Is curing 100% necessary?

[Moonwielder]

I am on my first grow and I've been put-off by many stories about individuals getting mold on their buds. I would rather dry them on living room table for a few days and get actual bud than to risk losing the entire crop by trying to cure them.

I know that when I buy some good shit, I put it in a ziplock bag. Will that work for harvesting (not curing)?

Thanks for reading.

- Moonwielder

[ABCCaregivers]

Clip, trim and hang in the dark room or closet.. make sure there is air flowing in the room, mold will grow only if the room is humid... the air will keep it drying evenly... it should take 6 days to dry, I use to hang mine for 3 days in the closet and them put them under my waterbed in the drawers... it worked excellent.

[DankCloset]

amen, make sure u keep current on that burping.

[Drane]

yeah this guy gave me a couple branches to pick buds off of and i dried out it wrong and i have maybe a half oz of hay weed it sucked i still have it never smoked it

[RangerDanger]

Of course it's not a must.
But advisable.
No matter what kind of weed it is, curing improves it, so even if the buds are from bag seed, cure it.

Opening the curing containers is a must. It's much more tha just "burping" them. You need to leave the top off for a minute or 2 per day.
And you need to do it everyday, to exhaust the moisture and gasses that build up. Also, when opening it up, smell the weed.
Most people know what mold smells like. When weed starts to mold it gives off a "pissy diaper" odor. If you smell this while curing, take the buds out immediently and dry them on a table top. It means the buds were too wet when you put them in the container.

[ntezbngggreen]

Curing is not requisite, but if at all possible it should be done. Particularly if you are growing a strain such as blueberry, bubblegum or any other variety that possesses a profound taste and aroma.
Proper curing allows the product time to convert carbohydrates and other intrinsic compounds. Blueberry may smell and taste like real blueberries at harvest, but curing will usually bring out these qualities even more given time.

[Akornpatch]

I've seen so many people talk of curing without a mention of drying first...then curing. I think there's some confusion out there. Dryin it in a 30-50% humidity closet or room, with good air circulation first, until the stem snaps cleanly is recommended prior to curing.

Curing
Curing is a process employed to naturally enhance the bouquet, flavour, and texture of marijuana. Curing does not lower potency when done correctly, although poor curing methods often result in some less of THC.
Curing is not an essential procedure, and many growers prefer the "natural" flavour of uncured grass. Sweet sinsemilla buds usually are not cured.
Curing is most successful on plants which have "ripened" and are beginning to lose chlorophyll. It is less successful on growing tips and other vigorous parts which are immature. These parts may only lose some chlorophyll.
Curing proceeds while the leaf is still alive, for until it dries, many of the leaf's life processes continue. Since the leaf's ability to produce sugars is thwarted, it breaks down stored starch to simple sugars, which are used for food. This gives the grass a sweet or earthy aroma and taste. At the same time, many of the complex proteins and pigments, such as chlorophyll, are broken down in enzymatic processes. This changes the colour of the leaf from green to various shades of yellow, brown, tan, or red, depending primarily on the variety, but also on growing environment and cure technique. The destruction of chlorophyll eliminates the minty taste that is commonly associated with green homegrown.
There are several methods of curing, most of which were originally designed to cure large quantities of tobacco. Some of them can be modified by the home grower to use for small marijuana harvests as well as large harvests. The methods used to cure marijuana are the air, flue, sweat, sun, and water cures.

[RangerDanger]

How I discovered Curing:
In c. 1970 I harvested a male plant. After drying the leaf I tried some--it was harsh as hell and it barely got me high. I stuck it in a humidor. I was gonna keep it around as my ultra-emergency stash, when there was absolutely nothing else around.
I had a good connection for decent weed at a good price and in another month I harvested some girls, so that weed sat in the humidor for about 3 months, untouched.
Then some people were visiting from OK. When they got ready to leave they asked if I could turn them onto any weed for the long drive home.
I remembered the crap weed in the humidor. I gave them a big old handful.
A few days later they called me from home and thanked me profusely for the good weed I had given them.
I rushed to the humidor and twisted one up.
And got pleasantly high.
It wasn't cronic or anything, but it was a hell of a lot more potent than when it went in. And it wasn't harsh anymore.
A few months later I was talking to another grower and mentioned this. She had been taught how to grow pot by her beatnik father, and he'd taught her to keep the weed in a sealed container after drying, and that it got much better over a few months time.

I remembered visiting a relative in Virginia when I was like 16. Tobacco was gown on his property, and one day we smoked a cig that he had rolled from some leaves he had purloined. So harsh it would rip your throat out.
I went out and bought a book on tobacco manufacturing. I read how it was slow-dried: ususally the individual leaves are strung on wires and hung in barns with controlled temp's and humidity. There is a heat source in the barns and flue's that could be opened/closed.
Then I read about how tobacco was cured. After drying, the leaves are packed into big barrels (hogsheads) and sealed.
And stay there for 2--3 years.
That was the key--the packing in barrels, aka curing.
It took me several years to get it down pat. But everyone always raved about how good my pot was, compared to other home growers.

P.S. Latakia is a type of tobacco highly prized by pipe smokers. Originally grown in Turkey the leaves were dried in barns that, among other things, used cattle dung and tamarisk wood for a heat source. This gave the final product a distictive taste. No it doesn't smell like camel poop, or at least I don't think it does (I've never smelled camel poop). Anyway it's a popular flavoring toabcco used in high-priced pipe tobacco's.
I wonder if drying bud that way--not with camel dung but maybe fragrant woods (cedar, manzinita, ect.)--could add a pleasant taste to bud, for a change of pace.