Step-by-Step Guide: How to Cure Cannabis

Despite our eagerness to enjoy it, cannabis plants aren’t immediately ready to use after they’ve been harvested. Curing cannabis is an important step in getting the product where we want it — ready for smoking or edible consumption. 

The curing process involves storing your cannabis plants in specific conditions to improve their shelf life and preserve their flavor profile. Journey with us to discover why curing weed is so important and how to cure cannabis yourself. 

What is Curing Cannabis?

Curing cannabis is the process of drying and aging your marijuana plants after they’ve been harvested. To cure cannabis, you’ll need to store the plants in a highly controlled environment. Curing marijuana requires very specific temperatures, humidity levels, and airflow in order to work. 

The curing process preserves the cannabinoids and terpenes in the plant, which help the cannabis flower to retain its potency. Curing also preserves the unique flavor and aroma of the plant and generally extends its shelf life — things we all are sure to appreciate when it comes time to light up and enjoy. 

5 Benefits of Curing Cannabis

Learning how to cure weed is essential for ensuring a great final product. If you don’t cure your plants, they likely won’t reach their full potential or have as long of a shelf life. 

Not convinced it’s worth it? Here are five unique benefits of curing cannabis that make it worth the time spent: 

1. Increases Flavor

Each marijuana strain has its own unique flavor that contributes to the overall experience of the product. Curing and drying cannabis helps the starches, sugars, and chlorophyll in the plant break down quickly, which helps improve the taste. This allows the plant’s natural flavor profiles to come through for a more enjoyable experience.  

2. Retains Cannabinoid Levels

Cannabinoids are the chemicals in marijuana plants that give the plant its physical and mental effects. The most well-known cannabinoid is THC, which produces the plant’s psychoactive effects. CBD is another well-known cannabinoid that is often used for pain management and mental health treatment. 

When you cure cannabis plants, it helps them retain their cannabinoid levels for a much longer period of time. This means that your marijuana will retain its potency for future use and extended enjoyment. 

3. Preserves Aroma

The fragrance of your cannabis also contributes to a positive consumption experience. By curing your cannabis, you help to preserve the fresh, intense aroma. Whether you’re using your buds for an evening smoke sesh or cooking with cannabis to create tasty treats (when decarbing your weed), the aroma will shine through every time.  

4. Prolongs Shelf Life

Curing cannabis helps it stay shelf-stable for a long period of time. The curing process involves drying so that mold and mildew cannot grow. If you don’t cure your cannabis, it could decompose quickly. However, a well-done curing process can help your cannabis plants last for up to a year or longer. 

5. Normalizes Moisture Content

When cannabis plants are first harvested, their moisture content is located in the center of the plant. The curing process evenly distributes this moisture across the entire plant. This results in more consistent plant quality. 

What You’ll Need to Cure Cannabis: Materials & The Right Conditions

When learning how to cure marijuana, you’ll need to start with the right materials. However, gathering supplies is the easy part. You’ll also need to create the right conditions for cannabis to cure properly. 

Here are the materials you’ll need for curing marijuana: 

• A closed environment: You’ll need an airtight space to keep conditions stable while your plants are curing. Depending on how many plants you’re working with, this could be a small glass jar up to an entire airtight room. 
• Disposable gloves: Wearing disposable gloves while working with your plants will prevent the oils on your hands from damaging the leaves or throwing off the moisture levels in your enclosure. 
• A Hygrometer: This tool will help you check the humidity levels in your marijuana enclosure. 
• Humidity packs: Humidity packs are small packages you can place in your enclosure to maintain moisture levels. These are very handy to have if you live in a dry area. Pro tip: look for humidity packs that are specifically designed for cannabis. 

Here are the conditions you’ll need to successfully cure your cannabis: 

• Humidity: To cure your cannabis plants, we recommend maintaining humidity levels between approximately 50 and 60%. If the humidity in your enclosure is too high, open it up and allow some air to flow in for a few hours, then recheck your levels. If the humidity is too low, add some humidity packs until the levels stabilize. 
• Temperature: Room temperature is crucial for curing cannabis. Try to maintain levels between 68 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Be very careful to prevent your plants from getting too hot, as this could cause them to degrade very quickly.  
• Light: Exposure to light will increase the temperature in your cannabis enclosure, which can damage your plants. Keep your cannabis in a relatively dark area while they’re curing to avoid this problem. Ideally, we recommend using a room with no windows, but you can also minimize light with thick curtains. 

How to Cure Cannabis in 4 Easy Steps

Once you’ve gathered your materials and prepped your environment, it’s time to learn the full process for curing cannabis. Keep in mind that this process may involve some trial and error, so don’t be afraid to make small adjustments to improve the quality of your product. 

Here are the four steps required for curing cannabis:

1. Dry Your Buds

The first step in curing is learning how to dry cannabis. When you first harvest your plants, the buds will likely be very moist. Drying the cannabis lowers their moisture level so the plants can cure successfully. It also helps prevent mold from growing during the curing process.

You have two options when deciding how to dry marijuana: dry trimming and wet trimming.

• To dry trim, hang your branches upside down from a clothesline right after they’ve been cut. Make sure that each plant has enough space to dry fully. The buds will be ready to cut when they’re dry to the touch and the stems snap. With this method, it can take as long as 10 days for the buds to dry fully. 

• Wet trimming is another approach that usually takes two to four days to complete. While this strategy is faster than dry trimming, it is also much messier and can result in a loss of terpenes, which affects the plant’s flavor profile and even some of the effects. With wet trimming, you’ll remove the buds from the branches right after you harvest the plants, rather than letting them dry first. You’ll then place the buds on drying racks, rotating them periodically until they are dry. 

2. Place Buds in an Enclosed Environment

Once your buds are dry, the next step is to place them in your enclosed environment. This needs to be fully airtight so you can keep the conditions stable for the entire curing process. Avoid overcrowding your buds, as this could prevent them from curing evenly. 

Glass jars work well if you only have a small amount of cannabis to cure. If you have a larger amount, look for larger storage buckets. Avoid using plastic containers — not only are they not airtight, but they are also usually treated with chemicals that could negatively affect the quality of your cannabis. 

If you’re curing cannabis on a large scale, you may need more space than a container can provide. If this is the case for you, you may need an entire airtight room to successfully cure your cannabis. 

3. Monitor Buds for Proper Conditions

As your cannabis buds are curing, you’ll need to check on them regularly to make sure the conditions remain stable. Use a thermometer and hygrometer to check the temperature and humidity levels and ensure they’re appropriate for curing. You’ll also want to check for a strong smell of ammonia, which indicates that your buds are too moist and require more airflow. 

Check on your cannabis twice a day for the first week and once per day for the remainder of the curing process. During each check-in, open the container and allow some air to flow in for a few minutes. Remove any buds with visible signs of mold or mildew. 

4. Establish a Timeline

When you first start growing cannabis plants, you might wonder how long to cure weed. There’s no definitive answer here, and it can take some trial and error to determine exactly how long to cure your plants. 

In most cases, curing for three to four weeks is enough to expand the shelf life of your plants and preserve their flavor profile. After three weeks, test some of your product to see if you’re happy with the results. 

Curing for a longer time period can improve the quality of your plants even more. Some professional growers cure their plants for up to six months at a time. It’s ultimately up to you and the quality you hope to achieve with your final product.

Shop Premium Cannabis Products from STIIIZY

Now that you know how to cure cannabis on your own, you’re familiar with how time-consuming the process can be. If you’re not up for DIY curing, shop premium cannabis flower that has been cured to perfection!  

Check out our full selection of cannabis products online, including extracts, edibles, and weed vape pods. Prefer in-person shopping? Stop by one of our STIIIZY dispensaries!

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