Beginner’s Guide

How To Dry And Cure Marijuana?

Congratulations! Your hard work is finally paying off. The buds are ready for harvesting.
Ready to finally taste them?
Hang on!

The job will be half-done because your cannabis buds still
need to go through the drying and curing process.

The Art of Drying Marijuana

The process of drying marijuana starts as soon as you cut down the cannabis plant. But, make sure that you don’t leave your buds lying anywhere. As these buds are breeding ground for fungal and bacterial degradation. Act wisely or else you will lose all the months of hard work in a fraction of seconds. Look below for the best way to dry marijuana.

Cutting Down The Plant

You can possibly not mess up at this level because one can harvest cannabis plants piece-by-piece. You can either cut off buds individually and leave them on a drying rack or a mesh screen.

Or cut off branches of the cannabis plant with each branch preferably 12-16 inches long.

Trim Away Extra Set of Leaves

Before starting the actual process of drying marijuana, one can go for trimming away some leaves on the buds to improve the appearance of your buds. As a lot of leaves on your buds can make your cannabis harsher.

Still, the number of leaves you wish to trim entirely depends on your personal preference and the type of area where you are looking to dry marijuana buds.

For example, if your area is too dry, keeping as many leaves will be beneficial. On the contrary, if the drying area is humid, then trimming away as many leaves will be beneficial to speed up the process of drying marijuana.

Experts recommend trimming buds using disposable gloves to prevent sticking of resins on your hands.

Tip- Don’t throw away the trimmed leaves as you can use dried trimmed leaves to make butter or other cannabis extracts.

Slow Drying

For the process of drying marijuana, make sure you have set the ideal temperature between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit with around 50% humidity.

You can reduce humidity with heater, dehumidifier, or an air conditioner, or go for a humidifier for increasing humidity. Use either of the options as per your drying area prerequisites.

Never go for drying marijuana using microwave, oven or stove. It will taste awful and could potentially cause paranoia. Drying cannabis above 80 degrees will degrade your terpene content.

Hanging your buds upside down is the best way to dry marijuana that involves no or least investment.

Go ahead with the process by hanging your cannabis using string or hangers. You can also go for a drying rack but, it can be a bit expensive. However, using racks will help to dry your buds faster than other methods.

Make sure to remove the stems before drying marijuana buds using racks.

Other than that, you can also lay your buds on a surface like cardboard. But, you need to rotate the cannabis buds every few hours to prevent the formation of wet spots.

If the above methods are not helping you, going for a small fan can help to improve airflow around the area. But, don’t point the fan onto the buds directly.

Patience Is The Key

Well, this is one of the most important elements of the process of drying cannabis. The phrase “slow and steady wins the race” suits perfectly in this situation.

Also, make sure you check the bud regularly especially during the first few harvests. The drying process usually takes around 3-7 days.

Check that the buds are dry and don’t stick together to confirm whether or not the process of drying marijuana has completed.

Tip- If you smell ammonia, then stop right there. Because the presence of ammonia means they are too wet or that bacteria have infested your buds.

Watch Now

Drying and Curing Cannabis Buds- A Step-by-step Guide

The video explains the process and importance of drying and curing cannabis for obtaining high-quality buds with an increased level of potency along with preserving the chemical constituents of cannabis that are involved in the desired smell or flavors. Experts recommend going slow with the entire process using a controlled environment to get the desired cannabis products.

The Art of Curing Marijuana

Satisfied that your cannabis buds are dry enough. Then, it’s time to get on with the next step. Curing cannabis is a process that will give your incredibly tasty marijuana buds to enjoy.
How to cure cannabis? Read along and find out the procedure right away.

Separate Buds and Branches

Although, many of you would have completed this process already. But, in case, you did not then make sure to trim buds and separate them from branches.

Tip– Make sure you are able able to snap off even the small buds with your fingers without leaving anything behind. Any stringiness means there is too much moisture inside.

Place Buds Into A Jar

A lot of time and effort has already been put to reach this step. So, it would be wrong to mess this part.

The mission is to store your buds in an environment that helps your cannabis buds to retain their characteristics.

Ideally, you will store the buds at a humidity of 60-65% and at a temperature of around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. This controlled environment will help the buds to retain softness.

Ideally, containers for curing cannabis are wide-mouth mason jars of around quarter sized. These jars have the capacity to store around 1 ounce of dried cannabis buds.

Fill each jar around ¾ full so that there is room for additional air as well. These jars are easily found at grocery, craft, and superstores. You can even find them online as well. These jars are often labeled as Quart jars or 32 oz jars.

Bigger jars often result in the formation of molds. And other types don’t seal properly. This can result in messing up the process of curing cannabis.

Other storage options include wooden, metal, or plastic containers. You can also go for plastic bags. But, your buds can degrade after making contact with specific terpenes.

Keep The Jar In A Dark Place

The best way to cure marijuana is to ensure that they are perfectly sealed and placed in a cool, dark, and dry environment.

Keep Regular Checks

During the first few days, ensure that you open the jars several times a day. This is a crucial step because you are giving space to the buds to let go off the moisture along with providing the required amount of moisture.

So, if you ever feel the smell of ammonia, then it a sign of anaerobic bacterial growth. This can result in mold or fungus formation.

So, using a hygrometer will help you to maintain 60-65% of humidity every time during the process of curing marijuana.

Use the following tricks to maintain the humidity of the chamber.

  • Over 70% : Place your buds outside the container for 12-24 hours.
  • 65-70% : Take the lid off your container for around 2-4 hours. However, don’t take the buds outside the container.
  • 55% or less : Rehydrate using a humidipak or organic matter such as orange peel.

But, make sure you don’t increase the risks of mold infections.

This will help to cure marijuana within 2-3 weeks. However, some experts go for 8 weeks as the ideal curing time. Some buds can go for 6-month long curing process as well.

It’s up to you if you can wait for that long.

Tip- Once the process of curing cannabis is complete, make sure to invest in humidity packs to keep your buds fresh for the longest times. And keep them in portions using a weighing machine.

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