Water cure

[sunyata]

Has anyone here tried water curing bud? From what I can tell you do likely lose various terps, but also lose a lot of rubbish you don't necessarily need in your lung...

I tried it a little and generally seems it's less productive in terms of vapour but effects are nice and potent and it's a very fine and clean taste

Just keen to hear opinions/experiences, I'm pretty back and forth on it

 

[Madri-Gal]

Has anyone here tried water curing bud? From what I can tell you do likely lose various terps, but also lose a lot of rubbish you don't necessarily need in your lung...

I tried it a little and generally seems it's less productive in terms of vapour but effects are nice and potent and it's a very fine and clean taste

Just keen to hear opinions/experiences, I'm pretty back and forth on it

I have water cured. I also wash my bud at harvest. I don't use cold or hot water, and the terps are fine. I'm curing now, and been meaning to water cure the trim for cooking. The benefit and drawback for me is loss of flavor, but I don't want the flavor in my edibles.

 

[sunyata]

Wash as in rinse? What's the idea behind that?

Interesting, definitely makes sense with the edibles. I find it primarily chances flavour for me, bit brighter usually. Like make more of the lemony type notes pop a fair bit

 

[Madri-Gal]

Wash as in one 5 gallon bucket with lukewarm water and lemon juice, minute swish and soak. Second lukewarm bucket with baking soda for a minute, then final bucket for rinse. Then I start the drying process. I do this to get off dust, bugs, etc. I wash my vegetables and I wash my weed. First bucket is dirty, second not bad, and by the third everything is clean. If I want to water cure a few jars, I then start. I don't want to vape dirt and bugs, so this is how I deal with it.

 

[kilo]

I always water cure any buds that I plan to use for balms, salves, and oil, but I don't wash, assuming the prolonged soaking and water changes do the same thing. I like it because it means I'll have stuff I can either store or use in a week. I fill one gallon commercial mayonnaise jars half full of fresh buds and add water to the top. I have some wooden discs that float on top and keep the weed submersed. I change the water once a day — sometimes twice if it looks particularly grungy — for five days (pick on Monday, drain and hang on Saturday.) It dries very quickly. This saves me a lot of labor while I'm monitoring the condition of my slow-curing buds for vaping.

As far as rinsing freshly harvested weed (not the sdame as water curing), it's a great idea and I wish I'd known about it sooner. I prefer using powdered citric acid (sold for canning) instead of lemon juice. I use 3 buckets, baking soda, citric acid, and H202 but other people have their own techniques which work as well. Really, if rinsing destroyed your crop, I don't think it would still be widely advocated.

 

[Q_]

Wash as in one 5 gallon bucket with lukewarm water and lemon juice, minute swish and soak. Second lukewarm bucket with baking soda for a minute, then final bucket for rinse. Then I start the drying process. I do this to get off dust, bugs, etc. I wash my vegetables and I wash my weed. First bucket is dirty, second not bad, and by the third everything is clean. If I want to water cure a few jars, I then start. I don't want to vape dirt and bugs, so this is how I deal with it.

I do the exact same wash routine, but dry and cure normally. Totally agree about the dust and bugs and stuff. Weed's sticky and has a lot of surface area so it collects a lot more crap than a tomato or something like that.

 

[ginolicious]

I do not due a water cure. I do a hydrogen peroxide wash and then I do a rinse with fresh water afterwards. I did this for my last harvest, outdoor plant. Removes and bugs, powdery mildew and anything unwanted that may make it to your lungs It is a lot cleaner. Now I am vaping on CBD bud, high CBD. I never did a wash like this before so I cannot comment on the taste or the terps. My buds are curing in jars for the past week. What I can say, is my buds do smell fresh as fuck and am excited to try them. That is for sure.

You always rinse your lettuce before making a salad, why wouldnt you do that with your weed before you smoke it?

 

[hoptimum]

I have a French press that I use exclusively for water curing my abv. THC isn't water soluble, so I'm not worried about losing potency.
After making coconut oil and tinctures with and without curing, I can say that the flavor is a lot better when you water cure. Mostly I notice that you don't end up with that unpleasant chlorophyll taste.

 

[simplywonderful]

Wash as in one 5 gallon bucket with lukewarm water and lemon juice, minute swish and soak. Second lukewarm bucket with baking soda for a minute, then final bucket for rinse. Then I start the drying process. I do this to get off dust, bugs, etc. I wash my vegetables and I wash my weed. First bucket is dirty, second not bad, and by the third everything is clean. If I want to water cure a few jars, I then start. I don't want to vape dirt and bugs, so this is how I deal with it.

can you be more specific on amounts of soda and lemon juice? also wouldnt the baking soda mess with natural ph?

 

[Madri-Gal]

can you be more specific on amounts of soda and lemon juice? also wouldnt the baking soda mess with natural ph?

I fill three 5 gallon bucket with lukewarm water. The first had a couple if table spoons of lemon juice. I grow lemons, so I just cut a lemon in half and give a squeeze. I swish the branches around, then let them sit a minute. The second bucket has a couple of tablespoons of baking soda, and the branches are swisher then sit for about 30 seconds. The final pail is clear water, and a good swish to rinse, then I hang over the bathtub to drip, then they are moved to the drying room. The first pail gets dirty quickest, of course, so it gets changed the most, the second pail stays pretty clean, and the third is pretty clean at the end.
I wouldn't not clean my plants this way. Too much yucky stuff I don't want to vape, and it's just part of the harvest and cure by now.

 

[Vapefanatic]

Water curing imo is not for everyone. Those in hot and humid equatorial climates would wanna stay clear unless you don't mind a hefty AC bill? At those humidity levels (whole year long, mind you), you're just asking for mold.

Salads don't have trichs. I'd imagine the trichs not dissolving in water but gets knocked off into the water. At least a pretty significant amount if we dunk it 3 times? Do you filter the water for hash later? I'm thinking not, since you'll be getting some of the yucky stuff in it inevitably? So wouldn't we be losing quite some trichs this way?

Please don't get me wrong. I'm actually trying to learn and see if it can make more sense to me? At the moment, I still can't understand it I guess?

 

[kilo]

It seems there are two subjects under discussion: water curing and bud washing. They are not the same. If you use the water curing technique you don't need to wash your buds. If you do wash your buds you have the option of continuing on with a full water cure over five days or you can proceed to a typical drying followed by curing in jars or in a curing shed.