I read an article about preserving grains and feeds for long periods of time in plastic buckets. One of the main concerns is mold. I will attempt to do this same thing (scaled down) to keep MJ closed inside mason jars for long periods of time with no mold growth. fficeffice" /><O></O> MJ is dried then cured. Although it can be smoked after it is dried, further curing is needed to enhance flavor and taste as well as prevent mold. Mold requires 15% relative humidity in order to grow therefore we have to dry our MJ out to less than 15% to prevent mold and usually we wind up drying it out much more costing us both weight and smoking quality. <O></O> Mold also requires oxygen in order to grow. In theory if MJ was cured to the point where it is best for smoking then stored without oxygen, no mold would grow and the MJ would keep. <O></O> One method of removing oxygen from an airtight container would be by forming a perfect vacuum inside this container. This would require expensive equipment. Another method would be to use oxygen absorbers. These are small packages used to put inside airtight packaging of foods and spices to remove oxygen to below .01%. <O></O> Another method that is cheaper is to use dry ice. Dry ice will also act as a fumigant and kill any bugs that may happen to be hiding. This method is also a lot more fun and a lot more dangerous. <O></O> Dry ice is a dangerous substance. Simply touching it will burn your skin. Even touching it through papar and plastic bags, it can still burn you. Extreme caution should be used when handling dry ice. Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide. We breathe in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide. Mammals can not sustain life without oxygen and carbon dioxide will kill you under the right conditions. While it would seem that you would have to be in an airtight environment for this to happen, there is a report of a man who was a part of a Halloween haunted house program and died while under a table covered with a blanket with a bucket of dry ice and water to make a smoke effect. Too much carbon dioxide was in the air. Just be careful when using dry ice. <O></O> When dry ice melts it turns into carbon dioxide gas. It take 8.3 cubic feet of carbon dioxide gas to make 1 pound of dry ice. One pound of dry ice costs under $2.00 at many stores and will fill a box that is 2' X 2' X 2' when it is melted. Dry ice expands as it melts. <O></O> I am going to use ½ pint mason jars for this test to see if MJ cured to a good place but not dry enough to prevent mold can be successfully stored using this dry ice method. <O></O> Mason jars are about 2.5†in diameter and about 4†tall. (20 cubic inches). A pound of dry ice expands to 8.3 cubic foot (14342 cubic inches) of CO2. One gram of dry ice will fill about 32 cubic inches with CO2. I will use about 1 gram of dry ice per mason jar. Enough to fill the jar about 2 times. <O></O> Another warning is needed here. <O></O> THIS IS ENOUGH DRY ICE TO MAKE THE MASON JAR EXPLODE !!!. <O></O> USE CAUTION !!! <O></O> Fresh MJ bud was dried slowly. I placed it in a jar and took it out each day for a few minutes until such time it was almost ready to smoke. At one point this bud started to smell as if mold was starting to grow on it. I thought this would be a good time to try this method. <O></O> I placed 1 gram of dry ice in the bottom of a mason jar and added 1/8 oz. of slightly moist MJ bud into this same jar. I am using those 2 part lids with these canning jars and I place only the lid part with the rubber seal over the jar. Do not place the screw on part on the jar until the dry ice has melted (about 15 minutes). This will allow the oxygen to escape as the dry ice melts and expands. Watch the dry ice and as soon as it is all melted, place the screw top onto the mason jar. Do not over tighten. The rubber seal doesn't require much force to seal. I did this with about 6 jars. I will now be able to open a jar every day or so to check and see if the mold is growing. This MJ I am using would mold in 1-2 days for sure since it was already starting to smell a little moldy. <O></O> Carbon dioxide should now be the only gas in the jar, no more oxygen. Over the next few days a small vacuum will occur within the jar. It is suspected that the reason this happens is due to the CO2 in the atmosphere of the jar dissolving into the small percentage of water in the food reducing the pressure and volume of CO2 within the jar. None of this has any effect on the MJ in any way. It creates an atmosphere in which mold will not grow. <O></O> Final Warning – If you open the jar and immediately stick your nose into the jar for a “whiffâ€, it will be carbon dioxide that you breathe in. <O></O> The day after putting MJ into the jars I opened one of them, removed it from the jar and smelled it. There was perhaps just a hint of a mold smell but not nearly as strong as it was. The next day I opened another one. The mold smell was going away. I didn't open a jar yesterday and today (4 days after putting into a jar, I opened another jar. There is no mold smell in the jar and the bud smells really good. It is at a point of curing that I take it out of the jar, let it sit for maybe 5 minutes then it seems about perfect for smoking. <O></O> This is the only time I have tried this and am now only 4 days into this experiment. So far it seems to be working. No vacuum has developed and that may be for a few reasons. 1) Not enough MJ was put into the jar for a vacuum to form. 2) the MJ was not wet enough to for enough CO2 to dissolve into it and create a vacuum. 3) Maybe it takes more than 4 days for the vacuum to form. <O></O> Regardless of there being a vacuum or not, my bud seems to be keeping just fine using this technique. In time I feel I will have enough confidence to store MJ that is still a little moist without having to worry about it getting moldy. This may even be a method to help rejuvenate MJ that has a little mold on it.
You could just store the mason jars full of cured MJ in the freezer. Too cold for any mold to live and the sealed jars prevent freezer burn. I have kept properly cured bud this way for over 2 years and have never noticed any signs of mold. Also preserves flavor and moisture content as long as jars are well sealed.
Unless there is no freeezer available or not enough freezer space. I kept a bag of skunk in a regular fold over baggie in a freezer for about a year with no problems. This just seemed interesting. I tried it on a little bit and it seemed to do ok but as soon as I get some more fresh bud I'm going to try it some more.
I'd put the fully cured MJ in some ziplock double lock baggies, then put those in mason jars and put the mason jars in the fridge/freezer. That's probably overkill, but it'll guarantee you won't lose any quality for at least several years stored like that. Some more food for thought; curing the weed so that masonjar(paperbag(weed)) should improve curing since paper bags improve ripening (not sure why) but they also act as mild dessicants inside the mason jar to help the weed attain a more favorable moisture content. Additionally, you could fit a few paper bags inside one mason jar, which means the MJ is packed into tighter pockets. This setup is less prone to having a "middle" of the jar where moisture can get trapped and promote mold.