From what I have read over the years, I think that even at room temperature there is some decarboxylation of the THCA in the buds. I remember reading that some cannabis growers like to "cure" their cannabis by ageing in a humidor. I think UV treatment could also contribute - hashish was aged in the sun and could be consumed orally without further processing.
Yes in my opinion decarbing this way is much more ideal than trying to do a quick decarb with heat on fresh or shittily cured buds.
So how I was taught (and know I’ve experimented around in this, this is the way to do it) is to dry the buds until they snap when pulled back from the plant. Dry the plant as whole as possible to allow the cannabis to die slowly. Usually I leave the root ball on, and just trim the small hard to get leaves leaving the easy to snip sugar leaves for post drying.
Once dry (about a week) take the buds and put them in mason jars, leaving an inch or two at the top and not packing them in but lightly placed in. Now cap them. The first week open every day for 5-10mins.
The next 3 weeks open every 3-7 days a week depending. It’s something you eventually learn by feel.
This curing process makes a much better smoking product, gets you much higher. Essentially the longer you can extend the drying and curing process the better.
I’ve found a lot of bud I buy can be further cured at times to yield a better product. One thing is to leave in a jar in a warm environment for 1-2 weeks of poorly cured bought bud, this seems to increase potency smoked or eaten.
-GC
I've heard about this from an old timer who grows his own, and he has had some of the craziest weed I've ever tried. I remember fuzzy recall of the plant being so potent that if you weren't sure of the individual who had grown and cured it, you'd swear there was other drugs in the joint.
Both interesting and reinforcing concepts.
I just put my 1st batch in the mason jar, it worked out to 5 grams of dried powdered bud, 200 ml of coconut oil in a mason jar and submerged in water in the crock pot on high. The plan is to heave it for 12 hrs with some shaking intermittently. Also the doses worked out nicely, 5 x 0.2 (theoretical approximation of THC content, in reality it's probably closer to 17% ) divided by 200 ml yields around 5 mg per ml. so something like 20 - 25 mg per teaspoon (5mL).
I'm a little excited to see how it works out. If it goes well, this production method is very easy to scale up and pretty much a "set it and forget it" sort of deal.
Also, I looked into all kinds of hot plate stirrer combos and the ones that go up to 280 C are way more expensive than I'm ready to pay, I'll definitely look into finding some refurbished equipment, thank you for the suggestion Sekio. Also found distillation combo kits and vacuum dehydrator combos on amazon for a reasonable price. If I could figure out how to rig up a fume hood and pass the exhaust through a charcoal filter to deal with the offensive odors of offgassing reactants, I might be able to pursue some more adventurous chemistry "home labs". It's a long way off, and not so easy when you live in a densely populated metropolitan area, but the desire is there, and the investigation into means to accomplish these ends are ongoing. Some day, some how it'll come to fruition.
