Every cannabis grower and manufacturer wants to get their products on the shelf as quickly as they can. More importantly, they want the best product, which will make the most money and earn them a good reputation.
Â
The universal standard for cannabis is:
·        It smokes well and has a great flavor.
·        A good terpene profile.
·        A nice spread across multiple cannabinoids.
·        Good potency.
·        A flower that is well trimmed, cured, and attractive looking.
·        Free of pesticides, heavy metals and microbials.
Â
That’s a lot of boxes to check off.
Â
The purpose of my article is to educate growers and manufacturers on how to appropriately dry, cure and store cannabis.
Â
Drying
Cultivators use either wet or dry trimming as part of the drying process. Regardless of the method, it’s important to remove the stems, sugar leaves and fan leaves to maintain the potency of cannabis. If you don’t remove the stems and leaves, it will hurt the flavor profile and give you suboptimal results. Before you start curing the flowers, it’s important to get most of the moisture out of the buds to prevent microbial growth.
Â
We found that maintaining a moisture level of 12% is the sweet spot for the best potency and high terpene profile.
Â
Curing
Once the drying is complete and curing begins, the flower undergoes chemical changes. The extended curing process can take weeks, and the rule is the longer you cure, the better the flower. Proper curing can boost potency by up to 10% and the flower is more stable over a longer period of time. Also, chlorophyll and sugars will break down during the curing process, leading to a higher potency percentage. It will be a better product that fetches higher values because it will smoke better, have less fluorophores, and have lush simple sugars.
However, in the rush to market, sometimes cultivators will accidently skip or shorten the curing process before sending the flower for lab testing. After the testing is complete, the results will show the uncured flower will have lower terpene profiles and potency. It won’t be what consumers want to buy.
We've assisted customers with uncured or under-cured flowers, resulting in increased potency and terpene levels.
Storage
Whether you’re getting your samples tested or placing the products on the shelf, how you store it matters. The best container for storage is an amber glass vial to keep the product fresh. Place these vials away from sunlight because it will prevent the breakdown of terpenoids and cannabinoids. Above all, avoid plastic because cannabinoids are fatty molecules, and they are attracted to plastic. Plastic bags can get staticky and the resins and trichomes can stick to the inside of the bag, making it more difficult to remove. Whether it’s flowers or distillates, they will embed and leach into the plastic and potency will decrease.
Â
Bring us what you plan to sell.
Â
How PBL Helps
There are so many things to consider when growing, harvesting, drying, curing, and storing cannabis. Every strain behaves differently. Did I harvest the plants too soon? Did I rush through the drying? Was the humidity too low while they were curing?
Â
If the lab results are not what you intended, we will work with you to help identify what might have happened during the cultivation. It could be anything from determining if the pH in the water was off, loss of generator power, to trimming incorrectly. And our lab analyst has visited grower’s sites a few times to help determine what was causing inconsistent results.
PBL prides itself on telling the truth to our clients. We are part of your team. We will be open and honest with our communications. And we will discuss with you what we saw in the lab results, so you optimize your cannabis cultivation.
Â
Your goal is our goal, to get the best product on the shelf.
Comments