Ezrael
- 8
- 3
Rice? Why rice?
carBon.14
- 124
- 63
it’s a desiccant.
way2green
- 1,142
- 263
I have to put rice in my spices. I never thought about weed! Cool
forsaken
- 61
- 33
You can use salt too. I think that’s better. Just keep it in a stocking so it’s not in contact with the buds.
WeedGod
- 69
- 18
I dry my buds till the leaves fall off when I tumble them. This is how I trim :) Then I rehydrate
Grow Up
- 106
- 63
Silica gel is by far the most effective desiccant to use. It’s industry standard for storage of pharmaceuticals etc. I’ve never used it for ganja but I know a guy who swears by it and whenever I’ve tried his gear it’s seriously top notch.
spirtovik
- 7
- 3
how is silica gel supposed to stop volatile loss?
Grow Up
- 106
- 63
I never said it did. It draws all the moisture from your ganja. If you want to stop volatile loss there's only so much you can do; vacuum bag and or freeze dry.
Gandalfalfa
- 153
- 63
Some of you have probably read this before, but it's worth sharing here I think.
What is Dry Ice?
"Dry Ice" is frozen Carbon Dioxide. CO2 will change from its solid, frozen state to its gaseous state without passing through a liquid state - hence it’s name ‘dry ice’. This process of solid changing to gas is known as sublimation.
What is Sublimation?
Sublimation is a simple process which depends on the fact that the surface of a frozen solid is actually quite active at the molecular level. In the case of water ice, water molecules are constantly leaving and binding to the frozen surface. In a moist atmosphere, more water molecules bind to the surface than leave, and ice grows on the surface (e.g frost inside your freezer). In a dry atmosphere however, more water molecules leave the frozen surface than adhere, so the solid dries out.
The same process occurs with Dry Ice. As there is a fairly low CO2 content in air, the dry ice sublimes away completely, leaving no residue or liquid - hence its name.
What is Freeze Drying?
Freeze drying (scientific name: Lyophilization) depends upon the process of sublimation (explained below), and on the fact that like CO2, frozen water at low temperature will go through the process of sublimation under the right conditions.
Dry ice has a very low water content, as it is made up of almost pure CO2. In theory it IS pure, but even from a lab suppliers, it will have a small amount of impurities - these do not matter for our purposes. In effect the dry ice vapour has near zero relative humidity.
Now: (this is the important bit)
When material containing water is placed into this almost zero humidity environment, the water molecules are drawn out of the material and into the CO2, raising the relative humidity of the CO2 and lowering the water content of the material. If the CO2 around the material is steadily replenished then the process will continue until all moisture has been removed from the material. All this happens at low temperatures, below the freezing point of water, which means that the material is preserved in a totally ‘fresh’ state.
How Do I Freeze Dry Grass?
Use a container (I use a Tupperware box) that is twice as big as the volume of grass you wish to dry. Make a few small holes in the lid, to allow the gas to escape.
Put equal volumes of bud and dry ice inside, loosely packed, with the dry ice underneath the bud. Put the lid on and make sure it is properly sealed so that the only way for gas to escape is through the holes in the lid. Put the box into a freezer, lid upwards. This is to keep the material as cold as possible, prolonging the sublimation process for as long as possible. The dry ice will begin to sublime pushing all air out of the box and surrounding your buds with bone dry co2. The totally dry atmosphere will begin drawing water molecules out of the plant material.
Check the tub after 24 hours and then every 24 hours until the dry ice has all gone. When the ice is all gone -the buds should be completely dry and smokeable. If you find that they are not quite dry then put some more dry ice into the box, place the lot back in the freezer and wait until they are done.
Can I use a fridge?
You could use a fridge instead of a freezer, but the dry ice would evaporate very quickly so you'd need a lot more of it to dry the buds, hence the expense would rise rapidly. Better would be to use a ‘cool box’ - one of the plastic insulated boxes for food storage when camping. Again - make sure that there are holes so that the gas can escape.
Do I need to prepare the buds?
It's better to partially dry the buds so that they are nearly dry, then finish them off with dry ice. If you use fresh, wet grass then you can expect the process to take much longer and to use more dry ice, pushing the cost up. I find that using partially dry buds in a freezer the dry ice has gone after about 48 hrs.
What I do is give them a week of slow dry, then manicure, THEN freeze dry them.
What are the advantages?
The advantages of this method are increased potency and a 'fresher' taste.
As the material is preserved in a totally ‘fresh’ state, the THC glands suffer as little degredation from heat, light and air as is possible. No other drying process preserves the resin glands is such a fresh state as can be achieved with freeze drying.
Why should I freeze dry?
Freeze drying is good if you plan to freeze your bud anyway. If you don't want to keep it in the freezer then there isn't a lot to be gained by using the technique, as the 'fresh' thc will rapidly degrade as usual once outside the freezer.
Where Can I get Dry Ice?
You can get dry ice from most lab suppliers (expensive) but many industrial ice houses or ice cream suppliers sell it for considerably less (preferred option)
Just try the yellow pages. I got mine at my local Kroger (supermarket).
Does it really increase potency?
I have tried comparison by using a control sample, and freeze drying definitely seems to give you a slightly ‘higher’ hit with a ‘mintier’ taste than the jar cure, but the overall strength didn't seem hugely different. It's a connoisseur smoke, perhaps. In a blind test at a party with about thirty people involved it came out about evenly split as to which was the strongest, but that was a subjective test, and was only conducted in a very stoned manner! According to The Frank & Rosenthal Guide, anecdotal evidence suggests that freezing improves potency, which is why I got into the process in the first place. I'm not convinced either way, but it was a fun technique to play with for a while.
PLEASE NOTE: This only dries the bud, it still needs curing. I prefer jar curing.
What is Dry Ice?
"Dry Ice" is frozen Carbon Dioxide. CO2 will change from its solid, frozen state to its gaseous state without passing through a liquid state - hence it’s name ‘dry ice’. This process of solid changing to gas is known as sublimation.
What is Sublimation?
Sublimation is a simple process which depends on the fact that the surface of a frozen solid is actually quite active at the molecular level. In the case of water ice, water molecules are constantly leaving and binding to the frozen surface. In a moist atmosphere, more water molecules bind to the surface than leave, and ice grows on the surface (e.g frost inside your freezer). In a dry atmosphere however, more water molecules leave the frozen surface than adhere, so the solid dries out.
The same process occurs with Dry Ice. As there is a fairly low CO2 content in air, the dry ice sublimes away completely, leaving no residue or liquid - hence its name.
What is Freeze Drying?
Freeze drying (scientific name: Lyophilization) depends upon the process of sublimation (explained below), and on the fact that like CO2, frozen water at low temperature will go through the process of sublimation under the right conditions.
Dry ice has a very low water content, as it is made up of almost pure CO2. In theory it IS pure, but even from a lab suppliers, it will have a small amount of impurities - these do not matter for our purposes. In effect the dry ice vapour has near zero relative humidity.
Now: (this is the important bit)
When material containing water is placed into this almost zero humidity environment, the water molecules are drawn out of the material and into the CO2, raising the relative humidity of the CO2 and lowering the water content of the material. If the CO2 around the material is steadily replenished then the process will continue until all moisture has been removed from the material. All this happens at low temperatures, below the freezing point of water, which means that the material is preserved in a totally ‘fresh’ state.
How Do I Freeze Dry Grass?
Use a container (I use a Tupperware box) that is twice as big as the volume of grass you wish to dry. Make a few small holes in the lid, to allow the gas to escape.
Put equal volumes of bud and dry ice inside, loosely packed, with the dry ice underneath the bud. Put the lid on and make sure it is properly sealed so that the only way for gas to escape is through the holes in the lid. Put the box into a freezer, lid upwards. This is to keep the material as cold as possible, prolonging the sublimation process for as long as possible. The dry ice will begin to sublime pushing all air out of the box and surrounding your buds with bone dry co2. The totally dry atmosphere will begin drawing water molecules out of the plant material.
Check the tub after 24 hours and then every 24 hours until the dry ice has all gone. When the ice is all gone -the buds should be completely dry and smokeable. If you find that they are not quite dry then put some more dry ice into the box, place the lot back in the freezer and wait until they are done.
Can I use a fridge?
You could use a fridge instead of a freezer, but the dry ice would evaporate very quickly so you'd need a lot more of it to dry the buds, hence the expense would rise rapidly. Better would be to use a ‘cool box’ - one of the plastic insulated boxes for food storage when camping. Again - make sure that there are holes so that the gas can escape.
Do I need to prepare the buds?
It's better to partially dry the buds so that they are nearly dry, then finish them off with dry ice. If you use fresh, wet grass then you can expect the process to take much longer and to use more dry ice, pushing the cost up. I find that using partially dry buds in a freezer the dry ice has gone after about 48 hrs.
What I do is give them a week of slow dry, then manicure, THEN freeze dry them.
What are the advantages?
The advantages of this method are increased potency and a 'fresher' taste.
As the material is preserved in a totally ‘fresh’ state, the THC glands suffer as little degredation from heat, light and air as is possible. No other drying process preserves the resin glands is such a fresh state as can be achieved with freeze drying.
Why should I freeze dry?
Freeze drying is good if you plan to freeze your bud anyway. If you don't want to keep it in the freezer then there isn't a lot to be gained by using the technique, as the 'fresh' thc will rapidly degrade as usual once outside the freezer.
Where Can I get Dry Ice?
You can get dry ice from most lab suppliers (expensive) but many industrial ice houses or ice cream suppliers sell it for considerably less (preferred option)
Just try the yellow pages. I got mine at my local Kroger (supermarket).
Does it really increase potency?
I have tried comparison by using a control sample, and freeze drying definitely seems to give you a slightly ‘higher’ hit with a ‘mintier’ taste than the jar cure, but the overall strength didn't seem hugely different. It's a connoisseur smoke, perhaps. In a blind test at a party with about thirty people involved it came out about evenly split as to which was the strongest, but that was a subjective test, and was only conducted in a very stoned manner! According to The Frank & Rosenthal Guide, anecdotal evidence suggests that freezing improves potency, which is why I got into the process in the first place. I'm not convinced either way, but it was a fun technique to play with for a while.
PLEASE NOTE: This only dries the bud, it still needs curing. I prefer jar curing.
derelict
- 150
- 63
i don’t believe in curing. like @yarrasparra said, if the plant material is breaking down so is the thc. it’s a catch 22 and i’d much prefer hold on to my potency over a ‘sweeter taste’. i think the sweeter taste is a bit of an urban legend tbh.
LittleDabbie
Supporter
- 11,813
- 438
Theres alot of urban legends floating around.. and will be till this shits legal and actual science can be done... Or greywolf steps in and says heres a link to how we did it ;p
YarraSparra
- 97
- 53
You are quite correct it is a myth. The reason why fast cured weed tastes harsher is because it is usually dryer than slow cured weed. Really dry weed will burn faster and hotter, and so you get a different pyrolysis profile. If fast cured or desiccated weed is allowed to slightly rehydrate before smoking, it will burn cooler and taste sweeter. I am generalizing and just basing this off some basic first principles, and it’s possible the metabolites or oxidized products of chlorophyll and carotenoids taste different when smoked, but I’d like to see some evidence of this.
YS
AfricanHaze
- 41
- 18
I wonder if it’s possible to cure in pure CO2 or nitrogen? :cyclops:
Mex
- 10
- 3
I think curing requires oxygen. That’s the problem.
Supercharge
- 261
- 93
Don’t forget there are a lot of enzymatic processes involved in cellular degradation and senescence too.
Rosenberg
- 139
- 63
Found some interesting stuff in the literature. CBN used to be a way authorities could determine the age of seizures, but there is mounting evidence THC degrades into other compounds too. The same paper said “when the pure extracts (100ml vials) were stored in the dark no degradation of neutral THC seemed to occur. In contrast, a build up of neutral THC was observed along with a similar decrease in acidic THC. This observation was made at both room temperature and at 4°C, although at a much slower rate, and has also been reported in the literature. The fact that neutral THC in [these vials] is stable for nearly 2 years is interesting considering that approximately half the neutral THC is degraded when stored under similar conditions as resin plates (hash). One explanation for this could be that oxidation of neutral THC accounts for the decrease in the air-exposed resin plates whereas the extracts are stored virtually oxygen free.”
I had no idea hash was prone to oxidation too, I thought just the outer layer or crust would be.
I had no idea hash was prone to oxidation too, I thought just the outer layer or crust would be.
monkeymun
- 755
- 93
Hash is generally more stable than buds over longer periods but it depends how it is made and how well it is pressed (porosity and processing are factors). But honey oil - assuming the extracts they talk about - when stored in oxygen free vials is clearly the best way to stop THC turning to CBN.
derelict
- 150
- 63
also, thc-a is less stable, and more prone to degradation than thc. this is a pity because it’s mostly in the acid form until it’s decarboxylated, usually by heat.
darwinism
- 4
- 3
Firstly, I’d just like to say I originally joined this forum because I feel the farm has become a real foundation of knowledge and science of marijuana, not just folk stories and hearsay opinions. Regarding extracts and all that is discussed on this thread.. I question the practice of making honey oil for this simple reason - weed has a whole range of endogenous terpenoids that are believed to be of both pharmacological significance and act synergistically with THC and CBD.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11695885
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21749363
So based on what I have researched, preserving your stash by vacuum packing and freezing, or limit processing just making bubble hash, it the best way to retain the plants original psychotropic compounds and their potential complimentary counterparts.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11695885
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21749363
So based on what I have researched, preserving your stash by vacuum packing and freezing, or limit processing just making bubble hash, it the best way to retain the plants original psychotropic compounds and their potential complimentary counterparts.
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