Growing a cannabis plant is like developing any type of crop. Except, the effort does not stop at collecting them during the harvesting period. For cannabis to be cannabis in the sense that it will be potent as expected, there are methods to deploy and other necessary actions to place before recognizing it as a potent weed.
After gathering the weeds, growers will now proceed to drying cannabis and soon curing them. These profoundly necessary steps in gardening will ensure that the cannabis will achieve what users expect of them.
However, it seems drying and curing cannabis is not as easy as looking after them for months for a newbie and intermediate cultivators. Here is everything you should know about drying and curing cannabis plant.
The Variance between Drying and Curing Cannabis
To refrain from getting confused, take note of the differences held by drying and curing cannabis. As the term implies, drying cannabis is drying buds. Doing so will squeeze all moisture from the buds so users can smoke or use it for vaporization in an excellent manner. On the other hand, curing cannabis refers to keeping your buds in a container for a specific number of weeks to enhance its features, such as its aroma, taste, and potency.
The Purpose of Drying and Curing Cannabis
Both drying and curing cannabis is part of the Post-Harvest stage, where steps are to be taken seriously since they are highly necessary to reach the maximum result of a weed’s bud. Curing the harvested cannabis doesn’t also lead to potency enhancement but preserving them as well.
Moreover, curing the buds is equivalent to degrading an excessive amount of sugar and starch that attracts bacteria and destructive enzymes. However, you cannot proceed to the curing process without executing the drying part. So, both are connected and important.
Drying Cannabis
As mentioned, drying the buds will take place after the harvesting stage. Meaning, the time of execution should be noted appropriately – not too late nor early. Perfect timing will allow sudden growth spurt and trichome improvement, the one responsible for producing cannabinoids like CBD, THC, CBG, CBN, etc. Then, the procedure is as follows:
Cut and Trim
Cut down the plant and detach all buds from their respective stems. Them, trim the leaves that will come out from several flowers.
Hang up the Weed and let it Dry
In the next step, it is recommendable to improvise a way to hang up the weed. For instance, you can make use of old cloth rods. Regardless of what material you will use, make sure to hang up the weed in an ideal environment:
- The temperature should not go beyond or less than 21 degrees Celsius, and the humidity is around 50 percent.
- If you have no ideal area for such a condition, you can purchase and provide materials that will regulate the environment’s state. So, you may consider buying a humidifier, air conditioner, cooler, dehumidifier, heater, etc.
- After adjusting the environmental condition, leave your cannabis hanging for at least a week.
After a week, you can try and touch the buds to feel if they’re dry enough. If so, you should also notice snapping smaller twigs rather than bending forward. If you had deemed the mentioned state, you might now proceed to the next step.
How long will it take to dry cannabis?
Some growers are anxious about waiting for a longer time, so they resort to employing shortening techniques. But in reality, there’s no way to shortcut this process magically. Here are some factors that will affect the time in terms of drying cannabis.
Size of the Buds
Larger means denser and can take a longer time to dry.
How the Buds were Trimmed
Properly hanging the weeds will dictate how long drying cannabis will occur, especially if there are larger ones to hang.
The Environmental Condition
Keeping in mind what an ideal area is for drying cannabis affects the time to process it.
But, in general, drying cannabis will last for a week up to 12 days, which heavily relies on the mentioned factors above. Take note that during this stage, your buds are about to lose mass and shrink.
Curing Cannabis
From trimming the wet buds down to dry them, it’s now down to curing them. Upon knowing that your buds are all dried up, the next procedure is as follows.
Storing the Dried Buds
Put the buds in an airflow-strict container such as mason jars or any glass containers. However, it is profoundly recommended to only fill ¾ of the jar, so there’s an available space for a bit of air to reduce adopting destructive adversities like mold and mildew. After all, you didn’t go through all lengthy steps to only lead the harvested crops to their deaths.
Place in an Ideal Environment
Once the jars are filled and properly secured, store them in an environment where the condition is dry, and there’s no possible leakage of light.
Check the Buds
Checking the buds at least once a day for the entirety of its stay in the dark and cold environment will improve the bud’s ambiance. For a more expounded idea, here are what you should keep in mind.
- Take away the lid of all jars upon checking and wait for at most five seconds.
- Then, you must replace the now-removed cover.
- Shake all jars, but do it gently, and move the buds around to control the presence of the air.
- Do all these for continuous days of checking the buds.
Checking the buds means allowing air-exchange for an improved state. Then, it will let you inspect each cannabis bud to see for signs of improvement or regression. If you happen to find ill-looking and odd bud, keep them away in an instant to keep the fungus from spreading.
As mentioned, you will only need two weeks to check the buds once a day. Doing so can help eradicate the container’s excessive moisture and a new airflow cycle to enter the jar. Afterward, you may now devour the bud and its well-improved condition.
How long will it take to cure cannabis?
The curing process alone should take place for a month, plus the daily checkups. However, there may be instances where you will have to extend and add another month to get the most out of the bud’s maximum capacity to produce flavor and aroma. In this case, you may have succumbed to factors affecting the supposed and presumed time of the curing process.
Where to store buds that came from drying and curing cannabis?
Drying and curing cannabis don’t end in the latter, mainly if you cultivate for the market since users are quite strict and speculative when it comes to the bud’s potency. Because of that, you will have to take note that after finishing the curing stage, you will have to consider storing the buds until further usage.
You may keep the bud stored in the same container and situate them in a dark, dry, and cool environment for starters. But, compared to the usual number of checkups, you may no longer inspect them as frequently as before.
However, strictly enforce the container’s seal’s tightness to keep the flower from becoming too dry. Moreover, you may purchase and provide humidity packets or any object that will serve a purpose in allowing your bud to remain fresh for a prolonged time.
Conclusion
It’s agreeable that drying cannabis and curing them is not as easy as simple trimming and pruning, the most common technique in enhancing the quality of the crop. It will be a challenge after the harvesting period, so growers must stay informed and alert on what to expect and do for their harvested cannabis buds.
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