You'll want to provide some form of heat to dry out the guajillos to a leathery texture. I use a toaster oven at about 120F or air dry on my partially shaded patio. All depends on how humid your climate is whether mold sets in by simple air drying. The De Arboles will air dry no problem.

As far as difference in store bought and home grown?? I wouldn't say there's any noticeable difference with either variety. I can get them in the stores, but i still grow my own of each of these varieties just because they're 2 of my workhorses and I'm growing other varieties anyhow, so why not 2 of my faves also.

Kevin

I don't know about store bought, but Guajillo are thin skinned so that will help.I wouldn't let them dry on the plant. Slicing them in half'spread out w/a fan should do the trick. Let them get brittle and check for mold. Some use the oven on low but I dont think it can be low enough.I use my dehydrator on 95 degrees. Hope that helps. Enjoy

Drying them in your oven also an option.> How to Dry Peppers in the Oven

Or outside in bright sun.

I think you'll want to provide some airflow at minimum. Heat will speed up the process, but, too much will toast / cook them. Oven on lowest setting can work, but I'd recommend propping the door open if you do that. If a dehydrator isn't in your near future, hopefully just a fan will get you by (depending on humidity).

I've never bought dried guajillo's from the store, so can't compare to home grown / dried ones. But, the home dried ones are awesome, i do know that! :-)

Note to self, contact arborist as trees shading peppers slowing drying process.

This post was edited by northeast_chileman on Fri, Oct 24, 14 at 20:38

That is some picture up there, nc.

with the lack of dehydrator and because of small amounts of pepper to dry, I also use my oven. JUST leave the light on . It gets up to 105F. For the thin skinned like Thai Hot, Cayenne, ... it works fine. But but for things like habs, you have to cut them up in order to provide more surface area.

Read about ristras, one of the time-tested methods for drying chiles.