A new thought on curing?

First we actually have to look at what "curing" is. Since we can't put fresh weed into jars we have to let it dry first. After its mostly dry it goes into the jars for the final cure. Do you know what exactly is going on in that jar? Cannabis just like any other fruit after being picked needs to ripen. And I'm not talking about ripening on the stalk, I'm talking ripening as in breaking down chlorophyll and starches. So the words curing and ripening to me are the same thing.

The reason cannabis takes so long to cure/ripen in the jar is because cannabis releases a very small amount of a natural gas called Ethylene.

Ethylene triggers a break down of chlorophyll and starches. That gas makes green bananas yellow and more palatable. Ever notices that a long cure turns that green weed to a beautifully less green/grayish color? Its the same concept. The reason bananas go from green to yellow to brown so fast is the fact they release a large amount of Ethylene gas, while cannabis releases a very small amount of it and even less when dried.

My thought is making a drying rack inside a cardboard box and adding a some high ethylene producing fruits in the bottom to speed up the curing/ripening process. I think that this process would work best after the initial trim and still on the stem. Replacing and overly ripe fruit as needed till the bud is dried. This box would raise the amount of ethylene gas as well as slow down the drying time. You would have to eventually remove the buds from the box and place into jars as you normally would. The only benefit is that most of the curing/ripening would be done before it even went into the jars. It would only have to be in there for another week to finish up drying by drawing the moister out of the center of the bud. But once you can get the moister content of the bud below 15% the bud would be just as cured/ripened as bud that's been curing/ripening in jars for months

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if I was a little spacy on that write up, I'm very medicated.

Theres a quick cure method that produces great results, it uses a box with wire racks (like you describe). Then an intake fan with a heater in front of it. Could dry and have a "30-day" cure taste in ~4-days, no joke. Riddleme and Uncle Ben have talked about these methods, I'm looking for the link...

Sounds possible but ill advised. While the buds may cure faster and may possibly pick up some flavors and aromas from close proximity to the fruit but it also greatly increases the possibility of introducing molds and early destruction of your bud. The fruit would be full of moisture, enzymes etc.

If you are growing for profit then you might consider speeding up the process. For personal use, I would stick with the tried and true cure method. I personally think it really starts to get it flavor at 2+ months in the jars.

I am just a noob as far as posting goes so everyone can take my advice with however much salt they want. With that being said let me go ahead and quickly say that mtgeezer is probably correct in saying that you are introducing a new variable into the process which has the huge potential to destroy product. On the other hand though I do grow a lot of fruits and vegetables in my aquaponics system ( thats another threat another story) and many of the produce items do indeed need the time to ripen whether it be on the vine or off. Travis9226 is spot on with the ripening processes involved with some edible produce. In fact I sometimes had to leave tomatoes in a cardboard box wrapped with newspaper for weeks before they were actually ripe enough to eat ( would have to pull early sometimes due to tomato hornworms). Why would that differ with our lovely green herb. I think that there is actual valid science here to back up a theory and really garners the respect to at least given a trial. I would love to here from some of the more experienced growers on this topic though.

The amounts of ethylene produced by plants is miniscule. Each plant produces enough, if indeed it does produce ethylene, to help ripen the fruit. If this worked as the OP suggests the banana industry would not expose them to synthetic ethylene to hasten ripening for market. They would cut that expense and just lock it all up in the same room a few days.

And hastening the ripening does not make it more potent - that is all strain related - or make it dry any faster or taste any better.

i have plants that hang in my basement bathroom for a month or 2...they never dry 100% out ..always alittle spongy to the touch...

after a month they taste really good in a vaporizer but not a noticablely difference than the taste i get after the 10 day dry it gets to dry it and try it

think it's more to do with moisture removal turning acid into cannabinoid.

I would think that they only expose them to the ethylene gas in order to hasten the process in order to get product to the stores faster, because it is probably more cost effective to do this than to leave them sitting out for a while potentially leaving money sitting and not doing anything. I don't know though never really worked with bananas so i cant do much but postulate. Also as hotrodharley has stated it will in no way make it any more potent than it was ever meant to be.

hotrodharley said:

And hastening the ripening does not make it more potent - that is all strain related - or make it dry any faster or taste any better.

Click to expand...

well if the cure happens faster then it would absolutely taste much better right?