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Bud Washing

I didn't see a thread about budwashing on here so I'd like to get your guy's thoughts on it, for those of you who don't know bud washing is when right after you cut your plant you dunk the colas in a h2o2 or lemon juice and baking soda solution and then in water to remove dust, dirt, hair, bugs, mould. I have done this in the past because I grow outdoors and the wind kicks up shit on the plants sometimes. wondering if the taste and smell would be better or worse with or without bud washing.
 

Mate Dave

Propagator
ICMag Donor
Veteran
This is what I would do if I was fussy & making hash from the plants. I just smoke the cleanest as ganja..
 

f-e

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
Terpenes are soluble in water so it shouldnt effect taste or smell.


Looks like a typo, but I thought they were water soluble, and it's borne out to be true for me over time.

My water washes have been to clean up dry weed. Giving it a soak, then drying again. The weed looked and tasted beige. The dirty water wasn't something you would think about making tea with. But I don't remember the exact details. Only that the weed was still strong, but a soft smoke more like tobacco. I liked it for a short while, then thought "what's the point"

Maybe I lost the taste for another reason.

Water washing iso solutions pulled out a lot of flavour, but perhaps the separation salting is an issue.

I'm quite familiar with the primary green smell, that seems to be in the moisture leaving a plant. When growing. When drying. As your humidity causes your filter problems. There is always that same green smell that the moisture seems to lock within it. It's most prominent just after lights out, when you get the humidity spike. Something I have noticed outdoors to.

Surely the smell and taste is in at least some way water soluble. Or I'm insane. And I thought I was doing quite well.
 

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
Terpenes are water soluble so some will be washed away. Along with some resin glands that get knocked off by the water, decreasing potency. If you're careful you can do it without losing much but you can cause a lot of damage if you're careless. If I have my way my buds will be bone dry on the plant for the last couple weeks, then dried, and smoked. That's a perfect world. Much less chance of mold and no risk of losing terpenes or resin glands. This isn't a perfect world and I rarely have things work out perfectly. Everything wants to stick to resinous finished plants.

I live in a region without a lot of dust and the winds are usually light. It's usually not hot and dry at harvest time. I know how some regions, especially arid ones with a combinations of mountains, rivers, and canyons can be very dusty. If the plants are near a house with running water a simple misting with a hose in the evening would go a long way to reduce the grit buildup. The water may absorb some of the terpenes but as the water dries it should deposit most of the terpenes back where they came from.

If it's worse to the point this doesn't work you can give each plant a careful light shake. I don't like shaking plants but it's better then harsher methods. Dry you can shake off quite a bit of dust, wet you can shake off water and the dust it's absorbed. If you don't have a source of water shaking the dust off while collecting the flowers could make a big difference.

I don't like the idea of washing buds after harvest. Most of the degradation and loss of potency happens after plants are harvested by rough handling and trimming. I've seen wind and rain damaged plants recover quite a bit of odor and resin from a day or two of sun. After harvest the plant is dead and no longer secreting resin. Doesn't have the chance to recover. Washing after harvest should only be done when necessary and it should be done very carefully.

Letting the flowers dry in a well ventilated area where they aren't crammed together is important. Wet buds are mold magnets, there's nothing worse then harvesting wet mold free buds and finding them laced with new mold a few days later. I'd be careful about rinsing in any sort of solvent, hydrogen peroxide, acids, alcohol, are great for cleaning because they dissolve dirt but that isn't all they dissolve. Once again I'd only use them in a bad situation when it's absolutely necessary. A careful dip and stir in a bucket of warm water should do the trick most of the time without resorting to a deeper cleaning.

If the buds are for hashish making there's a trick you should use every time, dusty or not. Whenever I sift the last thing I do is use a 50 micron or smaller screen. I usually lose 10% or less by weight but what I sift off is dirt, plant material, mold, and other crap that stuck to the flowers. This works well with bubble bags or dry sift. What ends up falling through the screen looks like fine blonde resin at first glance but after a closer inspection you'll see it's trash. Here's a picture of what falls through my 45 micron screen after a careful sifting with a fine brush to knock the material off the resin.

picture.php


Mold spores, plant matter, and other junk you don't want in your hashish. Improves taste, potency, and appearance. Even the dirtiest bud can be made into pure resin with this technique. Here's what the resin above the screen looked like, always fun to look at unpressed resin.

picture.php
 

MedGrowerTom

Organic Dank Land
Veteran
Ive seen people do the water cure, where they keep putting it water and drying, but that's to remove smells taste to be discrete, I never seen anyone dunk buds just rinse them off tho.
 

Ibechillin

Masochist Educator
After reading into storing cannabis and hashmaking heavily lately from now on at harvest Im planning to drysift/press hash with my trim and larf, then after drying flowers vaccum sealing them in mylar bags and deep freezing (0 degrees F or below). I like how after heating and pressing the outside layer of kief it creates a resin layer that seals and preserves everything inside nicely for better long term storage. Terpenes being water soluble has swayed me away from dunk and swish washing buds in water at harvest and ice water extracting kief.
 
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