Publish-harvest tricks to elevate hashish flower and your backside line 

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You’ve spent months fastidiously cultivating your hashish crop and meticulously controlling each environmental issue to create wholesome, potent crops.

However in the event you’re nonetheless utilizing conventional post-harvest strategies, you could possibly be leaving earnings on the desk whereas additionally compromising high quality.

There’s a protracted legacy behind rising nice flower, however the “outdated methods” of drying and curing aren’t all the time backed by science.

And in an more and more aggressive market, having inconsistent yields or mediocre-quality flower can shortly erode a cultivator’s popularity.

Taking a scientific method in assessing drying and minimizing dealing with are methods for growers to set themselves up for long-term success.

Science of hashish drying

Too usually, post-harvest dealing with is an afterthought for cultivators trying to get product out the door and offered as shortly as attainable.

However these ultimate steps earlier than sale are essential for preserving high quality, maximizing yield and making certain shelf stability.

The dearth of a constant course of and exact repeatability open the door to potential issues: Widespread points equivalent to overdrying or underdrying, extreme dealing with and lack of environmental management degrade trichomes, introduce contamination dangers and unnecessarily cut back profitability.

One of many greatest potential revenue killers is overdrying hashish flower.

Eradicating an excessive amount of moisture doesn’t simply cut back sellable weight; it can also negatively affect efficiency, terpene integrity, burn high quality and extra.

Optimum hashish moisture stage

The important thing lies in exactly controlling and monitoring water exercise – the measure of the extent of tightly sure water molecules inside the plant materials.

By sustaining hashish flower with water exercise at 0.6 (the ASTM Worldwide commonplace is a variety of 0.55 to 0.65), it’s attainable to realize superior shelf stability and forestall mildew points with out excessively drying, shedding essential weight and reducing into earnings.

Water-activity requirements and measurement are already extensively used for making certain security and high quality within the meals and pharmaceutical industries.

And as hashish continues its path towards federal legality, the trade ought to count on mandated water-activity testing necessities by governmental regulatory companies.

Massachusetts regulators lately launched a memo highlighting the significance of water exercise, however for probably the most half, such an evaluation stays neglected or misunderstood.

Buying a water-activity meter is an reasonably priced funding and one of many smartest strikes a hashish cultivator could make.

I’ve seen the outcomes of managing water exercise ranges with producers growing their yields by as a lot as 5%-7% with out altering vitamins, genetics or inputs.

These meters present the essential information growers want to exactly management drying, curing and storage circumstances.

Decrease dealing with and preserve secure surroundings

Each time hashish flower is dealt with and transferred between environments, there are dangers of introducing contaminants and compromising the dear trichome heads.

Fluctuations in environmental circumstances – be it in a room or a storage bin – additionally make it extraordinarily tough to realize constant drying charges and water exercise.

Optimizing post-harvest dealing with with science-based strategies delivers important operational advantages, together with:

• Elevated profitability from greater salable weight.
• Persistently superior-quality flower.
• Decreased labor prices from minimized dealing with and transfers.
• Improved effectivity and consistency of operations.
• Lowered dangers of compromised product security and high quality.

As client schooling surrounding hashish will increase and authorized markets mature, there might be escalating calls for for constantly high-quality hashish.

The times of merely producing low cost flower with maxed-out THC are coming to an finish.

Good drying and curing enhance earnings

Producers who’ve dialed of their post-harvest processes with validated instruments and strategies may have a significant aggressive benefit.

That particularly pertains to pre-rolls.

They’re quickly growing in recognition, and I’ve seen loads of real-world examples of correct dealing with enhancing high quality dramatically and resulting in greater gross sales and model loyalty.

Statistics from Seattle-based trade analyst Headset present pre-rolls have sturdy gross sales and continued development throughout authorized markets within the U.S. and Canada.

The trade has made nice strides on the cultivation facet by implementing the most recent horticultural science and improvements.

It’s now time to carry those self same disciplined, science-based approaches to the very important post-harvest stage as properly.

Jane Sandelman is co-founder and CEO of Perkinsville, Vermont-based Cannatrol, a drying, curing and post-harvest storage system. She could be reached at linkedin.com/in/jane-sandelman.