Marijuana Business Magazine - May-June 2018

Into the Bins After hitting that preferred mois- ture content level, employees put the flower into 20-gallon “Rubbermaid- like” storage containers, which they outfit with custom-built nylon liners, the same kind of material used to make turkey bags. The flower is then sent for testing at an outside lab. If all goes well, the flower is transferred to “quarantine” for anywhere between a day and two weeks.Those rooms are kept dark and at 62-65 degrees and 55% humidity. During that time, grow employees will “burp” the bins. Burping involves lifting the lids of the containers for 10-20 seconds to allow gases that have built up to escape. At the same time, fresh air is introduced, and staffers inspect the flower’s moisture.The grow staff will generally burp the containers every other day or so, Morelli said. “That’s the life they live until they hit the trim table,” Morelli said. After trimming, the flower next goes into glass containers that Grow Op sends to its retail customers, and the flower undergoes additional curing in the jars. While longer cures may not be the most conducive for larger cultivators, Morelli believes they could be a more viable option for smaller growers. Morelli suggests smaller grow- ers cure their cannabis in glass jars, although stainless steel isn’t a bad second option, he said. Once the flower is in the container, Morelli suggests keeping it in a cool, dark room – because light degrades cannabis – at about 55% humidity, ideally for 20-30 days in the case of a boutique grower who has the time. “If you’re growing right, your bud should be ready to smoke a couple weeks after you harvest it,” Morelli said. “But if you can wait, 30 days is perfect.” ◆ EYEBALLS OR HYDROMETERS? C ultivators drying cannabis typically like to bring the moisture-content levels of their flower down to 12%-13%, give or take, before sending it off for trimming and/or curing. But how do you know when you’ve hit the desired moisture level? Traditionally, cultivators have used their eyes and experience to decide when their flower is ready to move to the next stage. One common technique involves bending branches to see if they break, crack or sim- ply bend. If they bend, they’re still not ready. If they break easily, they could be too dry. If they crack when bent but don’t break, moisture levels are likely just right. As the industry has progressed in profes- sionalism and sophistication, hydrometers that can measure moisture levels in cannabis flower have become more widely used. So, goodbye eyes and experience? Not necessarily. Many growers believe a flower’s readiness to move from drying to curing is still best judged the old-school way. “If you use a hydrometer, you get readings. But there are some things that get to the artistry of being a cultivator,” said Corey Barnette, CEO and chief grower at District Growers in Washington DC. “At this level, it’s about understanding cannabis, and that’s where we like to think we differentiate ourselves.” Mojave Morelli, director of agriculture at Grow Op Farms, a producer- processor near Spokane, Washington, said his company uses hydrom- eters to supplement workers’ eyes and experience. He agrees that eyeballs and know-how are more reliable. At the same time, Morelli cautioned that humans can get compla- cent when armed with hydrometers – and they stop using their eyes and experience. “You can’t just pull everything down at 12%. It takes that human touch, going in snapping stems, breaking flowers apart,” Morelli said. “What we’re finding is that there’s such a variance from genetic to genetic that not everything is ready at 12% or 13%.” In other words, while your assumed moisture target might be 12.5%, your eyes and experience might tell you that a particular plant is ready for harvest at 13% moisture content or higher, while another shouldn’t be cut until it gets down to 12% or lower. “Once you hit that moisture target, get that flower into a sealed, airtight container right away, because then you’re sealing it and keeping it at that sweet spot right until someone cracks that jar,” Morelli said. – Omar Sacirbey Mojave Morelli is the director of agriculture at Grow Op Farms in Washington state. Photo courtesy of Grow Op Farms 100 • Marijuana Business Magazine • May-June 2018

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