Drying vs Curing

Chalcy · #1 09-24-2006, 03:09 PM

Its getting to be that time so I've been reading up on drying and curing. The more I read the more confused I get between which is which and why.

I've read silvernomad's post on curing http://www.rollitup.org/general-mari...=curing+drying which I think is also from Ed Rosenthal's book, and I read Widow's methods in that same thread.

I read this article on drying
Drying The Marijuana Plant After Harvest and this article on curing from the same site Curing the Marijuana Plant. They seem pretty good. Then I go and read something else that contradicts them.

My questions

-- How are drying and curing different? Even the experts seem to mix the two up somtimes.

-- Is it true you don't need to cure sensimilla?

-- Expert growers, what are your methods of drying and curing. How long do you do each and WHY do you do it that way and that long?

I know this is a lot of questions but all my reading has me more confused than ever on this subject. Widow's methods for both seem easy and fast and I'll probably give them a try, but I'd feel better if I understood what I was doing and why. Thank you all the good help.

Garden Knowm · #2 09-24-2006, 04:54 PM

Hi Chalcy..

I never store marijuana for any long periods of time.. so my method may not be right for you..

1. pick buds and hang upside down on clothes hangers and do some manicuring
2. after 3-10 days, finish manicure and place into containers.. glass jars, baggies etc..
3. Everyday, the bags/jars are opened for 10-60 minutes, the buds are looked at and touched and inspected very thoroughly to make sure they are dry enough to maintain weight ($$$) but not wet enough to grow mold.. there is NOTHING worse than MOLD....

This opening of the containers is something that is done everyday until the marijuana moves onto its next owner.

4. If for some reason the marijuana gets to DRY.. yikes... Parsley is put into the containers for 24 hours.. this works very very well!!

iloveyou

jackfrost · #3 05-14-2008, 06:10 PM

would bread work the same as parsley? maby ill try it

Dirtyboy · #4 05-14-2008, 06:32 PM

Here is what ya want to here. I hope.

Cut the branches off your plant remove all the fan green leaves. Hang the buds/branches up in the dark for 5 to 7 days. **What this does is get the bulk of the moisture out of the plant.

Put the buds/branches in a air tight container. Open the jar once a day twice a day or once a week or every time ya get a bud out to smoke it. leave the jar open for 10 minutes and repeat this until they are dry dry. ** cureing is slowing the dryin process down to a crawl. So every time ya open the jar they dry a little. The slower the bud dries the better. If one had the perfect temp and a shit load of other factors and just hung the weed up and it took a month for it to dry one would not need to cure it because it dried so slow.

Slow dried bud smokes smooth and smells great. When its drin the bud is releasing the shit that makes the weed taste bad and smell bad. It will only release the shit when its drying. Thats why slower the dry the more shit it can release from the buds.

I hope it makes sense and ya get the idea.

Skate Hawaii · #5 05-14-2008, 10:23 PM

drying is logical. it means to dry the bud.
im not exactly sure what happens when you cure weed but the weed becomes better tasting, less smoke, and a better high. do it for like 3 weeks for a prime smoke.

mrhaappy420 · #6 09-30-2008, 08:04 PM

wow- the lack of simple knowledge is astounding, and disturbing. Let me try to help out.

Drying (more properly desiccating) is simply that- removing the water from the herb so that moisture does not influence the quality of the smoke. A properly dried bud's stem should snap, not bend. Don't listen to fools who advocate leaving your herb wet, as this is both dangerous (despite reassurance of it not being "too wet" for mold, such organisms are opportunists and will readily grow given half a chance, especially if it remains in a closed airtight jar for ~23 hours and 50min a day as some people advocate) and unscrupulous (sellers who sling wet herb are selling you a short sac + H2O. If the herb you're going to buy is wet, someone who doesn't truly care about the quality of this good plant is putting cash over care and trying to get away with it. By knowingly buying a soaked stash, you are supporting this kind of practice- pass on the stash).

To best Dry your herb, remove any large fan leaves and uncrystallized portions of the upper, smaller, leaves. Then hang it upside down in a dark place (sunlight will cause THC degradation and also turn your herb yellow/brown) for anywhere from 5-15 days, depending on temp., air circulation, and humidity. Check on it every so often and when the nugs look like something you would want to smoke, break off a small peice and and sample it. If it gets too dry, to the point of crumbling, you can reconstitute it by placing a few nugs in a jar with a few iceberg lettuce leaves for half a day. Any H2O containing vegatative matter (parsley, orange peels, potato chunk etc) will work, but I like to avoid anything that has a distinctive flavor that could be imparted on my herb- I want to taste my hard grown organic love nugs, not some shitty GM, picked-green, citrus peel from half a world away shipped in curtessy of walmart. Lettuce has a high H2O content and has almost no flavor,so is perfect for this.

Curing (or maturing) your finished herb is a art all unto itself. Some previous posters are semi-correct: curing is, in it's most simplest form, a slow extended drying process. However, I can not recommend the "just open your jar for ten minutes a day blah blah blah" kind of stuff. That only results in herb that has hints of ammonia from degradation and a ripe environment for toxic mold if you are not careful.

What Curing actually does is allows the plant, which is still alive after cutting, to gradually use up all the sugars and starches and other nutrients within it's tissues. This is only done when the cut plants are away from sunlight, otherwise photosynthesis will continue to happen,making more sugars, and a harsher smoke. Ideally, you would cure your plants by having sooo many plants that their combinted release of H20 from drying would raise the hummidity enough to prolong the 'dry' for around a month (think of the pictures you may have seen of tobacco shed down in the south where bundles of plants are hung in the open rafters of attics/sheds- temp. and hummididty could be controlled by opening or closing windows/vents as needed to produce a supple leaf that burns clean with little ash and a clean, rich smoke). Unfortunetly, due to the current legal sysem we find ourselves in, this kind of supper curing is alomost impossible to pull off. Instead, you can simmulate the same conditions by placing your herb in a brown paper bag (never plastic!) somewhere dark and leaving it for ~14-21 days if not longer. The dark stops photosynthesis, and the paper, which is pourous, prevents the hummidity from getting too high causing mold concerns. Check on your herb occasionaly to see how the cure is going and to turn/move the buds, allowing even drying. I've had herb cured this way that stayed in the cure proccess for over a month, and was phenominal, while dried herb from the same plant, ready after only 5 days, was mediocre, producing a harsher, greener tasting smoke.

Remember though, once the herb has throughly dried through, despite using either a dry or cure process, there is virtually no real way to start the cure process again! That is why patience is a virtue! Ofcourse, depending on where you live, such a long curing time may not be practicle (if you live in a desert for exmple). A way to prolong the cure is to double bag the buds- the thicker the paper the slower evaporation will occur.

Hope this has been informative. Remember, never buy wet herb, and never try to sell it either! You are just bringing bad karma on yourself by doing an injustice to this fine plant that we all know and love! Namaste!

smokeh · #7 10-01-2008, 01:41 AM

bottom line is...

u need to dry ur weed. hang in the dark with good air circulation. once the stems 'snap' when u try to break them and not bend. they are done drying. after drying u move to curing.

trim all ur bud. no leaves/stems etc. put them all in air tight jars. open the jars once - twice a day for about 15 - 40 minutes. do this for at least a week.

u wont regret doing it. its the main part of growing weed!

drying obviously drys the buds out.

curing cures the weed. if u didnt cure, u would get a rubbish taste and a rubbish smoke. it was be harsh with probably a grass taste to it. u wont get the full potential of ur bud without a proper dry and cure.

roxistar · #8 10-01-2008, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrhaappy420

wow- the lack of simple knowledge is astounding, and disturbing. Let me try to help out.

Drying (more properly desiccating) is simply that- removing the water from the herb so that moisture does not influence the quality of the smoke. A properly dried bud's stem should snap, not bend. Don't listen to fools who advocate leaving your herb wet, as this is both dangerous (despite reassurance of it not being "too wet" for mold, such organisms are opportunists and will readily grow given half a chance, especially if it remains in a closed airtight jar for ~23 hours and 50min a day as some people advocate) and unscrupulous (sellers who sling wet herb are selling you a short sac + H2O. If the herb you're going to buy is wet, someone who doesn't truly care about the quality of this good plant is putting cash over care and trying to get away with it. By knowingly buying a soaked stash, you are supporting this kind of practice- pass on the stash).

To best Dry your herb, remove any large fan leaves and uncrystallized portions of the upper, smaller, leaves. Then hang it upside down in a dark place (sunlight will cause THC degradation and also turn your herb yellow/brown) for anywhere from 5-15 days, depending on temp., air circulation, and humidity. Check on it every so often and when the nugs look like something you would want to smoke, break off a small peice and and sample it. If it gets too dry, to the point of crumbling, you can reconstitute it by placing a few nugs in a jar with a few iceberg lettuce leaves for half a day. Any H2O containing vegatative matter (parsley, orange peels, potato chunk etc) will work, but I like to avoid anything that has a distinctive flavor that could be imparted on my herb- I want to taste my hard grown organic love nugs, not some shitty GM, picked-green, citrus peel from half a world away shipped in curtessy of walmart. Lettuce has a high H2O content and has almost no flavor,so is perfect for this.

Curing (or maturing) your finished herb is a art all unto itself. Some previous posters are semi-correct: curing is, in it's most simplest form, a slow extended drying process. However, I can not recommend the "just open your jar for ten minutes a day blah blah blah" kind of stuff. That only results in herb that has hints of ammonia from degradation and a ripe environment for toxic mold if you are not careful.

What Curing actually does is allows the plant, which is still alive after cutting, to gradually use up all the sugars and starches and other nutrients within it's tissues. This is only done when the cut plants are away from sunlight, otherwise photosynthesis will continue to happen,making more sugars, and a harsher smoke. Ideally, you would cure your plants by having sooo many plants that their combinted release of H20 from drying would raise the hummidity enough to prolong the 'dry' for around a month (think of the pictures you may have seen of tobacco shed down in the south where bundles of plants are hung in the open rafters of attics/sheds- temp. and hummididty could be controlled by opening or closing windows/vents as needed to produce a supple leaf that burns clean with little ash and a clean, rich smoke). Unfortunetly, due to the current legal sysem we find ourselves in, this kind of supper curing is alomost impossible to pull off. Instead, you can simmulate the same conditions by placing your herb in a brown paper bag (never plastic!) somewhere dark and leaving it for ~14-21 days if not longer. The dark stops photosynthesis, and the paper, which is pourous, prevents the hummidity from getting too high causing mold concerns. Check on your herb occasionaly to see how the cure is going and to turn/move the buds, allowing even drying. I've had herb cured this way that stayed in the cure proccess for over a month, and was phenominal, while dried herb from the same plant, ready after only 5 days, was mediocre, producing a harsher, greener tasting smoke.

Remember though, once the herb has throughly dried through, despite using either a dry or cure process, there is virtually no real way to start the cure process again! That is why patience is a virtue! Ofcourse, depending on where you live, such a long curing time may not be practicle (if you live in a desert for exmple). A way to prolong the cure is to double bag the buds- the thicker the paper the slower evaporation will occur.

Hope this has been informative. Remember, never buy wet herb, and never try to sell it either! You are just bringing bad karma on yourself by doing an injustice to this fine plant that we all know and love! Namaste!

This is the right way to do it ^^^^

Step 1: Dry buds by hanging them or laying them out on drying screens. This should be done in a cool (ideal temps 60-70 degrees) dark area (stops sugar production; photosynthesis) with good air circulation. The amount of time depends on the humidity (ideal humidity less than 80%) and temperature of your drying area and the density of your buds. Stems should snap not bend. Never use heat, light, or excessive DIRECT air (fans pointed on them). All of those things will cause harsh smoke and crumbly buds.

Step 2: Put your buds in brown PAPER bags, don't over fill. This does two things; it stops photosynthesis (sugar production), like the poster above explained, and it allows the buds to continue to dry but at a slower rate. The paper bags will help absorb excessive moisture from the buds without overdrying because it remains slightly humid inside the bag but not enough so to cause mold (unless you do not dry them properly first). The amount of time depends on the humidity, dew point, temp, and the density of you buds.

Step 3: Put buds into mason/canning jars, it's important to not over fill them. Open jars daily for a 10-20 minutes to allow air exchange (also called burping).

Step 4: Take out some buds, smoke.

henrystyle · #9 10-02-2008, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roxistar

This is the right way to do it ^^^^

Step 1: Dry buds by hanging them or laying them out on drying screens. This should be done in a cool (ideal temps 60-70 degrees) dark area (stops sugar production; photosynthesis) with good air circulation. The amount of time depends on the humidity (ideal humidity less than 80%) and temperature of your drying area and the density of your buds. Stems should snap not bend. Never use heat, light, or excessive DIRECT air (fans pointed on them). All of those things will cause harsh smoke and crumbly buds.

Step 2: Put your buds in brown PAPER bags, don't over fill. This does two things; it stops photosynthesis (sugar production), like the poster above explained, and it allows the buds to continue to dry but at a slower rate. The paper bags will help absorb excessive moisture from the buds without overdrying because it remains slightly humid inside the bag but not enough so to cause mold (unless you do not dry them properly first). The amount of time depends on the humidity, dew point, temp, and the density of you buds.

Step 3: Put buds into mason/canning jars, it's important to not over fill them. Open jars daily for a 10-20 minutes to allow air exchange (also called burping).

Step 4: Take out some buds, smoke.

See thats the thing. I dont have the time to open those jars everyday. I think Im going to try the paperbag method. sounds easier. According to above your using both methods. I thought once they cure in the paperbag there good to go. After the paperbag shouldnt you be able to store them in the glass jar without opening it everyday?

Legacy187 · #10 10-02-2008, 03:59 PM

My buds are hanging to dry that I just cut yesterday. I will do the paper bag method and then the jar method. Hopefully I can smoke by the end of the month. Thanks for the tips!