A deep dive into the cannabis drying and curing industries – which, by the way, includes hemp – reveals a rich world filled with differing strategies and practices for producing the perfect buds. As you research different methodologies and decide what’s best for your business, you’ll stumble upon some important terminology and information that can help shape your decision. This Cryo Cure guide to the drying and curing processes will familiarize you with all of it.
Cannabis drying and curing: are they the same?
Drying and curing are different but deeply intertwined. That’s because the two processes are often executed together, although cannabis curing is an optionable (but preferable) step compared to the necessary cannabis drying process.
What is cannabis drying?
Cannabis drying is the process of removing moisture from cannabis (and hemp) after harvest. This is a crucial step in the process of preparing cannabis for sale, as moisture is a harmful element that can cause crop-ruining molds and mildew. To dry cannabis or hemp, the branches are traditionally hung upside-down on wire or string to dry, or they may be laid flat on trays.
How long do you hang dry cannabis?
The drying process typically lasts for a few days or up to three weeks, depending on the grower’s preference. Other methods, such as flash-freezing, take well under a day.
How can you tell when cannabis is done drying?
Properly dried cannabis has buds that feel dry when you touch them but aren’t brittle. The plant’s stems shouldn’t bend — instead, they should snap cleanly, indicating no squishiness that comes from excess moisture.
What humidity is best for drying cannabis?
Cannabis and humidity don’t mingle well, but some of the latter is ultimately necessary when cultivating your plants. In the drying room, a humidity level of 50 percent is best, with a goal of at most 15 percent in your cured, dried flower.
For best results, choose a process that achieves eight to 12 percent humidity in your cured, dried flower. At this humidity level, your flower will be nowhere close to so brittle that it basically becomes dust in consumers’ hands. It also won’t be so high that it risks mold and mildew development — and it will have plenty of cannabinoids and terpenes for a rich smoking experience.
The cannabis drying process
The traditional cannabis drying process goes as follows:
- The cannabis plants are harvested when the trichomes are a milky white color. At this stage, the plant’s THC content is at its highest. The plants’ sugar leaves (the tiny ones around the buds) may begin wilting and taking on a yellowish hue, another sign that it’s time for harvesting.
- The plants are separated from their roots where the stem meets the soil. The stems are then clipped to a hang-drying rack so that the plants are fully vertical and upside down. Alternatively, the plants are laid flat in a single layer on a mesh rack or screen.
- After a few days or several weeks, the cannabis will be completely dry.
With this setup, the cannabis drying process is shaped by inevitable fluctuations in environmental factors such as humidity, oxygen, and light. Flash-freezing machines allow for quicker, more uniform drying (and curing) in controlled environments.
Common cannabis drying terms
- Drying room: This is the dedicated area in a grow facility just for drying cannabis.
- Hanging: This is when cannabis branches are hung upside-down to dry. This is typically done with wires or a special hanger.
- Drying tray: This is an alternative to hanging cannabis upside-down to dry. Drying trays are space-saving mechanisms that allow the cannabis to lie flat while drying.
- PPE: Personal protective equipment is a must for any employee entering the drying area. Masks, hair nets, gloves, and protective clothing are all common to ensure minimum contact between the cannabis and the person handling it, reducing the chance of bacteria and other contamination.
- Trimming: This refers to removing the large fan leaves and the tiny sugar leaves from cannabis, leaving behind the phytocannabinoid and terpene-rich flower for consumption.
- Wet trim: The harvested cannabis’s fan leaves and sugar leaves are trimmed before the drying process.
- Dry trim: The plant’s fan leaves and sugar leaves are trimmed after the cannabis goes through the drying process.
- Wet weight: This is the weight of the cannabis before it goes through the drying process. Not surprisingly, cannabis weighs significantly less once the moisture content has been removed.
- Bud rot: Also called botrytis, bud rot is a mold that can form in cannabis when it’s not properly dried. This mold is tough to spot because it forms in the center of the bud, where plant material is most dense and retains the most moisture.
What is cannabis curing?
The cannabis curing process allows the dried flower to further intensify its flavors. Lasting anywhere from a few days to a few weeks or more, this process places dried cannabis in a dark environment closed off to oxygen, allowing grassy chlorophyll to degrade and phytocannabinoid content to stabilize and intensify.
How long should you dry cannabis before curing?
Growers dry their cannabis for several days before starting the traditional cring process. Cryo Cure machines bring the combined drying and curing down to hours instead of days.
What does curing weed do?
Curing weed intensifies cannabis flower’s flavor while allowing your cannabis to be stored for longer without risking mold or mildew developing. The result is a smoother, more flavorful, and more potent cannabis or hemp flower.
How long does curing weed take?
Traditionally, curing takes two to four weeks. Cryo ure’s patented process brings this time down to less than a day.
The cannabis curing process
The cannabis curing process involes storing dried cannabis in a sealed environment (like jars) for several weeks. The jars are opened at several points during the process to release carbon dioxide and expose the dried cannabis to fresh new air, a process calle burping.
Common cannabis curing terms
- Climate control: This can be any suite of tools used to ensure the proper temperature, ventilation, and humidity of both curing and drying environments. Climate control tools may include fans, thermometers, HVAC systems, and controllers.
- Oxidation: If cannabis is exposed to air (specifically oxygen) during the curing process, it may oxidate. With cannabis, oxidation results in the degradation of THC, transforming into the Cannabinol (CBN) that causes “couch lock.”
- Humidity: This is the amount of water vapor present in the air. While humidity and cannabis are often discussed, it is not as crucial a factor as relative humidity.
- Relative humidity: This is the amount of humidity that’s actually present in the air. This figure changes depending on the temperature of the drying room or curing environment. This is also commonly called water activity. This can be measured with a water activity meter.
- Chlorophyll: A pigment in plants, chlorophyll breaks down during the cannabis drying and curing process. If there is too much chlorophyll in the final product, the cannabis or hemp may taste too grassy.
- Burping: Also called “breathing,” this is the part of the cannabis curing process where fresh air is introduced back to the cannabis. This process typically takes place once a day during the curing process. It can last for as short as 10 to 20 seconds, but in other cases, it may occur for a few minutes or up to 30 minutes.
Chlorophyll in weed: The drying and curing connection
Chlorophyll absorbs certain wavelengths of light associated with plant growth during the seedling, vegetative, and flowering stages. Each of these stages has an ideal humidity. Once the plant is ready for harvesting, though, chlorophyll content must be minimized to avoid unpleasant tastes and aromas.
Proper curing is the solution since it breaks chlorophyll down. However, before curing, drying must not occur too quickly, or the chlorophyll won’t fully degrade. Flash-freezing ensures that both drying and curing result in flower that lacks chlorophyll when it reaches consumers.
How long does it take for chlorophyll to break down?
Chlorophyll takes a week or two to break down in nature and in traditional hang-drying settings for cannabis cultivation. With flash-freezing, this timeframe gets reduced to 24 hours or less.
Dry and cure cannabis in less than a day with Cryo Cure
Moisture and time are the enemies of cannabis. Too much moisture, and dangerous molds and mildew can form. Too little moisture, and the hemp or cannabis flower becomes brittle and quite literally crumbles. This makes cannabis drying vital to get perfect, even if that’s at the sacrifice of taking extra time to do so. But time is a problem, too: The more days pass, the more opportunity for the flower to form problems, not to mention lose the valuable and fragile terpenes that make the consumption experience truly unique.
Enter Cryo Cure. This patented cannabis drying and curing system reduces the multi-week process to as little as 10 hours — or even just two hours in some cases. This machine skips the hanging phase of drying altogether, accelerating the process by deep freezing the hemp or cannabis flower before undergoing a specially formulated set of time, pressure, and temperature to cure the cannabis. Instead of obliterating your cannabis’ moisture content to ultra-low levels like a regular freeze dryer would, Cryo Cure reduces moisture content to 8 percent to 12 percent, dry enough to keep mold and mildew at bay.
Cryo Cure is uniquely designed to preserve terpenes normally lost during the cannabis drying and curing process. Our machines have three separate ways to preserve and collect terpenes: stabilizing terpene content from the onset (what we call “live resin” flower), recapturing terpenes lost during extraction, and settings on the machine specifically for terpene extraction. Whichever way is best for your business goals, you can recoup thousands – and even millions – in lost revenue potential that literally evaporate into thin air during the cannabis or hemp drying process.
The result is a hemp or cannabis flower preserved at the height of its freshness, with vibrant colors, an unforgettable aroma, and an outstanding flavor no standard drying or curing can match. The differences are clear – by smell, vision, taste, or touch. To explore your options, contact Cryo Cure today.
