Another Tincture Thread - Try it, You'll like it

Natural Decarb Project
Lemon Kush - Dry Material
6 months

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This project isn't quite as encompassing as the Blue Jewel project because it was already 8-10 months old when I got it and over half of the THCA had already converted, probably due to late harvest. This project is going to track the conversion with 6 month sampling. I have enough of this for several more samples and I'm hoping to pin down the approximate conversion rate. This material has not been kept in a controlled climate.

I've set up a few different scenarios with this material. I have some in a sealed jar with a humidipak, more in a jar with desiccant and another bunch of buds in a Whitman's Sampler tin can tossed in a corner somewhere. The original still had 15% moisture when I got it so I wanted to see if dryness would play a role in the rate. It doesn't.

We were starting to see a pattern with the Blue Jewel project that seemed to indicate that each year the conversion doubled, from 10% to 22% to 39%. The projection with this small sampling would be 80% at 3 years which would make it usable without decarb or it may be a different progression. This project is going to try to get a little more clarity on that.

With this project we aren't looking at the age from harvest since that is an unknown. Instead we are going to just concentrate on the conversion over a set period of time, 6 month intervals. For this posting, the initial sample showed that 60% of the THCA had converted to THC. In the second sample we see that after 6 months, 68% had converted.

We also see some increase in CBN as the CBDA has decreased. We'll keep an eye on those as the study continues.

I realize that not many folks are going to have 2-3 year old material but some do so this is more than just a statistical exercise. Stay tuned.

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Before the humidipaks came along, curing was an important part of a slow drying process designed to maximize the cannabinoid and terpene/flavonoid profile and minimize mold and oxidation. The jars needed to be burped regularly for about 4 weeks. When medical cannabis became legal here a few years ago there was a lot of marketing hype around the "curing" process and it was often used as a reason to charge elite prices. There were places that would cure for 2-3 months or use special ceramic pots like the ancient Egyptians and other cultures to cure the buds for "seasoning", similar to using oak barrels to cure whiskey.

That was then but now, several years later, everything has become big business and as you mentioned, the dispensaries and others are doing the fast dry and putting on the shelf for sales. And because of that a lot of the distinctive taste and appearance has disappeared and been replaced with generic cannabis traits. I miss the days curing was considered important.

CBN seems to increase faster for dry material around the one year mark as some oxidation occurs. With a GD that starts occurring around the 3 month mark.

 

Yes, I remember and I'm glad that I could help.

I also remember my first grow and journal. I knew nothing about anything and somehow stumbled through it with decent results for what I put into it. When she's finished let us know and we'll help. Save all your leaves as you go along. You can use the whole plant, including the root.

 

I don't think it would, Stiggy. I would think a salad would be a good way to do it. There are some salad greens that have the same kind of hook structures. If you run your hand against the grain of the leaf you can feel it. You can try it and let us know if it wasn't a good idea.

 

Don't worry about it. We're used to it. They're still getting the bugs worked out of the new format.

 

And still going. This things got a life of it's own.