Harvest - Different ways to harvest, process and store. (Feel free to showcase your artisan methods!!!)

[acespicoli]

Same, used to dry in front of a fan or AC unit clothes lines across the house or paper bags one the stems close to snapping. Really depends on your situation. This last two weeks is the first time in months the humidity has been below 75% def prefer the cool 60F and 45% RH

The plants dont seem to mind much either way, the occasional mold magnet you just can let go....
I dig my imperfect world, so new drying methods and long term storage methods will prevail
Took some getting used to the weather patterns.

The cold highlands and the desert folks seem to have no issues
Coastal Maritime ...

Attached Dimensions of Ripeness Parts 1 &2

WW123+Dimensions+of+Ripeness.pdf

drive.google.com

WW124+Dimensions+of+Ripeness+P2.pdf

drive.google.com

 

[Old Piney]

I will use a paper bag for small batches and a jar for the cure

 

[PlastikeRubba]

The effect of high drying temperatures on cannabinoids and terpenes requires further investigation. To minimize loss of volatile terpenes during heating, another method for cannabinoid and terpene preservation is freezing by sublimation, which takes 10 to 20 days.

As oxidation occurs with the presence of light, heat, and oxygen, degradation of major cannabinoids is minimized after drying by storage in cool and dark places. Fresh products must be stored between 1˚C and 5˚C and frozen products must be kept at −18˚C to −20˚C for long-term storage [21].

So is oxidation good or bad?

I've been trying to tell pot growers for half a century that their dreaded hay smell is hexanal, from linoleic acid, (from oleic acid), not chlorophyll.


So oxidation bad? No, because hexanal is broken down into hexanoic acid, the precursor to the major cannabinoids and many Cannabis esters.

So why the hell is the cannabis industry acting like they are concerned with preserving isolated test tube cannabinoids and bullshit children Tylenol terps in a lab setting?

In the real world, with properly grown medicinal grade cannabis, hexanoic acid is being produced, post harvest, just as fast as thc is breaking down, or faster. In any acceptable crop, the quality is determined by fatty acid and protein content. The same way soil health is measured. Cannabis is not any different. Every useful Cannabis metabolite is the result of organic acid oxidation that continues long after harvest.

Hydroponic growers don't understand that, as they completely missed the narrative behind "pharmaceutical grade" inputs; organic acid chelated nutrients, not nitrate and sulfate crap. They wanted to look like drug labs without having any basic understanding of drug chemistry. (The only sulfur your plant needs is cysteine, methionine and glutathione, and the only way sulfur is being utilized by cannabis is by degradation of those aminos/peptide..

Growing weed in the 2020s is like cooking meth in the 1990s. You supply ephedrine, the lab techs still think they need to convert it from pseudofed. My role in the drug world is apparently to be dumbfounded by incompetence of drug producers,who insist on waste and poor quality rather than a basic 6th grade understanding of drug chemistry.

How many times do we have to hear the Ganjier-Curaleaf-GW-Jazz crew proclaim cough syrup to be an enjoyable flavor, before we catch on to the agenda? Every decent producer is behind bars or NDAed by the DEA, no compete clauses tied up with pharma giants.

Tldr

Organic acid metabolism is all that matters in Cannabis. What's the difference between linoleum flooring and thc? Chemistry. They both come from linoleic acid.

Quite literally, no one growing Cannabis in America is qualified, as they readily produce plastic toxins through total ignorance of organic drug chemistry. The Marijuana plant is a drug lab. Federal regulations will reflect that. The FDA has been presented with a solid case that Xanax dealing Instagram models should not be involved with legal drug production.

 

[acespicoli]

So is oxidation good or bad?

Conceptually, the oxidation state may be positive, negative or zero.

Would recommend we slow down and address one single aspect at a time.


In chemistry, the oxidation state, or oxidation number, is the hypothetical charge of an atom if all of its bonds to other atoms were fully ionic. It describes the degree of oxidation (loss of electrons) of an atom in a chemical compound. Conceptually, the oxidation state may be positive, negative or zero. Beside nearly-pure ionic bonding, many covalent bonds exhibit a strong ionicity, making oxidation state a useful predictor of charge.

Oxidation state - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.



Oxidation can be prevented by controlling the environmental conditions that favor it.
Here are some ways to prevent oxidation:

• Reduce oxygen
  Use inert gases like nitrogen to replace air in storage containers. You can also use vacuum sealing to remove air from a container. Nitrogen ?
  
  
• Lower the temperature
  Lowering the temperature can slow down oxidation by reducing the activity of enzymes and microorganisms that catalyze it.
  
  
  
  
  
  Figure 1. Biosynthesis of phytocannabinoid acids in Cannabis begins with a common precursor called olivetolic acid that then undergoes a series of enzymatic transformations. When exposed to heat, the phytocannabinoid acids readily decarboxylate into their neutral forms.
  
  

  References​

  1.Hanuš, L.O., Meyer, S.M., Muñoz, E., et al. Phytocannabinoids: A unified critical inventory. Nat. Prod. Rep.33(12), 1357-1392 (2016).
  
  2. Banister, S.D., Arnold, J.C., Connor, M., et al. Dark classics in chemical neuroscience: Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol. ACS Chem. Neurosci. 10(5), 2160-2175 (2019).
  
  3. Herr, R.J., Meckler, H., and Scuderi, F. Observed acidities of charcoals, clays, and common laboratory purification reagents in aqueous and organic solutions. Org. Proc. Res. Dev.4(1), 43-45 (2000).
  
  4. Srebnik, M., Lander, N., Breuer, A., et al. Base-catalysed double-bond isomerizations of cannabinoids: Structural and stereochemical aspects. J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans. 1, 2881-2886 (1984).
  
  5. Järbe, T.U.C., Hiltunen, A.J., Mechoulam, R., et al. Separation of the discriminative stimulus effects of stereoisomers of Δ2- and Δ3-tetrahydrocannabinols in pigeons. Eur. J. Pharmacol.156(3), 361-366 (1988).
  
  6. Rosati, O., Messina, F., Pelosi, A., et al. One-pot heterogeneous synthesis of Δ3-tetrahydrocannabinol analogues and xanthenes showing differential binding to CB1 and CB2 receptors. Eur. J. Med. Chem. 85, 77-86 (2014).
  
  7. Ross, S.A. and Elsohly, M.A. CBN and Δ9-THC concentration ratio as an indicator of the age of stored marijuana samples. UNPDC Data and Analysis Bulletin (1999).
  
  8. Küppers, F.J.E.M., Lousberg, R.J.J.Ch., Bercht, C.A.L., et al. Cannabis—VIII: Pyrolysis of cannabidiol. Structure elucidation of the main pyrolytic product. Tetrahedron. 29(18), 2797-2802 (1973).
  
  9. Shani, A. and Mechoulam, R. Cannabielsoic acids: Isolation and synthesis by a novel oxidative cyclization. Tetrahedron30(15), 2437-2446 (1974).
  
  10. Caprioglio, D., Mattoteia, D., Pollastro, F., et al. The oxidation of phytocannabinoids to cannabinoquinoids.J. Nat. Prod.83(5), 1711-1715 (2020).
  
  11. Darzi, E.R. and Garg, N.K. Electrochemical oxidation of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol: A simple strategy for marijuana detection. Org. Lett.22(10), 3951-3955 (2020).
  
  12. Kogan, N.M., Rabinowitz, R., Levi, P., et al. Synthesis and antitumor activity of quinonoid derivatives of cannabinoids. J. Med. Chem.47(15), 3800-3806 (2004).
  
  

 

[acespicoli]

So is oxidation good or bad?

I've been trying to tell pot growers for half a century that their dreaded hay smell is hexanal, from linoleic acid, (from oleic acid), not chlorophyll.

You make some good points

So oxidation bad? No, because hexanal is broken down into hexanoic acid, the precursor to the major cannabinoids and many Cannabis esters.
The Marijuana plant is a drug lab.

Many COB makers growers of Malawi etc say they are able to improve the cannabinoid profiles,
You have made many excellent observations and comments that lend scientific facts to post harvest processing.

Hope you share more of your harvest wisdom
Thanks for sharing