Well, I have a friend getting ready for his first harvest. Estimating around 200 lbs of bud. He's been thinking of a good way to cure and store his bud. Being old school he wanted to use paper bags after hang drying for a week. Basically cut them off the stems, trim off the big leaves and fill the paper bags part full with not fully manicured buds. Problem is, that's a lot of bud. Lots of bags. So I considered maybe using fiber drums. They're cardboard barrels from 3 gallon all the way up to 55 gallon. The thought here is after hang drying you could trim up buds and fill the barrels with a batch. Say 10lbs per 55 gallon drum. Lay the barrels of their sides on a rack to create more surface area for the buds to lay out evenly. They have locking lids to keep them sealed tight. With a remote hygrometer inside the barrels you could monitor temps and humidity. This would all be inside a conditioned room. The idea is to use the cardboard barrels as a moisture buffer to slow the drying process. Every day you could gently roll and/or open the barrels to keep moisture evenly working its way through the barrel. After reaching close to desired moisture content you could then wrap the barrel in a plastic bag, possibly vacuum sealing it to hold that moisture level to end the cure with. The cardboard would help the buds sweat and cure up real nice I think. He's a firm believer in the paper bag method and I thought it could possibly be applied to larger scales if done right. Any thoughts?
Had an idea for curing large amounts of bud. Is it just a highdea?
- Thread starter patmos
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PadawanWarrior
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LarsVegasNirvana
Well-Known Member
The bag method is drying, not curing. You don't want barrels of wet bud laying around, no matter how breathable the material is, the buds themselves will trap humidity.
Just build a dry room and dry properly, then cure in whatever near-airtight container you please. Bins, bags, whatever. Curing has nothing to do with slowing down the drying process and everything to do with maintaining 60%RH for months on end while still doing gas exchange periodically to prevent anaerobic bacteria developing.
Just build a dry room and dry properly, then cure in whatever near-airtight container you please. Bins, bags, whatever. Curing has nothing to do with slowing down the drying process and everything to do with maintaining 60%RH for months on end while still doing gas exchange periodically to prevent anaerobic bacteria developing.
That's a good point. See, the way I understand it is if you slow the drying time down as much as possible (within reason) and lock it in at a set RH you will give the plant enough time to fully break down all of the chlorophyll. Giving a smoother product. Of course you would hang dry it for a week or so to evaporate enough moisture to prevent molds from forming, but then once within a safe margin you could slow that drying down until you jar it.
LarsVegasNirvana
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A friend of mine tried this with a small-ish cardboard box and everything got moldy instantly and nothing dried.
Hmmm. I wonder if he stored it while it was too wet.
Also wonder if you could bore air holes though it to help prevent mold more
LarsVegasNirvana
Well-Known Member
Well you said "after drying for a week" which means you already need a room to control the temp and humidity or you will literally destroy the crop in the first 3 days. And if you have control of the environment in a drying room then you don't need paper bags. A good dry is part of curing but curing is actually the next step where you burp jars (not to lower humidity, but to replenish oxygen) and maintain humidity at 60% with boveda packs. No actual curing happens in the drying phase, if you smoke it it's still uncured weed. It's still got to be put in jars for months before it's cured.
LarsVegasNirvana
Well-Known Member
The entire point is to treat 200 pounds of WET weed. If it's already dry then you don't need to dry it. You can just seal it in jars.
LarsVegasNirvana
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That's my point. A small shoe box with like a half pound of bud in it molded up in a matter of days. Imagine what a 55gal drum would do.
I see. I appreciate the input on this, man. You make good points. He does have a humidity and temperature controlled room. What would you suggest for curing that amount of bud? Jars aren't really an option. Turkey bags?
LarsVegasNirvana
Well-Known Member
Most people who cure just dry for like 10 days in 60%RH and 60-65F and then "sweat" the bud in garbage bags or rubbermaid bins. Just seal them up for like 6-12 hours so the moisture in the center of the bud can move out to the outside surface, then put them back in the dry room on mesh drying racks for a few more days. The sweating process is meant to avoid a humidity spike when you seal them up in turkey bags or whatever. At this point you should let them sit in turkey bags with 62% boveda packs in each one (which are fucking $5 each) and then burp the bags once a week for three fucking months. But I've never heard of anyone with 200 pounds doing that. They just dry it, maybe sweat it, and then sell it. Like I said, drying properly is not curing. It's just drying properly. You're still selling uncured weed. It's just weed that you didn't destroy by quick drying it. Uncured weed and wet bud is not the same thing.
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LarsVegasNirvana
Well-Known Member
If you dry something quickly and it tastes bad and makes you cough, it's not because it wasn't cured, it's because you over-dried it and a bunch of bad-juju happened chemically that you can't reverse. If you dry something slowly (say 14 days) and it still tastes bad and makes you cough, it's because it's uncured. It's still full of starches and sugars and chlorophyl that you didn't take time to flush out during the grow that you need to let break down over the course of several months in jars. It just can't happen in two weeks. The only thing that can happen in two weeks is you fucking up the weed. This will still happen even if you flushed during the grow. Even pale yellow buds will make you cough if you overdry them. No amount of boveda packs can un-do the chemical reactions that happened at low-humidity, whereas uncured bud can be fixed by just curing it.
Could you not cure in the barrels and vacuum seal the bags around them?
Didn't someone think about this being an issue like, let's say a few months ago? That is a lot of weed? You need advice from a commercial grower. Start a thread that says 200 lbs of weed I need to figure out how to dry! HELP!! It will maybe attract the guys that can help you. Good luck
LarsVegasNirvana
Well-Known Member
Curing is an extension of the dry room, only in jars. If you just left the bud in a 60%RH room for 4 months, that would cure it.
The difference between a vacuum sealed barrel and a dry room is the room has gas exchange so it won't get depleted of oxygen. The reason we cant just put weed in jars and let it sit for 4 months without burping it is because the process is somehow stopped by bacteria that grow in the absence of oxygen.
You don't need to cure weed, you just have to dry it. Once it's in turkey bags and the humidity is somewhat stable you have done your job. The next guy can cure it if he wants to, but he won't, because nobody does. If you don't sell it for whatever reason, just keep burping the bags every week or two until you sell it.
LarsVegasNirvana
Well-Known Member
There are companies that are trying to develop a big 55 gallon drum that you can just put dried weed into and then let it sit in there sealed up for months on end with the machine managing the gas exchange through little tubes, but none of them work yet. It's still a pipe dream.
SPLFreak808
Well-Known Member
I agree with ts, find a commercial grower that is willing to give you advice, 200lbs of dry flower is a shit load of work, that's like pulling 1000+ lbs worth of plants.
From what I've seen, those guys who harvest 100lbs+ don't cure weed, they slow dry it in a warehouse/garage before it gets sold off.
From what I've seen, those guys who harvest 100lbs+ don't cure weed, they slow dry it in a warehouse/garage before it gets sold off.
LarsVegasNirvana
Well-Known Member
Nobody cures weed. It's not economically viable. Even legal commercial grows don't do it because everyone is used to smoking uncured weed so nobody complains.
SPLFreak808
Well-Known Member
That's what I'm saying in regards to the op's title, "200lbs" and "curing" doesn't belong in the same thread.