Drying your Hemp crop

[csuits]

How is everyone planning on drying their hemp crop this year?

Please share anything you have learned with the community about drying tips, techniques, methods, etc.

[Rafael]

It takes 4,000 sqft to hang dry 1 acre. Whole plants, 15′ height. In Oregon with decent airflow in a wet fall, it takes 15-20 days to bring the flower from 70 to 12% moisture. Anything over 15% will start to mold during long-term storage.

Sun drying is the most economical way to dry given the commodity prices, but it’s only possible in dry climates (NV, UT, NM, TX, etc.)

Chinese belt dryers (containers with 3 levels of conveyor) can dry 1,500 lbs of shucked flower every or 6,000 lbs of wet combine harvester material every 24 hours. This is dry weight. Around 70-80% of wet weight is lost to moisture.

25 workers can shuck 1 acre of fresh plants in 10 hours. 6’x6′.

1 worker can shuck 100 lbs of dry flower every 10 hours.

1 modified combine harvester can replace 1,000 workers per day.

[Vinny Dominick]

I have a question on bucking CBG after drying on a commercial scale. With it being such a brittle flower what has anyone seen being the most efficient way to buck it down without absolutely destroying the flower?

[Rafael]

Sadly, no. There is no good piece of equipment that exists at the moment to buck large quantities of dried flowers for smokable purposes without losing a large amount of bud structure. Some of the automated buckers advertised for that purpose will destroy 40-60% of the flower you’re bucking. Sure you’ll be able to replaces tens of workers per day and save on labor, but you’ll be sacrificing flower weight and quality. You gotta remember, this is a brand new industry still in it’s infancy!

[Author]

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