The curing process of weed dramatically affects the final product. It can make or break your harvest. How you cure your weed will affect a range of properties from potency to flavor, appearance, and aroma. You should not overlook one critical component of the curing process: burping, as it improves the product’s taste and potency and protects your buds from mold.
The key to curing cannabis is burping the jars in which you have stashed them. Burping allows you to let out the built-up carbon dioxide and moisture that has been shed by the buds.
When Can I Stop Burping My Jars?
When you begin curing, burping for 30 minutes is enough to eliminate excess gases and allow for an optimum RH. As the buds lose the moisture in them, reduce the length of burping to 10 minutes per day. Still, use a small hygrometer in the mason jars and keep the RH between 55%-60% percent. You can stop burping after a month.
The frequency of burping reduces from at least twice a day in the beginning to once every few days after a week up to four weeks when the curing is complete. After that, it is up to you to decide whether you want to keep curing the buds and burp them weekly. You can then burp them once or twice a month during the long-term storage period since the buds will still produce gases.
If the buds become too dry and begin to feel like dust between your fingers, you can rehydrate them using Boveda packs. Yes, you want the buds to dry, but you don’t want them all dusty.
What is Burping?
Burping involves opening the closed jars for stale air and moisture to leave. During curing, the buds are still releasing carbon dioxide and moisture, and these need to escape so that the curing environment isn’t prone to mold and other degrading effects of trapped moisture.
Importance of Burping During the Curing Process
Expelling gas and moisture from the curing environment is essential in allowing the proper working of the metabolic process. The buds will release moisture and gas that aren’t healthy for you under airtight containers, thus burping improves the quality of the buds.
How to Burp Your Jars
Cannabis growers burp their buds differently. While most growers simply open the mason jars for a few minutes to let the air and moisture escape, others prefer to spread their buds out on a newspaper so that the moisture loss is rapid. You can use a blend of both, but leaving the curing jar open for a few minutes is more beginner-friendly.
Open the jar, and shake it so that the air trapped in the lower buds can escape as well. If the buds are sticking together, that’s when you might be forced to remove them from the jar and spread them out for a few hours until they’re dry on the outside.
Your choice of jar for curing also goes a long way in making the process a success. Only use Mason jars with a broad opening as they allow maximum gaseous exchange within the jar. This Mason Jar will make the process a breeze if the buds are dried properly. You won’t have to take the buds out to air-dry them.
Growers also differ on how often they burp and the period within which the jars are left open. Some growers prefer to do it daily for at least ten seconds, while others burp for up to thirty minutes every few days. After three weeks, the product should be ready for use. However, you can choose to prolong the curing period as it further improves the final product.
Things to Look Out for When Burping
Monitor the micro-environment within which the curing process is taking place to ensure the final product achieves its highest possible quality. Here are factors to pay attention to when burping;
- The humidity within the curing jar will inform how long you leave the jar open. High humidity means there’s a lot of moisture to be lost, thus more burping sessions. Maintain RH between 55%-60%. If the RH hits 70%, it means the buds are ‘wet’ and should be air-dried before you resume the curing process.
- When you place the dry buds into the curing jar, shake them to check if they properly dried by testing their crunchiness. After a day of curing, the crunchiness should be gone when you want to burp the first time. If the crunchiness still exists, it means that they were too dry, and you may need to rehydrate them with Boveda packs before the curing process begins again.
When you open the sealed jar to burp and get the smell of ammonia, it means that the buds were not dry enough to be cured, and instead of curing, anaerobic bacteria are consuming them will lead to moldy cannabis.
In Conclusion
The curing process sounds simple, but it’s not. It’s a complicated procedure that involves monitoring the internal environment for proper curing that potentiates your buds. Burping is the core of curing cannabis; you have to let the excess gases out and maintain conducive humidity levels for a successful curing process.
