After putting your precious time and effort into growing nice healthy cannabis plants you have finally reached harvesting stage. You can’t wait to taste those sweet fruits of your hard labor. But the most important part is just coming. Drying and curing cannabis is essential if you want your buds to be top quality. Read this article if you want to know how Stoners Like drying cannabis properly.
Drying is exactly what it sounds like, it’s a process where you remove most of the water from your plants. You are more than welcomed to spark up that dried out weed, but if you want it to become really good, you’ll have to wait a little longer and cure your cannabis. Curing makes your buds taste and smell nicer while getting them even more potent. Yes, you red it right, curing cannabis also increases THC level in your buds. Learning how to cure weed can make a big difference. Would you like to know why?
Why is curing cannabis important?
Just like anything else in life, curing weed takes patience and time. It’s a long process that can take up weeks, but it’s definitely worth the wait. Long process of curing marijuana can turn your buds from harsh, throat burning smoke in to smoke that can offer you smooth and rich taste. Explanation behind this is that prolonged curing process allows aerobic bacteria and enzymes to break down leftover minerals and sugars. These minerals and sugars are the ones that make smoke feel harsh on your throat, they are the byproducts of chlorophyll decomposition during drying process.
Proper curing process also preserves flavor. Different cannabis strains have different effects and different flavors. Terpenes are the molecules that give cannabis it’s unique flavor and smell. Under high temperatures these molecules decompose very quickly, that’s why your should take time drying and curing cannabis.
Taste and smell are not the only things that curing cannabis can bring you. Correct curing can increase shelf life of your buds greatly. It also minimizes chance of getting mold on those buds. If stored correctly, your weed might last for longer than one year without any decrease in strength or taste.
Factors that could influence curing process
To have a better understanding of how to cure cannabis you should be aware of a few things. Let’s talk about factors that could affect your buds while curing. Main factors are: light, heat and humidity.
Light: During this time you want to store your buds in jars and keep them somewhere in the dark. Light can ruin your buds as it increases decomposition of THC and taste molecules in your buds.
Heat: This is another factor that influences potency of your buds during curing process. High heat can very easily lead to degradation of cannabinoids. You shouldn’t worry about that if you live in a place where temperatures don’t get very high. Best temperature for curing is about 70°F (21°C).
Humidity: If you have dried your buds properly, then curing marijuana should be an easy task. If the buds are too wet, they will clump together and mold will take hold easily. Increased moisture can also have anaerobic bacteria start destroying your buds. A clear sign of that is smell of ammonia when you open your jars.
Not enough humidity can turn your buds into dried out and crumbly, which will taste bad. It’s best to have humidity around 50% when drying and increase it to about 60% when curing. That will ensure that your buds are dry on the outside, but they will still have some humidity required on the inside.
Best way of curing marijuana buds
Now that you know the factors that can influence marijuana curing, you need to keep them in mind for the process to be smooth. Curing itself is a simple process of opening and closing your airtight jars at certain times. By doing that, you’re allowing moisture inside the buds to re moisturize exterior without making them too wet. Main goal of curing cannabis is to have a stash that taste nice when smoking and making it as potent as it can become.
Getting your stash ready
First off, you need to have your stash prepared for curing. If your buds were dried separately, then you’re ready to cure them. If, however you were drying them by the branches, you should trim them and remove sugar leaves. Once you got that done and your buds nicely separated, you’re good to go.
Time to seal the deal
How do you cure marijuana? Try putting your buds into airtight jars. Mason jars is a good option to use for curing cannabis, you can easily monitor your stash through out the process. Fill the jars about 3/4, don’t squeeze them, throw them in loosely. You need to leave some space for air. This is the time when you can see if your buds are dry enough. If you shake the jar and your buds bounce around nicely you can continue with the next step. If they lump up together that’s a good indicator that your stash is still to wet and needs to be dried for a little longer.
Hide the stash
Now you need to apply lids to your jars and stash them somewhere dark. Place that you will keep your stash needs to be dark and have a temperature of 70°F (21°C). Try and keep moisture in your jars at around 60%. To know exact humidity in your jars you will need to use hygrometer for every jar.
Maintaining your stash
For the first few days you will need to keep a close eye on your stash. Look through the glass, check for any kind of mold formation inside. Every time you will check, you need to open jars for a few minutes to let some air circulation in jars. Also keep a close eye on hygrometers, humidity inside jars is very important. If they show around 60% then go on as usual. If humidity goes above 65%, open those jars and keep them open for about 3 hours to let the excess humidity out. If they drop below 60% keep them closed for longer periods of time. If they’re still too dry, throw in a small humidity pack inside.
Final step
For next 2 weeks keep on checking your jars and opening them once a day. Keep the humidity optimal inside the jars through out the whole cannabis curing process. 3 weeks into curing your buds should be well enough cured to be smoked. However you can keep curing it for even better results. You can keep curing cannabis for 6 months and it will keep increasing in quality.
Curing is a long process that requires patience, the longer you’ll wait the better it gets. It’s alright to sneak a nug once in a while, but try to cure it properly and then you can enjoy fruits of your labor. This is the best way to cure cannabis and increase THC level and taste.