Drying in the Dark?

Dr Smith

Active Member
Does it matter? I've seen it done in the dark and where there is ambient or overhead lighting around..
 

Dr Smith

Active Member
Light degrades thc..
Thanks for the fast response. That was my understanding but it confuses me a bit because we pummel them with light for months. Why does it matter if they receive light after harvest? Is it some sort of chemical change they go through that causes light to degrade instead of promote?
 
Thanks for the fast response. That was my understanding but it confuses me a bit because we pummel them with light for months. Why does it matter if they receive light after harvest? Is it some sort of chemical change they go through that causes light to degrade instead of promote?
I think this is one of those things that get told and people just pass the info without doing a comparison themselves.

I've personally seen villagers dry weed by laying it on a tarp in an open wetland with sun exposure all day and the smoke is killer. If you've ever smoked 'regular' weed that shit is more potent than some of the strains we grow and I strongly doubt they are keeping that stuff in a dark room and cure jars afterward.

When I harvest outdoor this season I'm going to do a test with two full plants and test for myself because it doesnt sound logical to me to have mandatory lights off.
 

mr sunshine

Well-Known Member
Are you saying the villagers weed is better then the best weed from California..I call bullshit..but anyway u got the strain part right some strains are stronger then others .that (regular) weed you speak about is also a strain believe it or not.cured weed just tastes smoother. ..i believe light degrades thc wether the plant is dead or not but if its alive its an addition and subtraction situation when it dies it turns into nothing but subtraction.. that being said its not like light is going to ruin your weed but light ,temperature and oxygen do degrade thc that's a fact. ..
 

mr sunshine

Well-Known Member
Are you saying the villagers weed is better then the best weed from California..I call bullshit..but anyway u got the strain part right some strains are stronger then others .that (regular) weed you speak about is also a strain believe it or not.cured weed just tastes smoother. ..i believe light degrades thc wether the plant is dead or not but if its alive its an addition and subtraction situation when it dies it turns into nothing but subtraction.. that being said its not like a little bit of light is going to ruin your weed but light ,temperature and oxygen do degrade thc over time that's a fact. ..thats why we dry in a dark cool place then put our buds in a air tight mason jar preferably vacuum sealed and then we store it away in a dark cool place..
 

Ace Yonder

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the fast response. That was my understanding but it confuses me a bit because we pummel them with light for months. Why does it matter if they receive light after harvest? Is it some sort of chemical change they go through that causes light to degrade instead of promote?
Light always causes thc to degrade. While the plant is growing, it grows more thc to replace what it lost (thc is the plants defense against ultraviolet rays, thc actually has one of the highest SPF ratings [How they measure sunscreen's ability to block UV] in nature). Think of it like exercise. You build muscle by working your muscles until they tear, and your body builds new muscle to repair them and make them bigger so they won't tear next time. Then you have to work harder to tear them and build new muscle. But if you stopped growing new muscle tissue to replace the torn stuff, and you kept working out, the muscles would just break down until they didn't work for everything, and would just be useless lumps of dead, torn tissue. That's what would happen if you kept shining light on the plant after it dies and loses its ability to replace the thc that would degrade when the light hits it.
 

Nutes and Nugs

Well-Known Member
Light always causes thc to degrade. While the plant is growing, it grows more thc to replace what it lost (thc is the plants defense against ultraviolet rays, thc actually has one of the highest SPF ratings [How they measure sunscreen's ability to block UV] in nature). Think of it like exercise. You build muscle by working your muscles until they tear, and your body builds new muscle to repair them and make them bigger so they won't tear next time. Then you have to work harder to tear them and build new muscle. But if you stopped growing new muscle tissue to replace the torn stuff, and you kept working out, the muscles would just break down until they didn't work for everything, and would just be useless lumps of dead, torn tissue. That's what would happen if you kept shining light on the plant after it dies and loses its ability to replace the thc that would degrade when the light hits it.
and the cow jumped over the moon.
 

RIPE

Active Member
I had the same question that Dr Smith posed. I am having a hard time finding a dark place to hang my harvest. Its in dark or mostly dark for about 12 hours and then partly light for the other 12 hours. I am drying for 3 day on a clothes line in a room that can also get warm but airy. Then, I'm going to take the branches down and put them in paper bags layered with shredded paper bags for 2-3 days or until they are dry. Better to err on the the dry side before I try to cure them in jars. When they are in the paper bags I can find a dark place for them. Thanks for the question and answers.
 

Ace Yonder

Well-Known Member
I think this is one of those things that get told and people just pass the info without doing a comparison themselves.

I've personally seen villagers dry weed by laying it on a tarp in an open wetland with sun exposure all day and the smoke is killer. If you've ever smoked 'regular' weed that shit is more potent than some of the strains we grow and I strongly doubt they are keeping that stuff in a dark room and cure jars afterward.

When I harvest outdoor this season I'm going to do a test with two full plants and test for myself because it doesnt sound logical to me to have mandatory lights off.
No offense but this is a prime example of uninformed people listening to exaggerated claims of "mythic" landrace strains grown in traditional ways being stronger than quality bred genetics grown by cutting edge growers. I've been all over the world, and nothing, no Swazi Gold, no Malawi Cobs, no Nepalese Temple Balls, no Jamaican Lambsbread, nothing compares to the herb that California and Hawaii produce. Nothing. And certainly not sun-dried bush weed. Sorry, but it's just not true. Granted, when you have spent months traveling in countries where the weed is so shwaggy that the best of it is sundried on tarps, your tolerance is usually several levels of magnitude lower than when you are in a pot friendly country with access to endless amounts of 20+% lab tested goodness, and that probably accounts for people's exaggerated accounts as much as anything.
 

Ace Yonder

Well-Known Member
and the cow jumped over the moon.
I read this and immediately started singing Cat's In The Cradle, and got almost all the way through it before I realized that the cow never jumps over the moon in that song, and I felt really really dumb. And now I have Cat's In The Cradle stuck in my head
 

mr sunshine

Well-Known Member
So can we all come to the conclusion that you guys agree with mr sunshine and that at least half of you want to get a mr sunshine face tat??
 

Nutes and Nugs

Well-Known Member
I read this and immediately started singing Cat's In The Cradle, and got almost all the way through it before I realized that the cow never jumps over the moon in that song, and I felt really really dumb. And now I have Cat's In The Cradle stuck in my head
No, that song states "and the silver moon".

I've never heard of thc blocking uv rays or building muscle though I've seen tobacco dried in partial sunlight.

Hey diddle diddle,

The Cat and the fiddle,
The Cow jumped over the moon.
The little Dog laughed,
To see such sport,

And the Dish ran away with the Spoon
 

Ace Yonder

Well-Known Member
No, that song states "and the silver moon".

I've never heard of thc blocking uv rays or building muscle though I've seen tobacco dried in partial sunlight.

Hey diddle diddle,

The Cat and the fiddle,
The Cow jumped over the moon.
The little Dog laughed,
To see such sport,

And the Dish ran away with the Spoon
Not "And the silver moon", it's "And the Silver Spoon" and "And the Man in the Moon". But yeah. :D

As for thc blocking uv rays...
Here is a paper that covers it obliquely http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4254533?uid=3739560&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103491463651
And here is Ed Rosenthal answering a question about it directly http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/4351.html
Some substances become more psychoactive when exposed to sunlight or sundried, such as those in the Amanita Musceria mushroom. Just not those in cannabis.
And thc doesn't build muscle, exercise does.
:weed:
 
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