In a broader spectrum, we know that weed has always been potent. Without these kicking effects, people would not know what weeds are and how they can impact an individual’s full stature and thinking. But, in order to achieve such potency, growers have to arrive at the same spot – the proper way of decarboxylating.
Marijuana growers or users who have an idea of how to decarboxylate weed are lucky to bear some critical knowledge. This decarb process is a necessity for anyone who wishes to feel the potency of their cannabis bud. In fact, one of the reasons why decarboxylation is taking place is because of demands coming from heavy users who prefer to taste the strong effect of their weed.
The following information is the complete guide on decarboxylate weed. This includes introducing decarboxylation and everything you need to know. Grower, the user, or none of the listed titles, you deserve to know what decarboxylation is.
Getting to know Decarboxylation
Decarboxylation is famously known as “decarb” and “decarbing”, but any term is definition-wise correct. Decarbing cannabis flower is a vital step to yield because it is the boiling point of all modes of ingesting or smoking cannabis. This is the reason why weeds are dubbed as potent and intoxicating. But what is it, anyway?
For instance, if you happen to ingest a raw cannabis bud, the chances of feeling all intoxicating effects are slim due to the fact that it is still a bud. But, so what? Well, raw cannabis buds do not contain high levels of CBD, THC, and other cannabinoids. Though the cannabinoids are present, the potency isn’t. Because of that, it wouldn’t feel like ingesting cannabis at all!
Cannabinoids, we know as THC, CBD, CBG, and other terms, are highly beneficial to users because they contain medically-approved advantages. Still, they are not naturally intoxicating, which means you will not get high or stoned, or whatever word you apply for seeping in the effect of cannabis.
However, these non-natural intoxicating features of cannabinoids are convertible to activated cannabinoids so users can felt them. This particular process is called “decarboxylation,” and there is a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to do the said process. With that said, we can define decarboxylation is a chemical process that will activate potent cannabinoids of a cannabis bud.
Before ingesting or smoking something that has cannabis’ remnants in it, decarboxylation should take place first. Otherwise, it will feel nothing at all. Therefore, if you wish to put a title on your cannabis bud, then it is wise and necessary to perform cannabis decarboxylation. For an expounded information on how to decarboxylate weed, read more to find out.
How does decarboxylating weed works?
Decarboxylating is a process that must be done after the cannabis plant underwent drying and curing methods. Specifically, after curing, decarboxylating will allow THCA, the non-natural intoxicating cannabinoid, to turn into THC, which in return will let you taste its potency and other flavors. Consequently, decarbing will allow edibles, smokes, tinctures, and other ingesting cannabis methods to be potent and quick in providing effects.
Meanwhile, decarbing will immediately occur once an individual starts smoking or letting the weed bud in his/her system. As mentioned, there’s no way to decarb after ingesting cannabis or placing it in a device for smoking, edibles, etc.
On the other hand, decarboxylation also has one beneficial purpose, which is to decrease the risk of toxicity present in your cannabis. So, when you fail to properly decarb weed, there might be bacteria infestation that will occur, leaving you an unpleasant taste and worse experience.
How to decarboxylate weed?
If you found yourself interested in decarboxylating weed, the next thing to inform yourself about is the step-by-step procedure of how to decarboxylate weed. These are the comprehensive guide towards purposive and essential decarboxylation:
Step 1: Provide the materials
Clearly, you cannot manually decarb your weed. So, to make things run, you will need a couple of necessities to begin. The following are:
- An oven, preferably already set to 105 degree Celsius or 220 Fahrenheit
- A piece of a baking sheet
- A piece of parchment paper
- Ground bud, or trimmed leaf of a cannabis
Take note that it is suggestible to grind the buds roughly and adequately before moving on to the next procedure. But, if you have kiefs or trimmed leaves, processing it the way you do buds are unnecessary.
Step 2: Prepare the Materials
Before purchasing and providing needed materials, you will need to prepare everything before fully taking over the next step – which is to decarboxylate weed. Follow the steps consequently:
- Pre-heat the electric oven to 105 degrees Celsius or 220 Fahrenheit.
- Grab the baking sheet and place the parchment paper on top of it.
- Pour the ground cannabis, trimmed leaves, or kief all over the parchment paper. Be wary of large pieces. Break them, if necessary.
- (Optional) If you have a lot of ground cannabis, divide the oven tray into half and fit the contents nicely. A thin layer should be enough and do not overcrowd the tray.
Step 3: Decarboxylate Weed
After prepping up the materials and the ground cannabis, you should be ready to advance to the most important and highlighted part of the decarboxylation procedure.
For the steps, track the following step-by-step procedure.
- Place the tray with baking sheet and ground cannabis in the oven.
- Wait for 25 to 30 minutes.
- (Optional) If you have no ground cannabis but trimmed leaves and kief, adjust the minutes to 15 more minutes. But, if the cannabis is freshly picked, add another 25 minutes.
- When done, take out the tray.
- Use any device or manual method to see the level of moisture left.
- If not yet dried, place the product in a closed container to remove the excess water.
- Once the buds are dried up, let it sit in the open area until everything had turned cold.
After following the steps, you should use the decarboxylated weed, according to how you like it done. If you have proper alternatives to add on how to decarboxylate weed, you are more than free to add it or replace on from the given guide.
