Curing how much does it help? how long to cure? Myth or truth, the longer the better ?

[CannaT]

Hi I want to hear your expirence on this.
I have found by my expirence that weed is best after propper drying around week to ten days and curring just for 7-10 days.

Until the humidity reaches some stability.
All after this is ageing and loss of terps and cannabinoides.

Longest cured flower I smoked was 18 months.

So my tought is that weed is best around month from harvest.

What is your opinion about this topic ?

 

[yesum]

Same as you. After a few weeks, all I notice is a loss of potency and increase of fuzzy feeling from cbn I suppose. Slow drying helps as in leaving the plant whole when drying it.

 

[Donald Mallard]

depends on the curing technique and the variety,
my experience says the sativa i like most ,
has been cured well at least a few to 6 months ...

 

[CannaT]

depends on the curing technique and the variety,
my experience says the sativa i like most ,
has been cured well at least a few to 6 months ...

Is it been grown outdoors or Indoors ?...I found out that outdoor flowers need longer cure than Indo g.

 

[El Timbo]

I'm with Donald

 

[Makroni]

For me it depends on the cannabis strain.


My experience is that strains with very fruity terpene are better for short curing, they are good after ~ 1 month curing and lose quality in my opinion with the time.


But there are also strains for example that do not taste good after short curing, but they do get better after a half year for example and even increase quality with long term curing.


=> for me it depends on the cannabis strain , if long curing is good or not.


There are strains, that are not very tasty in the beginning of curing, but they can get better due to long curing.But very terpene rich strains lose a lot of terpene due to long curing.


That is how I think about that.


I think its a personal priority also about that issue.


Most strains good with 2 weeks to 3 month curing, some other are good at 3month to 12 month curing.


More than a years is always a decrease of quality in my humble opinion.


But still I have had cannabis strains that were really good even after 2 years. Golden nuggets and so on.

 

[Makroni]

Is it been grown outdoors or Indoors ?...I found out that outdoor flowers need longer cure than Indo g.

+1

I ve made the same experience too with same strains (clones) that Ive used In- and Outdoor.

 

[JohnnyChicago]

Original Haze will definitively get better when the chlorophyill does decompose. While per exemple my old 2014 Panama clone, is the best without any cure. By far. For taste and effect. Without any doubts.

Once I had a plant that I didn't like at all. And gifted all my herb to a friend. Many month later when he was smoking a joint I asked him, what great smelling herb he was smoking. He was very surprised and said:
"This is the huge bag of weed you gifted me many month ago becasue you didn't like it."

I guess it was 2006. Learned the lesson very early, that some plants will definitively improve with the cure. While others, like my Panama clone, do not.

I suppose outdoor plants have more chorophyll and therefore could require longer cure.. But I don't know. Should try my panama clone outdoors to verify if it will degrade slowlier during storage than when grown indoors....

 

[CannaT]

For me it depends on the cannabis strain.


My experience is that strains with very fruity terpene are better for short curing, they are good after ~ 1 month curing and lose quality in my opinion with the time.


But there are also strains for example that do not taste good after short curing, but they do get better after a half year for example and even increase quality with long term curing.


=> for me it depends on the cannabis strain , if long curing is good or not.


There are strains, that are not very tasty in the beginning of curing, but they can get better due to long curing.But very terpene rich strains lose a lot of terpene due to long curing.


That is how I think about that.


I think its a personal priority also about that issue.


Most strains good with 2 weeks to 3 month curing, some other are good at 3month to 12 month curing.


More than a years is always a decrease of quality in my humble opinion.


But still I have had cannabis strains that were really good even after 2 years. Golden nuggets and so on.

Yes its very based which strain/cuttings.
For me Cookies and relatives...gellato,cakes ..need at least 3 weeks of curing.
While sours,ogs,chems...dosent need...they loose very fast that kerosine funk...which made them special.

But all strains are good to go for 3-4 weeks of curring ,+ drying time.
So again its month ,month and half from harvest.

 

[CannaT]

Original Haze will definitively get better when the chlorophyill does decompose. While per exemple my old 2014 Panama clone, is the best without any cure. By far. For taste and effect. Without any doubts.

Once I had a plant that I didn't like at all. And gifted all my herb to a friend. Many month later when he was smoking a joint I asked him, what great smelling herb he was smoking. He was very surprised and said:
"This is the huge bag of weed you gifted me many month ago becasue you didn't like it."

I guess it was 2006. Learned the lesson very early, that some plants will definitively improve with the cure. While others, like my Panama clone, do not.

I suppose outdoor plants have more chorophyll and therefore could require longer cure.. But I don't know. Should try my panama clone outdoors to verify if it will degrade slowlier during storage than when grown indoors....

Yea some sativas over the time. Tends to have very woody terp profile while loosing fruit,pine and other smells.

.

 

[Nannymouse]

Had a blueberry, that had been gifted to me, that had been kept in 'room temp' in an old camera film container (shows how many years ago that was) that was very good after a year. I had plenty of experience with that particular line of blueberry, so knew how well it stored like that.

I've found that how the herb is ingested makes a difference, to me. I have a table-top V*pe Bros...the kind that you use a whip with. Incredible flavor when using the lower temps and then as the session(s)progress, increasing temps...until the flower just doesn't taste so good. If not over-doing the heat, the AlreadyBeenVaped material is still good enough for some edible recipes. Fresh flowers just rock in that V*peBros unit. A sensitive palate can notice delicate flavors that can be 'gone' by the time a flower is dried and cured.

Vape carts...not the same story, IME. But it isn't like i hate any form. Carts are very convenient if they work, ha.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Ahhhhh... terpenes and cannabinoids (more complex molecules with terpene skeletons) are all massively influenced by enzymes.

Enzymes are massively influenced by temperature, hydration level and pH. Complex terpenes are formed from less complex terpenes, and those from monoterpenes which are the most basic.

"The Cure," is the polymerization of less complex terpenes and cannabinoids into more complex (and stable) versions. Other stuff too, but most importantly polymerization. Lots of monoterpenes at harvest likely translates to lower shelf storage times, since they are naturally more fragile. The more complex terpenes will retain their flavor/aroma for a much longer time. The more complex the terpenes before they get chained together and more complex (polymerization), the more amazing and shelf stable the "cured" product will be.

I once found a lost (2 years) brass smoking bat with 3 hits left in it. Damn tasty treat to find in a box out of the blue. lol So cannabis can stay tasty and potent without protection for a while in the right circumstances.

 

[Stocktont]

Southeast asian types definitely change with a cure, like wine I suppose is a good comparing example where it gets a "body" and character from aging. I think in the tropics it can be key to keep it long term, to age it and then you can keep it cool and when warmed up it can still last some time. Fresh weed harvested and kept around the house or outdoors will degrade quickly and also fresh untreated/aged bigger amounts of pressed flowers tend to mold with in days especially if kept in hot rooms wrapped in plastic. Horrible to see hundreds of sticky grams of weed ruined like that. A good cure would have at least slowed that process some... nowdays freezers are handy for longer term in tropical conditions.

I do love my indoor grown the first weeks after harvest during the start of the curing process, I guess in that case I am more of a fresh pale ale king of person.

 

[harvestreaper]

depends on the curing technique and the variety,
my experience says the sativa i like most ,
has been cured well at least a few to 6 months ...

yea sounds right to me i was gonna say 3 months.. im no expert but a friend of mine cures everything they smoke ,which is mostly my stuff , for at least that time and up to 2/3 years ,,3 months is fine for me,, longer cures can make it smoother even more balanced but ive not noticed any increase in potency as others mention...

 

[mexweed]

no matter how well the weed was dried/cured there is always that kind of stale dill pickle thing that comes on after too much time

 

[sushi]

I like a whole plant slow dry taking at least 2 weeks and about 2 week cure is usually where I find the best results. I'm smoking some stuff now I hung slow whole for almost a month (had to move 2 days after chop) and then into grove bags. It's tasty but definitely heavier and the flavor tastes "aged". I use to freeze all my stuff after drying and a few weeks cure. I thought that worked very well.

I think it is very much strain dependent as others have said. It seems the modern terpy stuff will degrade faster in my experience also. Depending on storage conditions.

 

[F2F]

Great feedback above for the OP. Its strain dependent, heck probably pheno dependent.

For me, seems there is a window of cure time for best effect which can range from almost zero to 6+ months. have had a couple sats go from good to great after 6-9mo, others I shared the same flowers with confirmed the same.

It’s hard work though…making sure you find the sweet spot. …testing every jar, couple times a month, just to have sufficient data, ya know.

Peace
F2F

 

[St. Phatty]

One way to find out is to have Tupperware containers full of aging bud all over the kitchen.

Then see which one you smoke.

I do not like smoking Chlorophyll.

It seems to vary how long the plant takes to cure.

Part of curing, sometimes, involves a TINY bit of mold, like being on the edge of mold, without the mold.

One year I let plants go a little too long, and the moldy buds were the best. They cured faster.

I put buds in the freezer to stop the mold, and then smoked the pieces of bud next to the molded bud.

It was great ! It cured the fastest. That was on Blueberry Headband.

I wouldn't be surprised if Dispensaries eventually stock buds with a tiny amount of mold, and keep the product in freezers because that's the only way to make it possibly work.

It may sound disgusting, but I recommend trying it.

To be clear, not moldy bud - the bud NEXT TO the moldy parts.

 

[Loc Dog]

Not sure where I read it, or if they were right, but someone never let his flowering go above 68F and cured and stored under that temp to retain most terps.

 

[Mimpi Manis]

depends on the curing technique and the variety,
my experience says the sativa i like most ,
has been cured well at least a few to 6 months ...

I'm also mostly with Donald on this. Not much experience with indoor to compare being outdoor guy. But I suspect sativa leaning (and outdoor possibly) varieties benefit the most given my experience. The C5 went from ordinary to pretty punchy after 3-4 mths on the cure. As did most others. Mine goes into pretty tight vacuum packs initially for cure. Tranformation of the chlorophyll into something else seems essential re palatability. Whats actually happening in the cannabinoid space is still mostly tied up in magic... as the science has yet to come to the party in this respect. I dont know how they worked those 1970's Thai sticks (and some other SE Asians I tried) before we got 'em in Oz... but they are still the benchmark.