height and depth are the same. Countertop size that would fit under the cupboard.

To do it again I would get a larger wine fridge or humidor fridge instead of separate ones. But the weed fridge stays pretty full and I get into it more often than the seed one. So very little temp-fluctuation is the upside for the little one that is only opened to get a bean out to pop. And set at 60F they use negligible electricity. It's more like a one time purchase than a monthly bill.
 
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