PsychedelicSam
Well-Known Member
First a bit of background. My caregiver had just harvested his crop of Blue Widow and OG Kush. He usually gives me his sugar trim and popcorn, but this time he asked if I wanted the fan leaves, if they were good for anything. He normally threw them away. He had 35 good plants, so I told him to bring them on. If it had only been a couple of plants I might have passed it up since I was still getting the trim and a heavier volume of leaves are needed for any usage. They were the fully mature leaves. The plants had been flushed for 2 wks prior to being hung so most of the green chlorophyll was leached out of it. My intentions are to use it for topical balms/salves of various sorts so that I won't have to use my premium extraction for it, although it will make a great topical as well as edibles. i wasn't sure how the potency would be and if it would have enough of the psychoactive compounds present for good edibles, but after smoking a joint of the dried fan leaves for a wake and bake, I believe that's a good bet.
There is trick to getting your wet fan leaves to dry up and look like it came from a bale of dank and that is what I'm going to show you tonight. In the 70's we used to go out into the fields and ditches to grab the wild hemp plants then. Had to do it at night and very carefully, though, new or no moon. They'd be 10 ft tall or more, all veg, no psychoactive at all. Back then, people bought and sold oregano and catnip as pot. You couldn't do that these days, not for almost 40 years unless you were really stupid. In the summer during the yearly smoke drought, after all the crapweed had finally been sold to the needy and before the new harvests in Mexico and Columbia, you could sell that ditch weed for low Mex easily, especially if it was dried and cured correctly. I could never stoop low enough to try to sell it to some unknowing college kid so I'd sell it in bulk to someone else for 20 bucks or so. Done right, it can be nice and springy with a smooth smoke and decent smell.
Step 1) Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the fresh fan leaf, but it just looked like a lot of wet weeds and filled two paper bags, shown in this picture. The Blue Widow is on the left and the OG Kush on the right. I placed the wet leaf in each bag and left them open to dry out. For the next 2 days I kept stirring the material, turning it over often to promote even drying which is important for cosmetic purposes. That's not as important in this age but I still like it to look pretty. Because I live in Arizona and humidity is non-existent, it dried nicely in 2 days, enough for a joint to burn evenly. Right there it has the green tint you might expect for air dried homegrown. There was 3 oz of the BW and 2 oz of the OG when finished.
Step 2) If you plan on processing it all into something immediately, then there's no reason to go further than the previous step. But if you just want to use an ounce at a time or something like that, you'll want to cure it so that it will retain it's potency and the aroma and taste mellow. That last part is especially important if there's a chance you may have to smoke some before the next grow is ready to start sampling. This used to be accomplished by a dry ice cure but now there is better and easier technology at our fingertips to make it even better. I use vacuum sealing, in particular, ZipLock Vacuum bags. This is one ounce of the BW fan leaves.
Step 3) Using a battery powered vacuum bag sealer, I pull all the air out of the bag until the bag is form fitting around every piece of the contents, like vacuum packed freeze dry meals. This pulls the moisture from the leaf to the surface where it can evaporate. Depending on the original dryness, you open the bag to release any moisture that has built up then vacuum it up again. Considering that mine is only 3 days away from completely fresh, a lot of internal moisture remains so I will burp it for a week. It's similar to curing with jars but doesn't take as long. Buds can develop the sweet tastes and smoke, too, just like with jars.
3) Equipment. Vacuum bags, pot and the vacuum.
4) After burping for a few minutes each day then vacuum sealing again, stash it away. It won't mold and unlike a jar, it won't break and it takes less room to store it. This way you don't have to keep handling it whenever you want to make something and that will keep it in better condition.
5) In order to give me an idea of the potential value of these leaves, I smoked a fat joint when it was dry enough. After smoking half of it I had a really nice buzz. Rollingjoints with leaf is an art to keep it from turning to powder. In this picture is a joint like the one described here. It looks fat but it is only a half gram. Above the joint is the amount of weed I used for the joint. I was able to get all that leaf into that standard paper without crushing it up. It smoked smoothly and evenly.
5, 6, 7) This is the leaf after a few hours in the vacuum. The texture and coloring are looking a lot more like good reefer. You can see it if you enlarge the pics. The third picture is of an ounce after a few hours of vacuum and chopping for the decarb of my next project. I don't know if anyone has an interest in storing fan leaves, but this is how I do it.
I will be following up with a few things to do with it.
There is trick to getting your wet fan leaves to dry up and look like it came from a bale of dank and that is what I'm going to show you tonight. In the 70's we used to go out into the fields and ditches to grab the wild hemp plants then. Had to do it at night and very carefully, though, new or no moon. They'd be 10 ft tall or more, all veg, no psychoactive at all. Back then, people bought and sold oregano and catnip as pot. You couldn't do that these days, not for almost 40 years unless you were really stupid. In the summer during the yearly smoke drought, after all the crapweed had finally been sold to the needy and before the new harvests in Mexico and Columbia, you could sell that ditch weed for low Mex easily, especially if it was dried and cured correctly. I could never stoop low enough to try to sell it to some unknowing college kid so I'd sell it in bulk to someone else for 20 bucks or so. Done right, it can be nice and springy with a smooth smoke and decent smell.
Step 1) Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the fresh fan leaf, but it just looked like a lot of wet weeds and filled two paper bags, shown in this picture. The Blue Widow is on the left and the OG Kush on the right. I placed the wet leaf in each bag and left them open to dry out. For the next 2 days I kept stirring the material, turning it over often to promote even drying which is important for cosmetic purposes. That's not as important in this age but I still like it to look pretty. Because I live in Arizona and humidity is non-existent, it dried nicely in 2 days, enough for a joint to burn evenly. Right there it has the green tint you might expect for air dried homegrown. There was 3 oz of the BW and 2 oz of the OG when finished.
Step 2) If you plan on processing it all into something immediately, then there's no reason to go further than the previous step. But if you just want to use an ounce at a time or something like that, you'll want to cure it so that it will retain it's potency and the aroma and taste mellow. That last part is especially important if there's a chance you may have to smoke some before the next grow is ready to start sampling. This used to be accomplished by a dry ice cure but now there is better and easier technology at our fingertips to make it even better. I use vacuum sealing, in particular, ZipLock Vacuum bags. This is one ounce of the BW fan leaves.
Step 3) Using a battery powered vacuum bag sealer, I pull all the air out of the bag until the bag is form fitting around every piece of the contents, like vacuum packed freeze dry meals. This pulls the moisture from the leaf to the surface where it can evaporate. Depending on the original dryness, you open the bag to release any moisture that has built up then vacuum it up again. Considering that mine is only 3 days away from completely fresh, a lot of internal moisture remains so I will burp it for a week. It's similar to curing with jars but doesn't take as long. Buds can develop the sweet tastes and smoke, too, just like with jars.
3) Equipment. Vacuum bags, pot and the vacuum.
4) After burping for a few minutes each day then vacuum sealing again, stash it away. It won't mold and unlike a jar, it won't break and it takes less room to store it. This way you don't have to keep handling it whenever you want to make something and that will keep it in better condition.
5) In order to give me an idea of the potential value of these leaves, I smoked a fat joint when it was dry enough. After smoking half of it I had a really nice buzz. Rollingjoints with leaf is an art to keep it from turning to powder. In this picture is a joint like the one described here. It looks fat but it is only a half gram. Above the joint is the amount of weed I used for the joint. I was able to get all that leaf into that standard paper without crushing it up. It smoked smoothly and evenly.
5, 6, 7) This is the leaf after a few hours in the vacuum. The texture and coloring are looking a lot more like good reefer. You can see it if you enlarge the pics. The third picture is of an ounce after a few hours of vacuum and chopping for the decarb of my next project. I don't know if anyone has an interest in storing fan leaves, but this is how I do it.
I will be following up with a few things to do with it.
Days 1 thru 5, taken each day before changing the water. You can see how the water clears each day and is pretty clear by day 5, but still a little there. Remember, that's a maroon towel behind it that's providing a little background color. 
