I harvested my Steem OG plant "Ace" 4 days ago! The buds are drying and curing.
As I trimmed the sugar leaf off the buds, and the buds off the stems, this little crumb almost got away!
To get you appetized for my "Drying & Curing" post tomorrow, I want to show you a bit of detail:
Curing happens to cannabis as the plant cells die, as a result of tiny beneficial microbes. As long as the temperature isn't too warm or too cold, and as long as the cannabis doesn't become completely dry, curing will occur. It isn't a step or procedure we do, it's something natural we just need to let happen.
Cannabis that dries too slowly is prone to mold, which is where the art of balancing drying with curing comes in. We have to dry quickly enough and thoroughly enough so mold doesn't grow, but slowly enough to allow sufficient curing. More on that, in my post tomorrow!
Curing brings out the terpenes, which give each cannabis strain its distinctive smell, taste, and even medicinal effects. Improperly cured cannabis may look okay, but it often tastes dead, harsh, or like straw.
[ Irradiation, a process within legalized cannabis regimes, is done to reduce microbe content. What the government and their insider producers don't acknowledge is that irradiating cannabis burns off the trichome heads, which is where the cannabinoids are. Also, the death of the microbes means curing can't continue. Most legal weed not only tastes inferior because of this, but has very little medicinal (or recreational) benefit. ]
If you don't understand curing, you're likely missing out on a lot of potential flavour, quality, and high! Make sure you step up your curing game each and every harvest.
DRutter
