Tips for Drying and Curing Your Homegrown Cannabis Plants

Cultivating cannabis at home is a very therapeutic and rewarding process. It also requires a lot of work, contrary to popular belief. Yes, the plants will grow on their own, but that doesn’t mean they will grow healthy. When you are growing cannabis at home, there are many things you have to do to ensure a healthy harvest. If you want a potent bountiful crop, then you must intervene in the growth of your plants. There are many different ways that home growers can help their plants along. From growing in an indoor environment to an outdoor or greenhouse environment, the growing phase is only part of what makes good cannabis, well… good. You can do the best job in the world at growing it, and if you are not diligent during the drying and curing process, all your hard work will be for nothing.

A successful cannabis grow at home involves factors such as using the proper level of nutrients, light, and other factors such as humidity and temperature levels must be monitored too. You also have to learn how to water your plants while not overwatering or underwatering them. This is all a learning process that anyone can read about and research but won’t fully understand until they begin firsthand application of these processes themselves. If you have made it through the vegetation and flowering stage of a cannabis grow and are harvesting a beautiful crop of sparkly sticky buds, the next step is drying and curing them properly.

Properly Drying and Curing Cannabis

A lot of growers choose to drop the temperature and turn off all light sources on their plants for 48 hours when growing indoors before harvest. This is believed to increase the potency of the final product in both flavor and feel. Once the plants have been cut down or pulled by the roots, they must be hung upside down to dry. A dry environment with a temperature of around 70° f is recommended for drying cannabis. You will want good airflow to help avoid mold and mildew growth. Typically, cannabis plants will hang for 10 to 14 days or until the stems snap when bent. Buds are then trimmed off of the stems and placed in drying sleeves or containers to finish the curing process.

Some growers opt to put buds in drying sleeves before jarring them. Once they have reached the jar, you must open them at least once a day in order to avoid a buildup of moisture. Many people refer to this as ‘burping the jar’. This is a process that can be completed in as little as two weeks or take as long as two years or more, depending on the personal preferences of the grower. A lot of people believe that achieving the absolute best results comes from a long and proper cure. As cannabis sits in the jar, the flavor profile, as well as cannabinoid profile, will begin to alter. In almost every instance, these qualities increase thus becoming better.

The Best Part of Curing is When You Get to Taste the Fruit of Your Hard Labor

The best part about the curing process is quite possibly the sampling. After a few weeks in the jars of being burped regularly, if you haven’t already, it’s time to taste test your cannabis. Many people will try a little bit of it as soon as it is dry enough to smoke. This allows them to know the difference in how the cannabis tasted pre-cure.

If you decide to grow cannabis at home, be sure to do a little bit of reading about this process beforehand. If you have a little bit of time and some patience, along with an understanding of how cannabis is cultivated and cured, you will be extremely happy with the end results of the fruits of your labor. Cannabis cultivation is very therapeutic in itself. The act of growing and nurturing a plant into fruition is a pleasing process that many people enjoy. What starts as growing medicine quickly cultivates into a hobby of gardening for many.

If you have managed to have a successful grow and are ready to explore the curing and drying process, there is a plethora of information available to you online. Be sure that you dry your cannabis in a proper environment that has good airflow, such as an unused grow tent. Make sure the environment is not too humid and has an average temperature of around 70° to 75°. Once you have put your cannabis inside of a mason jar, be sure to burp it daily. If you would like to take the extra measure to help with the curing process of your herb, you may also want to explore humidity control packs for curing cannabis.

To learn more about growing cannabis at home, check out our guide. Do you have tips or tricks for the drying and curing process? If so, let us know your experiences and suggestions in the comments below.