Preserving terps in cure

Hey guys so I had a question for some reason everytime I dry and cure I do t get that lovely classic smell,its tjere but its not as strong when I open the jar in not knocked out by the smell, I. It my plants down dry the whole plant about 5 to7 days at about 24 c and a steady humidity of 60 to 70 percent and kt has constant fresh air I throw them into air tight glass jars and the humidity is about 62-67 % in the jars and some I burp and some I use boveda packs I just dont get what im doing wrong? And wjat should the humidity be in the jar the first day I put them in and shut it?

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In my grand total experience of 3 harvests, Iā€™ve found that once my bud hits the jars, I get that green smell for about a week as I burp it daily, then it goes pretty neutral as I continue burping every other day, then the nice weed smell slowly starts to develop as I go in and out of the jar to smoke.

Iā€™ve never had a cured jar last more than 3 weeks so I canā€™t tell you if it keeps building and how strong it gets.

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hereā€™s a good discussionā€¦ :nerd_face:

:evergreen_tree:

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Iā€™m no expert by any means, but Iā€™ve found that, if youā€™re doing a relatively slow, cool full plant dry, and then a high humidity cure, the biggest limiting factors are

1. The strain itself. Some just arenā€™t stinky, and some strains lose it at harvest. However, the stinkiest strains never lose their stank.

2. How it was grown. Skillful growing, regardless of method, has a big impact on how stinky a strain is.

3. Was it harvested at peak ripeness? Too early or too late can cause issues.

4. Cure time. Most strains get better with time in jars. Minimum of a month, but up to 6mo for ultimate complexity. Longer may change the smells and effects, but thatā€™s good for some strains, such as long-flowering narrow leaf varieties.

If youā€™re doing a quick dry, thereā€™s not much you can do for low odor strains, but stank strains will stay loud, just less than if you pushed that out to a 10-14d dry.

Also, quite a few people feel that Boveda packs remove terps. I donā€™t know if thatā€™s true or not, but they recommend Boost or just tightening up your curing methods so you donā€™t need humidity packs, such as starting at < 64% RH when they go in jars.

Buy the cheap hygrometers from amazon and ebay. The ones that cost $10 for 5 of them.

Thatā€™s been my experience, anyway. :slight_smile: Purely anecdotal.

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24c is too warm , 16-17c is best or at least under 20c if you can , but sometimes this is not possible ( summertime etc )

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Dry it as slow as you can. Always dry trim, wet trim is a one-way ticket to hay-smell. I think a slower dry is more important than a longer cure.

I jar it when itā€™s just dry enough to not mold. Burp frequently, if itā€™s too wet still Iā€™ll leave the lid off. Takes about 2 weeks to develop a sharp, pungent smell after it hits jar, then it sorta stays like that until it totally dries out months later. I have noticed a longer cure isnā€™t really helpful after the first few weeks.

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I think you are absolutely correct, and this would make a big difference on the loss of terpenes. Especially the more volatile.

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Mine seems to go green in the jars for a while but then the smell starts coming around after a week or 2. Iā€™ve got some pineapple chunk thatā€™s been in a jar for just over a yearā€¦ my god, the sweet pineapple candy smell nearly burns your nose now itā€™s so strong

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Would you please provide a reference or citation for that, cannaloop? Everything Iā€™ve read says the vast majority of primary cannabis terps vaporize at boiling point of 100C or greater:

The only ones with boiling points even close to his drying temps are Terpinolene and Ocimene, but theyā€™re still double his drying temps.

This isnā€™t directed at you, but those types of comments donā€™t pass the sniff test. Pun intended. lol :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Itā€™s more like bro-science rather than fact. No offense, of course. :slight_smile:

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Thatā€™s some good information!

Been drying some plants in 100 degree heat. Takes a day and done; into bags and burping before trimming.

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F* me, I didnā€™t say anything about vaporization points.

Correct me if Iā€™m wrong, but mono terpenes are quite volatile and basically more easily evaporate from the cannabis itself.

Because Iā€™ve been having similar problems with my own curing, I have been looking into this more. I have found many current references that those successful in curing, often try to keep the temperatures at about 65 F and relative humidity around 60% for the initial drying, to make sure they retain as much of the terpenes and degrade the chlorophyl as much as possible.

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Like I said man, it ainā€™t directed at you personally. Volatility means vaporization in chemistry.

That link you provided doesnā€™t have anything scientific in it, nor any references. So if youā€™re not talking about vaporization as it refers to preserving terps, what are you talking about?

Iā€™m just trying to get to the factual basis for the claim, not calling you out personally. :slight_smile:

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I guess were talking about the difference between a temperature where the terpene almost instantly vaporizes/boils (as in the chart you so lovingly provided) and the tendency to enter the gaseous phase at greater or lesser degrees over time depending on temperature, when it is below its boiling point - that would be evaporation.

At this point in the conversation, I would prefer that you just told @Patriots781 what he/she is doing wrong so we can all have nicely cured buds and move on with our lives.

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I spose I wanted to get to the root of the matter and make sure weā€™re all giving accurate info, not merely regurgitating what weā€™ve heard/read or making unsubstantiated claims. As I saw on a Joe Rogan podcast recently, to quote one of his guests, ā€œbig claims require big proof.ā€

And I think we all benefit from drilling down in the discussion. Iā€™d like to ask you to continue to engage the subject so that we all reach the objective truth. :heart:

What I find interesting is thereā€™s no reliable place I found listing the evaporation temps of terps. Monoterpenes are the name brand ones, the ones youā€™ve all heard of, and we know their boiling points. One site I saw referenced they start to ā€œevaporate around 70Fā€ but without citations, while Bovedaā€™s site claims that humidity of the flower is the primary driver of terpene loss. Meanwhile, an extraction article on the Medical Cannabis Network (part of healtheuropa.eu) claims that a solvent extraction process at 68C preserves most of the terps. Who to believe?

I already replied with my recommendations and opinions on what the drivers of smell levels could be if youā€™ve dried reasonably slow and low. Those are speculative, not scientific. :wink:

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Coincidentally, my attempt at controlling the environment a little better arrived just yesterday. My climate is very dry and I think itā€™s likely that it may be keeping me from getting the results I want. I have a humidity/dehumidifier controller and one for a heater/ac. I donā€™t know if I will be setting up my ice fishing tent with this stuff in it or what, but I knew that I needed to get on it if I was going to make a real attempt at controlling the variables and figuring out what is fact and what is bro-science. I will hopefully be able to keep both humidity and temperature within controlled ranges so I can start to learn more.

It wonā€™t be tested until the end of October and I wonā€™t know the results until close to the end of the year I would think, but I will report back.

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I posted a rather long video in another thread the other day speaking a bit about this. There are many variables surrounding terp retention/improvement through curing. As some of the folks here have already mentioned. More Terps > Less Terps

-Strain A > Strain B - Strain/Pheno selection
-Low temp and long cure > high temps and short times - Low and Slow for the win
*-Under vaccum > any other form of atmoshere - Nitrogen and Argon (typical in other industries) Reduce terps

He clearly isnā€™t an english speaker first so it can be a bit challenging to follow along but there are some gems in there. I am trying to track down his published papers ATM.

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Something thatā€™s made a big difference for me the last few crops has been good old brown paper bags. I used to dry until stems snapped (or almost snapped) then start in jars with the burping. Now I give them a couple days hanging, then into paper bags which really slows down the drying until theyā€™re jar ready.

Someone on here mentioned it I canā€™t remember who, but thanks lol

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Just a tip if I may- Many people argue w me on this but I stand by it until experience shows me otherwise.

You want to smell ā€˜grassyā€™ after a few days while drying. This means the chlorophyl is escaping the buds and thats what you are smelling.

If your drying area or whole house or whatver reeks like dank weed and terps a few days into drying then you are losing terps.

Note* it will reek like dank weed and terps upon chop and probably for 2-3 days.

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That makes perfect sense to me.

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I havenā€™t experienced that myself. At 12 months, plenty of flavor and deliciousness as stored in air tight containers + bovedas. Friends agree that it has remained pretty tasty.

I will say, though, the terpene ratios did have some unexpected profile variations on my last lab analysis with a decrease in total terpenes, but only in the tenths of a percent range after 12 months of storage. I will be running another analysis in a couple of months on last years crop to try to understand this more.

If I screw up and donā€™t seal the container properly, there is a distinct smell of some sort of oxidation that will appear (not the skunky smell, more like diapers). If it has extended contact with the air, then a strong skunk smell becomes apparent.

FWIW, the temperatures do not have to be at the boiling point to volatilize terpenes. It still occurs at lower temperatures for the same reasons water evaporates. Just not as quickly. The evaporation of compounds will come to an equilibirum with the surroundings depending on the temperatures/pressure and is one reason storing stuff in containers with low water vapor transfer rates can help.

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