How Important is the Drying and Curing Process?
The drying and curing stage of the cannabis growing process is one of the easiest ways to make or break your crop. While many cultivators pay a great deal of attention in the cloning and propagation phases, some rush the drying and curing process and then the entire crop can take a turn for the worse or even not pass testing. There have even been some commercial cultivators who simply dry and sell their crop – forgoing the curing step altogether.
Curing is how you remove bacteria and unwanted enzymes from your flower. Proper curing is also how you stop the degradation process of those volatile (and valuable!) compounds that every cannabis connoisseur knows and loves – cannabinoids and terpenes. Curing properly can significantly improve the overall flavor and palate of the smoke by removing any excess remaining minerals and nutrients and increasing the cannabinoid potency of the product.
So, what is the best way to dry and cure your product? If you’ve asked someone of an older generation with decades of experience growing cannabis, you will have likely heard of the “low and slow” method of drying and curing at one point or another. The “low” refers to the temperature. Typically, a temperature between 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit is the sweet spot – somewhere between expelling all that excess water and nutrients while preventing the loss of terpenes from evaporation. Many terpenes, such as myrcene (known to contain analgesic/antibacterial properties and help cannabinoids pass the brain/blood barrier with greater ease), can begin to evaporate off around 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
The “slow” refers to the duration and length at which you typically dry. The plant’s cells that store the unwanted remaining nutrients/starches like chlorophyll can remain for as long as 72 hours after cutting. During this period, the plant consumes its store of water and carbohydrates quite rapidly. As the chlorophyll degrades – the smoke quality of the end-product will get smoother and more pleasurable for the consumer. Dried too quickly, the chlorophyll can get locked into cells and cause your smoke to be quite harsh and lower quality. Overall, the drying process can take 5-10 days depending on whether you are wet or drying trimming, as well as based on the preferences of your grower. Additionally, curing can take on average another 2-4 weeks or more, depending on your grower’s preferences. All in all, that’s 3-6 weeks after you cut down your harvest that you can begin selling your crop on dispensary shelves.
What if you could maintain all those ideal variables – ideal temperatures, humidity levels, as well as even pass-thru airflow, etc. – while not drying your product out too quickly and locking in that harsh chlorophyll burn on the backend? Now you can – with the most direct one-to-one, commercial scale, automated comparison to the ‘low-and-slow’ method of drying that exists on the market today – with Cann Drying System’s line of CDS drying units.
For the commercial cannabis cultivator, time is money. With Cann’s drying systems, customers have been able to cut down their dry and cure times by as much as 50%! Being able to dry and cure hundreds or thousands of pounds of product quicker can mean the grow room can be ‘flipped’ quicker, and perhaps an additional crop cycle can get squeezed in for the year. Another crop in the year means more revenue. Additionally, we’re not just expediting the process, we’re also consistently delivering quality.
Cann’s drying & curing systems are built-in enclosed climate controlled chambers and are fully optimized for environmental variables. This means that you control all elements of the process fully – from exact humidity and temperature settings to top-of-the-line air handling components that ensure an even and consistent dry every time without stripping you of all your precious cannabinoids and terpenes. Cann’s systems are also designed to recapture any of that evaporated loss in cannabinoids or terpene content with its condensate capture system – this allows you to distill the expensed water and retrieve what was lost during the process as another added revenue stream. With Cann’s upgraded auto-cure option, you can even set up automated setpoints to allow some air out of the chamber via HEPA carbon filtered exhaust fans that help mimic the standard ‘burping’ process. All in all, with Cann’s new cloud-based controls system, all of these environmental settings and new features can be controlled at the grow or remotely to ensure that your product is always drying & curing under the most optimal conditions.
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