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Contributed by: Ot1
Dessicants
are substances that have an affinity for water and will
rapidly absorb any moisture from the atmosphere around
it.
I have had several queries about drying
skuff properly before making it into hash for long term
storage. Using a dessicant is a simple way to do this.
If you are just going press and then smoke your
hash drying is not really necessary the thc will
decarboxylate as you heat it to crumble also as it burns
when smoking it.
1) The best way to make sure
that fresh skuff is not holding on to too much H2O, is
to dry it in an air tight tin or glass container. It
takes a week to 10 days for tumbled skuff and a little
longer from a bubble bag. Once the skuff is dry it can
be kept in a sealed air tight container for several
years at freezing point with virtually no loss of
potency. During that storage time a lot of the volatile
terpenoids change and mature giving the final hash once
it is pressed a totally different type of flavour and
high.
2) Pollen kept in a very low humidity
environment at near freezing or deep frozen will keep
for months if not longer.
3) Cannabis seeds kept
in the same conditions will store for over 10 years and
still have nearly 100% germination.
The best
dessicant for all three uses is silica gel with a
coloured indicator. This can be used many times and will
give many years of use. The most common indicator colour
is blue when it is dry turning to pink when saturated.
To recharge it you put it in a low oven on a baking tray
at 110c for about 15 minutes until all the moisture has
evaporated, once recharged it turns back to cobalt blue.
For
skuff what is needed is an air tight container that has
another small porous container in it containing a
rechargeable dessicant. This is all that is needed for
drying skuff at normal room temperature. A couple of
ounces of silica gel will completely dry 6 oz of skuff.
For seeds use the same thing but in addition
small porous containers are needed to store the seeds.
It is important not to keep the seeds in the
polythene/plastic bags used by the seed companies as
they are impervious to water. The airtight container
should be kept between 0 and 5 Centigrade, the salad
crisper tray is fine.
Seeds are living
organisms, storing them this way will slow down their
aging process, aid their vigour and ability to germinate
over a much longer period of time than normal. You can
keep up to twenty thousand seeds in a jar 41/4 x 43/4
inches high.
For pollen to be stored neat, large plastic
drinking straws cut into lengths one end sealed by
melting the other end plugged with cotton wool are
pretty good. I prefer to add extenders only when the
pollen is going to be used, and never before putting
pollen into storage.
All the best Ot1.
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