Drying weed - is darkness important?

Basic Growing Info
#41

I’ve been thinking about doing some side by sides as content for a blog I’m going to start up. I’ve been inspired by this blog called Brulosophy, which other home brewers here are probably familiar with. Basically, this guy does a blog where he has a semi-regular series called ExBEERiments, and what he does here is he puts a lot of bro-science to the test. He’ll pick a common bit of folklore from the brewing scene, like whether force carbonation changes the flavor from the same brew that was bottle-conditioned. Then he brews up a batch each way, and does a blind taste test with his brewing club. He has singlehandedly busted some myths.

I would like to take that torch and apply it to the growing scene.

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#42

I dry mine in a my bedroom, it is mostly dark, but not DARK . Door open to rest of house, sunlight diffused through curtains in there. Has a good ceiling fan and is a large room is why I do it in there. Never tried drying any other way.

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#43

Yeah but what do you know jet :joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy: oj bro

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#44
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#45

Not much

:sunglasses:

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#46

I wet trim mine and hang in a wardrobe with a humidity monitor with the door closed. I check the humidity daily and if it’s too high I’ll open the doors. The light doesn’t seem to have any negative effects on the final product that I myself or anyone else I “share” it with can notice.

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#47

I have also read on this forum about people complaining about weed exposed to light in the dispensaries.

I’ve found this article related and they speak about cientific studies that confirms that light degrades the THC, one can act as one likes but facts are there to stay … :sunglasses:

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#48

Alright passive aggressive :hibiscus:. Either settle down or pipe up like you mean it :postal_horn:. This isn’t a thread on storing weed. The title clearly states “when drying weed” I don’t keep my curing weed in the light. But that’s not what was asked was it

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#49

For me whole hang, bigger fans removed, sugary things stay, hangs in a spare tent, not zipped completely shut and a bottom vent open to help with keeping mold away, hang til buds pop off main stem, jar, wait and smoke…

Semi light, mostly dark, whatever you wanna call it… It’s about how long it takes to fully dry while hanging that makes all the difference imo

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#50

cola liked your post

Found a way to beat the system :sunglasses:

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#51

JAke nailed it. 3 day hang…crap weed…7 day hang, better…2 weeks to hang dry…now we are talking

as ALWAYS…JMHO!!!

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#52

That makes sense to me. I hang mine in the dark because I have a space that has not light and I can keep a constant 59-60% humidity in there and generally cooler temps. I find that after hanging for a few weeks I don’t need to burp in jars as often or as long as a short hang and the hygrometer reading in the jar stays at the 59-60%. If I’m gonna store it for long term then I probably add a boost pack just to make sure it doesn’t dry out.
FWIW I have heard that you don’t really want to hang it in direct sunlight but I think diffused is ok and have done that a lot in days gone by because I didn’t have another place to put them.

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#53

They are mostly talking about storage in that article. Drying would be typically for a much shorter period of time.

I don’t think anyone is arguing that light, temperature, and oxygen degrades THC. It’ll also be relative to the intensity of any one factor along with timescale.

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#54

Just thought that if light degrades THC while stored it also degrades it while hanging and drying, at leart that makes sense for me.

Of course I am speaking of direct sunlight or a potent one, shaded spaces or short light periods won’t affect … :sunglasses:

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#55

My drying tent during my last grow got turned into a grow tent and so I was forced to hang my drying buds in the flower tent. Full blast light on them for 12 hours every day for a week. The strains were GHxC99 and Black Triangle. They are easily the two most potent strains I’ve got now, smooth smoke, great taste. Possibly they could have been better in darkness but I doubt it would have made much difference. I even wondered if they would continue to mature drying under light if they were cut too early?

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#56

I was under the impression that chlorophyll mostly degraded with curing and time. Reason why freshly dried bud can make you hack up a lung and not when it’s cured. According to the article above, chlorophyll isn’t even in the top 10 reasons to dry out of direct sunlight.

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#57

I think many of us find the best path, for where we are working our gardens at.
In my area, springtime and late fall, can be wet months in my area.
So when I cut a plant, I decide it’s maturity, not the recommended weeks of flower suggested by the breeder, but by my loupe.
Then sometimes, a plant may need to stand potted for a few days to a week for space to dry her.
I remove all the branches, from main stalk. Remove, the big fans, some of the sugarleaf, and hang them to dry.
It may be dark, but there may be some light on also.
I do not think for my jars it matters if in dark or light, as it dries, for 4-5 days.
I do not remove all the moisture from the buds, once they feel dry, I jar them, in a day or 2 they will be wet again, and start burping.
If they require more than a couple of burping’s, I place them on a banker box, top cover, for an overnight rest on a shelf, or on top of a tent, for a bit of warm.
I only want bone dry buds as I smoke them, but I want the ones in my jars to have some (bit) moisture in them, myself.
Just my $.02

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#58

I grow in one closet and hang dry in the other. Couldnt get light in there without running an extension cord. My weed gets me high, I’m good over here. :wave:

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#59

I’ve dried in closets, tents, barns, even outside in full sunlight, plants no trimmed, full trimmed, or just fans removed, pieces and whole plants. The only method I didn’t like was full sunlight, buds don’t have the same tastes and flavour and the buds get sun bleached.

It’s more about maintaining moisture for a week or two while hanging and depending on your location and/or time of year air movement is a must.

So is total absolute darkness necessary while drying? From my experience the answer is No

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#60

Hey everyone… nice complicated thread full of opinions, stoner myths and a few facts.

There are a lot of variables that go into a subject, such as this, but here are the three main things that degrade your cannabis. These are facts.

Sunlight exposure does degrade cannabis and at a faster rate than anything else. Bright lights, like growlights can too, but it’ll take longer.
It not only degrades THC, but all cannabinoids! Light triggers a biosynthetic process in cannabis that starts the deterioration of its cannabinoids.

Air exposure will also degrade cannabis by oxidizing it. The oxygen in the air causes the cannabinoid structure to change at a molecular level.

High temps will degrade cannabis over a period of time too…

All these things can degrade cannabis, however, you’re likely to smoke all of your cannabis before you notice any changes in potency.
No matter how it’s stored, it’s potency will decrease over time, turning THC into CBN and as the THC levels decline, the CBN level will increase.

For those of you that like to store your cannabis for long periods of time, keep in mind that 15% of the original THC that was found in the plant may be lost in the first year of storage, alone. After 4 years in storage about 40% of the plants original THC will have been lost.

Keep your harvested cannabis in a cool, dark, dry place.

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