High Maintenance: Caring for Your Cannabis Flower

It is not difficult to keep your cannabis flower as smokable and potent as the day it’s purchased. Here are some easy tips.

Flower Power: Get the Balance Right

When cannabis is properly cured, the moisture trapped inside a bud slowly evaporates without damaging the cannabinoids and terpenes. Once the flower has the perfect moisture content (usually from six  to nine percent), it is placed in packaging with excess oxygen removed. When you take it home, you will want to try to maintain that balance.

The ideal temperature to store your weed is a comfortable 21 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit)  That’s because high temperatures and high relative humidity can lead to mould and mildew, the opposite of safe and healthy cannabis. 

Consider storing your weed away from light in a stash bag or box. Prolonged exposure to light and air will gradually reduce the intoxicating properties that THC delivers. Oxygen can also oxidize essential terpenes and give your weed a barnyard smell.

It's the Humidity

Relative humidity, or RH, represents the amount of moisture in the air relative to the amount of moisture the air is physically capable of holding at that temperature. It can affect everything from the smoothness of a toke to the effectiveness of medical cannabis.

Low humidity levels will, over time,  break down the cannabis trichomes which house the terpenes and cannabinoids. An overly moist environment, as noted above, can cause mould and bacteria, especially when RH is too high (generally considered to be over 65 percent).

Often, cannabis producers include a humidity pack, as shown above, in the packaging. These work to maintain the proper relative humidity, pegged at 62 percent. Hang on to these packs for re-use; they keep going for a few months.