Water Curing...with heatpad!

[medi-useA]

Objective: Water Cured buds.

Equipment: one large jar...one piece of fly-screen mesh...one heatpad, surface temp 32 deg C. [68-86 F]

I placed 15 grams of bud in a jar of warm water..20-30 deg C [68-86 F] with a piece of aluminum fly-screen to hold the buds underneath the water. This was placed onto a heatpad and swirled three times a day.
The water was replaced daily with fresh warm water.
This was done for five days in a row.
Each day the water was progressively cleaner.
At NO TIME did the water or the buds smell 'funky' in any way.
When it came time to squeeze water out of the buds, they were still sticky and smelled resinous. The buds were removed from the final soak in tapwater and squeezed to remove water...then they were broken up and spread out on card for 12 hrs to drain, then placed on the heatpad for 24 hrs to dry properly.



Tap Water in a glass to show clarity

I included some 'common items' to show the colour spectrum as most of these pics are taken with a flash.

And of course a thank you to those who appeared in this pictorial...the bic's!

Tomorrow I will post pics of the heatpad and before and after shots of the buds.
Also a smoke test.

muA

 

[medi-useA]

Took me a while to get back...life interferes!? he

Here are the buds when first put into the water. I tried to hold the buds down with cutlery but failed...I ended up cutting some flyscreen and using that!

This is the jar on the heatpad with 2 jars of leaf and stem that is steeping in canola oil.

As you can see it is not chopped up...but it will be when I put it through its final phase...

Here is the temp @ pad level. I altered the contrast to show the temp.

Next will be pics of the bud before and after...

muA

 

[medi-useA]

Thanks for dropping by WildMadThrills.

The water leaches chlorophylls and other stuff from the buds...keeping the buds in an airless water enviroment cleans a lot of crap out of the buds. They dry into dark, hard buds. The smoke is smoother...the taste is cleaner...almost nonexistent! Excellent Stealth Smoke!...I am doing another batch @the moment. The stuff shown in the pics is currently steeping in glycerin to make a tincture. But that is another thread!


muA

 

[greennuggets7]

cool dude, you should put up the pics of the final dry product when your done, i have one question, when you water cure do you lose a significant amount of weight compared to air drying?

 

[NiteTiger]

green - Depends on what you call significant. In a traditional dry and cure, you'll get back 20-25% dry. Water curing returns 10-15%.

You have less weight, but the same amount of trichs, leading to a perceived potency increase. Weight isn't a big concern here, since water cure does not get sold in most cases.

You can check the thread in my sig for pics and the effects of water curing on bud if you'd like to learn more.

Medi, what made you decide to use a heating pad?

 

[Lil 'o Me]

Yea, Im curious about the heating pad. Interesting.

 

[medi-useA]

All the water cures I've read say to use tepid or room temp water...but having just come out of winter it was too cold, so I thought the heatpad might work...I'm also using the heatpad to store glycerin on whilst it's steeping. And oil.
I have pics of the finished buds...I intend to post them.

There was a weight difference and most definitely a volume or size difference. The buds were less than half the volume when watercured...but the smoke is smooth...smoother than before the wc...and scentless to boot!

If you can spare the bud to attempt a wc it will be worth it...


muA

 

[NiteTiger]

Hey medi, if you'll check the thread linked in my sig, I've got some pics up of same strain air v water cure. I'll bet you'd find those interesting. Neat thing, the water cure leaches out the green chlorophyll, but purps stay

 

[FreezerBoy]

Welcome to the club. What's with the squeezing and draining? I just hang mine over a fan and they dry in 18-24 hours.

 

[messn'n'gommin']

I like the heating pad idea. On the surface it would seem to make sense to use warm water for more and quicker leaching. I have an old waterbed heating pad I can try it with.

But, yeah...stirring and then squeezing? I'm not sure that would have much benefit. I handle them only as much as I have to.

Thanks, this sounds like a good idea!

Namaste, mess

 

[madassimi]

When it came time to squeeze water out of the buds, they were still sticky and smelled resinous. The buds were removed from the final soak in tapwater and squeezed to remove water...then they were broken up and spread out on card for 12 hrs to drain, then placed on the heatpad for 24 hrs to dry properly.

wow, really interesting concept Medi-useA i will be watching your thread

i have a question: when you squeeze the water out of the bud, aren't you destroying the trichomes? causes them to burst and prematurely releasing their lovely THC?

thx

 

[medi-useA]

I like the heating pad idea. On the surface it would seem to make sense to use warm water for more and quicker leaching. I have an old waterbed heating pad I can try it with.

Hope it works for you. Keep us informed!

But, yeah...stirring and then squeezing? I'm not sure that would have much benefit. I handle them only as much as I have to.

I don't think I mentioned stirring...I had the fork and spoon in the jar to hold the buds down, but replaced it all with a piece of flyscreen. The buds were SATURATED when removed from the water...when I gently squeezed them out they were still sticky...I had to break them up otherwise they would have dried into a 'puck' of pot! hahaha

NiteTiger-. I've already read your post on WC...it was one of my inspirations! :0

muA

 

[medi-useA]

Here are the buds drying on card

And here

Here is the piece of flyscreen

and the buds after rough chopping

The buds spent 12-15 hrs on a heatpad to finalise drying!

Hope these help...any other questions, just ask!

muA

 

[WildMadThrills]

Hmm never seen this before, very interesting though.


My question is how is the bud suppose to cure in the water?

 

[medi-useA]

i have a question: when you squeeze the water out of the bud, aren't you destroying the trichomes? causes them to burst and prematurely releasing their lovely THC?

I think that squeezing the buds would damage trichomes...but I did it because I was in a hurry to make a tincture...and for that I needed the buds dried quickly, and after 5 days they were saturated! If I was using this bud for smoking I would not squeeze the buds, instead I would let them drip/air dry. I did smoke some though...was just as good a stone as before the wc but harshness dropped from about 8/10 to 4/10...If I'd not harvested early and also had time to flush properly I thing the smoke would be smoother. NO SMELL when I smoked it...

Hmm never seen this before, very interesting though.


My question is how is the bud suppose to cure in the water?

As I understand it, from my internet research, Traditional air and jar curing is to remove moisture from the bud down to 15% or lower...when enough moisture has left the bud, it will start releasing water molecules from the thc, thus rendering it phychoactive.

Water curing gives the same result, except it also leaches out chlorophylls and other such nasties, including some of the chemicals or compounds in the plant matter as well as whatever dust might have gotten on the bud during air drying!


FreezerBoy-> Thanks for the welcome! Have spent many hours reading and admiring you work.
I hang my fresh buds for the first 2 weeks in my cab with the scrubber and fan on...Then I watercured them.
I would have left my wc buds to dry on the absorbent cardboard but was in a hurry to make my glycerin tinc.
Had 15ml about an hour and a half ago...works very well so far...


muA

 

[FreezerBoy]

I hang my fresh buds for the first 2 weeks in my cab with the scrubber and fan on...Then I watercured them.

And you do this because ...?

I can see some benefit to keeping temps tepid, everything else seems like busywork. Cut it, trim it, soak it, hang it over a fan. You've turned an 8 day process into a 3 week job.

 

[medi-useA]

And you do this because ...?

I can see some benefit to keeping temps tepid, everything else seems like busywork. Cut it, trim it, soak it, hang it over a fan. You've turned an 8 day process into a 3 week job.

FB-> The plant is a SkunkMix...the only one I had..I had and insanely small amount of SkunkMix MALE pollen and from th@ got 4...count them four seeds!....I still have a clone of the mother and another clone ready to set to 12/12 any day nowso as a result it stinks!

I live across the road from a 'Staunch Drug/Crime Aware Upright Member-Of-THE-Community'*snigger*


So...


Small community+3-5 drug raids within 150 Meters [300 feet?] of my home!+'Staunch Drug/Crime Aware Upright Member-Of-THE-Community'*snigger* living opposite me+Carer for a Screaming Schitzophrenic Gentleman{This man is the most beautiful, gentle creature ever encountered---tormented by his illness, He Screams Defiance To GOD}+Skunk=PARANOIA

lol

The Air Filter and closed cab kept the bud's smell contained. The Airflow from the fan and the oscillating fan I had on in the cab helped the bud to lose a lot of water-weight fast...it weighed in @ 9.5+ Oz/dry.

I have never had success with water curing fresh bud. So I waited until it was reasonably dry...ready to jar-burp, I guess.
Thats why I thought of the heat pad idea...had a couple of 40 deg C heat-waves last year and the bud I attempted to wc then was better than the bud I tried during winter...

After their stint in the cab, I trimmed the buds and put them in the jar to water cure 5 days, then onto card for 12 hrs to absorb water and onto the heatpad for 24 hrs @32deg C...ready to chop finely, decarboxilate and make glycerin tinc with!

I'm not running with ideal circumstances and am fighting paranoia and MS...so I took the steps I thought I needed to to remain the only grower who is off the leo radar in my community. Have been for 10 years or more...

Life would be much easier if I could be less clandestine about my growing...but I cannot, and I tend to stick with what works, though I'm always on the lookout for something new and willing to try it too!. But I have a security baseline I keep to as much as possible....it's worked so far.......so I stick with it.

muA

EDIT: Next crop I am going to freeze fresh bud and water cure that on heatpad...I'm hoping that the freezing will damage enough cells to clean the buds of crap!

muA