Terpene Protectors
Harvest is just the beginning. Growing smokable hemp comes with the added challenge of aging and maturing what you’ve so carefully cultivated. While processing hemp, farmers must protect terpenes—the organic chemicals that give flower its distinctive aroma and subtle taste. Saving terpenes protects your investment in this delicate, lucrative crop.
Keep reading to learn how to:
- Preserve terpenes in CBD-rich hemp
- Avoid expensive mistakes that can cost you a season’s worth of work
- Get top dollar for your top flower
Drying & Trimming Smokable Hemp
Like tobacco, hemp must be dried and cured before it’s processed. Drying hemp for smokable flower:
- Removes additional moisture in the stalk and leaves
- Reduces chlorophyll in the finished product
- Creates a smoother smoke and better flavor
Like tobacco, hemp must be dried and cured before it’s processed. Drying hemp for smokable flower:
- Removes additional moisture in the stalk and leaves
- Reduces chlorophyll in the finished product
- Creates a smoother smoke and better flavor
Before You Dry Hemp, Will You Wet or Dry Trim?
What’s Wet Trimming?
Removing the leaf material from the wet flower within hours of cutting it down from the main plant.
Cultivators can wet trim by hand or invest in a professional hemp trimmer, which quickly and automatically separates the flower from the other biomass.
Once buds are separated, they’re dried in individual layers on a mesh screen or flat, breathable drying racks.
What’s Dry Trimming?
Hanging harvested 1 to 1 1/2 foot stalks upside down on clothes lines or fishing lines, then trimming the flower from the stalks after it dries.
Growers dry trim by hand or invest in or rent a professional hemp dry trimmer, which increases the consistency and efficiency of harvest.
Challenges of Wet Trimming Hemp Flower:
- More labor and time intensive on the front end of hemp processing
- Must trim buds off the stalks and layer on the dry racks immediately after harvest
- More susceptible to over or under drying because hemp flower is fully exposed
Challenges of Dry Trimming Hemp Flower:
- More labor and time intensive on the back end of hemp processing when workforce could be scarce
- Requires more space
- More difficult to trim dry hemp leaves if they curl up into the flower
Advantages of Wet Trimming Hemp:
- Easier to trim off sugar leaf material when the flower is wet and bloated
- Requires less room to dry by utilizing both vertical and horizontal space
- Lessens drying time to two to five days
- Quickens hemp production post-cure
Advantages of Dry Trimming Hemp:
- Hand hanging the whole harvested hemp stalk is quick
- Retains leaves that create a “natural humidor” for your flower, which preserves CBD
- Gravity slowly draws the remaining nutrients down into the flower over three to ten days
- Trimming is not as immediate—trim as orders come in
What’s the Ideal Environment for Drying Smokable Hemp Flower?
- Contained area with a leakproof roof, like a barn, shed or pod for 10-13 days
- Several fans running continuously to provide good airflow
- Relative humidity (RH) level between 50 and 60%
- Room temperature of 60 to 70° F (15.5 to 21° C)
- Contained area with a leakproof roof, like a barn, shed or pod for 10-13 days
- Several fans running continuously to provide good airflow
- Relative humidity (RH) level between 50 and 60%
- Room temperature of 60 to 70° F (15.5 to 21° C)
Curing Smokable Hemp Flower
Curing hemp is like ripening fruit. A proper cure transforms raw plant material into a finished product by:
- Drying more evenly to release residual chlorophyll
- Aging and maturing aromas and flavors
- Preserving potency
CURING TIP FOR DRY TRIMMERS
You can either strip off the hemp flower from the stalk or cure the entire hemp stalk.
(Curing on the stalk? Trim down stalks to fit inside your plastic tote, so its lid can shut tightly without damaging fragile hemp flower.)
Curing hemp is like ripening fruit. A proper cure transforms raw plant material into a finished product by:
- Drying more evenly to release residual chlorophyll
- Aging and maturing aromas and flavors
- Preserving potency
CURING TIP FOR DRY TRIMMERS
You can either strip off the hemp flower from the stalk or cure the entire hemp stalk.
(Curing on the stalk? Trim down stalks to fit inside your plastic tote, so its lid can shut tightly without damaging fragile hemp flower.)
How to Safely Cure Smokable Hemp Flower:
- Transfer hemp flower into a Hempsac® or an airtight tote lined with a Hempsac
- Don’t over pack to avoid crushing the delicate flower
- Add Boveda, 2-way humidity control, to create a terpene shield and maintain an ideal RH for hemp (58% or 62%) (Size 320 shown in a storage bin to cure up to 5 pounds of hemp with Boveda.)
- Close the Hempsac with a reusable cable tie that can be released and resecured during the burping and curing process
- Keep the container of hemp in the dark between 60 and 70° F (15.5 and 21° C)
- Every few days, open and close the Hempsac to circulate air inside the bag
- Cure hemp for 30 to 60 days
What to Look for in a Post-Harvest Bag:
Whether you’re bagging up hemp flower or lining your curing totes, make sure you choose the right tool for the job. Professional hemp growers use bags and liners especially designed for hemp.
Hempsac is the industry’s first and only packaging solution that helps farmers cure, store and transport this special crop. Post-cure, you can inventory hemp flower for up to a year inside a tightly closed Hempsac.
The Ohio-based company makes post-harvest hemp bags and liners that are food-safe, yet tough. To stand up to the rigors of a working farm, Hempsac products are puncture and tear resistant. The heavy-duty hemp bags are 1.8 mil, which is about twice as dense as a kitchen trash bag. Hemp tote liners are 3 mil thick (think contractor bags).
In other words, Hempsac IS NOT your run-of-the-mill garbage bag (or turkey bags, for that matter)!
Use Hempsac reusable hemp storage bags to:
- Preserve hemp quality while protecting cannabinoid levels with moisture and oxygen barriers
- Reduce the risk of mold growth when used with Boveda 2-way humidity control
- Prevent hemp flower from drying out
- Prohibit a plastic odor from leaching into your high-quality hemp
- Keep hemp aromas inside with an odor barrier
Should Cured Flower Have a Strong Smell Before It’s Ground?
Truck drivers who move flower notice a difference when growers store dried hemp in Hempsac products. The drivers don’t have to “air out” their trailers before transporting other goods. Plus, no residual odor transfers to other products when drivers haul a partial load of hemp along with other goods.
As hemp flower moves through the supply chain, a strong aroma coming from bins, totes and bags is a warning sign—hemp terpenes are evaporating.
Whether you’re bagging up hemp flower or lining your curing totes, make sure you choose the right tool for the job. Professional hemp growers use bags and liners especially designed for hemp.
Hempsac is the industry’s first and only packaging solution that helps farmers cure, store and transport this special crop. Post-cure, you can inventory hemp flower for up to a year inside a tightly closed Hempsac.
The Ohio-based company makes post-harvest hemp bags and liners that are food-safe, yet tough. To stand up to the rigors of a working farm, Hempsac products are puncture and tear resistant. The heavy-duty hemp bags are 1.8 mil, which is about twice as dense as a kitchen trash bag. Hemp tote liners are 3 mil thick (think contractor bags).
In other words, Hempsac IS NOT your run-of-the-mill garbage bag (or turkey bags, for that matter)!
Use Hempsac reusable hemp storage bags to:
- Preserve hemp quality while protecting cannabinoid levels with moisture and oxygen barriers
- Reduce the risk of mold growth when used with Boveda 2-way humidity control
- Prevent hemp flower from drying out
- Prohibit a plastic odor from leaching into your high-quality hemp
- Keep hemp aromas inside with an odor barrier
Should Cured Flower Have a Strong Smell Before It’s Ground?
Truck drivers who move flower notice a difference when growers store dried hemp in Hempsac products. The drivers don’t have to “air out” their trailers before transporting other goods. Plus, no residual odor transfers to other products when drivers haul a partial load of hemp along with other goods.
As hemp flower moves through the supply chain, a strong aroma coming from bins, totes and bags is a warning sign—hemp terpenes are evaporating.
Truth is, a strong aroma doesn’t prove flower is fresh. A strong smell tells you that terpenes have escaped from hemp flower because of evaporation. When stored without a terpene shield—even in a sealed Hempsac—flower immediately starts to degrade.
Never Store Hemp Without It
Even in airtight curing bags and storage containers, your hemp’s cannabinoids and terpenes are at risk. Unprotected, terpenes start to evaporate immediately without a terpene shield.
Terpenes are critical to the enjoyment of smokable hemp—and therefore critical to the value of your harvest. Failing to protect terps from evaporation, you’ll lose 40% of the aroma, flavor and effectiveness of your flower within a week of storage.
When your CBD-intensive hemp loses terps, its quality suffers. Evaporation will devalue your harvest. But there’s an easy way to stop terpene evaporation.
Use Boveda in your flower to create a terpene shield. Only Boveda, the original terpene shield™, creates a monolayer of purified water over the trichome which prevents terpenes from evaporating.
Storing Smokable Hemp Flower
Store hemp flower in a cool, dry and dark place inside a Hempsac, tote or an airtight container, like a CVault®.
Farmers who use Boveda with hemp flower:
- Save terpenes
- Sell flower at full-weight because it has retained its moisture weight
- Maximize price per pound
- Maintain an ideal RH level for a long time—6 months or more
- Hold inventory safely until oversupply corrects itself
Store hemp flower in a cool, dry and dark place inside a Hempsac, tote or an airtight container, like a CVault®.
Farmers who use Boveda with hemp flower:
- Save terpenes
- Sell flower at full-weight because it has retained its moisture weight
- Maximize price per pound
- Maintain an ideal RH level for a long time—6 months or more
- Hold inventory safely until oversupply corrects itself
Create a Terp Shield with Boveda
Protect your harvest’s quality, consistency and value by adding Boveda to every bag and bin of hemp flower.
Boveda is available in sizes for curing flower in bins, storing buds in jars and packaging hemp for individual sale.
For consumers, your hemp flower will have a more vibrant aroma after the grind and a more full-flavored smoke. Using Boveda saves terpenes while preventing evaporation of moisture weight. And keeps RH at a safe level where mold can’t grow.
Are You a Hemp Grower or Cultivator?
Let’s connect. Learn how to preserve the quality of hemp with Boveda. To learn more about Boveda wholesale opportunities click here or email info@bovedainc.com.
Let’s connect. Learn how to preserve the quality of hemp with Boveda. To learn more about Boveda wholesale opportunities click here or email info@bovedainc.com.
