I’ve got a homemade cannatrol equivilent and have been enjoying it. Been very happy with the results.
After I wash my buds I leave the racks out so the wash water can evaporate, then they go in the machine. After reading more about produce cleaning, H2O2 and mold spores, I think for this last harvest I’m going to use two H2O2 baths and no rinse. First bath H2O2 with aeration to clean the buds, second one to act as a rinse. It supposedly takes up to 2 minutes for the peroxide to kill mold spores, which would mean my usual dunk-swish-shakeoff-next bucket routine hasn’t been doing much other than making me feel like I was cleaning. I’ll see how that works.
@FieldEffect I have a three basin set up. The first has dawn soap and H2O2, the 2nd has H2O2 in the water and the last is just water. The flowers spend about 20 minutes in the first one and 5-10 in the others. And I’ll change the water after every 2-3 uses. I think where we live, washing is a necessity.
@Andrexl I am not an expert on cannabis chemistry, so take anything a say with a grain of salt. I believe that sunlight and oxygen will degrade THC into CBN, but this takes time. I literally have a jar of PTK i place on my kitchen shelf to turn my PTK into sleep medicine, but this takes months. Freshly cut flowers are technically still alive, and I don’t think a few days of sunshine will alter their chemistry. You can experiment and dry some in the dark and some in the light and determine if there’s noticeable difference. I am guessing there won’t be. That being said, I wouldn’t store my jars where there’s light, because long term, heat, sunlight and oxygen will definitely alter your herb.
Exposure to microorganisms in farm environments may cause respiratory disorders, e.g. asthma, organic dust toxic syndrome and allergic alveolitis. By reducing microbiological deterioration of organic materials, some agricultural practices have a protective effect. Microbiological analyses were carried out on hay, silage and flour samples (n=107) from farms in Finland and France (n=23) that use different methods of haymaking. High concentrations of Absidia corymbifera were found in approximately 35 % of French hay samples and only 10 % of Finnish hay samples. Concentrations of Eurotium spp. were found in 20 % of hay samples from both regions. High concentrations of Wallemia sebi typified Finnish hay (38 %) more than French hay (8 %). Rhodotorula yeast was frequently and abundantly found in Finland, but never in France. The method used to make hay appeared to be the main factor affecting the microbiology of the hay. A. corymbifera and Eurotium spp. concentrations were smaller in low-density square bales than in others. In conclusion, our results emphasize the importance of good agricultural practice in the microbiological quality of fodder."
Biggest factor is what time of day the hay is cut. Something is going to consume the grasses nutrition, might as well let it be the Calvin cycle. Chlorophyll makes terps n derps n nerps and all that stuff. Microbes are not there to eat grass and chew bubblegum. They are there to eat minerals and they like doing it in the dark,when plant metabolism is low, especially with excess nitrogen and no cofactors to convert excess nitrogen to proteins at night,which seems to be the popular trend amongst all modern growers…
Growers shouldn’t be attempting to preserve terpenes. They should be creating non volatile precursors to volatile compounds, none of which are best characterized as terpenes. Latex is a terpene, pinene is a terpene, they both taste bad. The language most stoners use basically says nothing, except that most stoners aren’t open minded or grounded in reality. It’s annoying that stereotypes are more often than not confirmed by the stereotype itself.
Total darkness converts excess nitrogen to proteins, as excess nitrogen reduces quality significantly. The proteins created contribute to cannabis smell taste and effect when broken down via electron transfer (oxidation, entire purpose of burping), while bad tasting terpenes, pinene etc, do not.
Caryophyllene is the only pop culture terpene that doesn’t taste bad, and that actually contributes to receptor activity. Even then, chavicine contributes most pepper flavor in Cannabis, not caryophyllene. People claim limonene tastes like lemons… No, it doesn’t. No reason to preserve stuff like that. No reason to believe the official narrative created by distillate pen companies.
The only reason to raise humidity and lower temp is to prevent the Jasmonic pathway from creating a stress response leading to the hexanols, hexanals, heltanals, pentanals (hay smell).
Where can I read more about the chemistry/biology of this? It isn’t just the stoners using this language, it’s people in other industries - food, namely spices and other scents utilize the terpene word heavily.
I’m not sure what I’m reading when you say growers shouldn’t be attempting to preserve terpenes. Are you telling my that it’s not limonene giving my herb a citrus scent, or are you saying that the limonene (monoterpene) is not somethign I want?
When you say “creating non-volatile precursors to volatile compounds” I read that as sensible, although what are the specific actions to take to do that? We want those non-volatiles to deteriorate [slowly] to the things that smell nice. I was under the impression that’s the job the plants did.
Jasmonic pathway. That’s an interesting one I hadn’t come across. Google time.
How do you dry your weed? Same way? Are we just using the terminology wrong and misunderstanding the process?