Let’s discuss how to dry and cure your cannabis for the best quality and smoke possible. It’s said that drying and curing your buds properly contributes to up to 50% of the final quality, so it’s important to master if you enjoy quality cannabis. If you dry your buds nice and slow, it will be a smoother smoke and great aroma and flavour. I personally love having very aromatic and flavourful cannabis, therefore I do everything in my power to preserve the terpenes. Not to mention all the benefits of terpenes to your health. Now, let’s get discuss the methods for drying and curing your buds like a pro.
Slow Drying Your Cannabis
The key to great quality cannabis is a slow dry. This gives the plant time to break down any remaining chlorophyll. Slow drying helps to the reduce harshness of the smoke. It should take about 4 – 10 days to dry your plants depending on the size of the plant. I cut the entire plant down at the main stem and hang the whole plant upside down to dry. You can also cut and hang branches individually if your climate is humid. I like hanging the whole plant because it helps ensure a nice, slow dry. You should have a fan or two going when drying, but never point the fans directly on the buds. I use a humidifier in the room while drying my plants to keep it at a consistent range of 50%-55%.
Ideal conditions for drying your cannabis:
- Temperature – 65°-70°F/18°-21°C
- Humidity – 50%-55%RH
Trimming Your Cannabis
Wet Trim vs. Dry Trim
There are two ways you can trim your plant, dry trim and wet trim. Which one you choose depends on personal preference. I prefer to dry trim as the extra leaves make the buds dry a little slower.
Wet Trim
- Trim buds on plant before buds are dry
- Easy to trim; leaves haven’t curled in yet
- Better overall appearance of buds
- Dries faster
- Good if you are worried about mold or high humidity
Dry Trim
- Trim buds after the drying process
- Harder to trim; leaves curled in
- More brown appearance than wet trim
- Slower drying process
- More dense/uniform buds
I trim my buds after drying. You can also wet trim, but I personally enjoy the smoke better when I dry trim. It is more tedious than wet trimming, but it’s worth the reward in my opinion. After trimming, the buds are ready to be put into mason jars (or any other jars) to cure for a minimum of 2 weeks up to about 6 months.
Curing Your Cannabis
The curing process is basically just more slow drying. It allows the buds to dry from the inside out. It is said that curing your cannabis can actually increase the potency of your buds. Genetics play a big role in potency as well but it can be controlled to a degree. You can effect potency by harvesting at the proper time and curing your buds for at least 2 weeks before enjoying it. Fill up the jars about 75% so there’s room for some movement.
You want the buds to move freely in the jars and not clump together. If this happens, you can simply open the jar for a few hours to dry them a bit more before closing the jar again. When buds become too dry, they will become brittle and crumble easily. If by chance, you over dry your buds, it’s okay, you just won’t need to “burp” your jars as much. You want to hit that sweet spot where the buds feel dry to the touch on the outside. This is where the curing happens. They will still have more moisture on the inside to “sweat” out in the jars.
Ideal conditions for curing cannabis in jars:
- Temperature – 65-70F/18-21C
- Humidity – 58%-65%RH
Burping Your Jars
The curing process is achieved by putting the buds into sealed jars and then “burping” the jars in specific intervals to allow fresh air to the buds and allow the humidity in the jars to escape. You can leave the jars open for about 1-2 minutes each time you burp the jars. This is the burping schedule that I follow:
- Burp jars 2-3 times a day – Week 1
- Open jars 1-2 times a day – Week 2
- Burp jars every other day to every few days – Week 3+
- Open jars once a week to once every 2 weeks – Week 6+
Now you know how to dry and cure your cannabis like a professional. With a little practice, you can easily replicate the results over and over again!