White Widow Water Cure

Phaeton · Dec 18, 2016

The plant came out simultaneous with another plant. The white Widow is more difficult to trim so I went water cure, the smaller 1/8" single leaves can be left attached.

The water was just changed. The first ten hours clouds the water to where to bottom of the buds cannot be seen. The water will be changed again in the morning and daily after than until the water stays clear a full 24 hours.

The same size buds jar cured weigh 25% more. This is good, the 25% weight loss is all chlorophyll and other water soluble sap components. THC is hydrophobic and every single bit stays on the plant, leaving neutral wood fiber and cannabinoids as the only ingredients.

If the buds weigh 100 grams at 20% that is 20 grams of oil.
Lose 25% and the 75 grams left has all 20 grams of oil in the buds, giving a percentage of 27%.
I find this 30% increase very noticeable when smoking. Another of the perks is the smoothness, all the harsh chemicals have been washed out.
The one problem I have found is with my favorite pipe, a brass steamroller I have used since 2004.
When smoking water cured bud I keep the flame from bathing the buds and hold it even until the bud is done. Occasionally I accidentally dip the flame into the bowl towards the end and all the vapors in the steamroller ignite explosively enough to feel the pulse on my tongue and cheeks. Startling even the second or third time.

40AmpstoFreedom · Jan 11, 2017

.....well you know everyone has their own methods.

LOL

BigFoote · Jan 11, 2017

Neat, can you post pictures of the buds when your drying is finished? Does it effect the scent and flavor of the finished buds? Do you ever have problems with mold?

q3corn · Jan 14, 2017

Nice job! That sounds like a really simple method. Do you use any special water? RO?

BTW, isn't this the "dried and cured buds and stash" sub? Those buds look kinda wet... :chin:

NewAgeGenetics · Jan 14, 2017

saw it somewhere else, he wash his buds after harvo. kinda strange huh

Dakine · Jan 23, 2017

Nice Cure! Any pics of them dried now? I only tried this 1 time when I first found out about this method from icmag over 8+Years ago. Its good to use if there was A small bug/pest problem during flower. MY girls outside always had these black flying looking ants dead and stuck on the trichomes.

I've noticed that it effects the smell way more then flavor. The flavor is still effected but is still there, and the smoke isnt as harsh imo.

What do you think are the differences with the water cured compared to A regular dry/cure?

russej05 · Jan 23, 2017

Phaeton said:
The plant came out simultaneous with another plant. The white Widow is more difficult to trim so I went water cure, the smaller 1/8" single leaves can be left attached.

The water was just changed. The first ten hours clouds the water to where to bottom of the buds cannot be seen. The water will be changed again in the morning and daily after than until the water stays clear a full 24 hours.

The same size buds jar cured weigh 25% more. This is good, the 25% weight loss is all chlorophyll and other water soluble sap components. THC is hydrophobic and every single bit stays on the plant, leaving neutral wood fiber and cannabinoids as the only ingredients.

If the buds weigh 100 grams at 20% that is 20 grams of oil.
Lose 25% and the 75 grams left has all 20 grams of oil in the buds, giving a percentage of 27%.
I find this 30% increase very noticeable when smoking. Another of the perks is the smoothness, all the harsh chemicals have been washed out.
The one problem I have found is with my favorite pipe, a brass steamroller I have used since 2004.
When smoking water cured bud I keep the flame from bathing the buds and hold it even until the bud is done. Occasionally I accidentally dip the flame into the bowl towards the end and all the vapors in the steamroller ignite explosively enough to feel the pulse on my tongue and cheeks. Startling even the second or third time.

wow this is awesome i will be trying this method out soon, thanks for the insight

iloveweed123 · Jan 23, 2017

Thanks Pheaton .... very useful bit of information

Phaeton · Jan 23, 2017

The area is in its second week of -40 degree weather and I have been otherwise occupied. This ounce was reserved so still have it for pictures.

The water sucks all the flavor out of the bud, part of the 25% weight reduction. This particular batch spent ten days in cold water, which was changed twice daily. A five gallon bucket holds two ounces at a time. The labor of changing the water is what prevents this from being a regular item.

Bowls are freely filled and the price is 25% higher to make up for weight loss. It sells faster than regular even so.

The photos have some Cookies Kush put in for contrast, they were close to the same color last month.

seeded · Jan 23, 2017

While I'm sure you're happy with your results water curing is an awful practice that should be reserved for buyers of shitty cannabis only because it's risky and you can't add potency or any other redeeming factor by leeching all the terps and other water solubles out of it. You can definitely remove a lot of the shittier tastes and harshness but any decent grower can achieve the same by flushing their plants before they harvest them and the reward for doing so isn't destroying the complexity of the smells, tastes and highs their plants offer them.

I'm sorry if that sounds harsh but it's absolutely true and anyone can test it for themselves by making some dry sift and bubblebag hash from the same starting material. They're worlds apart quality wise and you'll understand why when you dump the bubblebag water down the drain.

FireIn.TheSky · Jan 23, 2017

40AmpstoFreedom said:
.....well you know everyone has their own methods.

LOL

This was the in thing like 10 years ago when many people were growing weed that tasted like ass with miracle grow flower food.

Phaeton · Jan 24, 2017

I have a heart problem and carbon monoxide is my enemy. The usual 60% THC extract has been upped to 80%.
I mention this because the water cure is my backup. With all the water solubles leached out it is almost as tasteless as the oil extract. Would fiber and nonpolar oils are all that is left of the bud, and this mix burns with less than half the carbon monoxide as fully flavored bud.

Seeded seems to have a personal problem. Save it, I absolutely do not care what you smoke and certainly will not tell you only my way is right.
Heck, I change up regularly, as do most folks I know. My old partner and I would make our extracts, he was a bubble hash fan and I was an oil fan. Never once in all the years of working together did "my way is better than your way" ever come up.
Until reading your post it had not occurred to me that the concept of "better" even existed for this 100% subjective topic.

So continue your fight to discourage information sharing, do it enough and I am sure you can drive people from this site in frustration. Dealing with "I'm better than you" type folks sucks.

Fridge Farmer · Feb 21, 2019

Roger that Phaeton!

One other point to note is that most of us who do occasionally water cure are not agitating the water as violently as bubble hash. If we were, I think the results would be very different.

I water cure my lowers for oil. I do sub zero QWET and have found that my end product is FAR cleaner and "potency" does not seem to be affected in ANY way.

Greenheart · Feb 23, 2023

I would have to agree water curing has both advantages and disadvantages. Mainly in potency per gram versus flavor. I found I got more ripped off water cure than standard cure. Kind of like getting more ripped off bubble hash versus buds. The end result leaves a much more concentrated product. It made some of the best butter I've ever experienced.

Curious about your process:

Things like water change intervals.
Overall length of process.
Did you feel like at one point you needed to change it more frequently or less often?
Did you notice any strong smells at any point?
Did product start out floating and settle to the bottom by the end?
Did you use any particular sized mesh to prevent trichome losses like a bubble bag or silk screen?
Did you control temps or just let it go at ambient room levels?
How about your drying process? Was it quick? Any heat or fans involved?

I know it's a lot of questions but those are some key things I noticed when I did my batch 12 years ago. I've not had anything of my own in a long time to play with so I'm a voyeur these days.

The most notable things I remember on my experiment were strong odors about 5 days in and up to 2 weeks until completion. The first batch I spread out on a screen with indirect air circulation to dry quickly. The second batch I used for butter and did not dry.

Don't mind the haters if they come. The method has Buddhist roots and creates some pretty pure medicine. Until more science is done with it we won't know exactly what influence it has cannabinoid and flavonoid profiles. I can say imo the taste of smoking is like burnt rope. I would theorize that comes from having mostly fiber left and not so much in the way of chlorophyll or other compounds.

goingrey · Feb 23, 2023

I like the look of those water cured buds.

But no taste.. I don't like that.

hubcap · Feb 25, 2023

I was never a fan of this practice.
but, to each their own, and if no one tries new things, we really dont learn anything new as a community.

that said, in my view, if something isn't broke, it doesn't need a solution.

-cap

CannaT · Oct 11, 2023

When you put something to water it degrades much faster and new form of life is begining to create all life on earth comes out of water.
Harsh weed comes of dry sandy trichs not propper done weed or bad drying process.
Weed needs to be extremly sticky for months after harvest, jared at 60% of humidity it will stay sticky and flavourfull for at least 6 months.
If its not like that you are doing something wrong and not any of this methods will help you with your stash.

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White Widow Water Cure

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