motoxmom
Active Member
ok so here is the excerpt from the grower's handbook where it says to cure before drying ???? i dont quite understand it, why and how do you cure it first before you dry???
HARVEST
When the bud is ripe it is time to harvest, and it is ready to be trimmed, or manicured. Manicuring is the process of removing the leaves that are growing around the buds. The best time to manicure is when the plants are freshly picked. Fresh vegetation is turgid with moisture, so it is easy to handle while it is being clipped. Just as important, the trichomes that hold THC and the terpenes are pliable rather than brittle and more likely to stay attached to the plant.
Once you have harvested, use plenty of light when manicuring so you can see clearly exactly what you are doing. There are four steps to trimming ripe marijuana: clipping the stem from the plant, clipping the buds from the stem, removing the large leaves and removing the small leaves from the bud. The steps can be performed as one integrated operation or in steps. The choice depends on the size of the crop, the number of people trimming and most importantly, your preference.
The trimming space should include three sections: the holding area, the processing area and the curing-drying area. Curing is the process after harvest but before drying, during which many of the cells metabolic processes continue for a little longer. Save the trim from the processing area. While sun leaves and trim are unsuitable for smoking they can be used for making kief, bubble hash, and ingestibles.
Drying large amounts of buds requires air circulation and ventilation. Fans create a draft that promotes evaporation, and ventilation exchanges moist air for dryer air.
The quality of marijuana improves for several weeks after it is dried because THC acid loses its water molecule and becomes psychoactive. Buds that are cured properly and dried slowly have the smooth draw of fine herb. Fast-dried pot has a harsher, rougher smoke. Buds should be disturbed as little as possible before they are smoked. Every time they are moved, unpacked, or handled, resin glands fall off.
Things to Know
The advantage to harvesting buds as they ripen is that those previously hidden in the lower canopy are also allowed a chance to fully mature.
The loose trichomes that are broken off while manicuring are known as kief. Because kief contains cannabinoids but little vegetation, it is much more concentrated and potent by volume than buds. A screen with a mesh count of about 100 strands per square inch (100 strands per 6.5 sq cm) allows glands to drop through for collection while retaining the plant material on the screen.
Many gardeners raise the temperature of the curing-drying space to hasten the drying process. However, many terpenes evaporate between 70-85° F (21-29° C). When they evaporate, the buds taste stale and loses their personality. For this reason, it is important to control the temperature of the curing-drying space.
There are two good ways to determine bud dryness, the stick test and the joint test. For the stick test, bend the little stem that holds the bud together and if it snaps, it is dry enough. For the joint test, roll a thin joint to see if it stays lit between puffs, if not the bud is still too wet.
POST -HARVEST
Leaves and trim, the natural byproduct of growing buds, present an interesting paradox. The bud is the plants crown jewel at 5-20% THC. However, cannabis produces THC throughout the plant. Sticky resin glands coat the leaves and bracts, creating a natural protective barrier against insects, disease, herbivores, and the suns UV rays.
When trim and leaves are tossed, 10-20% of the plants total THC production is thrown away. When tossing it out, trash is everything that isnt bud. It you are going to use it, it should be sorted. Stems and woody parts of the plant are not salvageable. The sticks and stems have little THC so they can be trashed.
The small leaves near the flowers are the most potent, followed by the younger, and then older fan leaves. Any material with visible glands is worth keeping. There are many uses for trash, the most popular being kief, hash, maripills and cannabis food.
Kief is a powder that consists of the loose glands removed from marijuana buds and plant material. It looks like minute grains of sand. Once kief is made it can be used in a number of ways. The glands are delicious smoked fresh. Kief is also an excellent ingredient for cooking and use in capsules. Without the vegetative matter attached the glands do not impart the dominating green taste to edibles.
Hashish is a collection of marijuanas resinous glands that have been compressed into balls, cakes, or slabs. Pressing hashish transforms the collected material both chemically and physically. The glands are warmed and some are broken, releasing the sticky oils that contain the psychoactive cannabinoids, as well as the terpenes- the source of marijuanas smell and taste.
Eating cannabis foods is a healthy way to use marijuana without inhaling. However, eating marijuana is a different experience than inhaling it. It isnt an immediate rush. Instead, the sensation begins gradually, about half an hour to an hour after ingestion.
Things to Know
Maripills are capsules filled with processed marijuana and ingested orally. For patients, they are an easy way to measure dose, and a safer alternative to smoking dried buds.
In 19th-century Paris, the Club de Hachichins met for the express purpose of eating hashish. Authors and poets whose works we now consider classics were members. In the 1920s, Alice B. Toklas published her infamous brownie recipe that popularized brownies as the cannabis food of choice in modern times.
HARVEST
When the bud is ripe it is time to harvest, and it is ready to be trimmed, or manicured. Manicuring is the process of removing the leaves that are growing around the buds. The best time to manicure is when the plants are freshly picked. Fresh vegetation is turgid with moisture, so it is easy to handle while it is being clipped. Just as important, the trichomes that hold THC and the terpenes are pliable rather than brittle and more likely to stay attached to the plant.
Once you have harvested, use plenty of light when manicuring so you can see clearly exactly what you are doing. There are four steps to trimming ripe marijuana: clipping the stem from the plant, clipping the buds from the stem, removing the large leaves and removing the small leaves from the bud. The steps can be performed as one integrated operation or in steps. The choice depends on the size of the crop, the number of people trimming and most importantly, your preference.
The trimming space should include three sections: the holding area, the processing area and the curing-drying area. Curing is the process after harvest but before drying, during which many of the cells metabolic processes continue for a little longer. Save the trim from the processing area. While sun leaves and trim are unsuitable for smoking they can be used for making kief, bubble hash, and ingestibles.
Drying large amounts of buds requires air circulation and ventilation. Fans create a draft that promotes evaporation, and ventilation exchanges moist air for dryer air.
The quality of marijuana improves for several weeks after it is dried because THC acid loses its water molecule and becomes psychoactive. Buds that are cured properly and dried slowly have the smooth draw of fine herb. Fast-dried pot has a harsher, rougher smoke. Buds should be disturbed as little as possible before they are smoked. Every time they are moved, unpacked, or handled, resin glands fall off.
Things to Know
The advantage to harvesting buds as they ripen is that those previously hidden in the lower canopy are also allowed a chance to fully mature.
The loose trichomes that are broken off while manicuring are known as kief. Because kief contains cannabinoids but little vegetation, it is much more concentrated and potent by volume than buds. A screen with a mesh count of about 100 strands per square inch (100 strands per 6.5 sq cm) allows glands to drop through for collection while retaining the plant material on the screen.
Many gardeners raise the temperature of the curing-drying space to hasten the drying process. However, many terpenes evaporate between 70-85° F (21-29° C). When they evaporate, the buds taste stale and loses their personality. For this reason, it is important to control the temperature of the curing-drying space.
There are two good ways to determine bud dryness, the stick test and the joint test. For the stick test, bend the little stem that holds the bud together and if it snaps, it is dry enough. For the joint test, roll a thin joint to see if it stays lit between puffs, if not the bud is still too wet.
POST -HARVEST
Leaves and trim, the natural byproduct of growing buds, present an interesting paradox. The bud is the plants crown jewel at 5-20% THC. However, cannabis produces THC throughout the plant. Sticky resin glands coat the leaves and bracts, creating a natural protective barrier against insects, disease, herbivores, and the suns UV rays.
When trim and leaves are tossed, 10-20% of the plants total THC production is thrown away. When tossing it out, trash is everything that isnt bud. It you are going to use it, it should be sorted. Stems and woody parts of the plant are not salvageable. The sticks and stems have little THC so they can be trashed.
The small leaves near the flowers are the most potent, followed by the younger, and then older fan leaves. Any material with visible glands is worth keeping. There are many uses for trash, the most popular being kief, hash, maripills and cannabis food.
Kief is a powder that consists of the loose glands removed from marijuana buds and plant material. It looks like minute grains of sand. Once kief is made it can be used in a number of ways. The glands are delicious smoked fresh. Kief is also an excellent ingredient for cooking and use in capsules. Without the vegetative matter attached the glands do not impart the dominating green taste to edibles.
Hashish is a collection of marijuanas resinous glands that have been compressed into balls, cakes, or slabs. Pressing hashish transforms the collected material both chemically and physically. The glands are warmed and some are broken, releasing the sticky oils that contain the psychoactive cannabinoids, as well as the terpenes- the source of marijuanas smell and taste.
Eating cannabis foods is a healthy way to use marijuana without inhaling. However, eating marijuana is a different experience than inhaling it. It isnt an immediate rush. Instead, the sensation begins gradually, about half an hour to an hour after ingestion.
Things to Know
Maripills are capsules filled with processed marijuana and ingested orally. For patients, they are an easy way to measure dose, and a safer alternative to smoking dried buds.
In 19th-century Paris, the Club de Hachichins met for the express purpose of eating hashish. Authors and poets whose works we now consider classics were members. In the 1920s, Alice B. Toklas published her infamous brownie recipe that popularized brownies as the cannabis food of choice in modern times.
