Beginner Cannabis Storage Mistakes Wasting Your Bud and Killing Your High
Kind green buds aren’t kind and green for long, especially if you aren’t careful with how you store them. Weed needs to be kept under specific conditions, or else the compounds within the flower start to degrade. When that happens, your bud isn’t nearly as flavorful or potent, which means the money you spent acquiring it essentially starts going to waste.
The perfect cannabis storage involves a small, airtight container that is tinted or opaque and kept in a cool, dry, dark place. However, even that advice leaves some room for weed-damaging mistakes, like these that beginners often make:
Leaving Bud in Its Packaging
Some manufacturers take the effort to package cannabis in ways to keep it as fresh as possible; others don’t. You can ask your friendly Massachusetts dispensary budtender to help you identify manufacturers who care.
However, when you break the initial seal on your cannabis packaging, that packaging will definitely not function to keep your bud safe. It is best to transfer your cannabis products to the proper storage location as soon as you bring it home, so you don’t have to trust that a manufacturer is looking after your bud.
Leaving Bud in a Bowl or Grinder
The last thing you want to do after smoking a bowl is clean up. However, all the good green stuff you just ground up and packed into your pipe will absolutely go to waste if you leave it where it lies. Though you don’t have to rush your smoke session to preserve your pot, you should collect any leftovers into your proper storage as your high starts to fade.
Storing Bud in a Clear Jar
A mason jar is a typical stoner storage solution, but you should steer yourself away from the clear jars. Light speeds up the degeneration of THC, so you should invest in either an opaque jar or one that is translucent with light-blocking color, like blue or brown. It is possible to paint your mason jar to block out the light, but you should be careful to use a paint that won’t poison your weed with toxins or weird smells.
Storing Bud in a Baggie
Plastic bags have the same transparency problem as glass jars, but they have another downside as well: static. The plastic of the baggie will attract the trichomes on your weed, peeling them off and leaving your cannabis a little less potent. You should only use plastic bags as a temporary and last-ditch storage tool if anything.
Storing Bud Near Electronics
Electronics heat up, and that heat spreads to the area around them. If you are storing your cannabis on top of a computer tower or next to your TV, it is going to experience increases in temperature that escalate the decay of THC. The best place to park your pot is on a shelf in a closet or cabinet, far from anything that turns on and heats up.
Storing Bud in a Bathroom
Your bathroom tends to have a higher humidity than the rest of your home because of the hot showers and baths you and your housemates enjoy. The extra moisture in the air can cause mold to grow on your cannabis, which makes it unusable. Plus, the heat from your shower can have negative effects, as well.
Storing Bud in a Freezer
Because cannabis doesn’t tolerate heat or moisture well, many stoners suspect that storing weed in the freezer is the right recourse. However, below-freezing temperatures are also bad for bud. Unfortunately, the excessive cold of your fridge and freezer will dry out your weed, which reduces its potency. Ideally, you want a storage space that has between 59 and 63 percent humidity, so you might even need to invest in a humidifier if you live in an arid climate.
Breaking up Bud Before Storing
You shouldn’t feel bad about storing the weed you ground up during your stoner session, but you shouldn’t go out of your way to break up or grind cannabis before storage. Intact nugs will keep the inner layers preserved while the outer layers absorb more of the light and heat, so less of your bud goes bad.
There are dozens upon dozens of reefer rookie mistakes, and you shouldn’t feel bad if you commit a few — becoming a stoner is a learning process. Still, the sooner you practice smart weed storage, the better.