Fast Way To Dry

pointswest

Active Member
Blind leading the blind. At least hang it for a week even if you don't cure it. Yes microwave and heat produce dry buds, but you are really wasting it unless you just want to test smoke a couple of bottom buds. You have waited 10 or twelve weeks for this, can't you wait another week to get the true satisfaction?
 

sirerich

Member
comming from the pro of 'sampling buds' before harvest, i have found that the best way to quick dry the wet planty bud, is to steam dry it. get an ordinary microwaveable plastic container. put a dry piece of kitchen towel, maybe torn in half, on the bottom of the container, then chop a few buds to a smallish size so it dries out quicker, therfore keeping more un-evaporated thc in the spliff, and then place the buds on the paper towel. Next, wet two paper kitchen towels and dry them out so they are not dripping, but slightly wet. it helps if they are attached when wetting them! now poke a hole or two in the paper towels which you have placed over the buds, and put the lid about 3/4 the way on.
Put in the microwave and 'cook' for one minute.
take everything out and dry any moisture that will be in the container.
get the other, dry torn half of the paper towel and put the drier but still moist buds on it.
make sure the paper towels are still wet and do the same thing as many times as you need to until you are happy. steam dried bud actually tastes nice, smooth and gets you very stoned. you should try it.

will be trying this with a few popcorn buds
 
I don't know anyone who quick drys a whole crop, that's just crazy. But for me, Every time I harvest I'll put aside about 2 or 3 grams for a quick dry, just to last me until the rest of the crop drys. I would feel wrong buying weed to smoke when I have a pound of undried bud hanging in my house...
 

pressDUCK

Active Member
Sorry for this bit of spam. From the Overgrow forums, rip.

THE WATER CURE COMPENDIUM - FAQ
===============================

As this thread has become very large, and much of the information redundant, I thought I'd make a quick FAQ pointing out some of the more informative areas and highlighting the main points. Both the original poster of this thread, and MPD, have deleted their accounts. MPD is the expert on this, so much of the information contained within comes from his research.


Introduction - What is the water cure? Why would I want to do it?

The water cure has only recently come to light as a widely accepted form of curing (mostly because of this thread). Water curing uses osmosis to flush out the chemicals, pesticides, pests, and anything else you would rather not be smoking. Chlorophyll is also broken down faster in water (chlorophyll = harsh smoke). The water cure is also very fast (about 7 days) with optimal quality (as compared to 30 days air curing), and as well does not stink like an air cure does. Water-cured buds are also more potent than air-cured (however there is proportional weight loss to potency increase).

THC is not water soluable, and the bud is protected from air/light, enabling potency to be maintained at it's highest levels, while the nasty chemicals are flushed out and chlorophyll breaks down. Some growers report being able to add nutes all the way up to their harvest date because the water cure takes care of the built up chemicals.

Because of its speed, stealth and clean taste, water cure is very inviting to most non-commercial growers. The commercial grower might not be attracted to the water cure, as the weight of the bud is diminished.

Water cure can also be attractive to those smoking/cooking with suspect cannabis (schwag), moldy bud, pest infested bud, unflushed bud, etc.


How will my bud taste/smoke/smell/look?

Properly water-cured buds (submerged for 7 days and properly dried) will have a clean, thick taste when smoked, as well as being more potent than air-cured buds. This is one of the major advantages to the water cure; a quick drying process that retains potency and has a clean taste a flavor.

Smoking reports vary, however most people agree that water curing provides a very clean, smooth taste. Those with hashier, sandlewood/piney and harsher strains will find this method enjoyable for the clean, thick flavor without the edge (like a fine whisky).

However, those with frutier tasting strains have mixed results. They report the smoke is almost too smooth - much of the fruity/citrussy flavor removed.

The smell of the bud is greatly diminished, which many believe is one of the positive side-effects of water curing. Some also report a diminished smell in the smoke itself.

Water-cured buds tend to look more earthy and dark in tone. Some say the bag appeal is decreased, however proper care while water-curing can improve bag appeal.

PhatDaddyNugzYo's water cured NLK bud:
t_NLKWaterCola.jpg



What do I need for this? What is the process?

1. A container hold your bud and appropriate water (about 4 times as much water as amount of bud). A cooler with some kind of drainage works great.

2. A dehydrator or low-impact heat device. Dehydrators work great and cost about $40 from walmart. Radiators work well (as long as it isn't too hot), and some report using hair dryers.

3. A cool, dark place to put the water-curing container.

You need at least 7 days to do this, any less than seven can result in undesireable quality. Even 5 days in water is not enough - you need seven!!!

Plop in your freshy cut buds (or schwag, whatever, but fresh buds work best) into enough water to completely submerge the buds. The buds will float to the top for the first few days of this, so you need something to hold them down (a block of wood, a plate, etc). Change the water every day for 7 days, any less than seven could result in undesirable results (trust me). Try not to disturb the buds when changing the water as plant material can break off more easily (read: trichomes). Always keep the lid of the cooler open, do not seal off the container.

The water may take on a yellowish/greenish (even brownish) tint each day, moreso as the bud becomes completely saturated with the water. It will probably also stink. This is good, as it is the nasty chlorophyl and salts exiting your plant.

After 7 days remove the buds from the water. They will be sopping wet, and can be dried relatively quickly. MPD (and many more of us) purchased a food dehydrator from wal-mart for about $40 and consensus tells us this may be the best method for drying. Put the dehydrator on the lowest setting and dry for about 5 hours or so.

Radiators and other low-impact heating devices can also be used. Users have reported hair dryers working with some success, as well as hanging the wet buds on a clothes line with a fan circulating air. The important thing to do is to ensure the buds dry quickly enough to not become moldy, but with as low-impact of a drying environment as possible.


MPD's 7 do's and don'ts of water curing

1. Do not close the lid on the cooler. As the chlorophyll bleeds off into the water it evaporates - this is good and sealing the cooler just puts the crap back in the water.

2. Keep out of direct sunlight. I just put the cooler in the garage and that's the end of that.

3. Don't stir or agitate. This serves no useful purpose.

4. Don't bother straining the water for trichomes when you change it each day. I've tried it countless times and have yet to get enough trichones to make it worth the effort, though some hairs will break loose.

5. I've water cured as long as 9 days, but there was no real improvement over the 7 day mark - so why bother?

6. Do use a dehydrator. They cost $35 over at Walmart and you set it on the lowest possible setting. Mine takes about 5 hours to dry out a 1/2 pound of sopping wet buds. If you line dry make sure there is a drip tray or tarp for them to drip on.

7. DO NOT water cure seeded buds that were intentionally seeded so you can harvest seeds. Air cure these buds only...




What is the dry-weight ratio comparison with air curing?

Dry weight using air cure usually returns about 25% of the freshly cut bud weight. That means if you had 10 grams of freshly cut plant, you would get about 2.5 grams dry.

Water cure, on the other hand, returns about 15% from wet to dry. In our 10 gram example, that would be about 1.5 grams.



Agent Smith reports on his fresh-to-dry weight using water cure

Here are the after pics..This is 7 days in water changed once a day, then dried for 6 hrs in the dehydrator. See how much it shrank...
Ok time to smoke...Lets see how smooth this is..

.t_freshweight.jpg..after... t_endweight.jpg






So why is there less weight using water, but more potency?

THC is not water soluable. When the buds are underwater, they are protected from environmental conditions such as humidity, over exposure to air, temperature, and light. This consistent state is something not easily achieved through the traditional air cure, which can be prone to a harsher smoke with decreased potency if everything isn't just so.

Water cure enables the removal of undesireable elements from your bud while retaining potency.


MPD explains how potency is increased through the water cure

I should explain this so that the conspiracy theory kooks don't land on me like a ton of bricks.

Here's the "magic" behind the increased potency you get by water curing.

For the sake of making it simple, I'll use an example of 100 grams of bud going into the pot.

Now, you had this bud assayed and know that 15% of it is pure THC.

15% of 100 grams is 15 grams. So in our example the 100 grams of fresh bud has 15 grams of THC in it.

You water cure it and dry it. Now you have only 70 grams of bud left. WTF?

But you are deceived because the 15 grams of THC is part of the remaining 70 grams of bud. 15 divided by 70 equals 21.42%.

Sooo....

The mass didn't change, just some of the things that were there - aren't there anymore, so what is left becomes a bigger proportion of the entirety.

You go assay your water cured bud and find out it has 21.42% THC content - a 50% increase in potency.

Not bad, eh?



How is the chlorophyll/nasty chemicals removed while potency preserved?


PhatDaddyNugzYo shows us some water-cure scum that came out of his buds:
t_watercurescum2.jpg



MPD explains how osmosis leaches nasties, saves trichs

In air, chlorophyll breaks down at a rate that is only slightly faster than the breakdown rate of the resin - hence the reason the pot is dried for a short time then placed in jars and burped - but always out of direct sunlight because sunlight plus air equals an ideal situation for the THC is to break down and thus a loss of potency may ensue.

In water, the chlorophyll breaks down (out of the plant) while the THC remains suspended in the resin and is relatively unaffected by the surrounding water medium.

More on chrlorophyll removal by JBC Grower

Water curing and air curing are doing exactly the same thing except you retain flavour and smell with air drying and with water curing you lose that flavour and smell but you have a smoothe smoke....

The Chloryphyll in the plant leaves through either the water evaporating (air cure) or through osmosis into the water around it...Water curing is obvously more affective at removing chloryphyll because you are adding more water, and
the smoke is smoother (chloryphyll is a big factor in bad tasting and bad burning weed)....however smell and taste come from terpenes in the plant that are also water soluble so they are lost in the water curing process....

In air curing the chloryphyll has to leave by the evaporating water in the bud....this is less affective but you keep those smell and taste terpenes.....so why after going through the trouble to preserve and develop them through air curing would you dunk them in water and lose them?

Its either one or the other




My water cure is harsh, smells "seaweedy" or "fishy"


Some people report harsh (though smooth) buds from the water cure, or even a fishy/seaweedy aftertaste or smell. Though some fruitier strains may not taste the best, if done correctly (7 days changing water every day) your bud should be clean burning and should not have a "been in the water" taste. Most often harsh or poor quality water cure is a result of operator error.

Some people also report having a "crackle" occur when their water cured weed is smoked, this is also often seen with poorly air-cured weed. Letting your weed set in a jar following the water cure (after it has been dried) for a few days usually remedies this.



What about already dried buds/shwag/moldy buds?


MPD and others have reported success in re-curing nasty buds of one kind or another. Dry schwag that is still in a nugg-ish form can be water-cured, as well as semi-moldy buds (however, no miracles here).






Good luck!

Updated: July 5, 2005
-funker
 

Attachments

CptNemo

Well-Known Member
First grow here. I clipped off a few nugs by mistake durring trimming. I put them on some tin foil and put them in the oven at 175° for 40 min. They smoke ok and the high is just ok. But the smell and taste is downright horrible. I didnt think it was too bad at first. But now that I have some buds curing the right way in jars its not even close. I will prolly toss whats left of the oven nugs in my hash pile. I dont even want to smoke them now.
 

poker909

Active Member
comming from the pro of 'sampling buds' before harvest, i have found that the best way to quick dry the wet planty bud, is to steam dry it.
Fully agreed! I would never ruin a crop by doing anything other than a proper weeks dry + time to cure, but I'd assume most growers want a joint of their own ripe buds asap, especially if it's a new or unknown strain. I keep looking for a better method, but low power in the microwave with a dry paper towel underneath and a damp one above at short 30sec bursts will get you smoking in a couple minutes. The shrinkage may shock you but the potency is there!
 

White Ryno

Active Member
why is there less weight using water, but more potency?

THC is not water soluable. When the buds are underwater, they are protected from environmental conditions such as humidity, over exposure to air, temperature, and light. This consistent state is something not easily achieved through the traditional air cure, which can be prone to a harsher smoke with decreased potency if everything isn't just so.

Water cure enables the removal of undesireable elements from your bud while retaining potency.


MPD explains how potency is increased through the water cure

I should explain this so that the conspiracy theory kooks don't land on me like a ton of bricks.

Here's the "magic" behind the increased potency you get by water curing.

For the sake of making it simple, I'll use an example of 100 grams of bud going into the pot.

Now, you had this bud assayed and know that 15% of it is pure THC.

15% of 100 grams is 15 grams. So in our example the 100 grams of fresh bud has 15 grams of THC in it.

You water cure it and dry it. Now you have only 70 grams of bud left. WTF?

But you are deceived because the 15 grams of THC is part of the remaining 70 grams of bud. 15 divided by 70 equals 21.42%.

Sooo....

The mass didn't change, just some of the things that were there - aren't there anymore, so what is left becomes a bigger proportion of the entirety.

You go assay your water cured bud and find out it has 21.42% THC content - a 50% increase in potency.

Not bad, eh?
This does NOT make your case for water cured over air cured...I see significant uses in the medical field being as it's a cleanier, healthier resulting smoke. However, when you air cure buds the EXACT same thing happens...you lose weight, the THC is still there, hence the ratios increase. You gotta be at a 3rd grade math level to not understand that
 

KingBoss

Member
Did as told (dry bottom paper towel, herb pieces on top of dry towel, wet paper towel on top in a tupperware w/ 3 sides of lid shut and 1 open to let steam out) - set microwave @ 30% for one minute and repeated 4x. Grinded my herb and nearly turned to dust after 3-4 grinds. Turned out excellent! Not recommended to do this all the time nor with the whole batch - but for a quick hit w/ no purchase - it works! 5 Stars!
 

dajosh42069

Well-Known Member
I...indeed tried it too...i'm about to load a bowl and see how it went...bongsmilie
But i'm not enthusiastic...im in fact, quite distressed, which is why I would stoop to clipping and quick drying to begin with :roll:
 

dajosh42069

Well-Known Member
Oh wow...
I'm pleasantly surprised...
It actually smoked, and it didn't taste as bad as I was expecting. It didn't taste much like anything actually, which with herb is bad :-P
But for the way it was dried....i'm impressed.
And also pleased with how my plant turned out :-P
 

CHUCKTYLAH

Active Member
100% /b/ro. And to prove a point I went and cut a bud off my plant to try the method. I tried it on pl-2, first for 1min, then 15s without, then 40s in again (this is on a 1200w microwave) I was perfectly dry, the stem snapped any everything. I just finished smokin' the bowl and we'll see what happens.
So you got it dry...........that doesn't cure it. Look up some info on what fermentation does in the curing process.......
 

webb107

Well-Known Member
When it comes to drying i let 95% of my harvest dry naturally, the rest i grind up put it in my tin then put in on top of my compact 600w ballast drys with in 15 mins and the smoke isnt bad TBH
 
you are such a dickhead, icmag or whatever is better off with u there than here. Don't you understand this is a post for people who just want a quick smoke after harvesting but dont want to purchase bud? Were not talking about drying the entire crop in the microwave, were talking about a couple grams. I just harvested and need bud and ethier I pay $60 for an 1/8 right now or I microwave, so I tried the method and guess what? it worked, I have a couple grams to smoke, it doesn't taste bad and im high as shit right now. So take your negativity to whatever site you want because we don't need it here.

Everyone if you need to quickly dry out some buds check out the microwave method on 40% power it works perfect
 

Jydcoo

Member
For all who care and were in need like me. Officially it works like a champ.its no dif from cheap uncured/ dried improperly chronic u would get on a bad day. im truly glad a cut off some to Steam dry it in the Nuke and see it all. Yes folks it can get u blasted, tasted like Plant, not Fruity Fuego. But me as a first time grower, i really see wut care and proper harvest can increase it all...
Id rec nuking if u need some, i aint mad at all takin a whole branch ( the weakest and least yield lookin) off my fat unknown.
But Dry And Cure is all part of the grow. But this eigth i took off got nuked and seriously will give me 3 sesh. isnt like smokin some good old cured Medicine, but hey fuk payin some cocksuker Middle man 60 bones for some shit he got 3 Hands ago. Fuk all that.
its all about homegrown, never shall see a middle fuk again :)
One love all
 

Enzogrowspot

Active Member
Ok had to try it... Knocked off a lower branch the other day, after apologizing to my best girl I hung the branch 3 days ago. Wekl being New Years eve and all thought I would try a basic microwave dry. Set my Microwave to 1 out of 10 placed my small buds on a paper towel and nuked em about 8 times for 4 or 5 secs each turning in between.. well got me high currently, so it at least gave me a sample of whats to come....happy new year bongsmilie
 

greenthumb831

Active Member
i ran out of bud and i havent smoked all day so i picked off some pop corn buds off my Purple Dawg. I put them on a paper towel and nuked them under defrost for 4 secs at a time untill the buds were dry enough to smoke. it went in smelling like dank ass purp and came out smelling like balsamic vinegar lol. ima fire the first bowl up right now...............

this shit tastes like i packed a bowl of ash from my ash tray... nothing like the plant originally smells
it wasnt harsh like i thought it would be. but im feeling the high creep on after the second bowl =)



WOW I cant wait for my final product now.. VERY PROMISING!
 

scroglodyte

Well-Known Member
see: "hop kiln"
a kiln used to dry hops (a cousin of cannabis). i'm working on a weed kiln. you may buy the first.....lol.
 

alphawolf.hack

New Member
i got an old school microwave from like the 80's it has recirculating timer so it doesnt actualy reduce in power just in microwave exposure time. anyways the reason this is so good its because if i turn it down i can hear it come on for like 4-5 sec at a time then right after it turns off exposure i can open microwave andd blow on it to cool it off usually my bud actually comes out alright i could probably dry like that and nobody would know but i think it does reduce the potency. to keep the flavor the key is too keep the bud as cool as possible.(microwave freezer works but takes longer)
 
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