There are a number of ways that you can preserve your marijuana, so hopefully this post will serve to both reinforce the principles of storage and add a few new pieces of information to compliment your knowledge on marijuana preservation. Some of the best ways you can preserve marijuana are:
- Keep your storage container airtight: O2 slowly degrades THC over time
- Allow for humidity control: keep your bud from drying and allow for moisture to stabilize at 55% to 65% RH. This ensures the trichomes remain sticky and flavorful
- Keep it in a dark cool place: UV light will degrade THC over time
- Keep strains separated: volatile aromatic compounds may interact with each other if they’re too close or rub up against each other
- Keep away from children: common sense.
There are a number of methods we’ve heard from growers that may also work for you:
As new studies are published, we will continue to learn more about how to preserve marijuana to ensure potency and freshness. It’s always important to remember that marijuana is a drug composed of organic matter, so reactions to atmospheric changes will undoubtedly alter its chemical properties.
- If you’re keeping marijuana in a huge garbage bag, some have used O2 absorbing packets to keep O2 levels down. These are primarily used in dry-food products and contain iron powder that reacts to oxygen. There are, however, dangerous side-effects with respect to using these packets on foods containing more than 10% moisture, and considering that a dried marijuana bud is usually comprised of 10%-15% moisture, it may be risky. Denver’s Department of Environmental Health sites botulism as a potential threat to be aware of for extractions, concentrations and infused foods: link here, and botulism is also sited as a health concern for using O2 absorbing packets in food products with more than 10% moisture.
- Using giant Rubbermaid storage containers lined with garbage bags. As long as the environment around these Rubbermaid bins is controlled (RH, O2 levels, N2 levels), this will be okay for the long-term, however, if you’re just keeping these lying around in the basement, beware. Moisture levels may get too high with that amount of bud, so mold is always a concern.
- Injecting nitrogen in airtight bags. Our atmosphere is composed of roughly 80% nitrogen. Nitrogen disperses oxygen, so naturally, injecting this into a bag will keep O2 levels down. This is a common practice for food items like cereal and potato chips.
