combusche
05-24-2010, 03:51 PM
this was originally shared on another forum, but it was, in my opinion, a little too "Orwellian" for a marijuana-related forum there so i moved here to share my information instead.
anyway, this is the result of an experiment to raise the quality of ABV buds by watercuring - it was successful.
the ABV buds were ground up from the start, placed in a coffee filter, sealed and immersed in distilled water for 5 days. water was changed on average once a day, occasionally twice a day.
the first few water changes stank - they smelled exactly like the ABV buds (burnt popcorn-ish) and each day it smells less. the last change of water smelled only very faintly of some kind of grass, but all burnt popcorn smell is gone.
after they are taken out, they are dried out - you can put them in a food dehydrator or what I did was modify my computer's power supply, hooked it up to computer fans and makeshift my own dehydrator with a mason jar and an exhaust fan placed on top. this works simply by pointing the fan outwards, creating an exhaust for the jar with the wet ABV inside. this exhaust will keep sucking out the evaporated water and thus dry it out. it took mine approximately 12 hours to completely dry, but you can cut down on drying time if you dry it off a little bit in the oven or microwave.
once dry, i examined them under a microscope under 100x magnification. i compared my ABV buds with my watercured ABV buds and there was certainly a difference. the watercured buds had very minimal material under the microscope, and what can be seen is mostly straight-headed trichomes. "straight-headed trichomes" because usually THC looks like mushrooms with the heads and the stems, but the watercured ABV had trichomes without heads, and the entire trichome looked more like transparent/white 'hairs', rather than mushrooms. they were just straight, and much shorter than the original trichomes.
but this is likely a result of vaping, not watercuring - the non watercured trichomes were also somewhat similar, except the hairs seem fatter and under the microscope there were certainly a lot more 'noise' from other plant material.
i smoked a bowl of the dried material, and it was certainly a lot stronger than un-watercured, although it is certainly still nowhere near the strength of fresh herb.
strictly mathematically speaking, the watercured herb should be about 45% stronger. this is derived from the fact that 17g of dry ABV yielded about 11g dry watercured material. i'm assuming all weight loss due to THC loss is negligible since THC is not water soluble, but because i was dealing with ground material, it was inevitable that i lost maybe 1-2g of ground up material somewhere during transferring containers. with that in mind, i'd say that watercuring increases the potency of ABV by at least 30%.
keep in mind though, the chemical profile of these are very different than fresh herb, so the high was very different - certainly more of a couchlock than a headhigh. but yeah, it was without a doubt more potent than before watercuring.
lastly, the odor and taste: i did not watercure it as thoroughly as i could have. the last change of water still smelled a little, and i could have gone one more day of soaking to get rid of everything but i was a little too impatient so it smelled very very faintly. once it was dried out, the smell became so faint that it was in fact quite pleasant personally, but for those so inclined, i am certain the odor can be completely eliminated.
then, i put 0.5g unto a slice of cheese pizza, re-heated the pizza so the cheese started bubbling and then i ate the pizza. i got a good couchlock effect about an hour after eating, which lasted one hour before i went to bed so i don't know if it lasts longer but i expect it should. i also vaped 2 bowls but the effects from the pizza was distinguishable since i usually vape more bowls but i stopped at 2 in order to tell if the pizza had any effect. oh and the pizza tasted ONLY like pizza, nothing else.
in conclusion: water curing ABV buds was successful and i strongly recommend it.
anyway, this is the result of an experiment to raise the quality of ABV buds by watercuring - it was successful.
the ABV buds were ground up from the start, placed in a coffee filter, sealed and immersed in distilled water for 5 days. water was changed on average once a day, occasionally twice a day.
the first few water changes stank - they smelled exactly like the ABV buds (burnt popcorn-ish) and each day it smells less. the last change of water smelled only very faintly of some kind of grass, but all burnt popcorn smell is gone.
after they are taken out, they are dried out - you can put them in a food dehydrator or what I did was modify my computer's power supply, hooked it up to computer fans and makeshift my own dehydrator with a mason jar and an exhaust fan placed on top. this works simply by pointing the fan outwards, creating an exhaust for the jar with the wet ABV inside. this exhaust will keep sucking out the evaporated water and thus dry it out. it took mine approximately 12 hours to completely dry, but you can cut down on drying time if you dry it off a little bit in the oven or microwave.
once dry, i examined them under a microscope under 100x magnification. i compared my ABV buds with my watercured ABV buds and there was certainly a difference. the watercured buds had very minimal material under the microscope, and what can be seen is mostly straight-headed trichomes. "straight-headed trichomes" because usually THC looks like mushrooms with the heads and the stems, but the watercured ABV had trichomes without heads, and the entire trichome looked more like transparent/white 'hairs', rather than mushrooms. they were just straight, and much shorter than the original trichomes.
but this is likely a result of vaping, not watercuring - the non watercured trichomes were also somewhat similar, except the hairs seem fatter and under the microscope there were certainly a lot more 'noise' from other plant material.
i smoked a bowl of the dried material, and it was certainly a lot stronger than un-watercured, although it is certainly still nowhere near the strength of fresh herb.
strictly mathematically speaking, the watercured herb should be about 45% stronger. this is derived from the fact that 17g of dry ABV yielded about 11g dry watercured material. i'm assuming all weight loss due to THC loss is negligible since THC is not water soluble, but because i was dealing with ground material, it was inevitable that i lost maybe 1-2g of ground up material somewhere during transferring containers. with that in mind, i'd say that watercuring increases the potency of ABV by at least 30%.
keep in mind though, the chemical profile of these are very different than fresh herb, so the high was very different - certainly more of a couchlock than a headhigh. but yeah, it was without a doubt more potent than before watercuring.
lastly, the odor and taste: i did not watercure it as thoroughly as i could have. the last change of water still smelled a little, and i could have gone one more day of soaking to get rid of everything but i was a little too impatient so it smelled very very faintly. once it was dried out, the smell became so faint that it was in fact quite pleasant personally, but for those so inclined, i am certain the odor can be completely eliminated.
then, i put 0.5g unto a slice of cheese pizza, re-heated the pizza so the cheese started bubbling and then i ate the pizza. i got a good couchlock effect about an hour after eating, which lasted one hour before i went to bed so i don't know if it lasts longer but i expect it should. i also vaped 2 bowls but the effects from the pizza was distinguishable since i usually vape more bowls but i stopped at 2 in order to tell if the pizza had any effect. oh and the pizza tasted ONLY like pizza, nothing else.
in conclusion: water curing ABV buds was successful and i strongly recommend it.