An Informative Guide to Cannabis Storage

People first discovered and used cannabis in 2,800 BC in China. Ever since then, cannabis has remained popular worldwide. Today, cannabis is more popular than ever due to the fact that it has been legalized in many states across the country.

If you are interested in buying cannabis or cannabis products, you might be interested in cannabis storage. Many people don’t know that cannabis can get old quite quickly if it is not stored in the right fashion. This, of course, would be not only a waste of perfectly good cannabis but also a waste of your perfectly good money.

Fortunately, learning how to store cannabis is not very difficult. But where should you start? Keep reading and learn more about how you can store cannabis so that it lasts the test of time.

What You Need to Know About Cannabis Storage

What many people don’t know is that cannabis tends to change in smell and flavor as it ages. It doesn’t just go bad immediately once it starts to get a bit old. Instead, cannabis buds are much like any fine wine or spirit.

As you age it, its flavors and aromas will become more complex. However, there is a very particular way you need to store cannabis in order to accomplish this. You can’t just keep some cannabis in your pocket for a few weeks and expect it to turn out perfectly aged and preserved when it’s time to smoke it.

In fact, if you store cannabis incorrectly or just leave it sitting around, it will turn out to be quite unpleasant. It will likely take on a very unpleasant skunky smell and its taste will be dry and harsh. More than that, in some cases, old cannabis buds may even start to get moldy or soft.

This is because cannabis buds, which are dry, are very vulnerable to moisture. If the buds happen to pick up moisture in any way, they will certainly get ruined. They will also become hard to burn even if you do plan on smoking them.

Whatever the case, you might be wondering what kind of conditions are best for storing cannabis so that it doesn’t get ruined over time. Out of all the cannabis storage tips you may stumble across, the most important has to do with temperature. Temperature is very important for storing cannabis buds and if you try to store cannabis buds at the wrong temperature, they will surely get ruined in one way or another.

Anything about 77° is far too warm for cannabis buds.

The Details

At this temperature and above, the environment around the cannabis buds will become the perfect environment for bacteria, mildew, and mold to reproduce. If you leave some cannabis buds in a place this warm for a long period of time, you will come back to find your cannabis covered in a thick layer of mold and mildew.

More than that, if the environment is too hot, many of the oils in the cannabis buds from trichomes will start to disappear and you will be left with a piece of dry, ineffective cannabis.

If you try to smoke such cannabis, you will find that the lack of oil and terpenes will burn your throat and will not provide the experience that you are looking for.

77° is about room temperature in most homes, and for that reason, you should not leave your cannabis sitting around your home unprotected. Instead, you will want to find a much colder environment for your cannabis. At the same time, you don’t want to choose a spot that’s too cold.

If you choose a place that’s too cold, the THC in the buds (which produces a psychoactive high) will turn into CBN, which will produce a different experience. You should preferably store your cannabis in a location that is between 32° and 68° F.

This lower temperature range also helps to fight off the moisture that may cause mildew and mold to grow on the buds. As long as you keep the temperature between this range, your cannabis buds, for the most part, should be in good shape. But there still are a few other factors that you need to consider to keep your cannabis buds fresh.

Humidity and Air Control for Cannabis Storage

Humidity is by far the worst enemy of your cannabis buds. If you’re not careful and if the air around your buds is too humid, mildew and mold will certainly start to form. The humidity will also make the dry buds quite soft and soggy, so they will be almost impossible to smoke (and certainly very unpleasant).

In particular, if the air around the cannabis buds has more than 65% humidity, then problems will start to occur. This is the point at which mold and mildew will start to take hold. However, getting rid of humidity entirely is also a bad thing when you’re trying to store cannabis buds.

If the humidity in the air drops below 59%, then the cannabis buds will start to dry out. Even though cannabis buds are already quite dry, they still do have trace amounts of moisture in them. If the air is too dry, then the buds will shrivel up and many of the important oils produced by terpenes will disappear.

Ideally, you should keep your cannabis buds at a humidity level between 59% and 63%. As long as you do that, the cannabis buds should not change in terms of color, flavor, or smell. But how can you go about controlling the percentage of humidity in the air, you might ask?

It all has to do with the power of air control. There are special containers that can be purchased, to allow you for better control of the air inside the container. It will also allow you to monitor different factors such as humidity levels, temperature, oxygen levels, and so on.

Having such a storage container is very important if you want to store your cannabis buds for a long period of time.

What You Need to Know

You, of course, can try storing your cannabis buds in a more old-fashioned way, such as inside mason jars. However, it will take a lot more effort to monitor the environment inside those jars since you will need to do all the monitoring manually.

Another important factor you’ll want to keep an eye out for is the oxygen levels. You might think oxygen is a good thing for cannabis buds to have during storage, but this is not quite true. Oxygen, indeed, is important while cannabis buds are still growing and developing, but not when it’s time for storage.

Cannabinoids, in general, don’t like to be exposed to too much oxygen because excessive oxygen can actually ruin them and cause them to degrade until they are no longer effective. This is known as oxygenation. Does this mean that you should store your cannabis in a vacuum?

Not at all. If there is not enough oxygen present in the air, the humidity will become a problem yet again for the cannabis buds. Ideally, you should limit the amount of oxygen that the buds are exposed to, but you should not entirely remove the oxygen from the equation. To do this, all you need to do is store your cannabis in a jar with an air-tight seal or get a container with a vacuum pump.

Cannabis Storage and Light Exposure

Cannabis is not exactly the easiest substance to store, but as long as you figure out all the important factors you need to control, the process should go smoothly. Another important factor you need to consider for cannabis storage is how much light the cannabis is exposed to. UV light from the sun is the last thing you want to expose to your cannabis buds.

You know that when you go out into the sun without sunscreen, the sun can harm your skin. The same can happen if you leave cannabis buds unprotected out in the sun. This is because the sun’s UV rays are very powerful and they can actually break down different substances on a molecular level.

This is why too much sun can cause skin cancer or paint to fade and flake off of cars and houses. Something similar will happen to your cannabis buds if you happen to leave them out in direct sunlight. If you leave your cannabis out in the sun for too long, the cannabinoids inside the buds will start to break down and the cannabis buds will eventually become useless.

This, of course, is not the goal you want to achieve after trying to store and preserve your cannabis buds. For that reason, you should try to keep your cannabis in the dark as often as possible. Cool, dark places are ideal for cannabis storage.

What to Know

For example, you can store your cannabis in a closet, in the basement, in the garage, and in other similar locations that don’t get any direct sunlight. Just be careful what location you choose for storage, however.

You don’t want to store your cannabis in an area that is next to something that could produce heat, such as an electric appliance or something similar.

This will heat the air around the cannabis and cause it to dry out. You might be wondering if the freezer is a good place to put your cannabis. The short answer is no.

This is because, even though the freezer is a cold and dry place, it tends to be far too cold. For that reason, if you try to store your cannabis buds in the freezer, you’ll soon find them covered in little flakes of ice and your cannabis will be ruined. On the other hand, the fridge is actually too humid for cannabis, and you will find that mildew and mold will start growing on the buds.

For that reason, you should simply find a cool, dry place in your home such as your closet to store your cannabis.

Other Storage Ideas for Cannabis

Proper storage of cannabis is very important, but there is more than one way to go about storing this substance. Storing cannabis actually has a lot to do with the form of cannabis you’re dealing with. If you’re storing cannabis buds, then you should follow the recommendations already discussed above.

However, if you are storing cannabis products that are more refined, then you may store them in other ways. Take cannabis edibles, for example. These products will often have instructions on how to store them so that they will stand the test of time.

In general, it is best to keep all cannabis products out of direct sunlight. This is especially true for cannabis gummies as the gummies may melt and get ruined if they are exposed to too much light or heat. You should also avoid storing any kind of cannabis in a plastic bag.

You may think that a plastic bag can help protect cannabis, but this is not true. Instead, moisture will get stuck within the plastic bag and the cannabis inside will end up covered in mildew and mold. It is best to avoid plastic when storing any kind of cannabis.

All About Cannabis Storage

Cannabis storage can be a fickle thing, but as long as you take into account the different storage factors, your cannabis should remain in good shape. You mainly need to consider the humidity, oxygen levels, and temperature. You also need to limit cannabis’s exposure to the sun.

As long as you do that, your cannabis should remain in good shape after being stored. To learn more about cannabis, contact us here.