Properly dried and cured marijuana is like a fine wine: it only gets better with age! Drying is a different process than curing: drying fresh cannabis means ensuring that the plant contains less moisture, allowing the user to grind and smoke or vaporize it. Curing involves storing marijuana in closed containers for weeks to mature it, improving the flavour and aroma profiles.

Drying makes the plant usable and smooth. Freshly cut buds have a lot of moisture, and the cannabis will carry a harsh taste if you can even grind and light it. To maximize your enjoyment, here are the three best ways to dry out weed!

Hanging

The best way of drying weed out is to hang the buds upside down in a dark room. Using a coat hanger or a clothesline, hang the trimmed buds upside down, spacing them out so that air can flow between them. Try to pick a room where you can control the temperature and humidity – roughly 23° Celsius (75° Fahrenheit) with 45 – 50% humidity. You can use a digital humidistat to monitor the humidity levels in the room, adding a dehumidifier if it goes too high.

If the humidity levels are right, the drying stage takes between 7 and 12 days. During this time, the buds will lose a lot of water, losing weight and shrinking in size.

Brown Bag It

If you are low on dried and cured cannabis and want to dry some properly before running out, you can use a brown paper bag to help smaller buds dehydrate! The bag traps humidity to create a higher humidity than the room outside, speeding up the drying of the buds inside.

When using this method, open and close the bag to recirculate the humidity. To keep the humid levels from getting too high, keep it to two or three layers of buds per bag. Use a hygrometer to measure the moisture level in the bag, and if the humidity gets higher than 50%, use a fan to remove the moist air. If it’s still too long, you can place the bag on a source of heat like your laptop battery!

Drying Weed In The Oven

Drying doesn’t have to be slow, and the oven can help you speed up the process. You have to be careful to set the appliance at the right temperature and take care to watch it. Place your trimmed buds evenly on a sheet and set your oven to 125-140 degrees Fahrenheit. Put in your cookie sheet for 10 minutes, remove and turn the buds, then put it back in for another 10 minutes.

If you’re using an appliance like an oven, never turn it higher than 150 degrees Fahrenheit. If your heat source goes above and beyond this, the THC or resin glands will burn off, turning to vapour. You need those glands to have an enjoyable experience!

However you dry your weed out, you can test whether it’s done by taking a small branch of a bud and bending it. If the branch snaps, the buds are dry and ready for the curing process. If the branch bends, the buds need more time to dry.