Curing Marijuana

Curing Marijuana makes the it stronger and milder to smoke. It also gives the pot the nice smell. Curing is done by controlled fermentation.

Fresh weed is not very potent itself. Most of the THC is created after the harvest. THC is what makes the user stoned.

Fresh weed also does not smell as nice as matured weed, because the aromatic oils do not express themselves fully yet.

Curing Marijuana is the process of slowly but controlled drying of the fresh weed. This can be seen as an artform with many variations. It is simmilar to wine- or cheese-making: It takes some patience and everybody does it a bit differrent.

We start with fresh weed. It was harvested and trimmed. Now the drying / curing Marijuana process starts.

It is generally important to avoid touching the marijuana. Evertime you touch it, something will stick to your finger which won't be in the joint later.

Marijuana should be dried in a dark, well ventilated environment. Key is to curing marijuana is to dry it rather slowly. But not too slowly because there lurks danger of mould. Never use heaters, ovens, microwaves or fridges to dry your pot. It would ruin it.

Spread the buds on sheets of paper, or hang them on a rope or wire. Let them dry in the dark for 6 - 9 days. Rotate them every 2 days or so to allow evenly drying.

After those 4-8 days the pot should be still a bit wet. It is now time to carefully press it for the first time.

Pressing Marijuana gives it the distinct looks of nice buds. Pressing is not absolutely necessary. In fact, I believe it lowers the quality a little because some trichomes burst.

But pressed bud usually looks more beautiful. I showed friends two types of the same weed: Pressed and unpressed. Almost everyone preferred the pressed form. The unpressed Marijuana looks a little too hairy.

How to Press it?

Gently, with a plastic bag or cling wrap.

Pressing makes your pot look smaller. It is more compressed and some people think :"Hey, why am I getting only so little?" So don't go overboard with that pressing. Just very gentle to make it look good.

Put the relatively wet weed into a plastic bag and roll it up. How tight you roll determines how much it is pressed. Don't roll too tight. Than put a pillow on the bag and leave it for 5 hours.

After aproximately 5 hours ... get the weed back out of the bag. Don't forget it in there, it would mould.

The weed will now all stick together as seen in the pic above. Seperate every single bud from each other and spread them on white paper. Again, touch it gently and as little as possible to not loose THC.

Let it dry in the dark for another 2 days or so. Than put it back into the bag, roll it up and put it under a pillow.

Take it back out after ca. 10 hours and put it back on the paper.

This procedure must be repeated over and over. The dryer the weed, the longer it can stay in the plastic bag. 2 times of pressing the weed in the bag is enough. After that, just put it in the bag, close it but don't press it any further.

Goal of the whole procedure is to let the Marijuana dry very slowly. It will take weeks until it is completely dry. But it is worth the effort. Always check for mould. If the moist weed stays too long without air circulation mould will attack.

Even when the weed is entirely dry, it is still curing. But at a slower pace. You can determine that it is absolutely dry when the branches snap when bending. You should also hear a noise when they break.

The dry Marijuana can now go loosly into glass jars or plastic boxes. Open them every 2 days or so to let leftover humidity escape.

It will take your Marijuana around 3 month until it reaches its highest strength. But of course, it can be smoked earlier, too.

The End

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