Vacuum Sealing For Long Term Storage

[BeezLuiz]

I've seen this topic has been touched upon from time to time, but not really answering my situation. I've got a pretty good harvest in the books - 5 outdoor plants and approx. 5 lbs of bud. I've got it all curing in glass jars and turkey bags, but want to move it to vacuum sealed bags for long term storage to save space, and so that I can use the jars for other stuff.

Here's the question: Does the bud continue to cure while under vacuum or should I wait until cure is fully done before placing under vacuum. I've already sealed a couple of the plants after 4 or 5 weeks of cure, but would like to do the rest soon. What do you all think?

 

[TorturedSoul]

I think you'll be fine as long as there is still enough moisture content in the buds to support the curing process - but not, obviously, enough to support mold growth - when you vacuum-seal your product. People often use jars to cure in, but this is largely so that they are able to open them from time to time in order to release moisture until the bud gets into the sweet spot (so to speak).

If you've got cannabis to spare, you could perform an experiment: Vacuum-seal some bud, and only seal (leave your device's vacuum function turned off) another pouch of it. Leave them alone for about six weeks, then sample them both. Again, make sure the bud isn't too moist before sealing.

Hmm... There's always the "Is curing an anaerobic or aerobic process?" debate to consider.

 

[BeezLuiz]

For the most part everything's already been in cure at 62% for 2 plus weeks so mold isn't a big concern currently. I'm wondering if the vacuum would adversely affect the progress of the cure by removing the moisture from the flower and dry it out. A like your idea about trying a pack or two without vacuum, then comparing with those under vacuum.

 

[Dwight Monk]

Depends on how you cure it, most folks will "burp" the jars first month or two (daily at first and then once a week after a few weeks), sealing it up would make that more difficult to do. If you vacuum it up tight, it tends to squish the resin glands and you end up with a lot of it stuck to the plastic. I put some in a ziplock once it was cured with a little bit of air in it so the sealer wouldn't squish it tight and just squish the outer bag. Did a test with just two different strains and only a half an oz. We tried some that had been done that way a year ago and we couldn't really notice any difference in taste or high, I haven't opened the other one but will probably do it next month as it will be a year and a half since harvest. THC will degrade or change over time (my sister says the THC converts to CBN over a length of time according to her Med grower for what that worth), and light and air will speed up that degradation process, so needs to go somewhere dark (and fairly uniform temp would probably help too, so probably not buried in your backyard be a good idea for long term storage ).

 

[Papageno]

It will continue to cure.

The question is based on not understanding what it means to cure. So let's talk about why is is you are doing.

To cut to the chase...the point of curing is to have a naturally occurring bacteria which is anaerobic consume the sugars in the plant created by photosynthesis.

Anaerobic bacteria meaning it wants to be in a sealed oxygen free environment... each time you burp you are letting in oxygen which slows down the process.

Sugar when burnt makes black sooty smoke which is harsh and hard to consume.

Those bacteria which stop breeding when the humidity is below about 45% will continue to work in there for a while.

I never kept vacume sealed weed that long.

 

[Papageno]

I suppose if you kill off all the bacteria first you are done. That is why and when curing stops... it's why you get one chance.

When the breeding stops it is done.

 

[Papageno]

Ok I forgot one thing.

So this is kinda cool and you might get to experience this. I have in jars.

After they get done with the sugars...they go after chlorophyll. This takes a very long time. But it will start to turn brown once the sugar is gone and they are done. You can let it go or stop. Wont really matter. But it will turn ugly and fools wont smoke it...and it is super good shit.

Funny world!

 

[BeezLuiz]

Thanks a bunch for that explanation. Makes a lot of sense.

 

[Weaselcracker]

. If you vacuum it up tight, it tends to squish the resin glands

I think most vac sealers have a manual seal button- at least all the ones I’ve ever had. If yours does as well you can just stop vacuuming and hit seal at any point you want. I normally just seal it at the point it’s squished tight - but not completely compacted into a brick. Obviously the more squashed it is, the more oxygen is removed.
There are also lots of vac-sealable container options you can buy- as well as mason jar fittings.

 

[BeezLuiz]

I do indeed have the option to control the amount of air removal (food saver). I vacuum just enough to get about half the air out. The buds are snug but you can still move them around a bit.

 

[TorturedSoul]

...they go after chlorophyll. This takes a very long time. But it will start to turn brown once the sugar is gone and they are done. You can let it go or stop. Wont really matter. But it will turn ugly and fools wont smoke it...and it is super good shit.

Been saying pretty much the same thing for years (and years and...). Way back in my high in school days, I was hanging out at my 19-year old stripper friend's apartment, waiting on her to return, and some guy rolled up looking to burn one with her. Disappointed, he started to hop back into his car and drive away when I asked him if he had any extra. ("Extra? What the fawk is extra?") So he said, "Sure," and stuffed some into his cigaratte pack celophane (or maybe mine, 30+ years ago, little things start fading in the haze we call memory). He drove off, I looked at what he'd given me, and thought, "Sh!t..."

Err... SURPRISE, lol. One of my top five cannabis experiences to date, maybe top three. Sativa my dreams... kind of thing. Took me a couple years to figure it out, but I was better able to think back then, so...

You are correct that it's rare to see. Mostly, the closest I've seen in commercial purchases was an OD green, maybe a little less.

It's pretty easy to produce good smoke. I guess epic smoke takes a little effort. I suppose a lot of people mostly don't bother because, mostly, they don't need to. And I'm going to have to admit that (mostly ), I've fallen into that category.

I need to quit "talking" about cannabis or I'll end up growing some or something (ohwaitaminute...). Actually, I'm a week or so behind schedule in that regard. Tick... tock. Might have to keep more for myself this time, see what happens.

 

[Dwight Monk]

I think most vac sealers have a manual seal button- at least all the ones I’ve ever had. If yours does as well you can just stop vacuuming and hit seal at any point you want. I normally just seal it at the point it’s squished tight - but not completely compacted into a brick. Obviously the more squashed it is, the more oxygen is removed.
There are also lots of vac-sealable container options you can buy- as well as mason jar fittings.

My Sealomeal is supposed to work that way (though some of the cheaper ones don't have that option), but half the time it would stop the whole process instead of just the vacuum part, so I came up with that way of doing it. It was more of a test than anything for me as an old grower I knew back in the 80's claimed it would keep for years that way, but he mostly did it to mask the smell as he was paranoid as all flipping get out around harvest season (one had to be real careful around him that time of year). I just store it in Mason Jars and if it going to be more longer term I try and make sure it is a new lid that seals better than some of the older resin crusted jars, as to me Jars are cheap enough they don't justify the cost of the plastic for the sealer and my time farting around with it.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Ha ha. I’ve known a few people around here that got like that around harvest time. In fact- most people were like that. Quickly becoming the good ol’ days now, when paranoia levels were so high.

I kinda felt like I was stating the obvious with that first post about sealing it- but you never know... I mostly just vac seal for smell as well. I seal the bud and trim I store in my freezer before turning into hash. Keeps my freezer from smelling funny. I keep my main stash in jars. It just gets better, for at least the first year anyway. If there is some that’s been sitting around so many years that it’s going downhill- it’s obviously time for me to give it away, use it faster, or produce less.

 

[BeezLuiz]

This year, being my first grow, I underestimated the yield I would get from 5 outdoor plants. My son says to me, "We should get 3, maybe 4 oz from each plant", as he had previously helped friends grow. However, with the 5 plants I yielded about 5 lbs (2.25 kg) of bud and almost 1 lb of trim. That's way too many mason jars to store. Also, I don't want to store them in my garage (or buried in my backyard ), the inside of my house is temp controlled year round but there's no room for 50 or more mason jars.

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• BeezLuiz
• Oct 29, 2018

Vacuum seal bag.

These little packets can be stuffed into an empty dresser drawer or shopping bag and stored in a closet. Also, it's easy to give away to friends and family as it's in a sealed container. Here in Calif, the laws for transport are similar to alcohol - it's got to be in a sealed container or in the trunk of your car.

 

[Papageno]

Outdoor a pound a plant is typical and indoor about 4 oz us right unless you do something extra like a SCROG.

For over a decade I would get pot delivered by hand to my door from the USPS 4 oz at a time vacume sealed. I liked getting 4 oz at a time because it was too big for my mail box and made a federal employee hand deliver my weed.

Never had issues with it being too vacuumed really. Nice harvest ... enjoy.

 

[BeezLuiz]

I just weighed my last plant today after about 1 week of cure (Sour Diesel). Yielded 878 grams - just 18 grams shy of 2 lbs! Also got over 4 oz of trim. I tried turkey bags for cure because I knew I wouldn't have enough empty mason jars. Once I vacuum seal the other plants to free up some jars, I might move the stuff from turkey bags over to jars.

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• BeezLuiz
• Oct 27, 2018
• sour diesel

Sour Diesel in cure bags.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Entering

can you vacuum seal a 5gallon bucket?

into the nearest web search engine's box yielded over a million results. I'm just sayin', lol. They also still make/sell one-gallon capacity jars (although, strictly speaking, they are not referred to as "canning jars").

 

[BeezLuiz]

ok I did some math. Typically I can fit about 3 Oz in a 2-quart jar so that would be 6 oz per gallon jar. That picture in my previous post is about 30 oz, so how about a 5 gallon mason jar! I might have to do a search .

 

[TorturedSoul]

I have never seen a five-gallon mason jar. Closest I ever came was several rather large "crocks" (IDK?) that I found when exploring the sub-basement of a nearly 100-year old hardware store I used to work at. Apparently, they used to get things delivered in them way back in the day (well before 1950, I assume). But you'd have to reseal those in the old fashioned way (wax and wire or something), since the lids were not threaded. I could have gotten those old containers for free, but they were heavy, lol - and whatever had originally been delivered in them was more or less still there, and full of tiny little worms. Kind of kicked myself for that a few times, they'd definitely be antiques.

It's a big Internet, maybe you can find something that has a threaded (or clamp-on, or...) lid?

EDIT: You can search and find five- and ten-gallon jars, but they'll mostly be old, used, and pricey. I just found a five-gallon pickle jar with handle and threaded lid for sale on eBay - for $120 .

 

[Papageno]

Oh guys give me a couple of days. I have a have a monster one I got for big ass collas once. I gotta get it outta storage. Not 5 gallons but probalbly at least 1 maybe 2.