If you live in a state with legalized recreational cannabis use, you can now go into a local dispensary (the urban name given to cannabis stores) and buy products containing cannabis. In today’s blog, we talk about the proper way to store cannabis edibles as well as flower to keep your products in top-quality condition.

The Legalization of Cannabis Edibles

The cannabis industry has exploded in recent years. Encouraged in large part by several state ballot initiatives that have been passed throughout the country, eighteen states sell cannabis at the recreational level and another eighteen passed medical marijuana laws. In total, 36 out of 52 states legalized marijuana consumption for at least medical use.

Freshness = Quality

Unlike the old days of baggies and seeds, today’s cannabis products pack powerful punches that should be kept fresh to be appreciated. Perhaps appreciated is a bit understated. The therapeutic effectiveness of the ingredients in cannabis degrades over time. Cannabis is a natural bio-product that goes bad like other food items that do not have proper storage.

The home grower has different storage needs than the average consumer that visits a dispensary. We’ll suggest the best ways of storing cannabis from both an occasional dispensary visitor’s perspective and a home grower concerned with preserving their cannabis.

Keeping Your Cannabis Edibles Fresh

While your cannabis may seem fresh enough stored in the container it came in, there are things you can do to retain freshness and provide a better consumption experience.

Look at the dispensary as a store where you buy food you want to eat. As a cannabis customer, you’ll want to approach buying cannabis as if you’re buying fresh produce. Store your cannabis in an airtight container away from sunlight.
Many products come in packaging that can be resealed. Follow the directions on the packaging for best use for freshness. If the packaging cannot be resealed, do what anyone needing a leftover dinner storage solution would do—break out the Tupperware.
When considering any type of edible or concentrate, keep in mind the active ingredients in cannabis are in oil form. Consequently, keeping the oil as fresh as possible before consumption is the key to quality enjoyment and therapeutic use. For example, cannabis oil-infused cooking oils do go rancid within about six or seven months because the chemicals inside the cannabis oil began degrading. The point is, be aware that you are storing products with this oil in them.

Storing Your Home-Grown Canna Flower

At Pacific Seed Bank we support the home cannabis grower for, well, obvious reasons. We want you to be a successful grower and get the most from your precious plants. The seeds sold through Pacific Seed Bank come from genetic research into the best female plant lineage of many popular strains. Hence, we know our seeds give home growers the best chance at producing a quality crop.

As a home grower, you understand (or at least trying to get it right) the processing needed to go from harvested cannabis plants to smokable buds. Processing harvested cannabis is beyond the scope of this blog so let’s move to the storage part after a successful harvest.

All suggestions about storing dispensary purchased products apply equally to the home grower. The home grower needs a way to package the processed harvest for whatever product project the home grower completes.

You’ll need a preplanned storage solution to store the finished product (probably buds). Cannabis is prone to mold. Ideally, keep your stored cannabis in a temperature and humidity-controlled area. Monitor the relative humidity so that it remains a constant 60%.
Do not store harvested cannabis in a refrigerator or freezer. As an organic product, the dried flower “buds” are susceptible to damage. The active chemicals inside the oil are fragile. What you need is a way to store the flowers in a cool and dark dry place with no temperature fluctuation. For example, a classic humidor works great for smaller harvests. For larger storage needs, consider a walk-in humidor.
As a home harvester, consider purchasing a food vacuum sealer. You can vacuum pack processed buds in any quantity you need and unseal them as needed.

Let’s Wrap This Up

As you can see, the storing methods of cannabis edibles and flower are slightly different. Cannabis use has come a long way over the past generation. It is now legal to grow and even buy potent cannabis products previous generations only dreamed of. The key to enjoyable cannabis consumption is freshness. If you get your cannabis from a dispensary, make sure it comes in resealable packaging.