Are you all finished growing your cannabis plants? Well, the less important part is over because now comes the most important part of all to dry, cure and store fresh cannabis buds. Why is this the most important part of the process with growing cannabis.
If you just finished spending all that time growing your best marijuana seeds that you could grow, and you want to get the best out of them whether it be for vaping, smoking, eating or cooking you want to finish the job off and make the most of all your hard work over the last few months. This article will teach you how to do these things in the most effective way possible
How to trim your fresh new cannabis buds
There are two ways that most marijuana growers will trim their buds. Growers do a dry trim or a wet trim. Both have their benefits and draw backs.
Wet trimming involves trimming your new buds as soon as they are fresh cut, a pro to doing it this way is that the leaves are sticking straight out of the buds making them easy to trim quickly. You trim all the leaves and only leave the buds on the stems of the plants. A draw back to trimming this way is that the buds will dry faster, and could lose some of their final taste and smell if dried too quickly.
Dry trimming involves hanging the buds to dry as soon as the plant has been cut down. This allows the leaves to hang and dry over the plant’s buds. The grower then trims the leaves off the buds after the plant has dried completely.
A pro to trimming this way is that the leaves will let the buds dry slower hanging from them. This may increase the smell and taste of the final buds. A draw back of doing it this way is that it may be harder to trim the buds from the leaves as they will be harder to tell apart.
How to Dry your Marijuana plants
One of the most important parts of drying fresh cannabis buds is to make sure they are dried evenly. To dry your buds evenly you will want to have a good low humidity about 45-50% during the drying process. Very good air flow across you drying buds is very important to an even drying. Always keep the air moving around your fresh cut cannabis.
The best way to do this is to, hang your plants upside down and then have a fan blowing air over them while they dry. You can also use drying racks to dry your buds however if you use a drying rack, make sure to turn the buds over everyday to prevent moisture from sitting on the bottom part of the buds while drying.
How long should it take to dry your buds
While there is no set time for drying cannabis buds, because there are so many factors to drying. Some of these factors are; how dense the buds are, how dry your environment is when drying, and how large your buds.
Bigger denser buds will take longer than smaller less dense marijuana buds. Another big difference will be if you remove the buds from the stems or if you leave them attached. Stems contain most of the water in the plant to keep it up right. If you remove the buds, they will dry faster then if you hang them and leave the buds attached to the stem. Once the buds have shrank in size and weight, they are ready to cure. Normally a bud will be dry enough for curing in 8 to 15 days.
Cannabis Bud Mold is your Enemy
Everything a grower does while drying their fresh cannabis buds is to prevent mold on your buds. Mold will ruin your whole crop you just worked so hard on. This is why mold is your enemy. If you get mold in your harvested crop you will have to throw it out. You cannot use moldy cannabis in any healthy way. Mold forms in higher humidity levels, so this is why it is so important to keep them low while drying cannabis buds.
What is the difference between Drying and Curing Cannabis Buds?
There are two steps in the process to get your fresh cannabis ready to use. The first process is to dry the buds as discussed above; this is quickly removing the majority of the moisture from your plants so they don’t get mold on them. Curing is taking your new freshly dried cannabis buds and slowing down the drying process for the remaining moisture left in the marijuana buds. Curing your buds involves storing the almost dried buds in a closed container over a few weeks to slow down the drying process, this adds to the overall cannabis buds’ taste, favor, aroma and smoothness of the finish product.
How to tell when you Marihuana buds are dry enough for curing?
Take one of your buds and try to break it in half. If the bud snaps in two, making a snapping/cracking sound then it is typically ready for curing. If it only bends, they you should normally give the buds more time to dry before moving into the curing process.
Now that my Cannabis Buds are Dry how to I Cure them?
If you are dry trimming your cannabis, now is the time to trim your leaves from your buds. For the first week of curing, we find it best to place all your buds into brown paper bags. Once all your buds are all in the brown paper bags you can close up the bags to keep the buds’ dark.
For one week you will want to open the paper bag/s and check that you buds are still drying but only a little at a time. If you find the dried buds are getting a little moist you can leave the bag open for an hour or so to let them dry some more. Over the week they should still be drying, and they should start to have more of a smell of the bud.
Look the bud over well each and every day to make sure there is no mold or even a smell of mold. You don’t want to smell any musty smell what so ever it should only smell like sweet, sour or piney buds.
Once the bag process is completed, it is time to finish off your cure. You will need canning jars for this final part of the process. Wide mouth jars always seem to work best for this. Start by taking the buds out of the bags and placing them into the jars about ¾ from the top of the bottom. You will want to leave about ¼ from the top of the jar for air space.
Now that your jars are filled you can place the tops on there or use humidity packs. Humidity packs keep your bottled buds at a set humidity in the jars. They will either remove humidity from your buds or replace it to a certain extent. They come in different sizes and humidity levels, such as 58% and 62%. This is really up to how dry you enjoy the finished buds. However, you don’t have to use these. It will normally take about 4 to 6 weeks of curing for the best tasting cannabis buds.
For the next two weeks open the jars daily and check for mold or any other issues in the jar. It is also important for the next two weeks to let the bud filled jars breath every day. Once the two weeks is up and all is good you can store your cannabis jars in a cool, dark spot to keep your buds fresh as long as possible.
How long will my Dry, Cured Fresh Cannabis Buds last in Storage?
There is really no set time, but depending on how the jars are stored they can be used up to 1 year before the chemicals in the bud start to degrade. This is depending on many factors like how many times you open the jars, heat, light will all degrade the cured cannabis. I hope this article help you to understand how to dry, cure and store fresh cannabis buds.
