I have been thinking a lot lately about long term storage of flowers, and would appreciate any novel thoughts or ideas. It seems like a Californian of any age can now conceivably grow a legal lifetime stash in a season or two … considering it is legal to keep all you grow, and a super grower of super plants should be able sometime soon to reach the goal of 100 pounds of bud from a six plant grow.
There are several good threads on ICmag on long term storage. My main concerns in long term storage are preserving the terps, cannabinoids, of course, and the greenness: I hate smoking flowers that have turned brown because they are too old.
Survival foods often have an advertised shelf life of 25 years. At my age, that’s a good number to consider.
I have found that vacuum heat sealing flowers, after blowing all the air out of the bag with nitrogen, works pretty well for at least a year of two, and keeps the flowers green. Freezing seems to also help, but some of the desirability goes away on thawing. Not bad, but noticeable.
The vac sealer crushes the flowers down into the consistency of a brick of a pressed Mexican from the days of old. (I read about Mexican weed these days, but haven’t seen or smoked any for many decades). A tiny one-hit chunk of really good sticky vacuum pressed flowers smokes very smoothly in a bong or pipe, but the crushing kind of ruins things for rolling joints, compared to fresh or intact flowers. A grinder affords a good joint from vacuum-pressed, thawed bud, but the fun of tearing the bud apart, savoring the aroma, and rolling the joint is lessened.
I have a vacuum sealer that seems to take the vacuum much deeper than other vac sealers I have used. The thing really sucks!
I liked what I read recently about keeping intact buds in an mason jar with the air replaced by nitrogen, and holes drilled in the jar top, and then the jar is vac sealed in plastic, and then frozen for long term storage. I wonder if freezing is necessary with this technique. Howzabout preparing a jar like this, and then just burying it? Wondering if it would last as well as if frozen?
A few considerations:
1. Does anybody know which is better for this application, CO2 or nitrogen?
2. Is there an advantage to storing at 5 degrees instead of, say, 25 degrees?
3. Has anyone ever heard something from long ago about heat sealing fresh bud, then microwaving the sealed packets to prevent mold? I vaguely remember something like that.
4. Would a very brief burst of microwaves on a sealed packet prevent future mold?
5. Would an oxygen absorber like silica gel help prevent oxidation? Especially if used in conjunction with nitrogen?
And any other ideas and thoughts on long term storage would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave
A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility To Realization.