Curing your medical marijuana is the final process of all the hard work and labor you put into your growing process. Curing is the slow drying phase that follows the full, open air drying phase of harvest. Curing allows the moisture of the bud to disperse evenly around the bud and allows the bud to slowly dry out at an even rate which allows for maximum psychoactive THC. Curing also gives the bud a much smoother smoke and it will burn very evenly.

So how do you know when it is time to start curing? The best, easiest way to test this is to try to snap a branch of your drying buds. If the branch breaks and snaps, the bud is dry enough to start curing. If the stem bends, there is still too much moisture present in the plant and it will need to be dried more before starting the curing process.

Curing can be accomplished using a variety of containers, however the most popular are the glass canning jars with metal lids that have a rubber seal on them. This is because these jars completely seal the bud in and many growers prefer to use glass over plastic because they say that the plastic can leave undesirable flavors in the bud. However, if you have a large harvest, most likely you will need to use some type of plastic container in order to efficiently cure your harvest.

The process of curing itself simply involves sealing your buds in the container as to allow the moisture to redistribute itself evenly among all the buds in the container, as well as within each bud itself. Some moisture will also be slowly leached into the air so you will want to open the lid to your container 3-6 times a day for 5-10 minutes. This will allow fresh air into the container and will allow the more humid stagnate air to escape. Continue this process for 2 days, or 2 weeks depending on how wet your bud is until it reaches a "dry" consistency that is preferred for smoking.

Special Note: It is not necessarily recommended to artificially speed along the curing process. This process gives the bud its final touch of flavor and adds an additional amount of psychoactivity to the remaining THC that can be hampered if the drying or curing process is rushed. It should be a goal to make the process take as long as it needs to, in order to ensure the maximum potential of your harvest. If you are in a time crunch, a faster curing method may be used, just be aware that the quality will be slightly lower than if you were to cure the bud at it's more natural rate.

For a guide that shows you how to cure marijuana faster, click this link. For any other homemade hydroponic system, click this link.