Shutterstock
When folks discuss enhancing the standard of flower, the dialogue is dominated by all the pieces that occurs earlier than the harvest. Lighting, soil varieties, vitamins, pH, and a myriad of different inputs play a crucial position within the improvement of a hashish plant, however the quest for high quality is way from over when the blade cuts by way of the stem on an out of doors farm in October. Whereas it’s vital to have wholesome crops grown to their highest potential and efficiency, not placing sufficient planning and time into the post-harvest processes is a missed alternative.
Hashish Drying 101
The tried-and-true course of cultivators have used for hundreds of years is the hang-drying technique. Freshly harvested hashish crops are sometimes hung the other way up from strings or wires in an environmentally managed drying area with a humidity degree close to 62 p.c till the buds are dry sufficient for processing. Deciding between dry trimming and moist trimming relies on many elements, with private desire typically main the best way. Throughout the drying course of, which might take as much as two weeks, aromas and flavors intensify because the moisture dissipates. Drying additionally reduces the possibility of fungal progress, which might happen shortly in moist buds left in a darkish place with out airflow.
Based on the longtime cultivator, creator, and educator Ed Rosenthal, “For buds to be pleased with, suppose ‘low and sluggish.’ Drying and curing flowers takes time and persistence, however the completed buds are definitely worth the wait.”
When buds are dried too quick by way of the usage of dehumidifiers to drag moisture out in a few days, the ultimate product is often missing in taste and aroma. Whereas Rosenthal and lots of different skilled legacy cultivators imagine persistence is the trail to success, others see time as a expensive enemy they’ll overcome with the precise technological answer.
dry hashish quick
Whereas there are a variety of strategies to hurry up the drying course of by specializing in temperature and humidity, one of the crucial common methods to get rid of moisture whereas retaining a marijuana plant’s finer qualities is freeze-drying.
“The technique is to take contemporary hashish, freeze it, after which dry the frozen plant materials,” mentioned Dominic Daigle, chief government officer at Cannabista, a hashish post-harvest processor. Cannabista has a 40,000-square-foot facility in Quebec, Canada that may course of 150 tons of product yearly.
The corporate’s drying machines are primarily based on the idea of lyophilization, which makes use of a low-temperature dehydration and sublimation course of.
“We use the rules of sublimation to take away the moisture from frozen plant materials,” mentioned Daigle. “This preserves the bodily look, the terpenes, the trichomes are totally intact, and the style is clean.”
This method to post-harvest processing brings many advantages to the underside line as nicely. For example, if an out of doors cultivator is sitting on a big harvest with out the capability to dry all of it, the pace at which this drying know-how works might remedy their drawback. It additionally eliminates the necessity for extra drying rooms and drying racks. The approach additionally works nicely to scale back stock volatility.
“That is what I wish to name freshness-on-demand,” he mentioned. “You retain your product frozen. While you want some, you dry it, so that you all the time have a [fresh] product on the shelf,” mentioned Daigle.
Shortcuts aren’t with out dangers, and the freezing course of could make your trichomes very brittle. If not dealt with fastidiously, your buds will degrade quickly. However for a lot of companies, the dangers will be dwarfed by the rewards.
remedy hashish buds
The curing course of is at the least as vital because the drying stage for flower. To remedy your buds is to enhance the style and odor of a cultivar, and it may possibly separate the nice from the nice for patrons searching for top-shelf flower. Throughout the curing course of, extra moisture is launched whereas chlorophyll continues to interrupt down which eliminates the “freshly lower grass” style. The terpenes even have the time they should totally mature and supply the complete expertise customers anticipate from high-quality flower.
On the most elementary degree, curing hashish requires a darkish room with a steady temperature, mason jars, and ideally a hygrometer. Trimmed buds are positioned loosely within the jars and sealed. Normally, moisture from the center of the jar will start transferring to buds close to the surface of the jar earlier than lastly leaving when uncovered to contemporary air.
The goal humidity contained in the jar is between 55 and 65 p.c, so if the person buds are too moist, the lids ought to come off the jars for some time. If they’re too dry, there are humidity packs designed for storage out there to assist rehydrate the buds. Throughout the first week of the curing course of, most growers will “burp” their jars to launch moisture and introduce contemporary oxygen. However like most processes in hashish cultivation and processing, some swear by it whereas others would inform you to keep away from altering the curing setting for the sake of contemporary air.
A major step up from the usual mason jar remedy that doesn’t stray removed from the identical primary course of is auto-curing with buckets. Derek Gilman, cultivator and managing director of the Ganjier hashish sommelier certification program, has developed an automatic curing system for larger-scale grows. His course of, which he shares on YouTube, entails 5-gallon buckets with gamma seal lids that may maintain about two kilos of flower, plastic tubing with two test valves (consumption and outtake) going by way of the buckets, and an air pump with a timer that mechanically pressurizes the buckets and burps them within the course of.
Based on Gilman, “It takes about three weeks earlier than you discover the sweetness begin to happen earlier than the true curing happens.”
remedy hashish buds utilizing the newest know-how
“There are some fast paths to the ultimate product,” mentioned Lance Lambert, chief advertising officer at Grove Bags. “Cryocuring, flash freezing, [the methods are] depending on what you need to do with that finish product.”
Lambert added that many individuals have gone to a contemporary frozen mannequin if they’re finally going to show the product into oil. “[In this case] there’s no have to undergo the standard drying and curing, since you’re taking it from its freshest section and squeezing out all of the properties you need.”
Grove Luggage has created an auto-curing answer by way of specifically made luggage that push out extra moisture and oxygen. This eliminates probably the most labor-intensive a part of curing, which is the burping course of.
“We’ve a soft-sided, what you name flexo-packaging, that’s manufactured from polymers which are sandwiched collectively,” mentioned Lambert.
You place the product into the bag, seal it, after which all of it cures by itself. Whereas this will seem to be a pleasant add-on for small-scale growers, the power to get rid of the burping course of is a game-changer for large-scale producers.
“A few of these bigger license producers and even large-scale MSOs is likely to be pushing 1,000 kilos every week,” mentioned Lambert.
Researching the perfect strategies and practices on your hashish merchandise is a logical step to having the very best high quality. However guaranteeing these practices deliver out the perfect of the plant whereas maintaining prices at respectable ranges, is a necessity in in the present day’s extremely aggressive market.