Pressing Hash

Marijuana Horticulture

by Jorge Cervantes

Once collected, resin powder is often pressed to facilitate handling and storage. Bulky resin powder is awkward to handle. It is easily spilled, blown away, and contaminated by dust and dirt. Resin powder is also more difficult to smoke, especially is no screen is available. Once pressed into a piece of hash, the resin is easy t handle, store, transport, and consume. Proper pressing is essential for storage and to slow decomposition.

Pressing ruptures resin glands and warms the resin, causing many volatile aromatic terpenoids to release their aromas and flavors.

You can press the resin powder by hand or with a mechanical device. You can elect to add heat, a drop or two of water, or alcohol while pressing to make less pure hash stick together in a block.

Mechanical presses must be precise and align well so pressed hash does not ooze out seams. When pressed, heat and friction cause the outer layer of pressed hash t oxidize and turn darker than the interior. In fact, hash can have a dark exterior and a blonde interior packed with creamy resin glands.

Make sure to pre-press water extracted hash in a piece of cellophane to contain it an help get rid of the water. The cellophane will give the pressed hash a shiny skin.