Can you "yellow" buds like tobacco?

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
I got one of those Sunbeam ExpressHeat pads. If you roll it up and put a meat thermometer in the middle it gets up to the high 130s F at the lowest setting, but if you lay it out and put 3 layers of towel over it, then the thermometer and then another layer of towel it only gets to 99, which is just right for yellowing. Later, for fermenting you would wrap it around a sealed container of material, with probably 1 layer of towel. The whole thing would be put in a dark garbage bag. You would have to open it and fluff it once a week or so, adding moisture if needed. Four weeks later it's done.

I don't know if yellowing can be done between layers of parchment and the towels or not. Might rot or mold. I'll try it with a very small amount.
i'd be worried about mold using that tech, that's why the guy on ic mag says he uses the vac bags, to limit the presence of oxygen during the sweat process, to limit the chances of mold..
 

qwizoking

Well-Known Member
i'd be worried about mold using that tech, that's why the guy on ic mag says he uses the vac bags, to limit the presence of oxygen during the sweat process, to limit the chances of mold..

There are many molds and bacteria that don't need oxygen...
Many more that can survive merely on the oxygen produced during this process
 

Illinois Enema Bandit

Well-Known Member
unless you had redbud or tystick most all bud in the 60's was yellow,and seedy as fuck,nowhere near as attractive as a lime green bud with electric red streaks like lightning bolts.

I don't miss the yellow Columbian gold bud of the 70's one bit,I'll take the greenies .
 

qwizoking

Well-Known Member
unless you had redbud or tystick most all bud in the 60's was yellow,and seedy as fuck,nowhere near as attractive as a lime green bud with electric red streaks like lightning bolts.

I don't miss the yellow Columbian gold bud of the 70's one bit,I'll take the greenies .
unless you had redbud or tystick most all bud in the 60's was yellow,and seedy as fuck,nowhere near as attractive as a lime green bud with electric red streaks like lightning bolts.

I don't miss the yellow Columbian gold bud of the 70's one bit,I'll take the greenies .

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we do get some ok brick weed though...
as far as brick weed goes o guess
 

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
I wish I knew lol, we know the perceived increase in potency is from the compression of many buds, it's basically hash when done. We know the decarbing is from the sweating process (why you can eat it it) but we don't know why it changes the high ?
The going theory is that certain terps, that have been recently found to seriously affect "potency" or how the buzz is "preceived". Do not "evaporate" to near the way they do by conventional curing methods....

I forget where the hell I saw this paper......I'm sure it was Israeli though!
 
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BobCajun

Well-Known Member
According to the studies, fermentation goes fastest at room temperature and starts dropping off after 30 C. By 45 C it's practically stopped. So I guess the increased heat used to ferment tobacco, usually around 50 C is to drive off the ammonia more. You should be able to ferment buds at room temperature by just adding moisture to get it to about 40% by weight. It even worked with the small amounts of tobacco that could fit in a Thermos bottle so apparently you don't even need a lot of bulk to cause the heating effect. You would need a thermometer with an alarm on it though, or the buds will heat up too much. When they get too hot you have to remix them and start the cycle again or they'll get too dark.
 

Don Palermo

Active Member
I cob cure now days most of my buds. I leave about 1/10 of buds without cob curing just for comparing. Cob curing has won normal cure every time. Potency (and taste) increasing is unbelivable but very true.

Because I live damn near russia, we cant get fresh (or even dry) corn leaves anywhere. Thats why I pack my buds in size 1x4 cafe filter bag, tie packet tightly and vacuum it right after packet has been sweated in warm.

After cob curing and drying I store cobs like cured bud.
I opened 6 months cured c99 cob last week. Oh boy... I strongly suggest you to try it.
 

CriticalCheeze

Well-Known Member
But they also cure the tobacco stems at the same time as the leaves, and the stems would be about the same density as buds. Should work the same.

After the curing and drying you need to ferment it for about a month to get highest quality. If you read about DIY fermenting boxes (kilns), they would also be good for the yellowing and drying part. It's just at a lower temperature and higher RH than the fermenting, which is done at 110-130 F and 70% RH. I think the heating pad would work better than the lamp though. I'll probably have to hang the branches in the chamber to ensure air circulation to avoid mold.

Here are some DIY fermenting kilns to get some ideas from. Apparently electric crock pots are popular as a heat and humidity source. They rig them up to thermostats. One guy uses mason jars like with bud.Would 110 heat hurt bud? I don't know. Might decarb it some.

cannabis is not to be cured how tobacco is. period.
 

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
Apparently it takes longer for bud to yellow than tobacco. After 2 days there were only a few yellowing areas but after 3 it's getting substantial. I'd say 4 or 5 days total should do it. Small fluff buds yellow first but the big ones soon follow. And surprisingly no mold at all so far. I do have to open the container and rearrange things though, to let any condensation dry off some and to have them all get in the middle of the pile sometimes. It does seem to increase potency too, judging from a few tests as it progressed. After about the first 36 hours I could notice increased potency.

What I used for this was a long container big enough to lay out the heating pad in. It's not a very high container, made to go under a bed. Anyway I put the pad in there first then a layer of folded blanket then a later of some poly mesh material which I just put in to allow more air under the material since I happened to have it. Then I put a layer of parchment, regular paper kind not silicone. I want moisture to be able to pass through it. Then I lay out the crudely trimmed buds, good ones on one side and fluffy lower ones on the other. That made a pile about 4" thick. I put another layer of parchment over the pile and put the lid on. I also put the probe of a meat thermometer under the middle of the pile, the kind that has a wire going from the probe to the unit with the readings on it a few feet away. That way I can monitor the temperature from outside the closed container.

I found that setting 1 on the heating pad was all I needed to get the bottom of the pile to 104 F. Every few hours I would open it up to rearrange and also wipe off condensation from the inside of the lid and the sides of the container, like about every 6 hours in the daytime. I also put a couple folded blankets over the top of the container, so it draped over the sides and ends to help retain heat.

It's a simple waiting game, doing the rearranging/wiping as required. Very pleased with how well this simple method is working. I guess it must be the heat that prevents mold growth. Haven't seen one speck after 3 days. The material is gradually getting more compact as it loses water but is still plenty moist, as it has to be to get yellow. Here's a pic of a couple bottom buds that yellowed up so far. As you can see, they look practically fresh, just lighter in color. The green is gradually being replaced by gold and there's zero mold. The smell isn't much different at this point though. May take a lengthier aging/fermenting period for the aroma to change noticeably. No ammonia smell at all yet either btw. Really the only differences so far are lighter color and increased potency, at least it feels like it to me. Didn't seem that potent when I microwave dried some fresh material. Maybe I can actually dry it in the container after the yellowing, by raising the heat setting and wiping the condensation at more frequent intervals. I like the fact that the container keeps the smell in and mold spores out. I may be able to completely dry it in there.

 
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BobCajun

Well-Known Member
I had to cut it short because I found a few white spots starting to appear. Put it in the microwave to kill it. The big buds never got that light. Guess the procedure needs more refinement.
 

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
So that didn't turn out too great, but the heating pad does work for drying. I just turn it up to high and it reaches 115 F. Parchment over the pad and over the material and the container lid cracked slightly. You don't get vapor lock because it dries gradually in a fairly enclosed space, just faster than at room temperature.
 
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BobCajun

Well-Known Member
Here's how it turned out, 4 days total from chop, I call it the 4 day cure. Drying was sped up a lot at 125 F. I just kept burping the container when it got fogged up. Eventually it didn't fog up anymore, which meant it was done. When the container cooled the RH inside was 65 and the consistency was perfect. Plenty of aroma since it was dried in a closed container. Smells just like Colombian. Not a fresh smell at all anymore. When I put it in a small Tritan container the final RH turned out to be 60%.

The smell in the place was a lot easier to deal with. The only time there was smell was during the burpings, when I would move the lid aside about an inch until the RH dropped close to normal, which would take about 5-10 minutes. The difference in the drying part of the cure is the higher temperature and no blankets involved, just parchment on the heating pad and over the material.

 
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