Worst drying/curing advice that you still see people going by?

[Wolverine97]

It is widely believed that hydration is necessary for enzyme catalytic function, that dry enzymes are nonfunctional, and that, below a threshold hydration level, enzymes are inactive. Hydration may be necessary for catalytic function and/or for the diffusion of substrate and product.



You youngsters are totally confused, simply over feeding and all your weed smells like benzene plastic. Not benzene gas. You can call it gas all you want. It's plastic. Everyone over 30 calls it plastic/chemical/hydro weed when it smells like plastic, in a bad way.


2024 internet dispensary "gas" = 2004 reject embarrassment can't sell get you shot trying weed.

2004 Sour Diesel smells and tastes like sour lemon alcohol fuel.

2024: Sour Diesel doesn't smell sour anymore, it smells like rubber and "sweet gas" (plastic).


2004 me: Potheads will lead the future, very grounded.

2024 me: Potheads are the worst people in society, totally nutso.


What chlorophyll taste? You can taste chlorophyll in weed? Can I study you for science? I could get a 2 million dollar grant to study you, the only human who can olfactorily detect chlorophyll in plant concentrations.


2024 and potheads now can't tell gasoline from offgasing plastic toxins created by overloading DMAPP with P, from natural fuel aromas. Everyone thinks their weed should smell like new shoes, shower curtains, tennis balls and not feel like weed. Weird all this legal weed smokes the same instead of smoking like strains of medicinal Marijuana?

And the potheads are still convinced that z 3 hexenal is actually chlorophyll. Potheads must be getting high off pesticides and permanent marker/spray paint/shellac/acetone brain toxins ..

So, are you actually Kevin J., or just using his pic?

 

[TrifektaSeeds]

Something about the mix of LEDs with all these nutes brings out that plastic gas new shoes smell and taste in almost all the bud that's sold today
It doesn't even cure right
Goes from that to sour cabbage rotten lettuce kinda smell
You know it's up to no good when you smell it
I grow with EWC mainly and supplement salts when needed under HPS
Like the good ol days, I don't get those plastic smells anymore
Different growing opens different pathways in plants for all kinds of substances to take place
I dunno, I like the weed that we had 15 years ago way much more than everything on the market today.

 

[Ca++]

Hay. Anaerobic bacteria who don't like airflow. Clean your act up, or speed up how you get below 65%.

Straight into the dark, might not be the best idea.

Trying to restart the cure by putting moisture back, is trying to raise the dead. Though it's still very valid as a means to make it smoke better. If the heat coming down your J is evaporating moisture, and these water borne terps, is likely better than burning dry terps. The moisture is certainly better than dryness in any case.

Boxes get better with age.

I may of got the thread topic backwards.



Dry with the leaves on. I just tried this again, after an accidental chop to the wrong plant. Hung out the way for a few days, then decided to trim it. I just couldn't handle it without it raining clouds of crystal. I pulled half the leaves, but was aware it was taking 10x longer, and loosing so much resin it was painful. I set it on the side to let someone else have it. Just take it away from me please..

 

[Rgd]

Worst drying/curing advice that you still see people going by?​

>the glass jar burping[ composting /chlorophyl leaching] shit

like "THE STREETS” said

" I like my hydro green and around here we call them birds not bitches

 

[VerdantGreen]

It is widely believed that hydration is necessary for enzyme catalytic function, that dry enzymes are nonfunctional, and that, below a threshold hydration level, enzymes are inactive. Hydration may be necessary for catalytic function and/or for the diffusion of substrate and product.

Thanks, and am i right in thinking that enzymes generally will be preserved whilst dehydrated and then their function would resume if they became hydrated again ?

 

[Ca++]

Thanks, and am i right in thinking that enzymes generally will be preserved whilst dehydrated and then their function would resume if they became hydrated again ?

It's really hard to find info on this topic. It seems sugar conversion is more bacterial led, and as things dry the bacteria loose dominance to the molds. This gives us one shot at it. If we try again, our starting material is wrong. Molds will break up the structure and colour, which we see in very old weed. Wetting again will favour the mold, who's presence is greatest.

Which enzyme/bacteria/mold is most present, changes throughout. There could be a dozen of them.

Difficult topic. Mostly covered in tobacco talk

 

[Chevy cHaze]

I find it baffling how we all here on this thread, or even IC mag as a whole, cannot seem to come anywhere near to a conclusion on this topic. That includes me.
Everyone it appears is curing successfully, sometimes doing the exact opposite of others. I get it that everyone is doing it differently as per our individual preferences or experiences but generally bad practices should lead to bad outcomes in the majority of cases and good ones should overwhelmingly work.
Seems not to be the case with curing... for some the hay smell comes from too wet a process, for others from one that's too dry...
I'm not insisting on anything and would be happy to throw all my experience over board in a blink of an eye if a different process gave me better weed but it's all very inconclusive and what gives one guy perfect results seems to ruin the next one's crop...

 

[mr.brunch]

It would seem as with so many things, there is no right or wrong way, just what works and what doesn’t

 

[Hiddenjems]

It is widely believed that hydration is necessary for enzyme catalytic function, that dry enzymes are nonfunctional, and that, below a threshold hydration level, enzymes are inactive. Hydration may be necessary for catalytic function and/or for the diffusion of substrate and product.



You youngsters are totally confused, simply over feeding and all your weed smells like benzene plastic. Not benzene gas. You can call it gas all you want. It's plastic. Everyone over 30 calls it plastic/chemical/hydro weed when it smells like plastic, in a bad way.


2024 internet dispensary "gas" = 2004 reject embarrassment can't sell get you shot trying weed.

2004 Sour Diesel smells and tastes like sour lemon alcohol fuel.

2024: Sour Diesel doesn't smell sour anymore, it smells like rubber and "sweet gas" (plastic).


2004 me: Potheads will lead the future, very grounded.

2024 me: Potheads are the worst people in society, totally nutso.


What chlorophyll taste? You can taste chlorophyll in weed? Can I study you for science? I could get a 2 million dollar grant to study you, the only human who can olfactorily detect chlorophyll in plant concentrations.


2024 and potheads now can't tell gasoline from offgasing plastic toxins created by overloading DMAPP with P, from natural fuel aromas. Everyone thinks their weed should smell like new shoes, shower curtains, tennis balls and not feel like weed. Weird all this legal weed smokes the same instead of smoking like strains of medicinal Marijuana?

And the potheads are still convinced that z 3 hexenal is actually chlorophyll. Potheads must be getting high off pesticides and permanent marker/spray paint/shellac/acetone brain toxins ..

If you smoked my weed you’d throw yours in the trash….

 

[Ca++]

If you smoked my weed you’d throw yours in the trash….

Join the queue, and we are all in it. Everyone likes there own. Some with more justification than others.

I recently flat-lined my RH on the data recorder graph. Two weeks sealed up, sat at a nice steady 58%. Gave it a friend, who promptly said it's a bit soft, and left it open overnight.
He still got what he wanted, but I need better friends.

 

[BrassNwood]

I hang it to dry or in brown paper bags. Then Jar it. Sometimes if too dry i put a bit of orange peal into the jar to re-moisten.. or if it weather too humid to dry it properly i put silica gel in jar to finish it off.
I don't find re-moistening over-dried weed to be bad for the smoke/potency or anything, and i have never had any mould or similar problems.
IS any of that bad practice?
VG

I was under the impression that a certain amount of moisture in the buds was necessary for the curing and break down of chlorophyl etc. 50-55% RH in the jars which is not bone dry.
Too dry is not great for Terp preservation or other elements relating to potency when you smoke it.
You maybe live somewhere hot and dry? and this plays into what i was saying about it depending on your local environment. Where i live if you left bud out of the jar it would more often than not get wetter rather than drier.... but sometimes it could get bone dry. i won't spend money on controlling the environment in a room when i can simply finish the process in a jar to get it that bit drier or to moisten it a bit. if you're commercial then i guess you can't do that so much but i doubt most big commercial growers worry about curing! - not round my way anyway...
I agree with what you say about genetics. i have a few nice clones myself. You cant make sh1t weed into good weed with curing etc but you can still get the best out of the genetics you have by not f*cking up the dry/cure...
VG

How Moisture Content Affects Potency

Did you know that moisture content affects the potency of your cannabis? Moisture content is an important test ensuring quality and safety of cannabis products. Learn more here!

encorelabs.com

But once flower gets "too dry", even if you rehydrate it, it cannot continue the curing process. It's stuck at whatever stage it was when the moisture level went too low. It may smoke slightly smoother (less harsh) by rehydrating it, and it helps to keep it from crumbling to dust, but curing is stopped.

100% with Brunch on this one... I dry for about a 6-7 days until the buds feel crispy on the outside then clip directly into 2L/ half gal jars with a hygrometer and just monitor... I burp jar until around 60% rh and then store them in the dark without opening any more until i want to get to the weed.

Two things interest me very much:

1. I wonder about boveda packs... do they bring only security or also risk? They evaporate and pick up moisture from the air. What does that mean for the buds in direct contact with them?have been a proponent for the last decade but had a few buds with tiny specks of mold in my last harvest with boveda packs
2. The worst thing aside from mold is hay. Some say too dry will give you hay, some say too wet. What is it??

Well i'm no expert either, and there are likely quite a few things going on when curing so who knows. If the terps are driven off by extreme drying then i guess you aren't going to get those back... and again it will depend on how dry is 'dry' which will vary. I don't think the UK climate really gets things super dry so re-wetting may be more forgiving for me. I will agree that over drying is not good practice though !
Curing almost has an element of 'voodoo' to it in that all the processes are not fully known or understood, and we should all do what works best for us i guess.
VG

I find it baffling how we all here on this thread, or even IC mag as a whole, cannot seem to come anywhere near to a conclusion on this topic. That includes me.
Everyone it appears is curing successfully, sometimes doing the exact opposite of others. I get it that everyone is doing it differently as per our individual preferences or experiences but generally bad practices should lead to bad outcomes in the majority of cases and good ones should overwhelmingly work.
Seems not to be the case with curing... for some the hay smell comes from too wet a process, for others from one that's too dry...
I'm not insisting on anything and would be happy to throw all my experience over board in a blink of an eye if a different process gave me better weed but it's all very inconclusive and what gives one guy perfect results seems to ruin the next one's crop...

Hang until stems snap = makes total garbage.

I do believe I can answer most of the questions and fill in damn near all of the blanks. Southern California and right at harvest time (Mid Oct) we get a wind event called a "Santa Ana" or devil winds or...

Never fails I've got buds trimmed and hanging and the humidity drops to 9%. Cold or hot matters little in that bone dry conditions even a few hours are to long for hanging plants.

777 is the ideal drying room. 7 days at 70 degrees and 70% humidity. I like more the 65% range but never mind.

It was years of great smelling harvests and 2 weeks later I'd have weed that smelled like hay and smoked like inhaling liquid fire before I understood what was going wrong. Dry too fast it stinks like mowed lawn clippings. Dry too deep it burns the throat like broken glass and it'll never cure to boot. It forced me to learn WTF was going on and how to prevent it.

You only get one shot at getting the dry correct. Dip below 55% relative humidity and all the biological organisms the cure depends on die and won't be back. No do overs on this.

Controlling and slowing the dry was the key I'd been searching for.

Only take down what you can trim before it wilts. Trims best when the leaves are all standing tall.

Hang only until the smallest buds firm up. Remove from branches and cut into thumb to golf ball sized nugs.

Place buds in bags. Out for the day and sealed in a new 33 gallon trash can at night. It'll need less time out and exposed per day as the days pass. It may only need an hour or 2 out of the container that 7th-10th day.

Let your fingers talk to you. Soggy and limp buds = needs more dry time. Dry almost crisp feeling = needs more can time. Dig in and stir things up or flip to another empty bag a couple times a day to keep things drying evenly.

I hang a humidity gauge and check first thing when the can is opened in the morning tells you where you are. 65 % is the goal line.

Half gallon Jars with a 60-gram size / 62% humidity pack in each jar ensures things are perfect for the 60-day minimum cure.
Since we dried to the perfect point before placing in jars there is no need to play burp the jars and guessing if it was long enough.

In effect this mimics the drying room the wife isn't going to give up a bedroom in the house for.

This works in the dry desert southwest so adjust for local humidity. Florida and most of the SE-USA needs a totally different approach with AC to pull the humidity down. Window screens on sawhorses in the living room and the AC down to 60 degrees.

 

[BrassNwood]

If you must re-hydrate use a few drops of chlorinated tap water. Food is crawling with bacteria so never use oranges or bread or... It won't help smell or taste, but it will keep it from crumbling to dust when handled.

 

[VerdantGreen]

Everything is crawling with bacteria! if you get any mould/festering issues after re-hydration then it is because you have re-hydrated too much imo and given the bacteria or mould spores (which will always be present) an environment in which it can multiply. Never once have i had mould/festering issues with cannabis drying or in a jar. A thumbnail piece of orange peal is enough in a quart jar to ever-so-slightly rehydrate it, and i think the good thing is that it is not orange peal is not 'wet', the tiny bit of moisture in it will take a couple of days to slowly evaporate out and moisten the weed.

If you must re-hydrate use a few drops of chlorinated tap water. Food is crawling with bacteria so never use oranges or bread or... It won't help smell or taste, but it will keep it from crumbling to dust when handled.

 

[VerdantGreen]

Everyone it appears is curing successfully, sometimes doing the exact opposite of others.

Hey @Chevy cHaze it's a good point. This perhaps tells us that curing is a fairly forgiving process.. or it tells us that we aren't very objective about how useful our curing is ! and also that local conditions will influence how best to do a good cure.
And, as pointed out, curing is only one part of the equation of getting yourself a ja of good homegrown... genetics and grow method/skills are both have a much bigger influence on that.

VG

 

[Wolverine97]

Hang until stems snap = makes total garbage.

I do believe I can answer most of the questions and fill in damn near all of the blanks. Southern California and right at harvest time (Mid Oct) we get a wind event called a "Santa Ana" or devil winds or...

Never fails I've got buds trimmed and hanging and the humidity drops to 9%. Cold or hot matters little in that bone dry conditions even a few hours are to long for hanging plants.

777 is the ideal drying room. 7 days at 70 degrees and 70% humidity. I like more the 65% range but never mind.

It was years of great smelling harvests and 2 weeks later I'd have weed that smelled like hay and smoked like inhaling liquid fire before I understood what was going wrong. Dry too fast it stinks like mowed lawn clippings. Dry too deep it burns the throat like broken glass and it'll never cure to boot. It forced me to learn WTF was going on and how to prevent it.

You only get one shot at getting the dry correct. Dip below 55% relative humidity and all the biological organisms the cure depends on die and won't be back. No do overs on this.

Controlling and slowing the dry was the key I'd been searching for.

View attachment 19110961

Only take down what you can trim before it wilts. Trims best when the leaves are all standing tall.

View attachment 19110965

Hang only until the smallest buds firm up. Remove from branches and cut into thumb to golf ball sized nugs.

View attachment 19110975

Place buds in bags. Out for the day and sealed in a new 33 gallon trash can at night. It'll need less time out and exposed per day as the days pass. It may only need an hour or 2 out of the container that 7th-10th day.

Let your fingers talk to you. Soggy and limp buds = needs more dry time. Dry almost crisp feeling = needs more can time. Dig in and stir things up or flip to another empty bag a couple times a day to keep things drying evenly.

View attachment 19110976

I hang a humidity gauge and check first thing when the can is opened in the morning tells you where you are. 65 % is the goal line.

View attachment 19110977

Half gallon Jars with a 60-gram size / 62% humidity pack in each jar ensures things are perfect for the 60-day minimum cure.
Since we dried to the perfect point before placing in jars there is no need to play burp the jars and guessing if it was long enough.

In effect this mimics the drying room the wife isn't going to give up a bedroom in the house for.

This works in the dry desert southwest so adjust for local humidity. Florida and most of the SE-USA needs a totally different approach with AC to pull the humidity down. Window screens on sawhorses in the living room and the AC down to 60 degrees.

I disagree with most of that. And you shouldn't need boveda packs if you're drying properly. I don't burp. My stuff will stay very nice, stored at room temp in mason jars, for several years (most strains, some do not store well in general).

 

[Wolverine97]

If you must re-hydrate use a few drops of chlorinated tap water. Food is crawling with bacteria so never use oranges or bread or... It won't help smell or taste, but it will keep it from crumbling to dust when handled.

No chlorinated anything, ever... oxidation is the opposite of what you want to happen. Any amount of chlorine is going to cause oxidation, that's what it does.

 

[420PyRoS]

Hang dry until outside bud gets crunchy but still kinda squishy. Usually just prior to snapping stems.

Throw in jars to continue long/slow process of DRYING the bud while burping the offgassing and RH buildup over a few weeks.

Usually I'll open jars for 5 - 10 mins. Then seal again daily. Sometimes twice a day early in the process.

Do this until buds formally dry enough that you can seal without mold issues (ideally 62% RH) for long term storage/cure. Usually still want a slight bit of moisture to continue the Chlorophyll breakdown.

Best process i found to bring out the flavors.

 

[Hiddenjems]

Best process i found to bring out the flavors.

When I trim my deathstar my eyes literally swell up and water. It never smells any stronger than this. In fact the older it gets the less powerful, but more complicated the smell gets.

Some other strains I grow don’t have much nose as they grow. These are the ones that need coaxing for smell/taste.

The longer I do this the more I realize that every step of the process is strain dependent.

 

[Wolverine97]

When I trim my deathstar my eyes literally swell up and water. It never smells any stronger than this. In fact the older it gets the less powerful, but more complicated the smell gets.

Some other strains I grow don’t have much nose as they grow. These are the ones that need coaxing for smell/taste.

The longer I do this the more I realize that every step of the process is strain dependent.

I love long cured Death Star. I'm finishing off a jar from three years ago, as my nightcap smoke. The nuances of flavor that come through after a long cure are beautiful. Very different than when fresh. Not better, not worse. Different, but far more complex.

 

[Wolverine97]

Hang dry until outside bud gets crunchy but still kinda squishy. Usually just prior to snapping stems.

Throw in jars to continue long/slow process of DRYING the bud while burping the offgassing and RH buildup over a few weeks.

Usually I'll open jars for 5 - 10 mins. Then seal again daily. Sometimes twice a day early in the process.

Do this until buds formally dry enough that you can seal without mold issues (ideally 62% RH) for long term storage/cure. Usually still want a slight bit of moisture to continue the Chlorophyll breakdown.

Best process i found to bring out the flavors.

I used to do it similarly. But now I'm happier without burping. You just have to catch it at just the right stage of drying. But if you get it right, you don't need to burp at all. I'm the pickiest weed person that I know, have been doing this for almost 30 years now. The best method I have found, that is rock solid consistent, is what I posted above, back maybe a page or so.