Pre-drying bud with silica desiccant. Decarboxylating?

[Qbit]

I bought a bunch of silica sachets off Ebay for a few dollars to experiment with, and so I tried adding 3 or 4 to a pill bottle with a couple of nugs. When I checked them a few hours later they were very crispy. And the herb vapes very well like this. (You 'recharge' the desiccant by baking it at a low heat for an hour). So yeah, a good way to dry your herb without having to heat it, and better for flavour.

I'm thinking though, with my limited grasp of the chemistry, that dehydrating the herb like this is decrboxylating it, so if you're cooking unvaped weed, this could be a great alternative step to pre-baking.

 

[djonkoman]

as far as I know, decarboxylation is independant of dryness, it involves temperature.

also a while ago I was looking into silica for drying purposes, and I found online that apparently some catlitter is silica too, some is mixed claypellets and silica, but there should be catlitters that are nothing but silica, so that way you could buy it cheaper if you need more as just a few of those little bags

 

[Pcpvapors]

I used to fill the large wand on my SSV and set it right where I can feel vapor but cannot see it and just puff puff puff for a good 15-20 minutes, that way it was decarbed and still most full of all the goodies.

 

[stickstones]

kitty litter...not just for oil spills!

 

[ilikesnacks]

never thought to do this, i usually just leave pot out on my desk it needs a little drying out - i think i'm going to give this a shot though, i'm sure i have a few of these packages around.

 

[SativaLover420]

I wouldnt do this personally, just wouldnt want to mix something that im not supposed to consume with my herbs.

 

[Qbit]

I wouldnt do this personally, just wouldnt want to mix something that im not supposed to consume with my herbs.

Well, you don't put the bud into direct contact with the silica. And if you want to be super careful and make sure the bud doesn't even touch the sachets, you can wrap it in paper or something.

 

[OO]

I feel djonkoman is correct in this instance, as the water being removed is coming from the plant cells, not the acidic compounds. it may decarboxylate to some small extent though, but I doubt it's a significant one. I believe heat is necessary for the reaction to take place.

I wouldnt do this personally, just wouldnt want to mix something that im not supposed to consume with my herbs.

no beef jerky for you.

 

[DreamTime]

Practically speaking, heat is needed for decarboxilation. Here is a good article that covers the topic:
http://skunkpharmresearch.com/decarboxylation/

 

[pakalolo]

I wouldnt do this personally, just wouldnt want to mix something that im not supposed to consume with my herbs.

Heh. All of my desiccant packets came in various medication bottles. I'll take my chances.

 

[djonkoman]

the reason it says '' do not eat'' is because if you did it would pull water from your body, as far as I know it''s not toxic besides that. and especially with a layer of paper in between it seems retty sagfe to me

 

[kingofnull]

Heh. All of my desiccant packets came in various medication bottles. I'll take my chances.

Lol, I was just going to say 'If it's safe for medical use...'

 

[Tweek]

I just dry my herb by speaking to it. I'm that boring....

I use those packs all the time. Just save em up any time I buy a pair of shoes, or as already mentioned, my vitties.

 

[Roger D]

I found this topic a couple weeks ago, and have been thinking about an alternative solution since.
Yesterday, I boiled 150g of raw sea salt in water, filtered it to get it clear, and then let all the water evaporate to the point the salt does not contain any kind of water and is really hot and starts to burn residues. I let the odors go, then I wrapped it up in some alimentary paper, putting it in the bottom of my stash jar. I had like a .8 left still not perfectly dry, in one night it has become crumbly like I've never seen a bud before. And it is 100% natural and safe. You don't know how silica desiccants are made, and for me that's a concern. My solution is available at everyone house, now, if you don't know how to get some bud dry in a air tight environment, this is for you. Pretty sure you can even dry a whole fresh batch that way with a lot of salt.

To simplify, just heat some unaltered fine salt, then wrap it in alimentary paper. You have now a moisture absorbent unit.

 

[Qbit]

Nice trick, Roger. Though I think you might be being a little over cautious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silica_gel#Hazards

As long as you use sachets of food-grade silica (like what you find in a pill bottle), it'll be fine. Cat litter silica should be ok too. And if you're really paranoid, you can just wrap your bud in paper to keep it totally separate from the sachets.

 

[Roger D]

Thanks ! By the way silica packs can't reload like I can with the salt, I just have to heat it, it seems cheaper and widely available, you can use a bunch to get faster results.
There is nothing over cautious for me

I'm trying it on a larger quantity : 6.9 It was already dry we will see tomorrow how dryer it got. .
How much time it takes to get a certain amount dry for you ?

 

[Qbit]

You can definitely reload silica. A couple of hours at 120C/250F. Mind you, if salt is working for you, then I guess there's no need for silica, except maybe to speed up the process. With silica, it only takes a 3-4 hours, if that (using 4 x 2-gram sachets IIRC - I'm sure it would work even quicker with more).

 

[djonkoman]

was just about to say that you can also redry silica. and with some silica a colorant is added, it becomes blue when saturated with moisture(if I remember correctly), and dry it is pink

 

[Roger D]

Doesn't seems all natural to me
Salt is working but a bit slow. It already extracted .1 of water from the buds, who are crispy but not as much as the first time I did it. Still have to wait

I think I'm gonna try to make a big one to get a super fast dry

 

[z9]

Silica packs come in bags of beef jerky, I think it'd be fine to have the packets with your bud.

That's interesting about the salt, I must try this.

 

[Roger D]

Salt is working but slow. .16 extracted from 7g in 30h. I want it crispy as possible

 

[Roger D]

I have now a bigger version with a kg of salt.

With this method, in three days it extracted .28 of water from 7g of already dry buds (4%), making them so dry, I never seen anything that dry. It crumbles in powders in a matter of seconds, in the vape bowl, it makes almost instant white as f... clouds. I use the small "desiccant jar" to place my loaded bowl, to keep it hyper dry. This way it works so much better it is amazing.

 

[mettle]

I was under the impression that anytime you vaporize or smoke weed that all the THC hitting the air is already decarbed. So drying might help you smoke better, but I believe its only necessary to decarb for baked goods.