Growing cannabis is really only half the journey. After harvest, drying cannabis before curing are crucial for a usable, smokable, great-tasting crop. These steps help retain terpenes and cannabinoids while diminishing chlorophyll, giving you something that tastes more like grass than, well, grass. Not to mention, the right conditions in a grow room prevent mould, so post-processing is an important time to pay careful attention.
No matter the size of your grow setup, a few truths remain: You should dry your weed in a dark room with temperatures between 15 and 20°C and humidity between 50-65%. A hygrometer will take the mystery out of monitoring those numbers.
Drying Cannabis with a WeDryer
Drying cannabis with a WeDryer removes the hassle and leaves you with consistent results. Using a Wedryer is super easy.
Trim wet and put all buds in your WeDryer. This will let you dry just the part you’re ultimately after, skipping any excess material like sticks and stems. Firstly, weed should be trimmed and bucked — snipped off its main stem and into smaller nugs — to make maximum use of space. This means the dry will happen more quickly, so be sure to check on your flowers often. You’ll want to get them into jars to cure at the right time, rather than having them dry to a crisp.
Drying flat also means the buds will get a little smooshed on one side, the side on the rack. This is purely an aesthetic concern, but one to be aware of.
The bud is considered to be dried when branches snap and buds sound like popcorn when gently pressed. It’s time for the next step: curing.
Curing Cannabis
During curing, moisture continues to draw from the center of the bud toward the outside. Cannabis can be considered cured after two weeks to a month, however, longer is usually better.
Seal the buds in jars overnight and check on them the next day. If the flowers seem to have regained their moisture, leave the lid off all day before resealing at night. Repeat this process — known as burping — until you find them as dry as you left them the night before. Judge this by giving them a gentle squeeze.
The ideal moisture for fully dried and cured cannabis is a steady 10-15%. Voilà, your cure is done.
This post was adapted from Leafly.