What is happening in the buds when curing? I cant find anything anywhere about the specifics of what's happening during curing. The only thing we all know and read seems to just be how to cure, not how to understand what is happening during curing. For example, does it require an anaerobic environment or not and why? How does curing affect thc yield/potency? How does curing affect the quality of the smoke? What is happening inside the buds tissues during curing? Are cannabinoids/flavonoids affected during curing? Why do we burp jars besides lowering humidity buildup? Can you cure outside of jars? Really feel like curing is the most uninformational part of growing cannabis. Theres tons of science in growing but seldom in drying and curing. Anyone got some great links I cant find?
THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER Check out the KIS podcast episode with Dr. Allison Justice she talks a bit about curing around the 55:50 mark Episode 43: The Latest Research in Cannabis Cultivation with Dr. Allison Justice
With the illegal status of this plant most research has not been done. I suppose with things being legal in usa now research can begin...but I suppose there will be other interests stoppin the research.
Well I went for like 8 years drying in 20 rh. Well I can attest my weed never really had the smell. Taste was good. Might not burn right in a joint. Now I made a giant humidor that I can control the drying of the weed evenly. 3 friends, my wife and I all agree the weed is much better. Almost cured after 7-10 days in humidor Sent from my SM-N960U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Hey papapuff, is the humidor inside a tent with buds hanging? What humidity do you run? Doing this for the first time myself
So I took a tv cabinet and bought a inkbird humidity controller and a small humidifier that has a knob to turn it on. Not digital push screens. So I can set it for say 65 with a 3 pt variance. It also has alarms on the inkbird. It has a plug for humidifier and for a dehumidifier Sent from my SM-N960U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
The old rule is 70 rh 70deg 7 days. I like around 62 better in the box Sent from my SM-N960U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
9 years ago when I started growing again in a larger scale every one of my harvest smelled wonderful at harvest and stunk like lawn clippings a few days later. Frustrated, I started the hunt for the how and why. ============================================================== BrassNwood, May 28, 2014 Some of the sites I saved on my mission of cure.. When I started I was reading this long rambling thread on curing.. To cut to the chase he never really did come out and say why his stuff was so superior but the idea he'd learned his methods from an old time small scale tobacco farmer with some of his own twists remained.. Dozens of pages of both large and small scale drying and curing I had a better idea of what I was after.. plant-hormones.info http://pakupaku.info/knowledge/ethylene.shtml http://www.bovedainc.com/store/herbal/ http://forum.grasscity.com/harvesting-processing-medical-marijuana/1218340-experimental-cure-using-boveda.html/page-2 Cure Your Medicine by DJ Short http://www.thecvault.com/62-humidity-control-curing-storage-products.html Different curing methods http://forum.grasscity.com/harvesting-processing-medical-marijuana/1218340-experimental-cure-using-boveda.html A perfect cure every time - Cannabis Harvesting & Processing - International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums I think I've got more in a file someplace if you need more reading material.. ================================================================= When the Santa Ana winds come ( always at harvest time ) the local humidity will drop to single numbers. At 9% humidity it only takes a couple of hours to way over dry the herb. Hang till the small popcorn stiffens up, Strip everything from the branches and cut the big colas into thumb sized nugs and it all goes into cut down paper bags for easy of handling. Days exposed and nights sealed in a closed container. Gradually reducing exposure by a hour per day gets a perfect dry here. That completes the dry. =============================== 60 days in a sealed jar with a 62% boveda pack does the cure. If properly dried there is no reason or need to "Burp" the curing jars. The how and why is all explained in the hundreds of pages I linked and I'm not going to rewrite the science of Ethylene gas here. As papa said 777 is the ideal dry. 7 days, 70 degrees, 70% humidity. My garage doesn't meet those requirements so I adapted to my local conditions. <-- perfect dry every time. I do it all by feel now and don't need no stinking gauges. ===================================================== BrassNwoodGrowing since 1976 Old School Joined: Feb 4, 2013 Messages: 20,834 Likes Received: 41,903 #20 BrassNwood, Nov 18, 2015 Last edited: Apr 14, 2016 < blockquote class="ipsBlockquote built" data-author="leagalAlaska" data-time="1447776815" data-cid="22166544"><cite class="ipb" style="display: none;" contenteditable="false">leagalAlaska, on 17 Nov 2015 - 08:13 AM, said:</cite>Over the last year or so I've had few successful harvests. I'm really working on my cure. It's really dry where I live in Alaska. The moisture just isn't in the air. I purchased a small humidifier to try to raise humidity in my drying room. I read that a dry should take 7-10 days. Usually mine are crispy with stems snapping in as low as 3-5. Then I move to mason jars, I burp them regularly about once a day for 5-10 minutes. No one has ever complained about my buds, most say it's the smoothest they have had and great flavor. I think I still need to get it better though. Is it drying too fast? And is it affecting the cure? Also I always do a wet trim because I fine it to be the best way to trim. Down side to that is it dries faster, the more materiel I have the slower it dries. Any advice welcome! < /blockquote> Your up against the same wall I was here in Southern California.. We get a local wind condition called a Santa Ana that blasts super dry desert air over the basin and out to sea.. The humidity drops into the single numbers and it was turning all my great smelling harvests to grassy smelling shit for the most part.. Even extended time in jars wasn't helping.. It took me a while but I did figure it out and your on the right track.. Slow dry was the key I needed.. I wet trim as it's the best way to get all the crap off with every leaf standing tall.. Even a few minutes wait and they wilt more then I like.. So keep on trimming just seconds off the living plant.. It's the hang you have to shorten to just a day or 2.. I hang till the pop corn stiffens up.. Not the stem the Buds.. Play squeeze the Charmin with it and do NOT let it get to dry.. Think of it like cooking meat.. To done is just that and you can't un-cook that lovely steak.. Can't un-dry that cannabis either.. Below 55 % humidity all curing process stop and won't restart.. It's a one time deal with no do-overs.. My dirty hippy trim as my friend TTS calls it.. I'm old and don't have the hand for endless trimming and I'll hash 90% of it anyhow.. hot dry garage hang only until the small stuff stiffens up.. 1 or 2 days most of the time but it can go longer if the humidity is high.. While it's still on the very wet side I'll either glove and yank strip or snip off all the buds with grape scissors.. It all gets placed in cut down paper shopping bags.. This lets me move it rapidly back and forth between the cans I use to slow the dry and the top of the washer and dryer I use during the day.. The humidity jumped back up and this group spent about a day on the screen to firm up.. After just about 6 hours it went back in the bags and in the can for the night.. I bought a couple of new trash cans for this and I try and size the can to the load.. I have an Ice Chest I use for smaller runs.. I use several humidity gauges as they tend to be wildly off .. 2 or 3 of them and average the read.. I'll either dig in and fluff the buds up by hand or dump them into another bag to keep things stirred up and drying evenly Your target is 65% after about 7 days.. Then I pack in 1/2 gallon mason jars with a 60 gram size.. 62 % humidity.. Boveda pack.. And your done.. It's perfectly dried to the exactly cure range and the Boveda packs insure it stays on the mark.. No need to play the open and burp game with the jars.. Just what I've worked out here on the Brass Pharm.. Your local conditions may need to tweak this as no two zones dry alike.. Shopping bags and Trash cans FTMFW.. Sorry but it did take a while and I plain ruined a ton of smoke figuring it out.. ======================================================================= BNW
Your'e way over thinking this.... 1: How does curing affect thc yield/potency? This should not, THC etc stays the same but for rough handling 2: How does curing affect the quality of the smoke? Yes, big time-allowing the water to vape out, condenses the 'starch' (Chlorophyll ) 3: What is happening inside the buds tissues during curing? bottom line "Shrinkage" to fast to hi temp = even more shrinkage 4: Are cannabinoids/flavonoids affected during curing? not .....but by rough handling Only this year I've automated my curing placing my hanging, dry buds in a air tight barrell with a 'timed' air line in from an old bubble cloner pump ...works a treat after 4 days of 15min on 15min off any doubts the purchase of a humidi-stat is a great tool cheers
I actually disagree with this. The stems are the last part to dry out and will cause moisture to form, hence the need to burp. This is the reason you use boveda packs :/
Dam thank you all for the replies, a lot of reading. Despite all of this, I'll get more specific about my own harvest. I did 777 awesomely, but it's almost 3rd week of it. No mold, and the stems JUST started to make snap sounds when I bend them. I figured a longer dry the better. Am I right? Will the quality suffer just cause I didnt jar them after day 7? I figured if they're dry and I maintain the humidity in the drying area, then they're basically curing..just not inside of a jar. Is my bud okay?
I couldnt jar them for life reasons cause I still need to trim more than half of the harvest and didnt have time to do it.
Science? No idea. Everyone has different methods. Art? Yes. A dude I met in the early 2000s would blow away any weed with his 'art' of the cure. Did not give away any details of how. I've been smoking for a short time (25 years) in california, and never seen anything even close.
If your dry environment is 62 percent humidity...then your room your drying in is essentially just a big cure jar.. staying in that environment letting the enzymes break down chlorophyll.. making a better smoother and in the end, more flavorful smoke.. it's also kinda like water curing just not soaked and saturated.. so the long in that environment, the more can break down.. or soni thought..lol Sent from my moto e using Grasscity Forum mobile app
You can also just leave your bud hanging in a air control room at 62 percent humidity and just smoke it off the plant...lol. no bag Sent from my moto e using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Most growers i know between western australia and sydney dont bother curing, even really good strains like cataract kush or holy grail kush. Its grow a few pound, dry it not properly and sell the undried pounds at $4000 each then buyer discovers plant wasn't dried properly. That's all they care about not a cured bud. I cure for three to four weeks as my bud is for me and my brother (he doesnt pay) not to make money but to have really good weed for the cost of equipment and nutrients. And i really like growing.
I've taken a look at tobacco curing to get more of a look into the science of curing. Short answer is, it makes the plant tissue more stable, and it makes the smoking experience (smoothness, flavor, smell) better. Tobacco curing almost always includes a sweating period where they heap leaves on top of one another and cover them, to force the inner moisture to redistribute more evenly across the leaf. I've done this as well as my branches are on the line I bag them with contracter bags just as the outsides get dry, then take the bags off again when they soften slightly..I do this in cycles until they are ready to come off the line. This always slows my dry to over 2 weeks, even for airy sativa buds. When they come off, they don't even need a cure, but I do anyway.