Ageing cannabis is just like ageing humans. You can’t stop it, but there are ways to slow it down. Whether you grow your own or you want to mail order marijuana in Canada, then here’s what you need to know about storing your cannabis to preserve freshness long-term.
What Causes Cannabis To Deteriorate?
The three main factors that’ll make any high fall flat are humidity, temperature, and exposure to UV light.
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Humidity
Humidity is a significant factor in how cannabis ages with time. Ideally, the relative humidity is held at a sweet spot between 59% to 63%. When humidity is too low, it causes the cannabis flower to dry out and lose its valuable resin where the cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids are all stored. This results in a harsh smoke that has lost its potency, is devoid of flavour, and can irritate the throat and lungs.
Humidity that’s too high is also an issue. When there’s too much water content in the surrounding air, then your bud is at risk of mould or mildew formation. This is really bad news as smoking weed that’s infested with any unwelcome fungi is a sure path to health problems further down the line.
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Temperature
Excess temperature is a major accelerator of the natural degradation process of the cannabis flower. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures means the all-important cannabinoids and terpenes are soon lost, and it’s this that leads to a suboptimal experience.
Cannabis should never be stored above 25ºC. This helps to preserve cannabinoid content optimally and also deter the formation of mould, which can also occur at higher temperatures.
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Light
Prolonged exposure to UV light is a sure death sentence to the potency of your buds. Depending on the intensity, it can quickly degrade and diminish the potency of the cannabinoids and terpenes present in the flower.
How to Store Cannabis Long Term to Preserve the Freshness
Storing your cannabis long-term and preserving its freshness are not mutually exclusive. Here’s what you need to do.
The Importance of Curing Cannabis
First things first. Make sure that you cure your harvest correctly to give yourself the best chance of preserving its potency long-term. Once your buds are dry, you should then place them into mason jars and leave them for a few weeks, burping them every few days throughout the process.
Proper curing maintains freshness and keeps moisture at the ideal levels for long-term preservation. Many people place humidity packs inside the mason jars to ensure that humidity levels are kept in that critical goldilocks range to prevent any deterioration or the formation of moulds.
Cannabis Storage After Curing
When cannabis flower is cured, it’s always best to store it in an air-tight container such as glass. Plastic containers can be potentially problematic as they can induce sweating in the buds and remove moisture to excessively low levels that will result in a loss in potency.
Always store your cannabis in a dark location away from direct exposure to UV light. Most people keep the jars in a dark cupboard, but if you have coloured glass that blocks UV light, then you could also leave them out on the counter as long as they are air-tight.
Always Store Cannabis at Cool Temperatures
The storage temperature of cannabis is of critical importance. When the temperature is between 26ºC and 30ºC, then it’s the ideal range for the formation of mildew and forms of mould that will quickly render your stash useless.
Ideally, cannabis bud is stored at temperatures below 20ºC, and you can even bring it down to freezing point should you wish to preserve it further.
Freezing Weed For Long Term Storage
If you have a bumper harvest and want to preserve your stash for the long haul, then freezing it is an effective way to do it.
It may surprise many people, but freezing cannabis can keep it relatively fresh for one to two years. The only danger associated with freezing cannabis is that the trichomes can become brittle and can easily break off.
The trichomes in cannabis flowers are those resinous glands that contain much of the cannabinoid, terpene, and flavonoid content found in cannabis. If you’re freezing cannabis, then it’s essential to handle it with care until it thaws.
What Happens to Cannabis When it Degrades?
Few of us remember our high-school chemistry well enough to understand the processes at play, but as weed degrades, the same familiar patterns play out again and again until it reaches the point where it turns to a fine dust with one twist of the grinder.
The loss of THC and its Conversion to CBN
The loss of THC is perhaps the most tragic consequence of weed degradation for most consumers. It’s a slow process that gradually occurs upon exposure to high temperatures, low humidity, light, or too much oxygen.
And while the process may result in a less enjoyable high, it’s important to remember that every cloud has a silver lining. The only real benefit of losing THC is that it converts to CBN as it degrades. CBN is another cannabinoid that exhibits some mild psychoactive effects and is also known to help reduce pain in many patients and improve sleep in others.
The conversion of THC to CBN is slow, but it’s predominantly brought on by exposure to both heat and oxygen.
A Flavourless Experience
If a flat high wasn’t enough to ensure you store your weed properly, then perhaps the inevitable loss of flavour will be enough to make you more careful.
The loss of flavour is mainly due to the loss of the terpene content of the raw flower. As the resinous trichomes dry out with prolonged exposure to heat, humidity, and oxygen, the taste of the flower will tend to develop a harshness that’s rarely pleasant to smoke.
Mail Order Marijuana in Canada
We don’t all grow our own, but if you’d like to mail order marijuana in Canada in bulk, then at Top BC Bud, we’ve got a wide selection of flowers available on our online shop, all denominated by hybrid, Indica or Sativa. And now that you know how to preserve your stash long-term, you can also benefit from many of the attractive bulk deals we offer!
