Drying out your bud........

[sour]

I take a nug out of my jar before bed and let it sit out until I get home from work the next day. Then I grind it up. Each pd stem gets loaded right from the sharpstone grinder

 

[Qbit]

Bump.

This topic could use revisiting. And besides, we've been doing a bit of archaeology around here lately.

As for me, I've found drying to be compulsory for the MFLB (it needs a fine grind), and optional but useful for the PD. Useful because I find it cashes the stem better when dry, though it alters the flavour (and I'm not sure it's in a bad way). A bit of a trade off as the PD isn't a big hitter, so the vapour can be a bit thin if your herb isn't fully dried. Fine for the 1st stem of the day, but not for the 10th. (Mind you my PD is out of action at present).

With the SSV I'm still experimenting. I've only had the vape for 2 weeks and until today I've only used regular weed. But the extra-dried stuff I've had today seemed to work just fine too. I'll need to give it a while longer before I draw any conclusions.

 

[Abysmal Vapor]

I popular quick method to dry a crop in my country is to place is on a screen with a fan blowing against Humidity absorbers.. 10$ at every home depot.. the more you use the smaller the drying space is the faster the drying.
If you have small amount of bud.. Use one of those packages that you can find in your shoes when you buy them or cigars.. Its has signature DO NOT MICROWAVE.. I think it is Silica.. Place in a dry jar.. For single buds you can wrap together in paper.. if you dont have a jar.. or place it under coffee cup plate..

 

[SirElton]

I usually grind up a nug or two for my MZ and leave it in the grinder to air out. I think the difference is too miniscule to really concern yourself. It all depends on if the Cadbury has been grown + cured properly, the vape you are using, and your technique.

I find that dried Cadbury vapes easier, but after the first hit its all dried out anyway.

 

[Egzoset]

Hi,

With my HerbalAire it's easy enough to cut a sample from a live plant and drop it directly into the crucible for some rudimentary curing, before vaporization can actually begin. I've tried it and it seems to work but i'm not sure about my timing... A cold HA would need less than a minute to warm up enough for the curing cycle to start, i guess, so i load my crucible and install the ballon about half a minute after i've turned the power on. Five minutes later i raise the temperature setting from 120 C (~250 F) to my favourite vaporist spot - which ranges somewhere between 175 C (~350 F) and 192 C (~375 F). I save full power vaping for my last bag(s).

What's nice with such a method is that manipulations are limited to the strict minimum, that way my precious trichromes never touch anything until the sample is in the bowl.

Forget cleaning tools, grinders, etc.: no mess! I can have a preliminary "evaluation" of my nuggets simply enough but i'm not sure that's suitable for real tasting. It's certainly convenient though!

Opinions?

 

[Egzoset]

Forget the whole thing, an HerbalAire would need to have a temperature range which starts at 60 C (140 F)! Which reminds me that the upper limit needs to be extended too, say 277 C (531 F), for those who might wish to vaporize Salvia Divinorum (Hummm... Maybe i need to mention that to the HerbalAire people!)...



Anyway, i just found out by browsing the web yesterday that 250 F is way too high for the purpose of accelerated "curing".

 

[Egzoset]

Woups! I keep messing up again and it seems there's nobody here to correct me when i do that!...

:/

Well... Goggle now tells me that cannabis vaporization starts at 55 C (131 F), which means 60 C (140 F) is way too high for the purpose of "curing" buds quickly!!! At least the Volcano Digit has got that part done right: its lower limit being 40 C (104 F) this makes accelerated curing possible to its owners. In a HerbalAire the lower limit is 120 C (~250 F), i hope the manufacturer won't overlook such details any further, especially in v3!



In fact, i respectfully submit to the attention of the HerbalAire people that the v3 temperature range should cover from 40 C (104 F) to 277 C (531 F) and i'll add that multi-speed airflow (when using bags) wouldn't hurt too!



Oh, i sense it coming... 277 C (531 F) is too hot! Correct, it IS hot indeed but this would allow Salvia Divinorum vaporization and i foresee some additional benefit: that much heat could be used to auto-clean the crucible and mouthpiece when in a hurry and/or when there's no 94 % pure alcohol handy (and/or when the local liquor store is closed)! My bet is that at 277 C (531 F) a clogged main teflon mouthpiece would have its pores opened again by turning the goo into dust... Of course, we're speaking about an "emergency case" here, having access to a range of 40 C - 277 C (104 F - 531 F) doesn't mean one should absolutely use it all - not to mention that i really have no idea if teflon can actually withstand heat at 277 C (531 F), euh...

Anyway, you get the idea!...

 

[notmyrealUSERname]

I don't think any grinder can do a good job grinding up fresh sticky stuff, but I will be happy to be told otherwise.

Yeah, I know, I just have to decide for myself. What I am wondering is not so much about the taste or how easy it is to use, in a particular vaporizer, but rather, does it lose or gain strength as it dries? Seems like that should be a known fact; that it would have been researched and the truth known about this aspect of it...

I've heard people argue over whether fresh or dried bud is better and I've never seen any scientific fact about it.

I would say that with the vapor genie, it seems that dried bud works better than fresh bud. Anyone disagree with that?

i was looking around for some info and i came across this study:

the volatile oil composition of fresh and air dryed cannabis sativa

if you air dry your bud then you are losing medicinal qualities.


egzoset: i have heard of people 'curing' their stuff in the microwave!!!!!!
i wouldn't recommend it of course! just remember the best things come to those who wait, - patience is a virtue. if you try to hurry it up you will be forced to comprimise something - taste, effectiveness, wieght, etc.

 

[Egzoset]

Thanks for the piece of information, i read it right away but i fear i'm simply missing your point: the more i wait to consume it the less volatile oil ingredients i get?... Is that it!?

My intuition tells me this old (1985-Jan-12) paper needs to be interpreted differently, right?...



Forget microwaving bugs in any case! As far as i'm concerned the difference (which measures in minutes!) just doesn't justify such a harsh process.

 

[notmyrealUSERname]

the microwave thing was a joke of course! i wasn't really suggesting you do it - just pointing out the crazy stuff people will try in order to speed things up.

anyways, my point is that this study is related to this discussion because the threadtitle is "drying out your bud", this study proves that its not a good idea. the study also relates to prior discussion within the thread, specifically, it backs up nicelytoasted's opinion: "The terpenes and terpenoids that give the mj it's taste and flavour also synergystically contribute to the high as well. Drying loses the volatile terps, robbing it of the taste and the overall buzz, imo".

there;s not really anything to interpret differently about the study - it just didn't apply to the info your seeking i guess. i am not really sure what your after - do you need to know how to cure your stuff quickly, or are you trying to design a vape that can cure your stuff during a session, or are you looking for a vape that can deal with uncured stuff?

btw,i thought that it was cool that its necessary to air dry your stuff in order for it to cure properly but you can actually reduce its effectiveness if you 'cure' it too long - so if you plotted it on a graph you would get a parabolic curve. so its good to be patient - in order for your stuff to cure properly, but being too patient isn't good either. thats all.

 

[Egzoset]

Good morning!

Don't worry, i'm not at risk to even be tempted to put my weed in a microwave oven really!



I knew i'd probably want to experiment with gardening last spring when it became clear that i was moving to a small country-side town where there are no "contacts" for me to call... This means i only have access to live cannabis buds which i must harvest myself when i feel it's time.

The paper you refered me to sort of appears to be an argument in favour of limited intervention, so to speak. Today i understand that my 1st attempt to "cure" fresh nuggets in the HerbalAire's crucible, when its heater is still on (...), euh... Well, it sure was a gross mistake but i couldn't cope with this particular issue more suitably at the time because i'm not just gardening after all: this hobby embraces activities which can keep one quite busy (and "buzzy" too!)... For example, trying to do some nice macro-photography with a 100 $ Kodak is almost a science. Catching THE feature of the day may require to go through dozens of snapshots before a valid candidate image can be found (unless a professional photographer is hired, that is!)...



You see, i mean newbie vaporists like me need to become their own gurus sometimes - so, there are consequences. In theory practically all the information i might need happens to be found out there, if i search hard and long enough, but real life necessities interfere on occasions... The subject of vaporizers alone sufficed to keep me on my toes for a while and i've found that self-cultivation proves to be equally involving. Too bad i didn't learn everything i needed to know before i started!

Yet here i am with a 3rd plant growing a batch of nice cannabis nuggets and i also got some freshly harvested buds in a Mason jar besides. Quite frankly, i'll be candid and confess that i didn't even care to verify in my HA manual in case it explained anything about "curing", actually (euh... but i bet it doesn't anyway, right)?... All i knew after i cut some green was that i wanted to "sample" it on the spot! To make sure...



There's long-term drying and there's accelerated drying, other than that i fail to grasp what it means to "cure" properly under the present circumstances. My trees are less than twenty inches high, harvesting dwarf autofems only produces relatively small amounts of weed but i find it rather convenient because two weeks seperated each germination, almost making continuous self-supply a reality (10 days instead of 14 would seem more appropriate so far). In any case, about my suggestion to the effect that the lower temperature limit of a vaporizer should reach as low as 40 C (104 F), it IS related to "accelerated curing": in my mind having the additional option to consume fresh buds quickly would be an asset, not a defect.

I feel like, with the benefit of vaporization, i can grow weed which provides quality experience that nearly compares to whatever used to be possible when i was still buying on the street. The kitchen oven technique worked sufficiently well for me, a few days later the remaining buds still loose some water (slowly) in my Mason jar and i can tell they've gained potency too except i can forget the "Couch-Lock" effect since that weed is Sativa-dominant and its THC concentration doesn't qualify as that of a "bomb" (i self-cultivate behind a window with no artificial light sources, after all)...

It's great to have the choice over which strain i wish to consume, the way i see it the weed in my Mason jar won't get older than 7 to 10 days after each harvest and i bought a trio of them in case i'd need to start "rotating". So yes, i guess i'm trying to deal with fresh (uncured) material, exactly!

 

[djonkoman]

curing is basically extremely slow drying, but do this too quick and it will cause mold, so you have to wait till there's not enough moisture in the buds to sustain mold/fungus, and then the curing can begin
IME curing is especially beneficial for sativa's(becomes smoother and produces more vapor after a cure of a few months)
also it changes the smell/taste a bit, less 'grass' smell and the subtle undertones come out more

 

[VaporNation]

I'm not a big fan of letting my bud too crispy, my personal preference is to keep all of my herb in a jar and only remove some just prior to using it.

 

[Egzoset]

I don't think i'm going to be the kind of guy who waits for months after his weed to "mature" in a dark-'n-dry place... Well, i decided to proceed to a second partial harverst recently so i sent my buds to the oven after i measured its temperature as being 51 C (55 C is the absolute lower-range limit of vaporisation)... That's dark-'n-dry enough and not too hot so i must have forgot my "samples" there for about twenty minutes i guess. Since i often use a water toy it doesn't matter much how well their smell is preserved as long as i get a decent "hit" anyway! And decent hits i do get, no problem with that!

 

[crawdad]

There is no scientific fact about it. The government and big industry fund 95+% of all scientific studies, and they have no interest in dry vs. wet buds.

Bud gets better with age, like all the finer things. The best buds I ever had was an eighth left in a small mason jar under my bed in a cabin miles away from civilization. I forgot it there and didn't some back for two years. I never vaped it though, but it was an incredible smoke. Completely mellow high. Sitting there with a friend, eating a beaver, and smoking a wooden pipe. No one else for miles.

I haven't had the patience to replicate the results - I always vape it all. The closest I got was six months, but most the bud I smoke is cured 1-3 months. The science behind it, off the top of my head, is that some of the THC converts to CBN over time.

It is a matter of opinion. The next time that I cure bud for two years, I will tell of my results.

ive had a similar experience, i acquired a jar that was 3 years old and produced some of the most intense experiences to date based on the amount i had, it was like 1 bowl of it was about 3-4 bowls of my usual, and the strain was the same.

im in the process right now where im trying to determine the right time to begin vaping some very green herb, was cut not too long ago...dried and super sticky, but not really cured much i dont think. reading grow logs (not doing grow talk here) and such it seems the curing process (which i guess is essentially a clever word for "dont use it yet") does allow for additional chemical processes, perhaps to turn one chem into another but also perhaps to release even more of a chemical as it continues to dry out over a long period of time.

Curing makes the bud uniformly dry and converts virtually all THC into its psychoactive form.

im experimenting with this concept now and thus far it does appear to become more potent as i leave it, just not sure how long i should go before some of the cannabinoids actually begin to change (such as thc to something else, assuming that is possible).

sorry if i missed a link or comment explaining this already.

 

[crawdad]

finally found it in my bookmarks (i'll have to organize them one of these days)...

Cannabinoid Conversion

Naturally, as the metabolic processes continue during curing, the conversion of cannabergerol to tetrahydrocannabinol will continue and the potency of the pot will increase. This is because cannabergerol (CBG) is the non-psychoactive precursor for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Of course, the exact change in THC content will necessarily be dependant upon the concentration of CBG in the fresh material at harvest. Of course any remaining precursors necessary to form additional cannabidiol (CBD) and other cannabinoids will also be consumed and converted.

Be aware though if curing is excessively prolonged (most connoisseurs would agree after 6 months no more benefit could be had from curing), the conversion of THC to non-psychoactive cannabinol (CBN) will occur. The exact rate of decomposition can vary widely depending on handling and storage conditions, but can be less than 10% to greater than 40% decomposition per year.

source (although i see no sources from which it was presented from)

i think this is useful info for those who get handed recently picked herbs, before i knew i would just hit it and deal with the additional moisture and figured it was as good as it was going to get...now i wait, not only for dryness but for a fullness.

 

[Nosferatu]

Weed is ready to consume when it has either been water cured for 7 days or air cured until it can be crumbled to a powder between your fingers, only then is the process finished. No grinder necessary.

 

[Bodhi Diesel]

Weed is ready to consume when it has either been water cured for 7 days or air cured until it can be crumbled to a powder between your fingers, only then is the process finished. No grinder necessary.

If it can be crumbled to powder between your fingers.... It's too dry.

 

[Qbit]

Weed is ready to consume when it has either been water cured for 7 days or air cured until it can be crumbled to a powder between your fingers, only then is the process finished. No grinder necessary.

If it can be crumbled to powder between your fingers.... It's too dry.

It may not be optimally dry for smoking, but it'll be fine for vaping.

 

[Nosferatu]

I dont agree that its too dry, the smoothest, tastiest weed I have ever smoked has been fully cured like this. And it was outdoor a Rastafarian gave me. But I should have said I meant for vaping. In my opinion the more you cure the bud the smoother and more potent it gets, along with an equal decline in the sideffects. And when it finally gets bone dry, I dont see why that would suddenly be too dry?

 

[Bodhi Diesel]

It may not be optimally dry for smoking, but it'll be fine for vaping.

I dont agree that its too dry, the smoothest, tastiest weed I have ever smoked has been fully cured like this. And it was outdoor a Rastafarian gave me. But I should have said I meant for vaping. In my opinion the more you cure the bud the smoother and more potent it gets, along with an equal decline in the sideffects. And when it finally gets bone dry, I dont see why that would suddenly be too dry?

Let me repeat more clearly...

FOR VAPING, IF THE BUD CRUMBLES INTO POWDER BETWEEN YOUR FINGERS....IT'S TOO F'ING DRY !!!

Finely ground is best, not powder.

 

[Qbit]

It may not be optimally dry for smoking, but it'll be fine for vaping.

I dont agree that its too dry, the smoothest, tastiest weed I have ever smoked has been fully cured like this. And it was outdoor a Rastafarian gave me. But I should have said I meant for vaping. In my opinion the more you cure the bud the smoother and more potent it gets, along with an equal decline in the sideffects. And when it finally gets bone dry, I dont see why that would suddenly be too dry?

Let me repeat more clearly...

FOR VAPING, IF THE BUD CRUMBLES INTO POWDER BETWEEN YOUR FINGERS....IT'S TOO F'ING DRY !!!

Finely ground is best, not powder.

With typical convection vapes, sure. But with a MFLB, powder works wonderfully.

Super-dry is fine for any vape, but just because you can crumble your bud into a powder, doesn't mean you must.

 

[Bodhi Diesel]

With typical convection vapes, sure. But with a MFLB, powder works wonderfully.

Super-dry is fine for any vape, but just because you can crumble your bud into a powder, doesn't mean you must.

I don't care what kind of vape you're using.

I've been growing and curing marijuana full-time for over 30 years.

If you can crumble a bud into POWDER between your fingers, IT IS TOO DRY !!!

 

[Qbit]

With typical convection vapes, sure. But with a MFLB, powder works wonderfully.

Super-dry is fine for any vape, but just because you can crumble your bud into a powder, doesn't mean you must.

I don't care what kind of vape you're using.

I guess you've never used a MFLB before then, as many owners use electric grinders to make really fine powder. The finer the bud is powdered, the more contact with the mesh heating element, the fatter the clouds.

I've been growing and curing marijuana full-time for over 30 years.

Sure - for smoking, around 15% moisture is optimal. But this isn't about smoking, or growing. It's about drying your bud for vaping.

If you can crumble a bud into POWDER between your fingers, IT IS TOO DRY !!!

No, not for vaping it isn't.

 

[Bodhi Diesel]

With typical convection vapes, sure. But with a MFLB, powder works wonderfully.

Super-dry is fine for any vape, but just because you can crumble your bud into a powder, doesn't mean you must.

Did you not just read that I don't care what type of vape you're using?

I guess you've never used a MFLB before then, as many owners use electric grinders to make really fine powder. The finer the bud is powdered, the more contact with the mesh heating element, the fatter the clouds.

That doesn't mean the bud is bone dry, just that it is FINELY GROUND.

I've been growing and curing marijuana full-time for over 30 years.

Sure, for smoking. Around 15% moisture is optimal.

FOR VAPING... I haven't smoked for over 10 years.

If you can crumble a bud into POWDER between your fingers, IT IS TOO DRY !!!

No, not for vaping it isn't.

For anything other than extraction, it is too dry.