Curing, what does it really do?

OK, so I have a question for all you guys -- curing -- what does it really do?

Now I've only been on this forum for a few months, and have been growing self-taught for about 2.5 years now. One thing I really like about this forum is it seems to be free from a lot of the bad advice that get tossed all around the internet.

So with that in mind, curing. I read a lot about how a nice slow dry makes the taste come out better, stronger, etc.. And of course there's the whole flushing thing, I don't do that really, I just don't give nutes for a week or 1.5 week before chopping. But here's the thing, I accidentally left one jar open on my super lemony haze (best guess) strain, and closed the others, and so that jar dried out over night, all the way below 57% humidity with the jar closed. So this one jar didn't cure, it just dried up right after being trimmed and cut up. The other jars were fine. Can I tell a difference between the two a month later? Nope not at all. Both taste freaking amazing, and smooth as hell.

Also, I've been slow drying some other unknown stuff that really just doesn't have much smell to it. So I tried the same thing, just left a nug out to dry up. Actually had a really nice taste! No harshness etc... I've also given other stuff a proper cure and it just never got much of a taste or smell.

So what's the deal, does curing really make a difference? From my admittedly limited experience, taste, and to some extent harshness are genetic dependent more so than the cure. Am I crazy? Tell me if you think I'm wrong, I'm open to learning. Just had to ask.

Proper curing absolutely affects taste,smell and burn quality of your bud. There is a pinned thread all about curing and it's really helpful if you need tips. If you try a "dessert" strain like cookies etc etc that has and hasn't been cured you'd be amazed at the taste difference.

On the flip side I can't find any peer reviewed data on curing any type of mmj, only for tobacco. You experiment see what happens and what you like.

#Random

If you are feeding your plant all the way until chop to maximize potency, curing will be more important to smoothing out the smoke. Harshness is mainly the chlorophyll in the leaf. Feeding until chop will keep chlorophyll production going until the end, maximizing potency. Stopping your feed early will decrease chlorophyll production and produce less potent weed with a smoother taste profile at chop (a trade off). Slow drying and curing in my opinion is largely about breaking down the chlorophyll to get the smooth taste. I think there are some other chemical processes taking place that can improve the high as well, but I can't speak to that very well.

If you study tobacco, you will see that slow drying and curing are always done to get to the final product. Since this increases the cost of the product, you can bet that big tobacco would not be doing it if it was not important!

Ok thanks, yeah I had the same thought, if big tobacco does it it must be worth something... I'm not going to stop curing, but I am going to start giving nutes up till the last minute, so I'm curious to see how things are different then...

hawse said:

Can I tell a difference between the two a month later? Nope not at all. Both taste freaking amazing, and smooth as hell.

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Same issue I have. I don't see a huge difference. I always try and get them in jars but l left a couple trees out for testing. Both smoke great, taste better than the day they were 65% ready for jars.

Difference for me at this point the never Jared is ready to turn to dust, trics falling off and sheet. But smokes good. Jars are perfect, fresh, more marketable.

I choose jars for quality. No jars for tweaker mode.


#RandomII

At 57% your weed didn't dry out enough to stop curing. I do a three day dry and into jars, for a lot of sweating and burping. If done right, the flavors are insane.