Vacuum-Sealed Weed

[minds_I]

Hello all,

OK, I will be specific.

My harvest is in. The big stems snap and the bud stem snaps nicely. The sugar leaves are crunchy but not brittle.

The buds are dried and in jars and are being burped regularly.

The smells are incredible and the buds are well on there way to perfection.



I have my Boveda 62% RH packs (8 gram packs) for each 1/2gallon mason jar containing 120 grams of buds each.

I have the foodsaver vacuum attachment and I have a hand vacuum (clean brake bleeder) that will draw 25-30" of mercury. More than enough I should think as water boils at room temp at around 25" of mercury.

My plan is to use the boveda packs to stabilize my buds at 62% humidity. Once stabilized, I was then going to remove the humidity packs and vacuum pack the jars (no crunching of buds occurred beyond initially being jarred) for long term storage at temps 60*F or below in lightless environment.

So my question is, is it wise to remove the boveda packs? I am thinking yes.

minds_I

 

[buddymate]

Does this affect the taste/smell of the bud at all??

Its going into the bag to stop the smell during moving and storing mate,a van of weed stinks,the last thing needed when moving from A-B.

 

[DrGreenthumb333]

Oh I'm sorry Buddy mate I misunderstood and just assumed that vacuuming was Ur long term storage method... and was just curious how exactly U fluffed the bud up after being vacuumed, and if during that process of bringing the natural shape back to the buds if it affected the product in anyway such as potency, taste, smells etc. again I'm just assuming U do fluff them up after opening the vacuum sealed bag

 

[Daub Marley]

Why vacuum seal? You can just fill the container with nitrogen, or some noble gas like argon. It's used all the time in food production so that is my plan.
My thinking is that any vacuum will accelerate terpene loss, although a sealed container can limit it.
The change in terpene profile of herb stored under vacuum should indicate a notable loss of monoterpenes which would somewhat change the characteristic of the smell. It might be best stored long term under pressure not under a vacuum. Just pressurized without any oxygen.

 

[Enchantre]

The way I vacuum seal is to put the cured buds in a mason jar, with an OxySorb packet. I put a regular lid & ring on it, and the oxidation of the packet removes the oxygen, thus forming a sealed, "vacuumed" jar.

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

One thing bad about vacuum sealing weed is that it will vaporize some of the terpenes off.
I used to 30 years ago vacuum seal quart jars until I noticed both by smell and in the big vacuum bell jar I could see the terpenes being vaporized off, a white fog would fill the bell jar as the air was sucked out. That fog was terpenes being vaporized at low room temperatures due to reduced atmospheric pressure. Today I would use a nitrogen or argon wash and just sealed jars or seal bags liked used for meat. I do not to reduce terpene content in any way.
And BTW not all Oxygen is removed by vacuum sealing glass jars, a nitrogen wash is better. I forget if 20% of the O is still left or only 20% is removed with a vacuum jar. Still lots of O to react with and degrade the THC.
-SamS

 

[dddaver]

Two quick questions.

Introducing argon or nitrogen during vacuum sealing sounds like a commercial type procedure. What equipment must a home grower get to do this?

And once the vacuum seal is broken should the buds then be aired out before use? And for how long?

I guess I could Google it. I'm just too lazy too try and sift through the 10,000 results, half of which would be just crazy bullshit anyway.

 

[EsterEssence]

Nitrogen packers are 5-6000...

 

[Cannabliss88]

What about the risk of the buds absorbing chemicals from the plastic. I guess I'm just a purist but my 100% organic outdoor gorilla grow harvest is staying in glass if I can help it.

The only thing is sometimes the caps aren't airtight on the mason jar I have. Maybe vaccum sealing the jar with the buds inside is a better idea

 

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

What about the risk of the buds absorbing chemicals from the plastic. I guess I'm just a purist but my 100% organic outdoor gorilla grow harvest is staying in glass if I can help it.

The only thing is sometimes the caps aren't airtight on the mason jar I have. Maybe vaccum sealing the jar with the buds inside is a better idea

the weed is not absorbing chems from the plastic. sam is right. applying negative pressure to a volatlie substance is a bad idea. however a plastic freezer bag shrinks to the weed displasing air instead of lowering the pressure in the bag. nitro flush bag in the freezer is gonna be long shelf life.i hope to never need to sit on herb long enough to consider these necessary. my favorite way to preserve weed is to convert it to cash and store in an ammo can.lol

 

[Cannabliss88]

the weed is not absorbing chems from the plastic. sam is right. applying negative pressure to a volatlie substance is a bad idea. however a plastic freezer bag shrinks to the weed displasing air instead of lowering the pressure in the bag. nitro flush bag in the freezer is gonna be long shelf life.i hope to never need to sit on herb long enough to consider these necessary. my favorite way to preserve weed is to convert it to cash and store in an ammo can.lol

But how can we know its not. The toxic chemicals in plastic tend to be fat soluble and I would worry about the cannabis oils absorbing some of those.

Of course this didn't stop me from buying it froma guy who always packaged it this way and the lack of smell was great but now that I no longer buy only grow I just don't know...But then again I am a purist who avoids plastic wherever possible

 

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

if you don't like plastic thats fine. don't use it but the thought that its poisoning your weed is a bit out there. i mean if its poisoning our weed to have it in contact than this whole world and everything on it and around it is so toxified that it should make any difference that your weed is too. everything is in plastic. even us. look at clothes furniture cars beds everything is a synthetic petroleum based ma terial. i think your putting weed in some holy category that it is more important to keep pure than our air food skin or water. i mean how many grams of weed do you consume compared to plastic piped water or food that sits in plastic through every phase of harvest, processing of farm dirt cleaning, bins, transport, store market cases etc its all plastic every step but somehow weed in a bag is just too much. i don't think i can follow where you're going with this but if you don't want to use plastic more power to ya. how do you water your garden or buy your nutes ammendments etc. is there some store that sells glass jars of bat guano near you. do only use copper pipes to fill glass jars to water?

 

[dddaver]

Because the oil companies have thrived on the main ingredient in making this non-biodegradable plastic world we live in. And since apparently that means that now since that shit has become so prevalent in human life, we should all just be happy and excepting of this slow poisoning degradation of life. Is that the argument?

 

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

i guess my argument is why is it specifically the bag that goes around your weed what you take issue with rather than say the pots its grown in or the lighter you light it with. i just see people on the boards wanting to take issue with any thing people do with herb in the name of making it pure. to the point of treating it like its the son of the gods and needs to be protected from even unpure thoughts.lol. i mean seriously people are talking about plastic bags and how to proper;y use them to seal weed up. then someone chimes in that the new paradigm shift needs to start with weed storage. if you feel plastic bags are that toxic (which i don't agree with btw) than we have a lot more to worry about than the an herb we consume less than a few grams of at most per day and start worrying about the other things that we consume way more of each day.in other words if storing weed in plastic bag for a month imparts enough toxin to even be considered a concern than the weed is the least of our problems.

 

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

im not saying i don't believe plastic is toxic I'm just saying its not measurably so on food its stored in. especially room temp dry herbs. even if they are greasy inside the waxy protective coat of the trichhome.

 

[Cannabliss88]

if you don't like plastic thats fine. don't use it but the thought that its poisoning your weed is a bit out there. i mean if its poisoning our weed to have it in contact than this whole world and everything on it and around it is so toxified that it should make any difference that your weed is too. everything is in plastic. even us. look at clothes furniture cars beds everything is a synthetic petroleum based ma terial. i think your putting weed in some holy category that it is more important to keep pure than our air food skin or water. i mean how many grams of weed do you consume compared to plastic piped water or food that sits in plastic through every phase of harvest, processing of farm dirt cleaning, bins, transport, store market cases etc its all plastic every step but somehow weed in a bag is just too much. i don't think i can follow where you're going with this but if you don't want to use plastic more power to ya. how do you water your garden or buy your nutes ammendments etc. is there some store that sells glass jars of bat guano near you. do only use copper pipes to fill glass jars to water?

I do get your point. No doubt plastic is almost unavoidable but for long term storage of anything I choose glass whenever possible.

As far as my gorilla grow organic plants go, more than 90% of their water came from rain alone. They were planted in the earth. Sure I watered occasionally with a plastic watering can and the nutes were packaged in a paper bag that may have had a plastic coating.

I'm not saying I'm able to totally avoid plastic but whenever possible I do especially for long term storage but no doubt I have plastic coursing through my veins as much as the next guy.

I'm not paranoid about it like some rich health nuts just conscious of avoiding it where possible. For example my soap of choice in Dr. Bronners which is 100% natural but nevertheless packaged in plastic.

 

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

i hear ya on that. fair enough. in glass, i am really picky about seals. i feel the typical two piece canning lids are unreliable if not under pressure. i like the one piece lids but again both of these items, though available in metal, are lined with plastic to make the seal. the italian canning jars available at some fancy kitchen stores have one piece metal canning lids. there are also those fancy heavy ass glass lid jars that utilize a rubber gasket. those look bomb proof for sealing and the big rubber gasket is likely just rubber or at the very least less plastic. there are really wide mouth corks and narrow glass jars for storing spaghetti. that would be a plastic free alternative that would be pretty decent. as ong as you could get a good seal with those big ass corks.

 

[stop the madnes]

That pump n seal is a great idea.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

Just seen some friends using tupperware boxes, perfect solution to keep the flowers perfect, and totally undamaged. Put buds in tupperware box, put box in vacuum sealer, hey presto, zero crushing, perfectly protected, zero smell issues, all very clean.

If the box then needs to move, it is, imo, far less sus (picious) like this, than just bud, vacced.

 

[buzzmobile]

Plano makes some waterproof tackle boxes. The one in the picture is the small size. The latches seal tightly and then with a Vacuum sealer it is doubly secured. I have sent cuts and rooted clones in them too.