Runtz S1 buds

Below are a couple shots of my Runtz S1 buds from my last run. One pheno had terps that were literally top notch in every way. The lingering smell in the room after smoking was straight up intoxicating…I would literally walk outside and stand for a minute, just to walk inside again to be freshly hit by the wall of scent when I came back in.

They were absolute dreams to press into rosin as well…but I didn’t find that out until they were almost gone, as I’ve had my presses for 2 years, but only just finally got them out to try them when 90% of my bud was already up in smoke…now rosin is the only thing I’m about lol…and I feel like an idiot for going through 5 pounds of bud before deciding to use a press.

The pic of the single bud is a freeze dried bud, 48 hours after harvest. After the picture, I packed it into the bong, and smoked it. Love my freeze dryer!


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Looks good :sunglasses:

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Gorgeous looking buds.

I’m stoked you brought up freeze drying for your flower.

I’ve seen multiple people try this, but none seem to get the famed results of certain IG cultivators.

Do you have a process or recipe for your freeze dryer that you’d be willing to share for flower drying?

I’ve heard it can be incredible when done right, but can suck all your terps out if done wrong.

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Ben with the real questions. Is it a harvest right or one made for weed?

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@Cannabenoid My process consist of -

Harvest the plant one branch at a time.

Separate and bag up the buds to be fresh frozen.

Immediately put each filled bag in a deep freezer at sub zero temps and leave them for at least 12 hours.

Remove and load up the trays with the buds one tray at a time, limiting the buds exposure to the room temp as best as possible by immediately loading the filled trays back into the freeze dryer. (as long as they can squeeze into the slot in the freeze dryer, it doesn’t seem to matter if the buds are mostly popping over the tray except for maintaining pristine appearance)

Then let the freeze dryer continue it’s process on autopilot.

Around 24 hours later, the process will complete.

The buds are then carefully put into large amber jars containing 60 gram Boveda packs of varying humidities depending on the destination of the buds. (For personal smoking, use 58% RH packs. For selling, use 62% RH packs. For rosin pressing, {using 160micron extraction bags} use 72% RH packs)

I am far from done running test on my freeze drying results however. I’ll need about 5 more crop runs before I’ll be able to give top notch information on the subject.

I plan to try adjusting freeze drying times to see if I can cut it down further and maintain some humidity within the plant material so the Boveda packs don’t have to work as hard. I also plan to do some side by side comparisons between taste of freeze dried bud vs traditionally cured.

So far I haven’t noticed any seemingly diminished terps due to the process, as the rosin made from the material budder’d up very nicely (which requires high terpene content) and was blonde as could be…it was incredible. I’m still a complete newb at pressing as well…but I do hells of research before I do anything lol.

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Thanks! @Dan

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@ProdigiousGenetics I have a Harvest Right Pharmaceutical Freeze Dryer. It’s basically Harvest Rights weed model.

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Do you use a harvest right freeze drier?

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What settings do you use for flower? How do you rehydrate?

@Tater all answered above in a previous comment in detail sir

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I did see that, but was hoping for more details, I too freeze dry my flower and have for a couple years.

I have 3 HR driers, 1 is pharma but with a home shelf for spacing, the others are home units with software allowing lower shelf temps

I harvest, go directly to FD @35 shelf temp & 20 hours extra dry time. Although, I’m trying to do some tests on extra dry time. I think I can cut it back.

For storage I use Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. So far it seems that flower over 1 year old is great.

To rehydrate I’ve got a cannatrol so I can have a varied humidity level and eventual storage at given temp and dew point.

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@Tater Had to make sure before I took the time to type more…can’t stop once I start lol.

Just checked my settings on my freeze dryer and it appears that I run the Shelf Temperature at 55F, with a 9 hour Freeze, and 9 hour Dry.

It’s only recommended that you use temps below 70F to prevent terpene degradation, as the most volatile terps start to rapidly evaporate at around 70F. So I feel safe with my temps still for the time being, though I will definitely play with them once I have another crop.

35F seems like possibly overkill to me, but would certainly ensure that you lose no terpenes in the process, albeit at the cost of an extended dry, the addition to the electricity bill, and noise that comes with it.

I’d like to find the method to get buds that come out of the freeze dryer at 72% RH, if that’s even possible…I’d accept mid 50’s though.

Boveda packs work great for rehydration, and are the only method I’ve ever used personally. They last for plenty of time, and are pretty low hassle.

You can cut down on the time it takes for the Final Dry by making sure the space the freeze dryer is operating in is as cold as you can get it. I also keep a fan blowing on my vacuum pump to keep it cool, and it’s heat constantly dissipating away from the dryer. Which has the added bonus of allowing the vacuum pump to work more efficiently, and pull an even higher vacuum, which is ultimately why it shortens the Final Dry

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@Tater & @GrowMoDroBro appreciate you both diving into this.

I would agree, 35ºF seems low…are you speaking F or C?

Appreciate the further clarity on 55ºF & 9/9 timing.

Have you done side by sides from the same crop/plant (air dry/cure vs freeze dry)?

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@Cannabenoid For sure, glad to fill in the blanks.

No, still haven’t done any real science with it yet. All that will come with my current run of Planet of the Grapes and XXX once they finish.

I’ve got freeze drying test to run, rosin press test to run, tradition cure test to run, etc. I’m basically a total newb with his work cut out for him.

Battling depression is a bitch or id probably already be established and a lot more helpful by now lol.

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What are you pulling with your vac?
what vac are you using?

All I know is if you’re not pulling the right pressures and your temps ramp to high or fast you’re gonna have a bad time… better to keep it a little lower and slower.

You’re not freezing before putting in the freeze dryer?
What pressures are you getting to?
Thanks

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I agree that 35F seems low, but I think I may even go lower or 5 higher, for my desired results this is pretty close. I’ve tried for years to get info from harvest right, but they’ve been mostly useless. I started experimenting about 4 years ago, seriously about 3.

I used to do higher, first 60, then 50, 45 was really a good inflection point but on a whim dropped to 35 on a run and I felt it yielded good terpene preservation. In the end, when doing flower, the goals are max terpene preservation and dry with zero risk of mold. The best test of terpene loss (short of lab testing) is what does your ice water smell like when you defrost the system? If your whole room reeks of terps, you have loss. I am sure my time is a bit longer, but again, less terps lost is my goal, power loss (I agree it adds an hour or two but that’s it as I’ve dropped it) isn’t a big deal. If someone is worried about the power to run a FD, they should spend $5,000 to buy the unit, let alone multiple units as I have.

The ultimate goal of a freeze drier is to dry to a given set point. Harvey right has their unit stay below 500 mTorr a certain amount of time with a certain leak rate and that will ensure the moisture is out of the product. If you wanted to manipulate this you could probably ask them if there is a way to adjust it. I haven’t because I am good with a solid rehydration process that also maintains terps.

About drying, I think you think of it wrong (no offense). If you want to know how dry your flower is get a moisture detection probe with probes on it. Research shows that flower burns best between 8-12% internal moisture. I grow primarily for my wife, she gets bad canoeing at 11%+ so I’ve got her around 10% which is ideal for her. You mentioned a certain RH, this is where I think you think of it incorrectly (I could be wrong here), the way I understand it from your writing is the humidity in the jar %, as delivered from your humidipak, this is RH of the environment not the finished product. I had a hard time crossing that bridge myself. Think of it like this, the freeze drier knows it’s dry when the pressure doesn’t raise, the pressure is a function of the outgassing of the water from inside the product (in this way your view is correct because measuring the resulting output amount should be proportional to the internal amount, but once the level internally to the flower is too low and you return to atmospheric pressure the flower retains any it has inside) as such, the goal IMO is dry, dry and cool with no oxygen seems to allow it to store longer from my tests.

In the end, it sounds like you have a great process. It would be fun to find a way to stop the drier when the flower is ready now. I’ve found that a big paper bag and a few hours at room temp gets it workable, add a humidipak if you want but I avoid them because the absorb some terps, which is again flavor loss.

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My vac runs fine, are you having issues? Happy to help with that, I had issues a first and had a bad pump.

I prefer the dry pumps, I have both the black and the white one, on one unit I still have the premier pump but wouldn’t recommend less than that. Ideally you have a dry pump to avoid potential oil back steaming.

I’m doing a run now, it’s in freeze stage I’ll watch exact pressure but as I recall it’s in the 100mT range in the past. It will get lower as more moisture leaves the product. That’s the sublimation process

I do not prefreeze, although I have in the past. I see little value in it, I figure I have a machine that’s an all in one and why unload the deep freeze for this. I set the freeze temp to -20 with 2 extra hours and it works great. Freeze time is about 8-10 hours I think, again I’ll watch closer if you want this time

My total process runs about 40-48 hours if I run the full 20 extra hours of dry time. I always keep high extra dry time for two reasons.

  1. I want it dry, rehydrating is easy
  2. I don’t want it to stop in the middle of the night, if it’s drying when I go to bed I know I’m good till the morning with it stopping
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IMO

Freeze dry in side by side produces a much better product, especially for home growers. The process of hanging and drying and “waiting for the chlorophyll to break down” degrades your product and above all else causes terpene loss. Everything you smell during drying is loss and is something you won’t taste later.

The freeze dried product is better appearing and tasting side by side. It’s like tasting fresh tasty organic food over old overcooked from my experience.

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Part one- i’m a snoop so I looked up their patent and it has their steps listed. :slightly_smiling_face: Torr range shelf temps and times.
I found a quick fresh freeze and a really good vac pull is just fine.

Was asking what you got for mtor or ? Whatever measurement cus that’s really the key… The vacuum is the freeze dryer the unit is pretty much vac chamber that heats up…
I’ll try to find the patent and recipe if you’d like -

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