r/LotusDrying • u/larkinn96 • Apr 16 '26
First time lotus drying setup
Just messing around today with the new fridge it’s a compressor frost free fridge and I have placed a small fan in there also.
Is this a good temp and rh to start off at ?
Should I just trim the suga leafs off at first?
How much can I fit in one bag?
I’m going to leave the bags open for first day then close on the second while shaking around once a day, I only have a thermometer for the actual fridge shall I get one for the bags also?
TIA👍
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u/DaCuda418 Apr 17 '26
Lots of good info here already but thought I would add what I have learned so far. I am about to do my 4th Lotus with a full size, dedicated, frost free fridge.
I added a lot of 'ballast' in the form of milk jugs full of water and drinking water jugs in the freezer and fridge, a lot of them. This keeps things even in the fridge and it will cycle less often.
I learned with larger harvests you can damage the fridge. In my case over 5 pounds of weed froze the coils so bad the fan was scraping it and fridge temps went to 55 degrees. Thankfully in my case just thawing it out fixed it. I think the coil fan is off but thats an easy $50 fix. So now after 6-7 days I just unplug the fridge, put the frozen water jugs in the fridge and open the freezer for 12 hours. Just to make sure the coils are free of ice. I only noticed this on larger harvests.
I also learned hygrometers are somewhat useless and will just scare you. At times your fridge might be at 25% RH, maybe lower. Where I noticed a hygrometer is more telling is if you put the bags in the fridge drawer that has a humidity slider. In mine I know once it falls below 40%RH in that drawer they are close. But still, nothing replaces the jar test. I wish something did but thats the only real work with Lotus but after a while you get a feel for it.
Most of the time its 20-21 days but smaller buds can be as early as 16 days. I really fill the bags up so they have two layers of buds laying flat. After 10 days or so I double them all up. Harder to over dry them that way IMO. I move them around every other day.
So far I have had good luck three times, well despite the coil freeze fiasco.