marijuana shelf-life

sorry if this has been covered before, i did a few searches and didn't find too much.
how long is marijuana's shelf-life?
how quickly does it lose its potency over time?
does method of storage make a difference?
cheers,
jimbu

I aint a particularly weedy person, so the only question I can answer is your third. Yes, the method you use will make a big difference to how long and how potently it keeps.
*awaits BTs arrival*
Check out Storing your harvest.

I remember an article in High Times, how many years ago, I don't know, but it was all about this guy who had stashed all theses old-styles of Pot. Anyway the author went and tested his way through many of the range (Which were stored in air proof glass jars)along with the owner of this vast collection.
Although not a scientific test...........
The overall feeling was that the pot had lost a lot of both it's taste and effect over the years.
I'm also lead to believe that Hash "oxidises" somewhat and loses it's strength.
I agree, well have to wait for BT !!!!!!!

Well, OK I've been checking into a problem with a medical marijuana delay in Canada. Some of you might know that this country has approved Drs to prescribe marijuana to certain patients. 700-odd patients in fact. However, only 70 or so of these patients have been licensed to grow the substance themselves. So the others are legally allowed to possess a prescribed medicine that is still illegal to buy. The gov't produced crop is now something like 250kg in size, but they're not releasing it yet, because they haven't worked out if they're going to grind it, sell it in baggies, make marijuana cigarettes... or even what to label the packaging with, in terms of active ingredients, dose and shelf-life. It also turns out that this 250kg crop that was recommended to be between 5-7% active delta-9-THC ended up being about 12% which fucked up all their calculations and risk assessments I think.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is they are storing it in 'cold storage' vaults (with Royal Canadian Mounted Police guards who could get to the scene before a thief could go from the entrance to the 360m underground vaults!!), and I presume it's harvested and dried prior to cold storage. I gather if you want to store your choof for any length of time, it would be best in the freezer. After all, it's plant matter and you don't want it to rot.
For a shorter period, storage in a cool dry place in bag will do just fine, but prepare for your choof to become very dry unless you seal the bag tight. There's nothing wrong with it if it dries out, but it just crumbles if you're trying to roll a spliff. Also if you chop it up with a blender, you'll have heaps of crystally stuff falling off it to collect after it's really really dry.
Hope that helps.
BigTrancer
[ 04 October 2002: Message edited by: BigTrancer ]

ok........
Now im not to sure about this, especially after just reading BT's post......
but ive always been told that if you store you weed in a paper bag ina cool dark plaec (as BT said)....it enhances the THC or something and makes it better to smoke..
now obviosly (like BT said) its plant matter so eventually its gonna rot..... but if you do this for say a couple of weeks....would it enhance the bud?
Can anyone shed some light on this?

I found this off this site which also incedently runs one of the funniest shoutcast streamed internet radio stations ever.

Curing is an extra step some fine growers like to add to the drying of their weed. We've heard two versions of curing and one involved soaking your weed in water - we'll stick to the non-water way
After the 3 to 4 full days of drying, put all your buds in a large brown paper bag. Place this bag in a dark, dry room thats not too hot, not too cold. For 3 weeks you leave the bag there opening in once a week to ventilate the buds. This will eliminate all sugars, chloriphyl and other toxines that remain in the weed and ruin the taste. Curing will result in smooth smoking, great tasting and potent homegrown marijuana.
Dunno if this works, but thought I'd chuck it in for good measure.
Above article from here.

Click to expand...

Whenever I come across some particulaly nice weed, I always like to cure it and save for a rainy day. Curing does work, it produces a much nicer smoke and does make the buds look more chrystally. One word to the wiser tho, whenever I cure an o of nice cronic, the end result is about two thirds of on o, which can be a little dissapointing thing to happen to the best o you've seen in a while.

I think everyone should experiment with this for homework and report back on the success of curing.
BigTracner

I wouldn't smoke any weed that is too old.. As said it IS plant matter.. any number of gunii's can start growing on it etc.. some which I sure could be dangerous.

One time not too long ago, I stumbled across a couple of gramies tucked away under my bed. I think they were at least 4 or 5 months old cause I couldn't even remember putting them there in the first.
Anyway, they were in a nice dark place and they were tightly sealed in baggies- 2 of them had these little white clumps of "stuff" growing on them... The clumps were only tiny, about the size of a clump of red hairs- It was prolly some sort of fungi but I had a mate who was convinced it ws a "thc build-up". They had only began to grown on two of the grams so I was assuming the bud was still a bit wet when I left them there. So my lesson was to ensure your bag is dry to begin with and make sure your bud is fully dried if you do decide to put it aside for a while.
I didn't really trust it so I gave it to sombody else to smoke. They said it was fine, but he didn't smoke the bits with the spots on them. But I think he just 'wnated them to be fine' cause I warned him not to be a cheap skate and smoke the 'fungi bud' but he did anyway but whatever- hje didn't get sick or anything so it can't have been that bad- Just be carful with your storing conditions.

hmm, i've been under the impression that weed can become more potent with storage over time.
A few times a older dad of a fellow smoker would bring us greens from baq when he smoked, they were kept in the ground for a yr or so and well we smoked it and were absolutly done.
Is there any validation in this, esp since the weed this guy normally got was of av qual.

ummmm. bump. I guess? Just don't want to leave misinformation around. Storing weed underground will not make it more potent. Also, that was definately mold on the bud. Smoking moldy bud is not particularly dangerous % wise, however, if something bad happens, it probably will be VERY BAD. IMO, it is not worth it. Unless the bud is particularly amazing. You are basically opening yourself up to opportunistic diseases a majority of the time. Meaning, if you have a strong immune system you should be okay. If you have a weakened immune system definately DO NOT smoke moldy bud. But, there are a small # of of species that if smoked could cause severe lung problems resulting in death. MY advice would be to use moldy bud to either cook with (and remove the pot), or better yet make THC - oil with everclear.

bingers

or... throw out the mouldy old buds and get some nice fresh choof.

BT

Dried cannabis with a moisture content of ~10% will keep around a year before potency starts to decline. This figure is considered optimum for preserving taste smell etc, while still reducing potential for mould growth.

From Marijuana Botany, by Robert Connell Clarke

Usually about 10% water content remains in dry, stored cannabis floral cluster prepared for smoking. If some water content is not maintained the resins will lose potency and the clusters will disintegrate to a useless powder exposed to decomposition by the atmosphere

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Despite this statement, an old grower I knew dried and handled his buds with incredible care. He dried all product to as dry as possible using silica, which was way less than 10%, and stored in vacuum sealed containers underground. When he dug up some personal, he re-hydrated it by leaving out overnight. I have had his 5 year old weed and it still seriously kicked ass.

Drying cut floral clusters to a moisture content of ~10% takes about 2 weeks of air drying in a non humid (preferably dark) environment. Although heads may feel dry before this, water still remains in the stalk. Curing a whole plant by hanging takes much longer as moisture must escape through the tiny stomata on the surface of the leaves and calyxes, and these close up shortly after harvest. A good test for dryness is to break a stalk. It should snap in on the first bend. Bringing dried buds "out to air" is regarded as important in the curing process, but ideally at other times they should be kept under nitrogen or some inert environment (not CO2).

As for molds; the blue coloured molds are regarded as being the most toxic. High Times did a big article on this subject in the early 80's. Avoid the blue mold!!!
In Morocco, sometimes mold is actually encouraged - well a certain type of mold anyway. A technique I heard about involved placing the hash/bud under a particular type of clay pot. The mold would begin to grow quickly and it was reputed to enhance the quality.

Smoking any mold should be avoided altogether IMHO. As mentioned in the preceding posts, the appropriate harm reduction messages for keeping your weed are probably to; dry to around 10% H2O content, store carefully in a dark cool place and use within 12 months. If it smells even slightly of ammonia, throw it out. Fresh IS Best after all

If you freeze as BT suggests, handle gently during thawing as the detached resin globules could end up sticking to the bag.