Drying and Curing Steps for Cannabis Harvesters

As a California cannabis harvester, you know it’s essential to find the right balance between a fragrant, potent crop, and quick distribution. Far too often, though, harvesters opt for a fast drying process. While this speeds up the timespan from harvesting to distribution, it can leave your plants less desirable than the competition. While your plants are drying and curing, they still need protection. For instance, you also need the protection of CA cannabis industry insurance. By utilizing effective methods and proactive insurance coverage, you can help ensure you conduct a perfect cure every time.

Why Should You Cure Cannabis?

When it comes to the benefits of drying and curing your cannabis, it’s a little like those old beer commercials where fans divided themselves between “tastes great” and “less filling” as their main reasons for support. Except for cannabis enthusiasts, the divide is between curing buds for best taste or increased potency. Beyond these two reasons for curing cannabis, though, is a third one: curing allows you to preserve your cannabis for up to two years when stored properly.

Of course, one of the best ways to continually preserve your crop is through effective CA cannabis industry insurance. Insurance can help you out should an incident occur that ruins your crop or disrupts the drying and curing process.

What’s The Initial Drying Process?

Regardless of how you harvest your cannabis, to properly dry it afterward, you’ll need to keep it in a dark room that maintains moderate temperatures and humidity, around 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit and right around 50% humidity. A small fan, dehumidifier, and air conditioner can all help keep conditions consistent.

You should plan on keeping the plant in the drying room for between 5 and 15 days. You’ll know the plant is ready when flowers crunch or crumble as you touch them or small branches of the plant snap in two instead of bend.

How Do You Cure Cannabis?

After you remove the cannabis plant from your drying room, it’s time to cure:

1. If you haven’t already, separate the buds from their branches
2. Store the buds in an airtight container. The buds should fill the container without crushing or smashing each other.
3. Seal the containers, then place them in a location that’s cool, dark, and dry.
4. Open the containers several times a day over the first week to release moisture and add oxygen.
5. Continue opening the containers every two to three days. You only need two to three weeks to conduct a basic cure, but it’s recommended to continue the process for up to eight weeks. You may find, though, that some strains need to cure for as long as six months.

While this process takes time, it’s worth it for a superior product. To protect your product during this process from natural disasters or uncontrollable incidents, you should also consider purchasing CA cannabis industry insurance coverage.

About CannGen Insurance Services

For more information about our comprehensive insurance solutions for the cannabis, CBD, and hemp industries, please visit our website at www.canngenins.com or email marketing@canngenins.com.