GreenX How to's... How to Water Cure (w/pics)

[GreenphoeniX]

This is a basic guide of How to Water Cure, it is generally step-by-step and will hopefully be helpful to anyone wanting to try this.

For more of my guides to come, simply search Titles only, keyword: GreenX How to's

Note: In this guide I will be using a jar to do the water cure as I'm only curing a small amount.

Step 1: Get a jar (or larger tub, such as a chilly bin or bucket, for larger quantities) and fill it with water.

Step 2: (Note: this may not apply if you're not using a jar with a screw on lid) Puncture some holes in the lid, these will later be used to easily drain the water when you want to change it.

Step 3: Select the plant(s) you want to water cure.
This is the babe I will be using.

Step 4: Remove the parts of the plant you want to water cure, and give them a quick trim up, removing the large fan leaves and trimming away as many or few of the trim leaves as you desire.
I've only done a very light trim here as the trim leaves have plenty of trichs on them.

Step 5: Get the buds you want to water cure and submerge them in the water.

Step 6: Leave what ever you're water curing in uncovered so any chemicals and other nasties can evaporate. In larger containers, it may be necessary to weigh the bud down with a steel mesh or something similar because the bud will float for the first few days it's in the water. Store in a cool, dark place. Every 24 hours (every 12 hours if you really want) drain the water completely and replace with fresh water simply by pouring the fresh water into the jar. (I didn't pH my water because it's pH 7.0 out of the tap, but you may wish to pH it if your water's pH is a bit out of whack).

Step 7: Draining the water! To drain the water, simply screw the lid on to the jar, tilt over a bucket or sink, and watch the water drain!

Step 8: After this process of draining and replacing the water every 24 hours has been done for 7 days, it's time to dry that bud!
Simply hang the bud on a wire or something similar, just dry it like you would if you were doing a regular air dry, preferably with a fan blowing on or around it.
It should dry in 24-48 hours, believe it or not, pretty quick considering the bud is sopping wet when you hang it. *You may wish to place a towel or newspaper under the buds while they dry as they will drip a fair bit of water onto what ever is under them.
Sorry I didn't get a picture right when I hung them, this pic was taken 24 hours after the hang.

Step 9: SMOKE THAT SHIT! Hahaha. It will probably look a bit like this.
Picture 1: Water cured bud.
Picture 2: Left - Air cured bud. Right - Water cured bud.

Hope this helps some of you out their. If you're unsure of any of the terms I've used, hopefully my Glossary of Terms will help you out: https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/98008-glossary-terms.html#post1161761

Cheers!

 

[TodayIsAGreenday]

nice dude id only seen the tub method and i figured i could rig up a smaller sized thing with a jar like that and now i know for sure +repp

looks like the bag appeal is in the airdry but that 8-10 day cure time is NICE

I plan on doing exactly what you did and curing some in the water so i have something to smoke sooner than the main batch thats airdried

 

[GreenphoeniX]

looks like the bag appeal is in the airdry

The weight is in the air dry too, believe me on that one haha. Some people go for the water cured because it looks different, a little exotic almost, but it weighs near half what air dried does, so not the best way to go when wanting to sell.

I plan on doing exactly what you did and curing some in the water so i have something to smoke sooner than the main batch thats airdried
Order your seeds now

It's definitely good for some quick smoke, nice and smooth, like it's been air dried and cured for 30 days or more.

Cheers for the +rep.

 

[TodayIsAGreenday]

those are really nice bushy ass plants by the way

is there a journal?

what strain?

and if no journal then what grow medium

 

[billybobpot]

Could you save the water and make some koolaid

 

[GreenphoeniX]

Could you save the water and make some koolaid

If you really wanted to you could, but I think when you see and smell that water, you won't want to, it's pretty manky... And THC isn't water soluble so it wouldn't get you high at all... But if someone would buy it, you could make some cash haha.

those are really nice bushy ass plants by the way

is there a journal?

what strain?

and if no journal then what grow medium

Sorry no journal, that was just a small run I did with a few plants while I had some spare time between my next proper grow.

The strain is one I bred myself, I call it; Siamese Skunk. It has a very strong skunky smell, but what kind of skunk doesn't have a strong smell haha, and it packs on the trichs which is call, easy to grow too, a little harder to clone than most stuff for some reason?

The grow medium is a basic bubble bucker (hydro I guess), all the other plants were grown in soil, but that one was grown in the bubble bucket, from clone to flowering, that's why I used it for the water cure, my other stuff is organically grown, but that stuff was fed synthetic hydro nutes, and I never 'properly' flushed it, I just stopped adding nutes bout 1/2-3/4 of the way through flowering haha, topped up the water in the bucket a couple times, never had to fully change it.

Now the last plant I did in a bubbler bucket was a little larger than that hahahah:

 

[cannabitch]

Thanks for sharing all this great info! Nice pictures too! I may experiment with some of my nugs with the water curing. Interesting! +rep

 

[GreenphoeniX]

Pass this around everybody!

 

[smokeh]

ill have to read the advantages of water cure. it seems quite good that u can cure 1st for a week then only dry for couple days. quicker than a dry for 7 days and cure for 7 days.

is the smoke just as good?

 

[GreenphoeniX]

Main advantages are:

- Quick smoke (basically 8-9 days from chop and you can be rolling a joint)
- Is well cured (as in all the shit is taken out of it like a 30 day air cure, but better)
- Burns very well, like as good as tobacco in joint form, specially if you use a grinder.
- Less taste (can be an advantage if you don't like the taste of what you're growing)
- Less smell, easier to hide, keep on the down low etc.
- Get you just as, if not more, HIGH!
- I've found that depending on the strain it can tend to give a better buzz, maybe due to all the crap being removed from it.
- Oh, and did I mention you can smoke it, fully cured, 9 days after you chop!

 

[bterz]

Can water curing be used to get rid of mold? Just curious

+rep nice How-To

 

[GreenphoeniX]

Can water curing be used to get rid of mold? Just curious

I'm not actually 100% sure on that one, but I do recall someone mentioning something about that a while back... I've never had mold, but if I get it I'll test it and tel you! Haha. It quite possibly could, I wouldn't think mold could grow when completely submerged under water.

 

[incognitoinbc]

Do u think u could get away with just water curing for five days?

 

[surryman]

Vrey interesting,will give it a try with a small amount.

 

[GreenphoeniX]

Do u think u could get away with just water curing for five days?

What's wrong with 7 days? haha

Yea you can cure for 5 days, but it's not a full cure, more than 7 days is simply unnecessary and offers no additional benefits, and cure for less than 7 days is sometimes not enough to get out all that shit you don't want in there.

But doing it for 5 days will still work for the most part mate. Especially if it's organically grown or you properly flushed.

I added a couple more advantages to the list above, they're listed in this list

Main advantages are:

- Quick smoke (basically 8-9 days from chop and you can be rolling a joint)
- Is well cured (as in all the shit is taken out of it like a 30 day air cure, but better)
- Even when using synthetic (chemical) fertilizers you don't need to flush them for 1-2 weeks because the water cure will filter out all the chemicals and shit anyway.
+ Note: I believe flushing offers benefits other than just filtering out chemicals so I encourage a good proper flush anyway, but for those who don't think it has any added benefits other than removing chemicals, water curing means you can feed with synthetic fert right to the day of the chop.
- Burns very well, like as good as tobacco in joint form, specially if you use a grinder.
- Less taste (can be an advantage if you don't like the taste of what you're growing)
- Less smell, easier to hide, keep on the down low etc.
- Get you just as, if not more, HIGH!
- I've found that depending on the strain it can tend to give a better buzz, maybe due to all the crap being removed from it.
- Oh, and did I mention you can smoke it, fully cured, 9 days after you chop!

 

[jamieisdope]

good teq points added to your rep i'm definitely gonna try this one out with a few buds then compare to a few air dried buds and compare

 

[Valron]

i am trying this right now! lets see how it compares i dont really wanna wait 30 days to airdry! and i dont have the option of the stank....

 

[MadDawg]

and cure for less than 7 days is sometimes not enough to get out all that shit you don't want in there.

What exactly do you meen when you say... get out all that shit you don't want in there? What shit is it that is in there?

Thanks for the awesome tread!!!
-md

 

[howhigh123]

Main advantages are:

- Quick smoke (basically 8-9 days from chop and you can be rolling a joint)
- Is well cured (as in all the shit is taken out of it like a 30 day air cure, but better)
- Burns very well, like as good as tobacco in joint form, specially if you use a grinder.
- Less taste (can be an advantage if you don't like the taste of what you're growing)
- Less smell, easier to hide, keep on the down low etc.
- Get you just as, if not more, HIGH!
- I've found that depending on the strain it can tend to give a better buzz, maybe due to all the crap being removed from it.
- Oh, and did I mention you can smoke it, fully cured, 9 days after you chop!

ima try the water cure method..beats the hell out of air dryin..thanks man..+ rep...but i have 2 quick questions..when you say less taste..wat do you mean??..so if im growin something fruity...i wont be able to taste it when i smoke it??..and if you are plannin to sell...can you still water cure..or will it take some of it's weigh away??

 

[GreenphoeniX]

What exactly do you meen when you say... get out all that shit you don't want in there? What shit is it that is in there?

Thanks for the awesome tread!!!

I mean the chlorophyll and chemicals left in the plant when using synthetic nutrients. Usually you flush all that sort of shit out by feeding the plant nothing but pure water for 1 - 2 weeks before harvesting, but when water curing you don't need to flush so you can feed right up to the chop and the water cure will remove all that shit that flushing usually removes.
Smoking pot that has been grown with synthetic fert and not flushed, then air dried/cured is often very harsh and can irritate the throat and lungs as well as tasting like chemicals. Hope that answers your question somewhat.

ima try the water cure method..beats the hell out of air dryin..thanks man..+ rep...but i have 2 quick questions..when you say less taste..wat do you mean??..so if im growin something fruity...i wont be able to taste it when i smoke it??..and if you are plannin to sell...can you still water cure..or will it take some of it's weigh away??

To answer question two first, you can still water cure when selling but yes it will weigh less than an air dry/cure and will look dark green and/or brown which can be less appealing to some people, once they try it though they'll know it's good.
I think I made an example of the weight thing somewhere else, I'll find it and post it here:
It was posted here somewhere:
https://www.rollitup.org/harvesting-curing/102336-comparing-air-water-cure-w.html
I think it explains the weight thing (as well as potency issues) in there somewhere haha.

It seems more potent simply because there's less plant mass but just as many trichs.
For example; if you've got 100 grams of wet bud, and you air dry/cure, you're left with about 25 grams of dry bud, so there's 'X amount' of trichs in the 25 grams, but if you water cure that 100 grams of wet bud, you end up with about 15 grams of dry bud, and in that 15 grams there's still that same 'X amount' of trichs as the 25 grams, but 10 grams less plant mass.
That's why it certainly seems more potent, and I guess you could argue it technically is more potent, but when selling, it still weighs less and not many people will by half a gram for the same price as one gram just because you say it's more potent.

To answer your first question about the taste; you will still be able to taste it, but the flavour won't be as strong or may even be completely different to what it is when air dried/cured. If you've ever air cured bud for over a year you will notice the taste, smell and high is often altered, water curing does the same thing but a bit differently and far more rapidly.
It effects the taste of different buds in different ways and I've never done it with fruity bud so can't tell you exactly what you should expect, but it will be different, maybe you'll consider it better, maybe worse, it really depends on your own personal preferences.

I recommend reading through the thread I posted the link to above, it may answer some other questions you have.

Cheers.