Water Curing Buds; For Dummies

This will be my first time ever doing a water cure.
Believe me I am very nervous.

Correct me if I'm wrong;
Fill Jar with pre-dried bud
Fill Jar with room temperature water
Drain & Replace once daily
Drain & Dry on 7th day
Smoke

Right?
Do I leave the lid off, or put on?
Being very nervous since it's my first time, I would like to drain and replace the water TWICE daily instead of once.

Will this still allow it to complete it's processes?
Or will this be too soon to replace the water?

i wouldn't recommend drying the bud first. some ppl may i don't know. any ways i do exactly like you list but i put the buds in fresh, this allows more of the chlorophyll, sugars, and water soluble plant chems to be leached out. also weight the buds down to keep them all under water, any sticking out the top can be prone to mold. also i would at least cover the jar if you don't like lids. and you can change the water as often as you like but i doubt you will see any difference in more than once a day. i would start with a few grams and see how you like then do more next grow if you want.

Doesn't that wash off the trichomes?

Little Tommy said:

Doesn't that wash off the trichomes?

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I agree with Little Tommy

Trichomes aren't soluble in water so the water cure is a quicker way to get a fully cured bud in 6-7 days or so the theory goes. I myself used distilled water as I didn't want any extra contaminants from tapwater to screw with what I'm trying to do (remove chemicals from the plant material). I was told to place something in my container to submerge the buds and to leave open to allow excess chlorophyll out. I was told that not allowing it air flow would make it so chlorophyll would not evaporate so keep your container somewhat open and all your buds submerged.

I think you could replace the water more than once daily but I'd still recommend curing for the full 7 days. Try not to agitate your buds too much when replacing water. Your final soaking all your buds should be sinking and not floating and the water should be clear after a day of sitting.

They may not be water soluble, but all that moving around is going to cause them to fall off, isn't it? When you pour off the water, how do you know if you are or are not spilling trichomes down the drain. I am just curious how this works.

Little Tommy said:

They may not be water soluble, but all that moving around is going to cause them to fall off, isn't it? When you pour off the water, how do you know if you are or are not spilling trichomes down the drain. I am just curious how this works.

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Read a thread where a guy was worried about the trics falling off, so he used his bubble bag screens to catch the water as he drained it, and said that there wasnt enough to worry about even trying to save...

And yes you leave the lid off the jar.

Justin00 said:

i wouldn't recommend drying the bud first. some ppl may i don't know. any ways i do exactly like you list but i put the buds in fresh, this allows more of the chlorophyll, sugars, and water soluble plant chems to be leached out. also weight the buds down to keep them all under water, any sticking out the top can be prone to mold. also i would at least cover the jar if you don't like lids. and you can change the water as often as you like but i doubt you will see any difference in more than once a day. i would start with a few grams and see how you like then do more next grow if you want.

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It's not bone dry, but it's dry enough to air cure. It wasn't my harvest, this is actually about an ounce of bud that we found some mold on.
Water curing is supposed to flush out the spores just like the toxins/fertilizers.
Also the bud cracks when smoked, so I'm almost positive he didn't flush.
It was his first grow.. I'm just trying to salvage it. So I'm just going to do the whole ounce since it's not like I should be smoking it air cured anyways.
It's not about the difference, I'm just paranoid about Dark, Room temperature Water with not much air. Thanks a ton.

Little Tommy said:

Doesn't that wash off the trichomes?

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If you use water that is colder than the trichomes, it can cause them to become brittle and fall off.
If you use water that is too hot, I don't remember what it can do but it also messes with the Trichomes.

Nordic division said:

I agree with Little Tommy

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See above. You heard about the schizo in Norway a couple days ago?

Encomium said:

Trichomes aren't soluble in water so the water cure is a quicker way to get a fully cured bud in 6-7 days or so the theory goes. I myself used distilled water as I didn't want any extra contaminants from tapwater to screw with what I'm trying to do (remove chemicals from the plant material). I was told to place something in my container to submerge the buds and to leave open to allow excess chlorophyll out. I was told that not allowing it air flow would make it so chlorophyll would not evaporate so keep your container somewhat open and all your buds submerged.

I think you could replace the water more than once daily but I'd still recommend curing for the full 7 days. Try not to agitate your buds too much when replacing water. Your final soaking all your buds should be sinking and not floating and the water should be clear after a day of sitting.

Click to expand...

I'm just going to use tap water, I've been drinking my water for years. Wouldn't the chlorophyll have to be rinsed out with water?
I didn't realize plant matter could evaporate.

Little Tommy said:

They may not be water soluble, but all that moving around is going to cause them to fall off, isn't it? When you pour off the water, how do you know if you are or are not spilling trichomes down the drain. I am just curious how this works.

Click to expand...

keifcake said:

Read a thread where a guy was worried about the trics falling off, so he used his bubble bag screens to catch the water as he drained it, and said that there wasnt enough to worry about even trying to save...

And yes you leave the lid off the jar.

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Well I'm glad somebody did the bubble bag thing to dispell the myth.
Thanks a ton everyone, I will be doing the water cure.
I guess I'll be submerging in room temperature water, putting something in to sink them all, and leaving the lid halfway on.
Replacing water once or twice daily. In 7 days I will dry it all. I'd prefer to let them air dry, could I just hang them and put a fan on them as if they were regular fresh buds?

you usually choose to either air dry or water cure your bud. Also if the nug has mold on it, then it doesn't matter if you air dry or water dry, you still need to throw that stuff away. Stop smoking it before you do some real harm to yourself. Also the crackling you get when your smoking isn't due to not being flushed, its because it isn't fully dried.

When you water cure your bud, it's pulling the chlorophyll out of the plants, which then the chlorophyll has to evaporate out of the water or it just sits there bathing your bud in it. If you leave the lid on then the chlorophyll is just basting your nug inbetween changing the water lol.

You only want to change the water out once a day so you disturb your bud as little as possible.

Yea you can hang dry (air dry) after you've water cured. You can also heat dry like in a dehydrator. Hang drying after water curing still takes 1-3 days depending on your humidity/temp/air flow. A dehydrator can have them dry in 3-4 hours.

Water curing isn't the way to make moldy buds safe. I've heard that ice hash processing removes mold spores but don't quote me on that (one would think any alcohol-based method would as well).

bamfrivet said:

you usually choose to either air dry or water cure your bud. Also if the nug has mold on it, then it doesn't matter if you air dry or water dry, you still need to throw that stuff away. Stop smoking it before you do some real harm to yourself. Also the crackling you get when your smoking isn't due to not being flushed, its because it isn't fully dried.

When you water cure your bud, it's pulling the chlorophyll out of the plants, which then the chlorophyll has to evaporate out of the water or it just sits there bathing your bud in it. If you leave the lid on then the chlorophyll is just basting your nug inbetween changing the water lol.

You only want to change the water out once a day so you disturb your bud as little as possible.

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There isn't much on there. It wasn't like nasty food mold.
The buds "look" clean, so I'm water curing to remove whatever is inside dormant.

I read somewhere to dry them first but whatever, I'm still going to water cure.
Alright so I'll leave the lid off, and it's pretty dry, it smokes good right now.
I guess I'll only change it once a day then..

Hang drying after soaking them makes me nervous. I think I'm going to put them in an Ikea hanging basket and then blow dry it on the coldest setting.
That will be cold enough and harmless to the buds right?

I don't have bubble bags, and I don't intend to for a long time.

Encomium said:

Yea you can hang dry (air dry) after you've water cured. You can also heat dry like in a dehydrator. Hang drying after water curing still takes 1-3 days depending on your humidity/temp/air flow. A dehydrator can have them dry in 3-4 hours.

Water curing isn't the way to make moldy buds safe. I've heard that ice hash processing removes mold spores but don't quote me on that (one would think any alcohol-based method would as well).

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ok, look up commercial trimming machines, noting you do to your buds short of grinding them up or shaking em around in ice is gonna know off any noticeable amount of trics. i used to worry about perfect trimming and being super gentle but then you realize your better off putting that extra effort in other areas that make more of a difference.

best way to dry after a water cure is to hang them or lay they them on a paper towel and place a fan blowing on them, not a really strong fan, just enough to get a good breeze blowing over them and put them in a dark place for the night, they should be mostly dry by morning and ready for storage or smoke in less than 24 hours.

Justin00 said:

ok, look up commercial trimming machines, noting you do to your buds short of grinding them up or shaking em around in ice is gonna know off any noticeable amount of trics. i used to worry about perfect trimming and being super gentle but then you realize your better off putting that extra effort in other areas that make more of a difference.

best way to dry after a water cure is to hang them or lay they them on a paper towel and place a fan blowing on them, not a really strong fan, just enough to get a good breeze blowing over them and put them in a dark place for the night, they should be mostly dry by morning and ready for storage or smoke in less than 24 hours.

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Thanks, I think I can replicate that.

After the first day of soaking, my jar resembled a dark tea, and the water smelled a little like mildew.
After The second day of soaking, the water is a little bit more clear, and the water smells cleaner.

Is this all just part of the process?
Is the tea effect just the water leaching out acids and chlorophyll and such?

C.Indica said:

I'm just going to use tap water, I've been drinking my water for years. Wouldn't the chlorophyll have to be rinsed out with water?
I didn't realize plant matter could evaporate.

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I would suggest using distilled water here. Distilled water has a tendency to absorb whatever it can, especially CO2. It can only absorb so much before it starts redepositing.

Uh oh.
Well I don't have any, but if I ever water cure again it will be distilled water!

C.Indica said:

After the first day of soaking, my jar resembled a dark tea, and the water smelled a little like mildew.
After The second day of soaking, the water is a little bit more clear, and the water smells cleaner.

Is this all just part of the process?
Is the tea effect just the water leaching out acids and chlorophyll and such?

Click to expand...

yep, it's like a reverse teabag. after you let it soak the water is dark. as you get to day 7 the water should be much lighter, almost clear

yeah distilled water will work the best but tap water works fine if its all you got. and the results your seeing are exactly what has always happened for me. by day 7 the water should be mostly clear.

Alright so the water is good, I have it submerged with a square of tin foil and a metal tea ball clamp, I had to stick some little popcorn in the tea ball so it wouldn't float.

The plant material looks like it's getting soggy, is this normal?
Not too bad or anything, but the little yellow leaves look like they'd pull apart. And the stem looks like a sponge, but not too much.
These are all really small observations, if I noticed something large I'd be paniced.

Yeah, it'll look kind of gross while submerged. No worries, though. That's how it's supposed to look. No need to panic. It'll look a bit strange from now on, even after dry.

I used 2 plastic ice cream buckets nested together. The top bucket has holes drilled in it. (it's been used for growing in the past) Bottom bucket has no holes. Toss buds in the bottom bucket, nest the drilled bucket on top and fill with water. Simple and easy to change the water.