If you don’t store your weed properly, chances are your precious batch will become dry, lose its flavor, lose its strength, and get nasty mold, which will leave it in an unsmokable condition. If you accidentally end up smoking it, it can cause inflammation in your sinuses or lungs and leave you with severe wheezing, congestion, and pain.
So, just like cultivation, storing the weed properly to keep it fresh for long-term use is also an art. This article will act as your 101 weed storage guide so that you can enjoy freshly procured or produced weed for a very long time and have blissful smoking sessions with your friends and family.
Things That Harm The Weed
Here’s a list of natural elements that can degrade the quality of your weed:
Temperature and Humidity: Weed is quite sensitive to high temperatures and fluctuations in the moisture content of its surroundings. The ideal temperature to keep weeds fresh is around 60–70 degrees Fahrenheit, and the moisture content in the air should be around 58–63%.
Too high or too low of these numbers can result in the degradation of buds, mold formation, and making them brittle and very harsh to smoke.
Light Exposure: Weed buds are sensitive to light exposure. UV rays present in sunlight can degrade the quality and quantity of cannabinoids and terpenes. So try to keep your weed buds away from direct sunlight; you can opt for opaque jars for this.
Air and Oxygen: Prolonged oxidation due to long-duration air exposure can harm the various compounds present in your weed flower; the flavonoids, phytonutrients, and various cannabinoids can lose their strength and quality because of this.
Material of Containers: The material from which the container is made can affect the quality of the weed. Try to avoid containers made with reactive metals like copper and aluminum; these can react with buds and give them a bad taste, and might even reduce their potency.
What to Avoid When Storing Weed
Avoid Plastic Bags: Keeping your stash for day-to-day usage in a small plastic zip bag is a very old practice that has been followed everywhere for ages. But this can be quite harmful; the slight static charge present in plastic rubs against the edges of your flower buds when you keep the packet in your pockets, bag zips, or other tight spaces.
This constant friction between the plastic walls of the packet creates a static charge, which can pull away the sensitive trichomes from the buds to the plastic walls. Look closely, and you’ll notice the slight green dots stuck on plastic walls, and this can result in bud’s potency loss over time.
Avoid Cold Storage: Keeping your weed in the fridge or freezer can sound fun at first, but it will do more harm than good over a long time. The fluctuations in temperature due to the constant opening and closing of the fridge can make your buds brittle and hard, and extremely low temperatures can suck up the water content, leaving the bud dry and flavorless.
Only CBD products, like gummies, should be considered for storing in the fridge in very hot areas. You can buy full-spectrum CBD gummies from Colorado Botanicals, a brand that is committed to providing high-quality CBD products with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Tactics to Keep Your Weed Fresh for the Long Term
Now that we know what not to do, let’s look at some proper techniques to store your weed properly to keep it fresh in the long term. When stored properly, the weed can last for over a month. Let’s dig in!!
Proper Trimming and Curing: Always trim and cure your weed properly before storing it. After trimming it, keep it in an airtight jar, away from direct sunlight, and make sure that it’s kept at room temperature. Don’t pack the jar too much; leave some space between the lid and the buds. Once you’ve packed the weed in the jar, check the humidity content with a hygrometer and make sure that humidity levels inside the container are not more than 58–63%. You can easily buy one from Amazon, and they don’t even cost much.
Remove Extra Seeds and Stems: Removing extra seeds and stems can be a tedious task, but it will expand the lifespan of your weed. Unnecessary amounts of seeds and stems can cause unwanted moisture, which can promote mold growth. Also, throw a humidity pack around if you live in an area with high humidity.
Use airtight, clean glass jars: As discussed above, the material of the jar that you chose plays a crucial role in your harvest’s life span. Plastics and metals can result in quality and taste loss; hence, you should always store your weed in clean, airtight jars made of glass. Glass is non-reactive and won’t cause damage to the trichomes present on the weed’s surface.
If a glass jar is not available, then the second-best alternative is to use a ceramic airtight container. We can’t emphasize the cleanliness of the container; wash it with running water, dry it properly, and wipe it with a gentle cloth to remove dirt. You can also use a UV-proof blacked-out jar if you don’t have enough dark space to store it.
Conclusion
Bad and moldy weed will have a musty and mildew-like smell and an off-white powdery coating on it. If you come across such weed, just throw it away immediately, as smoking it can cause some serious damage to your lungs.
You can avoid this nightmare by properly curing your buds and storing them in a humidity-free, airtight glass container at room temperature in a dark place, away from direct sunlight.
This will keep your buds green, juicy, and smelling nice for a very long time. If you’re searching for the ideal snack to add to your wake-and-bake session, then try the broad-spectrum orange CBD gummies from Colorado Botanicals. These delicious bite-sized treats can add both flavor and a sense of calmness to enhance your trippy sessions.
