Long Term Marijuana Storage.

[something vague]

Nice find Clowntown! That thing looks like it would work great for vacuming Mason's! Wonder how that plastic check valve tab holds up over time, maybe lets small amounts of air in over a long period of time.

I've stored my stash in Mason jars for a year or two in a cool (50deg F) dark place, and I have had some great results! The smell, taste, and high were about as good as when the went into storage. Although it is tuff to compare the two, as it is damn hard to remember how high you first got compared to the stored product! I DO NOT recomend storing buds in the freezer for a long period of time. It seems to make the gland heads very brittle, especially when handelling, and can burst while just sitting in storage. The product may smell and taste fresh, but most likely will be a lot less potent due to the loss of many glands. This is just my experience with freezing, but seems to make a lot of sense when thought about. To each there own, just can't go wrong with Mason jars and a cool dark place!

 

[Haps]

I am seeing decline in herb that is three years old in jars, so I am using it for edibles. I think a year to 18 months is OK in jars, but decline is starting by then. My take on this is only based on my own gear and world.
H

 

[CraftyApe]

Long term preservation

Long term preservation

Like so many I never worried about long term before cause I would have several full jars and more girls on the way to harvest all the time.

New circumstance makes me want to start thinking about long term storage and the best method.

I know some folks freeze. Is there a better way? Or if you are a fan of freezing walk me through your process.


Ta very much

Crafty

 

[Ripshot]

My opinion is that properly dried and cured pot will last for years in glass jars as long as you keep them in the dark. Ive smoke 2 year old weed that was kept in glass mason jars in the dark and it was smooth and tasty. I never have problems with mold in my jars.

IMO freezing weed is a myth, i feel that it degrades the quality, and when you take it out moisture condenses immediatly in the container and on the weed, opening up mold issues.

When I harvest my weed I always store as if it were long term storage, that is at least until next years harvest and up to a year after that. So thats two years.

What I do is hang my trimmed weed up and get good air circulation and limit the exchange of fresh air daily. This means slowing the drying process as long as possible. When I first hang I pump air out of the room constantly, because the humidity is so high at first and I dont want mold problems.

After about 3 or 4 days I start to limit the amount of fresh air, but keep the air circulating. This usually lasts for about a week or so. When the bud is crispy but the stems inside the bud are bendy, I take them down and put them into a large paper bag to redistribute the moisture from the inside of the buds evenly throught the stash.

Then I make a judgment call as to weather or not they are dry enough. Usually they need a few more days on a screen to get rid of some more moisture. What I want is a bud that crumbles, stems that snap, but not bone dry that they turn into powder when crushed.

Then i get my jars and fill them up loosely. no packing what so ever. I seal them up and put them in the dark, usually a drawer or box. For the next 4 - 8 weeks I will open up every jar once a week. This lets out gasses created by the decompositon of the bud, specifically the green chloroplasts within the cell structure. You will start to see the bud change color over the next 3 to 6 months. It will go from vibrant green to greenish brown. This is the curing process breaking down the chloroplasts. It is the darkness that does this.

With my method, I consider a jar that is 3 months old to be properly cured. Trust me, it still gets smoked from the moment it gets dry enough, but its much better after its had 3 months in the dark. Using this method you will have smokeable bud for as long as it lasts. I would say 3 years, but nobodys stash lasts that long. With the mason jar method you just crack a new jar as needed. You dont have to keep opening up the whole stash and contaminating it.

 

[geopolitical]

For the absolute longest term storage in terms of thc preservation you need to remove it from 3 key killers:

Light
Oxygen
Heat

Vacuum sealing & tossed in the freezer if you need to hold on to excess 1-3 years. nitrogen purged dark glass jars will do shorter term. You can buy a small disposable cylinder of nitrogen at most wine shops. Really though, if your storage is less than a year, a plain mason jar will probably keep things fresh enough that you won't notice anything.

I've kept very fresh smelling/smoking stash in the back of the deep freezer for about 2 years at a time.

 

[CraftyApe]

I would agree that the majority of the time the jars are the way to go and have stuff over a year old currently that is still just fine.

I am interested in the notion of the vacuum sealing and freezing. Perhaps do my own small scale compressed brick and then vac seal and freeze.

 

[humboldtlocal]

Has anyone used a mini-pak torre. It is a bagging machine like a seal a meal but it injects nitrogen into your bag. Nitrogen flush they call it. I had a friend who dug up lbs he forgot about for two years and he said they were as fresh as the day he put them away. Also the bags are a square shape so they sit on a triple beam perfectly. I am going to get one this fall. They are around 4k. I look at it like this, Around here you harvest in the fall, if you are lucky you can sell some to a club right away. But more than likely you are going to have to sit on your meds till may?june?july?august? So when you finally do get rid of them if they are all brown like they get from the oven/turkey bags you wont be getting a very good compensation from the collective. Has any one heard that the coating on the turkey bags makes your lbs brown after six months? That's the rumor around these parts. It is something they put on the bags to help cook the meat that turns the herb brown, not just sitting in a barell for 6 months. My friend who sells the trim machines is hoping to start selling them this fall.

 

[Lucky 7]

interesting Humboldt . . .

I will freeze, vacuum pack, or bury my booty in the ground in jars & vacuum sealed bags.
My stash stays nice & cool over the long hot months & no one can find it, well except the groundhog who lives near the hole I dug

 

[CraftyApe]

I would think that the idea of the nitrogen injection would be good regardless of the means. Wonder if there is a more affordable alternative for experimentation.

 

[humboldtlocal]

I had a friend who tried to spray nitrogen into his bags without the machine but couldn't do it.

 

[MMAJAY]

For the absolute longest term storage in terms of thc preservation you need to remove it from 3 key killers:

Light
Oxygen
Heat

Vacuum sealing & tossed in the freezer if you need to hold on to excess 1-3 years. nitrogen purged dark glass jars will do shorter term. You can buy a small disposable cylinder of nitrogen at most wine shops. Really though, if your storage is less than a year, a plain mason jar will probably keep things fresh enough that you won't notice anything.

I've kept very fresh smelling/smoking stash in the back of the deep freezer for about 2 years at a time.

I would have to agree 100%. I do outdoor grows now and i normally get enough or more than enough to last till next crop. I have found out my bud does best if i vacuum seal it and deep freeze it after the normal drying process. Us outdoor growers need to keep it fresh because it will be at least a year before next harvest. I used to do indoor and it didnt matter much then cuz i would off whatever i had left before harvesting. I do have some favorites that are deep frozen and i cant tell the diferance in buzz or taste after 3 yrs.

 

[CraftyApe]

MMAJAY that is very encouraging. One more reason to go ahead and spend the money on a decent quality vacuum sealer.

 

[zenoonez]

Aren't there dangers in freezing glass jars such as it shattering? Also what do you do when you pull it out of the freezer? I assume you would keep the jar closed until it reaches room temperature and restabilizes and redistributed the remaining humidity throughout the buds. Also, what sort of humidity should the bud reach before it is dry enough to store for curing? Is there a number or is it a touch thing?

 

[guest123]

I smoked five year old flowers stored in a film canister in a drawer full of papers. They were good still, had some taste left and quite a kick.

The next day I smoked three year old stuff from a film canister in a freezer.

Absolute garbage!

 

[Red Fang]

Storing Weed Long term?

Storing Weed Long term?

I know, why would you want to? But say you find yourself in a situation where you did better than you thought you would and have all this herb, and no one to smoke it with and you don't do the selling thing. Could you conceivably grow a 5 year supply and then store it and not have to risk growing for 5 years? If so how?

I think I read an article, might of been High Times back in the day where I actually read that. There was this guy who had all these canning jars full. I think I heard buds can be sealed in canning jars and then frozen. I am familiar with freezing and canning vegetables, and in every case I am familiar with, you have to do some cooking or "blanching" or seal the jars in a hot water bath. If you do that to cannabis, it will ruin it right? But if you don't do it, won't pathogens ruin your stash in the jars through anaerobic bacteria or something similar?

Is there a way to preserve cannabis long-term? If so for how long and how do you do it?
also how long of a cure do you really need?

 

[lost in a sea]

yea i think alot of people do store long term........ if you cure it first (to your desired curing point) in locking jars like "les parfait" ones and then put it in the freezer, it will last for years..... but it will last a long time just at room temperature....worked for over a year for me...buts thats the longest ive ever stored something for..

 

[Haps]

Fully dry and cure for a few months, then seal in bags or jars and freeze. I'm an old fuck, growing enough stash to last the rest of my life before they strap me down somewhere. Freeze it and keep growing.
H

 

[Megas]

Seal it then freeze it otherwise it will get all freezer burnt. Like one of those plastic sealer/ vacuum sealers would be best.

 

[Strainbrain]

Yep, you can get a vacuum-sealer that will do Mason jars - that'd freeze for a long while.

 

[simon]

I have product that's been curing for 6+ years. It's in vacuum-sealed glass jars - packaged when the flowers' RH was stabilized at ~57% - and sealed again in a vacuum bag. The jars and the bags are opened and resealed about once a year, stored in a fairly cool basement.

Simon