I am a small commercial grower. I flower 72-96 plants (20k lights/450sqft canopy). I run this by myself with only occasional help. When I harvest, I chop and hang the entire plant in my drying room. The drying room is 30x15, has a 15k btu a/c and a 70 pint dehumidifer and fans blowing at the floor/walls/ceiling. The room is insulated, but it is not what I would call "air tight". I keep it between 64-70f and the RH fluctuates between 45-65% (stays mostly in the 50-55 range).
After harvest, I have to clean the flower room, prep it for the next crop, re-pot the plants from the veg room into 7 gallon bags with coco/perlite and move them to the flower room. Before I flip this crop I like to take my cuttings for my clones, although to be honest most often I take the cuttings in the first week to week and half of flower. By the time I have the next crop under way in the flower room the plants have been hanging for 2-3 weeks before I ever begin processing them. Then it takes me another month or so to process the plants and trim the bud. I take the plants down as I process them, so some of the plants might hang for 2 months.
So my question is, is this normal for other small growers? I did have some minor mold problems with some flower from the last harvest, but I'm pretty sure that I caused that in flower and not in the drying room. Today we had a power outage, and the power was off during a rain storm for an hour before I could get the generator up and running. My RH spiked to 85%, but once power was restored, it was back down below 65 in short order. I'm wondering if an hour with high humidity would cause a mold problem (I had probably 50 plants hanging in there).
I've considered contract trimming crews, but to be honest, I don't want people knowing where I am or what I am doing. I also suspect that most of these crews might not be particularly honest...but I haven't used them so I don't really know for sure. Anyone want to share how they deal with this? Thanks.
After harvest, I have to clean the flower room, prep it for the next crop, re-pot the plants from the veg room into 7 gallon bags with coco/perlite and move them to the flower room. Before I flip this crop I like to take my cuttings for my clones, although to be honest most often I take the cuttings in the first week to week and half of flower. By the time I have the next crop under way in the flower room the plants have been hanging for 2-3 weeks before I ever begin processing them. Then it takes me another month or so to process the plants and trim the bud. I take the plants down as I process them, so some of the plants might hang for 2 months.
So my question is, is this normal for other small growers? I did have some minor mold problems with some flower from the last harvest, but I'm pretty sure that I caused that in flower and not in the drying room. Today we had a power outage, and the power was off during a rain storm for an hour before I could get the generator up and running. My RH spiked to 85%, but once power was restored, it was back down below 65 in short order. I'm wondering if an hour with high humidity would cause a mold problem (I had probably 50 plants hanging in there).
I've considered contract trimming crews, but to be honest, I don't want people knowing where I am or what I am doing. I also suspect that most of these crews might not be particularly honest...but I haven't used them so I don't really know for sure. Anyone want to share how they deal with this? Thanks.
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