Congratulations on growing your own marijuana from seed to harvest! Now that you have your freshly harvested buds, the next step is to cure marijuana to unlock the best taste and potency.
Cure Marijuana
Curing marijuana involves the slow and careful drying of the buds to perfection, which can take up to four weeks. In this article, we will guide you through the process step-by-step, so you can ensure your buds have the best flavor, potency, and shelf life.
Step 1: Dry Your Buds
After harvesting your buds, it’s important not to leave them hanging for too long. If you dry them too much or too fast, they will lose their flavor and become too dry. The trick is to dry them slowly until they reach the optimal moisture content.
You can hang dry your buds on the stems and branches or use a drying rack or other methods to dry your buds before curing. The key is to be patient and take your time to ensure your buds are not over-dried or under-dried. To cure marijuana takes time and patience.
Step 2: Trim Your Buds
Before you start curing your buds, it’s a good idea to trim them. Wet pruning your buds before drying makes it easier to cut them off the branches and drop them into the mason jars.
Step 3: Place Buds in Mason Jars
Once you’ve trimmed your buds, place them in mason jars. We recommend using a hygrometer/thermometer combo to help you know when you need to burp the jars and when the buds are at the optimal moisture content. Once you reach the optimal moisture level, place a boveda moisture pack into the jar to maintain that level for the duration of storage.
Step 4: Burp Your Jars
Burping your jars is important to let moisture out, fresh air in, and the natural process of the plant releasing its chlorophyll and breaking down. You should repeat this every day until you get your buds to 62%, which is the magic number. Once you reach this level, you can begin to burp the jars less frequently, such as once a week, and then after a week or two, once a month.
The higher the moisture content, the longer you want to leave the lid off. If you are around 65% moisture, you probably only need to burp it for like 5-10 minutes. If it is higher, you may need to leave the lid off overnight or multiple hours. To properly cure marijuana this is important to make sure not too much moisture builds up in your jar and creates mold. Pay attention to yours moisture and you can place hygrometers in your jars to help you monitor your levels.
Step 5: Store Your Buds
Make sure to try and keep your jars in a dark, cool spot. You don’t want something super hot like 70 degrees or high, and you don’t need to freeze or place them in the refrigerator as this will suck the water and moisture out of your buds, defeating everything you just did.
Light can also slowly degrade the quality of your buds because light slowly breaks down THC. THC is what gives you that light feeling. Keep your buds in a dark spot to preserve their potency and flavor.
Final Thoughts
Curing your buds is a crucial step to achieving the best flavor, potency, and shelf life of your marijuana buds. It may take a few weeks, but it is worth the wait. The process is simple, and it only takes a few minutes a day of maintenance and the proper materials to keep your weed tasting good and staying at the precise moisture content that you need.
Follow this guide and you can ensure your buds are cured to perfection and ready for smoking. Enjoy the fruits of your labor and the satisfaction of growing your own crop that is worth it and more cost-effective than dropping hundreds of dollars on a regular basis at a dispensary.
Make sure to check out our step-by-step grow guides and come back throughout your grows to produce the best quality cannabis you can.
