How do I cure my harvest with glass canning jars?

Advanced Techniques GrowFAQ
#1

For personal stash, I got rid of the tupperware and paper bag stage a while ago. This method for glass canning jars gives the strongest aroma and best texture for smoking. Here's the procedure, it couldn't get much simpler..

  1. Cut, manicure, hang your plants in a cool, dark place until totally crispy and smokable in a joint-- usually 5 to 8 days. Optimum conditions are 68-74 degrees F and between 50% and 60% RH.

  2. Place gently into wide-mouth glass canning jars. Close the lid until buds sweat, usually 2 or 3 hours the first time. Open jars and let buds dry to crispy again. I only bother keeping large buds for personal stash but if you do this with shakier stuff, you have to get some air in there and turn the buds over. Larger colas usually have enough flow around them so you don’t have to mess with them unless they are really touching each other inside the jar. I don’t worry about “ooo damaging the ever so fragile buds” by turning them in the jar. Who cares if you lose 2% of the trichomes to the bottom of the jar, big deal… be gentle but if you have to move them around, so what… just collect your skuff on the bottom of the jar and enjoy.

  3. Repeat the sweating process-- open the jar until crisp, close until sweated. After about a week of this (depending on location), you get to that perfect point of curing where there is enough moisture to keep it smelling strong but as soon as you take it out of the jar to smoke, it crisps up and can be rolled.

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Best ways to dry and cure
#2

Point #3 is so very important. One wants air flow across the jars so that there can be air replacement inside along with residual moisture. Yields the finest product that eventually stores virtually forever.

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#3

We use crock pots to speed up the process. RiddleM3 uses this technique, as do I.

#4

Crockpots get to about 209 degrees. Cannabinoids begin to vaporize at 285, with 338 being the sweet spot. It speeds up chlorophyll breakdown and terpene fermentation without breaking down any cannabinoids. It essentially speeds up the curing process by increasing the temperatures to speed up the natural curing processes, much like beer is brewed and fermented by applying heat to increase microbial breakdown of sugars.

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#5

@BadVoodoo the next time you perform this (by the looks of your journal thread, not too far away) will you document it for us?

I’ve never heard of this method and am curious!

Stay Hazed,
Jake

#6

Will do. I find it works very well without damaging the bud. After 2-4 hours in the jar on low with a second lid under it to separate it from the bottom, open the jar and let it sit with the lid off for ten minutes, then dump onto a mat or plate and let it dry out. Do half a quart jar at a time.

#7

Very sophisticated use of the crock pot for curing. Do please document via pictures next go-round!

#8

Just make sure your jars are clean lol. I tried this method and was a little hazy by the time I finished trimming after drying and the jar I used was a cheesy spagetti sauce jar that I had rinsed but not washed, not good lol. Did not affect the quality but gave a bit of an off taste, duh lol

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