What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Putting fresh harvested buds straight into the freezer

Hello to everyone. I have some plants on my balcony and one of them was FULL of Aphids. I chopped the buds, put them in a plastic bag and put it straight into the freezer (no frost freezer) for 12 hours, seeking to eradicate any aphids and other insects that were laying in the stems i harvested.

Will potency go down a lot after putting freshly chopped bud in the freezer? Am i ok with killing off the insects? I am starting an indoor grow, the only option is to dry inside the house and i want to be as secure and pest free as possible. Thank you for any answers!
 

mean mr.mustard

I Pass Satellites
Veteran
They will be mush.

The water freezes and crystalizes, slicing through cell walls.

Don't do it!

Or do it just expect to get mush when they thaw.

My two cents is just make budder out of it.
 
They will be mush.

The water freezes and crystalizes, slicing through cell walls.

Don't do it!

Or do it just expect to get mush when they thaw.

My two cents is just make budder out of it.

Yes, that's what happened indeed. They acquired a bad smell once i got them out of the freezer, they are out of it for 12 hours and they smell bad. Gonna trim all leaves and let buds dry and hope for the best. Worst case scenario, i will turn it into ice-o-lator. The crystals on the buds seem mostly ok. I wonder if it would be the same had i left the buds for only 1 hour in the freezer and if this time would suffice for the f*cking insects to be killed.

Guy_Brush a no frost freezer can be used to start to "cure" the buds after the initial drying. Buds could be put there after stems almost snap, instead of putting them in jars you put them in a no frost freezer and the guessing is out of the question concerning the moisture and when to close the jars, how much to burp them etc. I do it every time, i find it very convenient. I learned this all from a thread here in ICMAG.
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
What's a no frost freezer?
No frost freezers suck they don't really "freeze" they have a built in thermostat to hover around freezing and occasionally dip above to melt off any ice that might form. It's why ice cream doesn't feel solid like in an old fashioned freezer. And mack 10 is right it's pretty much any newer freezer on top of a fridge. You should be able to get a real freezer in a chest freezer style.
 

mack 10

Active member
Veteran
Don't blast through warm tubes with frozen/wet material
As you will have a blowout.
That shit will scare the crap out of you,
Woossh!!! As if flys past your head.
 
Last edited:

robotwithdreams

Active member
Veteran
No frost freezers suck they don't really "freeze" they have a built in thermostat to hover around freezing and occasionally dip above to melt off any ice that might form. It's why ice cream doesn't feel solid like in an old fashioned freezer. And mack 10 is right it's pretty much any newer freezer on top of a fridge. You should be able to get a real freezer in a chest freezer style.

Not true, we own a fairly inexpensive fridge with a top frost free freezer. It get cold enough that i have measured -5. Pizza and ice cream are totally frozen.
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
Not true, we own a fairly inexpensive fridge with a top frost free freezer. It get cold enough that i have measured -5. Pizza and ice cream are totally frozen.
Eh, I just don't think you remember how hard an old fashioned freezer made ice cream. :biggrin: Cause that's factually how a "frost free freezer" works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-defrost It goes above freezing 1-6 times a day depending on the brand. But I don't wanna shit up this guys question thread with hvac stuff.:tiphat:
 

robotwithdreams

Active member
Veteran
Eh, I just don't think you remember how hard an old fashioned freezer made ice cream. :biggrin: Cause that's factually how a "frost free freezer" works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-defrost It goes above freezing 1-6 times a day depending on the brand. But I don't wanna shit up this guys question thread with hvac stuff.:tiphat:

I replied in haste, i tend to agree with you on how frost free freezer works. But stuff tends to stay frozen. My freezer does not seem to get warm enough for long enough to thaw out any frozen foods. And there is a pretty long thread on this site in harvesting n drying forum about finishing your dry and cure in a frost free freezer. It works!! I tried it recently with a small amount as experiment, and was pleasantly surprised.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
You should be able to get a real freezer in a chest freezer style.

I was looking for a Storing Bud in the Freezer thread :woohoo:

I was going to get the $159 Walmart 5 cubic foot freezer.

I'm wondering if there's any kind of curing that occurs if you keep the buds below 32 F freezing temp.

I just bagged the first 2 of 4 plants.

How much room temperature bag cure is a good amount ? - before putting the bags in the freezer.

The plants were hang-dried for 7 days.

I was thinking, 2 to 4 weeks of cure time after drying, then into the freezer.

Mainly I'm trying to slow down the rate of loss potency. After a year at room temp, I find buds are not as potent. I thought freezing might slow that down a bit.

If you store a bud at freezing temps for a year, or 2 years, how much is it like a fresh bud when you take it out ?
 

Mengsk

Active member
It isn't perfect. I have not tried it with the modern freeze dried stuff but it still dries out or ages in the fridge. Not sure about freezer burn. If any left over then dried and vacuum bagged before refrigerating or freezing sounds good. Cured in jars hand trimmed still the best product.

Also it is true any freezer that does not accumulate ice over time, like most today, won't be as cold because it goes through several thaw cycles during the day. Ok for food and convenient but not what you want for long term storage. AgentPothead is right old school freezers are better (simple, no freeze/thaw).
 
Last edited:

St. Phatty

Active member
If the goal is to minimize THC and cannabinoid degradation, would a freezer set up to run at 20 degrees below F be better ?

Or would some other temperature be best ?

I have friends with the trimmed buds in the quality canning jars and it seems great for short term med. bud storage.

I'm trying to keep the 2018 harvest so it's as fresh as possible - as non-perished (since it's a perishable) as possible.
 

mean mr.mustard

I Pass Satellites
Veteran
It made negligible difference... maybe a bit harsher/quicker to cure but slight.

And hell yeah dry pot burns a lot better, so that's an added benefit :D

I wouldn't stick any herb in the freezer unless it's cured where you want it.
 

Bobby Boucher

Active member
My freezer sits at -10 and seems to keep the thc-a from degrading almost entirely, at least in between harvests every 9 weeks. If I don't blast my scraps and flarfs right away the resulting dab will get darker and darker by the day unless I vac seal the starting material and store it in the freezer.

I can blast on day 7-10 after everything is dry and get bright yellow shatter, then store any material I didn't get through in the bottom of my freezer, and blast it up to 8 weeks later and get out the exact same flavor, color and consistency as the fresh blast.

Anything left out turns puts out brown sap after not very long 'tal.

Wouldn't know about storing for longer than that.
 

Klompen

Active member
The material should be absolutely as dry as possible before freezing. Then, when you thaw it, it should be thawed in as dry of conditions as possible(food dehydrator, or a good dehumidifier in a small space). That bad smell is anaerobic bacteria.
 

THC123

Active member
Veteran
@klompen: I totally disagree, using the freezer they can go in really sticky with stems barely snapping or just snapping. The when you take em out leave them in a closed pack for a few hours and then in the jar. This way I always have to loud fresh terpenes and sweet full taste. Using dehumidifier will fuck the flavor up. If you thaw cannabis in open dry conditions it will dry out.
 
Top