A new approach to water curing

[IncredibowlBoss]

Sure, it's called water curing.

I guess what I meant to ask is if there's any way to modify the water curing process to more efficiently pull out essential oils.

 

[jd4083]

This actually has some really intriguing possibilities as a step in other extraction processes. For example, water cure, then prepare BHO from water cured bud... Has anyone had good results with the standard water cure process...

Thoughts on "root-leaching" as water cure - I'm *certainly* not an expert, but I'd imagine that since transpiration (evaporation from leaves) results in reverse osmotic pressure that pulls water into the roots, you'd somehow have to drench the leaves and put the roots in a drier solution (I don't even know what that could be - definitely not a botanist)

if I were to do a solvent extraction after water-curing it would probably be acetone, after recently converting to that from QWISO for large batches of trim and nugs....seems a waste to make BHO and get lower yield without the positives of a butane extraction in the first place. just my .02

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

Do you find a difference in result between acetone and ethanol?

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

My original post was in support of the ideas and concepts of the OP, but personally all the water cured bud I've tasted so far was crap, or at least it was to me. I'm a firm believer that the water soluables are not only critical to great taste and smell, but to cetain aspects of the high as well. The only reason I would ever have paid any attention to the concept is that I have a great admiration for FreezerBoy's opinions and style of expressing them no matter how different they might be from my own. I know I'm a good teacher, but I'm proud to say that I'm still a better student.

 

[jd4083]

Do you find a difference in result between acetone and ethanol?

Yes, although I have more experience with Isopropyl than I do grain alcohol, I still find that the overall quality flow chart with a proper quick wash (i.e. no soaking or vigorous shaking, essentially pouring solvent over material through filter into dish) goes like this: Acetone > Ethanol (white lightnin', in my experiments ) > Isopropyl in terms of quality. Acetone most definitely gives the best return in terms of overall quality to yield. Big to Lazyman and the other cat who posted the acetone thread the other day for convincing me to get off my lazy ass and try something new.

edit- although jump117 might beg to differ...his method for quick washing fresh flowers instead of quick drying and dealing with harsh smoke when you pull a tester branch is pretty friggin handy

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

Awesome - do you have any different/special concerns with purging/evaporating using Acetone? Should it be purged like BHO?

Yes, although I have more experience with Isopropyl than I do grain alcohol, I still find that the overall quality flow chart with a proper quick wash (i.e. no soaking or vigorous shaking, essentially pouring solvent over material through filter into dish) goes like this: Acetone > Ethanol (white lightnin', in my experiments ) > Isopropyl in terms of quality. Acetone most definitely gives the best return in terms of overall quality to yield. Big to Lazyman and the other cat who posted the acetone thread the other day for convincing me to get off my lazy ass and try something new.

edit- although jump117 might beg to differ...his method for quick washing fresh flowers instead of quick drying and dealing with harsh smoke when you pull a tester branch is pretty friggin handy

 

[jd4083]

I use a big electric skillet with an inch of water for all of my solvent extractions. I purge the acetone oil just like any quick wash, basically the layman's way, that is, until I can no longer smell or see the solvent in the dish. However, I would imagine that for larger batches (have yet to use more than a quart at a time, which takes ~1hr to evaporate @ ~200deg F) there may be an extra step to make sure all of the solvent gets out of the product. Lazyman would be the guy to ask for sure, I'm sure Gray Wolf can also chime in with some good info. I will wait to weigh in too much until I've played around with the acetone more than the ~10 times or so I've tried it, don't want to give out any bad info. peace

 

[FreezerBoy]

My original post was in support of the ideas and concepts of the OP, but personally all the water cured bud I've tasted so far was crap, or at least it was to me. I'm a firm believer that the water soluables are not only critical to great taste and smell, but to cetain aspects of the high as well. The only reason I would ever have paid any attention to the concept is that I have a great admiration for FreezerBoy's opinions and style of expressing them no matter how different they might be from my own. I know I'm a good teacher, but I'm proud to say that I'm still a better student.

If it tasted like "crap" then thank your lucky stars it was water cured. All wc does is lessen taste.

If you guys want to air cure, go for it but, let's be honest, the only rational reason for an air cure is for profiteers to bilk their clients with useless things like smell, taste and appearance. WC improves the tool, AC degrades the tool. Smoother, cooler, safer smoke in 8 days versus harsher, hotter, more dangerous smoke in 90 days.

 

[paladin420]

Greetings guys. I am going to assume that the people coming into this thread know what water curing is. If not go read (just did a quick search pretty sure this will cover the basics though:https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=437&highlight=water+cure)

The basic idea is that by water curing you are getting everything that is water soluble out of the buds while all the cannabinoids stay. This means that the terpenes/chlorophyll/starches etc etc will all be gone and result in a bud that looks crappy (brown) but is silky smooth and more potent by volume. The bud doesn't smell at all since the terpenes are gone and doesn't smell when you smoke it either. On a side note, does anybody know which chemicals dogs are trained to smell? I always thought it was the terpenes but was just wondering if anyone had a solid answer on this.

So my questions are:
Could one pull up a plant, de-soil the root-zone gently and then dunk them into R/O water. My thoughts are that the mobile water-soluble chemicals would diffuse through the roots into the water and since it's harvest time already you wouldn't need to worry about the health of the plant too much - just within reason. You could also try immersing big fan leaves (whole plant in tact) in water too. Are terpenes mobile? What are you guys' thoughts on this?

The MJ dogs Ive known have been trained on the complete stages of real bud.Never tested them on water cured tho.

 

[bigwity]

I can't wait for a 100% functional ecig vape - we used CO2 honey oil - it's gonna need to be suspended in something (not sure if alcohol is the right thing because of the temps involved) - probably emulsified.

On water curing: I assume the longer the cure, the less green the bud. I'm under the impression that most of the aromatics and flavors are in the essential oils - I would imagine the water wouldn't be able to separate these lipids efficiently.

Which begs the question: Is there any way to remove the aromatics and flavor from bud without removing the cannabinoid-bearing resins? (I know a lot of people won't want to do this, but for the purposes of preparing medicines for people who don't smoke weed, this is HUGE)

the mr nice seed company started because they were selling the flavours and smell from bud without the thc to the yanks

 

[qbert]

by water curing you are getting everything that is water soluble out of the buds while all the cannabinoids stay. This means that the terpenes/chlorophyll/starches etc etc will all be gone and result in a bud that looks crappy (brown) but is silky smooth and more potent by volume. The bud doesn't smell at all since the terpenes are gone and doesn't smell when you smoke it either.

Have you ever actually water cured any bud, or just read the one thread on it (found repeated verbatim around the net)?

It's a rhetorical question, I already know you have not, or you would know what's said on the internet about water curing isn't exactly accurate.

 

[REZDOG]

Gee,I can make shitty,flavorless weed out of my world class herb
just by soaking it in water??
!Wow!
!!Neat-O!!
(I always microwaved it to ruin it before,but this seems even easier!)
I always wondered how the Mexicans ruin their bulk weed-Now I know.
This thread should be called "How to Ruin Pot,Toss It In Water".
""Curing" pot in water is called "making bubble hash",anything else is a fucking travesty.



~RD~

 

[Hammerhead]

^^I agree without the flavor and smells I DONT WANT IT. For me those are just as important as the high. I want it to taste good and smell good imo those are not useless attributes of cannabis.

 

[jd4083]

Gee,I can make shitty,flavorless weed out of my world class herb
just by soaking it in water??
!Wow!
!!Neat-O!!
(I always microwaved it to ruin it before,but this seems even easier!)
I always wondered how the Mexicans ruin their bulk weed-Now I know.
This thread should be called "How to Ruin Pot,Toss It In Water".
""Curing" pot in water is called "making bubble hash",anything else is a fucking travesty.



~RD~

I'm not a huge fan of water curing personally either, but you really oughta consider selling used cars

 

[hippydan]

LOL REZ you're something else! If/when I ever get to harvest I'll definitely give the water curing a try, but only on a small scale to see how it turns out. Can't knock it till I've tried it.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Cooler, smoother, safer smoke in 8 days versus hotter, harsher, more dangerous weed in 90 days. WC for the win!

 

[JWP]

Cooler, smoother, safer smoke in 8 days versus hotter, harsher, more dangerous weed in 90 days. WC for the win!

I agree. From harvest to a good smoke in a few days...

A bowl of water cured bud will allways get you more baked than regular bud...

How can anyone say anything bad about a water cure?

And for those who like forced induction (bucket/gravity bongs) water cure is awesome

 

[TruthOrLie]

Exactly, !!!...I watched 10 grams of nugs, in 12 oz of H20 and in one day the PPM rose from 130 to 1900! The water was just plain brown and nasty. The nugs tighten up tremendously when dried and the potency is through the roof!!!

After my experience with water cure, the people I shared it with remarked the exact same things.

Plus the nugs looked almost black in my case.

I guess if you're not smoking to get high, and instead just want to smell and taste stuff you could skip eating and buy another bag of kush or some kush beans.

 

[Midnight]

Water curing has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of. Carry on.

 

[REZDOG]

Water curing has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of. Carry on.

^^^^ THIS ^^^^