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How To Dry and Cure Cannabis is more important today than ever before. Proper drying and curing cannabis is one of the most underappreciated parts of cannabis farming. Many dedicated cannabis home growers work hard to find the best cannabis seeds for sale, LED grow lights, and feeding regimen, only to be let down by substandard drying and curing. This can make the entire vaping or smoking experience a huge letdown. Continue reading to learn more about enhancing your cannabis drying and curing processes.
The Difference Between the Dry and Cure of Cannabis
Drying, as the name implies, is the process of drying fresh marijuana buds so that they have less moisture and can be properly smoked or vaporized. Conversely, curing entails preserving your buds in sealed containers for at least two weeks. As your buds mature, this helps to improve their flavor and scent.
The Importance of Dry and Cure of Cannabis
To dry and cure cannabis flowers serves numerous key purposes, including increasing the quality and shelf life of the finished product. Freshly harvested marijuana buds contain substantial moisture that must be removed before smoking. Why? To begin, smoking fresh buds produces harsh hits with little flavor—if the buds even ignite. Eliminating moisture softens the harshness and allows the terpene profile to show. Second, fungi grow in dark, wet environments. By properly drying your flowers, you can drastically limit the possibility of mold growing in your stockpile.
You can lower the water content of your buds by 10-15% by putting individual buds on a drying rack or hanging complete branches in a drying chamber. This method eliminates water from the surface layers of each blossom, but you must cure your stockpile to remove moisture from deeper within the buds. Curing is critical because it helps preserve your cannabis to be stored over time while preserving its distinct flavor and potency. As you harvest your buds, they contain extra sugars and starches, which are eventually attacked by airborne bacteria and enzymes. Curing your buds promotes the breakdown of these nutrients, resulting in a smoother, better-tasting last smoke.
How to Dry your Cannabis
To ensure that your buds dry evenly, ensure that air can easily circulate from all sides. String your clipped and trimmed branches together, or use wire racks if you’re working with solitary buds or little branches. If you decide to utilize racks, remember that you’ll need to turn your buds frequently to prevent them from flattening on one side.
Cannabis Drying Ideas
One of the simplest options is to dry cannabis in cardboard boxes. Just lay your trimmed buds in cardboard boxes in an empty grow tent or drying room. To manage temperature and humidity, keep a hygrometer in each box. Also, hang drying in a closet or grow tent is another low-cost option. Trim the sugar leaves from your plants and hang them upside down. A fan can be employed to keep air circulating freely in a larger drying zone. Racks are also useful for drying huge amounts of marijuana. Trim your flowers, properly distribute them, and install a hygrometer on each shelf.
How to Cure your Cannabis
If you trimmed your buds while still wet, you’d be ready to go to the curing step as soon as they’ve dried. If you prefer to trim dry, you should do so before proceeding with the drying process. Place your dried and clipped buds in large, wide-mouthed jars (mason or jam jars). Fill the jars approximately 34% full to allow for extra air and prevent mold or mildew from damaging your crop. Once your jars are full, put them in a dry, dark place (like a kitchen cupboard) and inspect your buds at least once daily for two weeks.
During this checkup, keep your jars open to enable air circulation and inspect each bud separately for mold symptoms. If you locate an infected bud, remove it from its container right away to prevent the fungus from spreading. This method of regularly checking in on your buds will draw excess moisture out of your jars and let fresh air reach your buds. You can begin enjoying your collected cannabis after around two weeks, but the longer you wait, the better.
How Long Does it Take to Appropriately Dry and Cure Cannabis?
There are several elements that influence how long cannabis takes to dry. The size of your buds will impact drying time since larger, denser buds will take longer to dry than smaller ones. How you trim your crops will also have an impact. Note that your plants’ branches contain the most water; thus, hanging large branches will take longer to dry than smaller branches or individual cannabis buds.
Finally, the temperature, humidity, and ventilation in your drying environment will affect how quickly the cannabis dries. Generally, the drying step takes 7-12 days, depending on the above mentioned parameters. During this period, your buds will lose a lot of water, reducing their size and weight.
How to Store your Buds Once You Dry and Cure Your Weed
Once your cure is complete, you can store the bud in the same jars in a cold, dark, and dry location. You don’t need to check on your buds as regularly anymore, so keep your jars well-sealed to preserve your blooms from drying out. If you have a lot of marijuana, invest in humidity packs or something comparable to keep the flowers fresh for a long time.
Growing your own cannabis from feminized or autoflower weed seeds has the advantage of allowing you to manage and optimize each stage fully. The best part is that you can dry and cure your buds, giving them that distinctively rich taste and scent that is impossible to obtain from poorly cured street cannabis.
Further Reading:
Cannabis How To Perfect the Sea Of Green (SOG) Technique
How to Build Your Indoor Cannabis Grow Space
