After a long process of growing and caring for your precious cannabis plants you are finally at harvest stage. You can now probably taste those sweets buds at the back of your throat just by looking and those beautiful flowers. You’re almost there, but not quite yet. Trimming , drying cannabis and curing it are the next stages that follow. It’s important for you to keep you patience in order to have the best smelling and tasting buds with the potency that will blow your roof off.
Drying cannabis vs curing, what is it and why should we do it?
Anyone who has even little experience dealing with cannabis can tell you that you can’t just break a nodge off your cannabis plant and smoke it straight away. Well… you can, but It will probably taste horrible and it won’t be as potent. That is why you need to dry it and cure it well.
Drying is basically what it is, you dry your cannabis flowers to make them into smokable buds. Curing, on the other hand, is another process that makes your buds more potent, smell and taste better. In other words it’s a process of maturing your buds, like a good wine, it takes time for that to happen.
How to dry marijuana proper way?
There’s so many ways to dry cannabis, it can be a little overwhelming. We are not going to cover all of these methods to dry marijuana, but we will tell you about the best way to do it. Best or not it’s up for you to make your own decision.
Process
This method has been used since the dawn of time, it costs you almost nothing and it doesn’t ruin your smoke like some other methods out there. Let’s get on with it. Here is the whole process step by step:
- First of all, once you have harvested your plants, you need to trim the fan leaves and bigger sugar leaves.
- You need to find a good place to dry your buds. It’s best if you have a place that is dark and well ventilated. It also has to be warm, for the drying process. Places like attic, a spare room, utility room… works well.
- Tie some strings or wires along the room, so that you have something to hang your freshly harvested buds on.
- Hang your buds on the strings that you have earlier attached. Spread your buds so that they don’t touch with each other. These gaps are important for a better air flow, if they are stuck together – they won’t dry so well and mold might start forming.
Conditions
Now that you know about the process, lets talk about the best conditions when drying your cannabis. There are some things that might go wrong when drying cannabis. Too much heat can dry your buds quickly, but it can also ruin their taste and potency. Have the place too humid and you might end up caching mold. These are considerably best conditions for proper drying:
- Room you are drying in, should remain dark. Direct sunlight can lower THC levels in your buds and leave them with unpleasant taste.
- It should be well ventilated. You can even place ventilator inside the room. Letting fresh air in is good for drying process and it helps to avoid mold.
- Keep it warm. The best temperature should be around 75°F (23°C). It’s not a rule, but it is good temperature to keep your buds in.
- Keep it dry, but not too dry. Humidity should be around 50% in your drying room. Too much and you can easily get mold on your buds. Mold will make them taste bad and it can even make them toxic.
How to know if it’s dry?
A good question that comes to mind is: how do I know when it’s dry enough? It depends on the strain, conditions, humidity and few other factors. But there is a way to know when your buds are dry enough and ready for curing process. Usually it takes about 5-7 days for it to be dry enough. You need to check up on it during those days, look for any mold that could be forming, adjust heat or humidity in the room.
A good way to find out if it’s dry is to try and bend stems. If they just bend then it needs a little while. If it snaps upon bending then it’s a good sign that it’s dry. Buds should look and feel crispy when you touch them, they should spring back a little after applying pressure. That is also a good sign that your bud is ready for curing.
What else you need to know when drying cannabis?
If you do use the method above you should be well able to dry your cannabis properly. This method is optimal for keeping what’s best in your bud without losing potency or taste. People have been drying their harvests for ages this way, it’s probably one of the oldest and proven to work methods around to this day.
There are however few more little things we forgot to mention. Even tho it’s called drying, doesn’t mean it has to be completely 100% dry. Outer layer of bud should be dry, but there also should be some humidity left inside. It is important for curing process to keep some humidity. Too much humidity, however, can ruin your buds in curing process later. Just follow the steps above when checking if it’s dry enough or not.
Don’t forget to check on your buds when they’re drying. It’s good to keep an eye out for any unplanned stuff like mold, spiders setting up their nests and other stuff. If you do encounter anything suspicious and you don’t know what it is, you can always ask for other growers in facebook groups or forums. We have our own little group of growers, you can ask for advice there if you like: Stoners Like Growing
Whats next after drying cannabis?
Now that your buds are nice and dry, you can go ahead and roll a blunt. Although, if you want your buds to reach their full potential, you should consider curing them. Curing can make your buds taste better and become more potent. Curing takes another 2-6 months, but it’s definitely worth the wait.
