Curing?
- Thread starter justshane
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Bubba Kushman
Well-Known Member
You usually put it in the fridge after the curing to keep it fresh.
Brick Top
New Member
Here is the whole story from harvest to storage. The part in red pertains to your question.
Marijuana
Manicuring, Drying, And Curing Marijuana
Right after all the plants have been harvested, it is time to manicure them.
Manicuring is simply cutting off the leaves that were growing from the buds. Cut off all the leaves surrounding the bud, so that just the bud remains.
Work over a glass table or some kind of smooth flat surface. This will make it easy to collect all the material that has been cut away from the buds.
It is lower in THC than the buds, but rather than throw it away, you can use it to make hash oil.
When manicuring the buds, use a pair of scissors with small blades (to reach hard to get leaves) that is comfortable on your hands.
If you have a small crop, you can handle the plants with you bare hands. With a large crop, wear powder free latex gloves.
The latex gloves will collect trichome resin in a similar manner to the way live marijuana plants are rubbed to make hashish. The latex gloves have to be powder free or the powder will get mixed into the resin.
Do not touch anything other than the plants once you have put the gloves on. If you have to do something, remove the gloves you are wearing and put them in a plastic bag, prior to doing whatever it is that has to be done.
When finished, put on a pair of new gloves. Material on the first pair can be collected later. When you are finished manicuring all the plants, remove the gloves and place them in a plastic bag (to catch resin that drops off).
Put the plastic bag with the gloves in a freezer for 2-3 hours. The trichome resin can easily be peeled from the frozen latex gloves and consumed the same way you would use hashish.
If absolutely necessary, you can wait to manicure the buds. However, the job will take more time if you wait. Manicuring right after the plants are harvested will also speed the drying process.
Instead smoking marijuana directly after it is harvested and manicured, it is best to dry and cure it.
Some new growers might be in such a rush to try the marijuana that they don't want to dry the crop, or they might be tempted to put buds in a microwave oven to dry them out.
Drying Marijuana After Harvest
You probably don't want to smoke marijuana that is harsh and bad tasting.
If you do not take time to dry the bud, you will not get the best possible smell and taste your crop is capable of producing.
Proper drying and curing will also ensure maximum potency of the marijuana you have grown.
Marijuana is not potent just after harvest. Some of the THC is in a non-psychoactive acidic form.
Drying marijuana the right way will convert the non-psychoactive acidic compounds into psychoactive THC.
The area where the drying is done should be dark. Light and high temperatures (higher than about 80 degrees) will cause THC to break down into less desirable chemicals, this will lower the potency of the finished product.
A good way to dry the crop is to hang the buds upside-down by the stem, from some string or wire.
The drying marijuana must have some circulation blowing over it at all times. A gentle breeze that circulates over all the plants is necessary.
A fan or two will circulate air within the drying room. Fans will aid in drying the plants evenly, and reducing the chances of mold.
If mold starts and is allowed to grow, it might ruin all of your crop. Mold looks like white fuzz and has an odor that is unpleasant.
You will have to keep the temperature and humidity within a certain range for optimal results.
Conditions should remain constantly somewhere within the following ranges, temperature should be between 65-75 degrees F, relative humidity should be between 45%-55%.
At temperatures lower than 65 degrees, drying time will be lengthened. At temperatures higher than 75 degrees, the heat will cause the outer portion of the bud to dry quicker than the inner part, and the taste will suffer.
At humidity levels lower than 45%, the marijuana will dry too fast and the taste will suffer.
At humidity levels higher than 55%, the marijuana will take a long time to dry, and it will be prone to mold.
Keep a hygrometer and a thermometer in the drying area, close to the plants. A hygrometer will allow you to keep an eye on the relative humidity level in the room and a thermometer will display the temperature.
Some hygrometers
Depending on the time of year and your location, a heater or an air conditioner may be necessary to adjust the temperature.
To control humidity, a dehumidifier can lower humidity and a humidifier can be used to raise humidity. There are warm mist humidifiers and cool mist humidifiers.
A warm mist humidifier will raise the temperature while a cool mist humidifier will not affect the temperature.
There are also humidifiers that allow you to switch between warm or cool mist. If you are going to purchase a humidifier for this purpose, take your climate into consideration and buy an appropriate humidifier.
Warm mist models will actually heat the water and release warm humidity. Cool mist water isn't cooled, it just means that water is not heated. In most cases a cool mist will work best. To be safe you can get a humidifier that lets you switch between warm and cool mist.
Curing Marijuana
It will take at least a week or two to dry the crop with temperatures between 65-75 degrees F and relative humidity between 45%-55%.
You will know when the marijuana is dry if the stems snap or break (rather than fold) when they are bent. Try smoking a small bud (1/2 gram or less) in a joint to be sure it is dry enough.
At this time, small buds will be dry enough to smoke. But larger buds should be cured (slow dried) to ensure that the marijuana is as potent and tasty as possible.
If necessary, you can set aside buds that are less than 1/2 gram for smoking, while larger buds cure.
The cure lasts a week or two. The aim of what you are doing is evenly finishing the slow dry process, so that mold will not grow when the buds are stored long term.
Also, by the end of the cure, any remaining inactive THC will be converted to active THC (that increases potency).
To cure the crop, you will need one or more containers made out of glass or plastic.
Some people say plastic can impart a taste to the marijuana. Personally, plastic containers that some types of roll your own tobacco are sold in, have no negative effect on the taste.
Containers that have a rubber seal work best, but any type of container with a tight fitting lid will do.
One quart canning jars do a very good job if you are curing a few pounds or less. They have a rubber seal and hold 2 or more ounces of marijuana per one quart jar.
When curing quantities in excess of a few pounds, large (over 40 quarts) plastic storage boxes
Gently place your marijuana in the containers (cut buds to size if the are too big to fit in the container) and put the top on.
Store the containers in a dark area where the temperature is between 50-65 degrees and the humidity is between 40%-60%.
You will have to open the containers for a few minutes to allow moisture to escape by fanning with your hand.
If any moisture builds up on the inside of the cap on your container, wipe it off. Do this preferably 2-6 times daily, at regular 4-12 hour intervals.
You should also re-arrange the buds by giving them a quarter-turn once a day. This will ensure that different parts of the buds are exposed to the air in the container.
Keep up this routine for 7-10 days. When properly dried, marijuana will burn evenly when smoked in a joint (if stems are removed).
The taste will be as good as it can be, and the THC will have reached a point where it is ready to be ingested or stored.
You can keep any marijuana that will be consumed within a few months (1 year maximum) in the same containers used for curing, without having to keep opening them to release moisture.
If the marijuana is to be stored for more than a few months, you can use a vacuum sealer (designed for storing food) to seal the marijuana in an airtight environment.
If stored in a dark area that is between 40-55 degrees F, the marijuana in vacuum sealed plastic will remain potent for up to 5 years.
Dry marijuana can be stored in a frost-free freezer, but some of the THC on the outer part of the buds may be damaged when frozen.
A refrigerator is in the right temperature range but they tend to be humid (unless you can control the humidity).
If stored in an area of high humidity for months or years, even vacuum sealed marijuana can eventually become as humid as the surrounding air.
This will necessitate drying it again before smoking. But, unless mold develops, humidity itself will not degrade the THC or make the marijuana any less potent.
Light will degrade some of the THC, so dark containers can be used for storage.
If you place the marijuana in a see through container, it will have to be located in a dark area that is not exposed to light or high temperatures.
Always make sure to properly dry your marijuana prior to storage, if you grow your own or if the stuff you have is very moist. And remember that to preserve marijuana potency at a maximum level, keep any exposure to air, heat, and light at a minimum.
Brick Top
New Member
Where to dry will likely depend on what space you have to work with and how large of a harvest you have.
Smaller crops can be dried in boxes. You can take a large box and poke small holes in the sides and run something like fishing line through the holes and then you hang your cut branches from the lines. With a few larger holes for adequate ventilation they make for a good drying system and they could be kept in any room with good air movement and that is not to hot or to cold or to dry or to moist.
Some people will dry in closets. That will work but you do need to make sure you have adequate air movement.
　
Keep in mind the temperature and humidity as is mentioned in the information that was posted and then think about what space you have to work with in your home and pick what is best for you. That of course include what will be safe.
You do not want to pick something like a storeroom that may have your water heater and circuit breaker boxes etc. in it where a service person may need to come causing you to have to quickly move everything or if you are away, like working or whatever, and a wife or girlfriend does not stop to think about what is in the room calls someone to repair something. (I do not mean to knock females in any way but over the years I have heard and read many stories about wives and girlfriends causing major problems by calling for service work or allowing someone there to do some service to go into other portions of their home and a grow or harvest was spotted.)
　
Being that it is your home and not mine I cannot tell you where would be best. That is something you need to decide for yourself. Just remember to keep in mind the general parameters for heat and humidity and light/dark when you pick a location or a system and then of course factor in the safety element.
　
One rel of mine who used to grow came up with a somewhat novel system to dry his harvest. He never grew copious amounts of ganja so he did not need a large space to dry in but he got an old broken refrigerator from a friend and put it in his garage. He removed most of the cooling guts, all that could be removed simply, and then drilled holes in the bottom and then in the upper corners in the back installed two small fans to move/exhaust air.
To anyone looking at the fridge they would just think it was a fridge. The fan sound was very low and somewhat sounded like a working refrigerator. It was of course totally sealed from any light as long as the door was not opened so there was no degradation of THC due to light exposure. His garage was attached and heated/cooled so he did not have extreme heat or extreme cold or extreme humidity to worry about or deal with so in his case it worked very well.
　
If you have a creative/inventive mind I am sure you will be able to either come up with something on your own that will work well or find some system that others use that will work for you or can be somewhat adapted to work for you. Again the most important part is to keep in mind the temperature/humidity parameters and also the need for darkness or as much darkness as you can create/have.
I have never known of typical house spiders to be any sort of problem, that is unless someone isarachni-phobic or something.
If you fear they may be a problem then fog the space a few days before using it for drying and then air it out well so there are no chemicals in the air to get on your harvest.
You mentioned a dehumidifier, well that is fine and dandy if you have extreme humidity but as I mentioned several times above, and as in the info that was posted, low humidity is not good, it will cause the buds to dry to fast and dry uneven and the taste will suffer.
If you can keep the temperature and the humidity level within the proper ranges, and there is little to no light then the attic/loft area you have might be a good option.
　
Since you did mention loft in part of your description is it a loft as in an upper space with an open wall where people down below can look up into it?
If so if you have guests, wanted or unwanted, cool or not cool might they be able to see what is up there?
Also if it is open how much light will the area receive from the room or rooms below?
Light degrades THC so if much if any light will shine into the loft area from below, mainly from things like ceiling lights for the rooms below, you may have to come up with some way to block the light.
Holy freaking shizzle
A friend of mine I bought some grow equipment and cuttings off had a similiar setup similar, he used two fans from an xbox 360 and slotted them into the back of the fridge, it was a growing setup though.
All the information you've given me will help alot, and the cardboard box idea will be simple, priceless and stealth-like, but my yield might be a bit too big so I'll most likely I will use my attic, I have a long width house, perfect for drying it on a line/wire.
My main loft is on the top floor of the house next to a bedroom with double doors and a lock, it's quite a big loft, cool and pitchblack.
I have two more lofts/attics and a shit load of non-powdered latex gloves
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Cheers dude, you've been an aweseome help.
oh and would it be more wise to spraypaint curing jars black?
Brick Top
New Member
I have never heard of anyone going to the extent of spray painting jars black or covering them with black plastic or anything like that. Darkness is important but I believe there would be easier ways to take care of it.
　
If you do not have closet/cupboard space to put your filled jars in and if you buy say a case of new mason jars they will come in a box with cardboard separating each one. In the past I have put the filled jars back into the box they came from and closed it up or laid something thick enough to keep light out and then when it came time to burp them/vent them I took one out at a time, opened it, rearranged the buds a bit, sealed it back up and put it back into the box. After I went through them all I again closed or covered the box.
　
If you dont buy new jars but have or can find a box or boxes they will fit into you can do the same and then set or stack them anywhere that is convenient and safe for you.
As long as the jars are in a dark place the jars themselves do not need to block light rays.