By Luke Sumpter

Drying and curing take the taste, smell, and overall smoke experience to another level. Curing, in particular, helps to remove harsh molecules and improve the flavour and smoothness of the smoke.

However, some growers simply don’t want to wait several extra weeks before sampling their hard-earned buds. In these instances, water curing serves as a simple shortcut. Although this method cures weed faster, it certainly comes with some downsides.

Find out everything you need to know about the practice below.


What Is Water Cured Weed?

As most cultivators already know, curing involves placing buds in glass jars for several weeks at a time. Although it sounds simple, a lot of important processes happen during this time that vastly improve the quality of the flowers.

When cured buds are kept at an optimal humidity—Moisture Fighters make this process a lot easier—their phytochemical properties change. Much of the chlorophyll, sugars, and other molecules that make weed harsh to smoke begin to break down. With far less of these molecules lingering in the end product, the terpene profile of each strain really begins to shine through.

Curing also increases the quality of the smoke itself, turning harsh hits that irritate the throat into rich, creamy, and soft tokes that go down a treat in bongs, vapes, and blunts.

Water curing achieves a similar outcome to air curing in jars, just through a different mechanism. Instead of waiting weeks for these harsh molecules to degrade, direct contact with water pulls them swiftly out of the flowers.

Although this method works much faster, it comes with some significant trade-offs that growers should be aware of.

It is also frequently mistaken for the bud washing technique, which is a distinct practice (more on this later).

How Water Curing Works

Many of the harsh and undesirable chemical compounds in cannabis flowers are water-soluble. This means that, upon contact, they diffuse out of the resin and plant tissue into the water.

During water curing, cannabis buds are submerged for a relatively short period of time. What starts off as clear drinking water quickly fills up with chlorophyll, sugars, and other potentially irritating chemicals.

Cannabis Water Curing

Instead of waiting weeks for cannabis buds to digest sugars, and for oxygen in the air to break down these phytochemicals, water curing can achieve a similar result in a matter of days.

But not every water-soluble molecule in cannabis tastes bad. In fact, some of them are very valuable.

Fortunately, cannabinoids such as THC and CBD are fat-soluble and hydrophobic, meaning no amount of contact time with water will remove them from the trichomes.

Terpenes are a different story. These aromatic molecules underpin the signature scent of cannabis, and also contribute a different flavour profile to each individual strain.

Terpenes even dictate how stimulating or couch-locking the psychotropic effects of a strain are by synergising with cannabinoids.

Because terpenes are water-soluble, water curing removes a large quantity of these tasty molecules from cannabis flowers. This brings us to the major trade-off of water curing: flavour for speed.

Some smokers describe the taste of water-cured buds as grassy and flat. However, in times where growers desire a smoother smoke above all else, this method comes into the fore.

What Are the Benefits of Water Curing Cannabis?

Many growers rely on water curing to bring their operations to an end as quickly as possible.

Simplicity: Water curing doesn’t require any specific skills or equipment. A jar, some clean water, and a small amount of patience will get you through the entire process.

Speed: Water curing saves time. If you need to get your buds harvested and processed as quickly as possible, you should consider water curing. Whether you want to smoke your stash ASAP or stay as stealthy as possible, water curing will speed things up.

Less Smell, Less Obvious: By pulling terpenes out of your buds, water curing will decrease the aroma and flavour of your harvest. However, a lack of terpenes also means your buds will smell a lot more discreet. Hitting a vape in the city centre or blazing a joint on your lunch break suddenly becomes a lot easier to conceal.

Smooth Smoke: Much like air curing, water curing makes cannabis smoke much more pleasant. After wrapping your water cured buds in a blunt or packing them into a bong, prepare your lungs for a silky smooth hit of smoke.

Cannabis Water Curing

Water Curing vs Bud Washing: What's the Difference?

Although they sound similar, water curing and bud washing are different techniques that achieve different goals.

Bud washing simply refers to using water to quickly clean buds after harvest. Unlike water curing, which keeps buds submerged for several days, bud washing takes place over a matter of minutes.

When bud washing, growers dunk their flowers into a series of buckets to clean the debris from their buds and improve their taste. After giving them a quick clean, they move them straight to the drying rack.

When Should You Consider Bud Washing Over Water Curing?

Water curing and bud washing aren’t a replacement for each other, though growers have the choice of bud washing before placing their flowers into jars to water cure them.

Bud washing ultimately helps to remove dust, pesticides, insects, and other unwanted particles from cannabis flowers, leaving them squeaky clean and in better condition. Washing buds before water curing means your flowers won’t be floating around in a bath of nasty chemicals.

Growers that opt for air curing can also use bud washing before drying and curing their stash to remove any chemicals that will impact the taste at the end of the process.

How to Water Cure Weed

You don’t need much to water cure your weed. Tick the items off the equipment list below, and follow the directions to get the job done.

Equipment

  • Mason jars
  • Clean water (spring water or reverse osmosis water work best)
  • Cannabis flowers

Directions

Here's what you need to do:

  1. After harvesting your flowers, grab your trimming scissors and remove the sugar leaves from each bud. Keep the trimmings to make hash or edibles later on.
  2. Place your manicured buds into your mason jars and cover them with clean, room temperature water.
  3. Give your jars a gentle shake and change the water once per day. A clean batch of water will work more efficiently to continually absorb unwanted phytochemicals. Continue this process for the next 5–7 days.
  4. Strain your buds; place them on your drying rack to remove the rest of the water content before smoking.
Cannabis Water Curing

Can You Water Cure Already Dried Weed?

You can water cure dried bud to remove particulates and terpenes, but you’ll then have to let it dry once more. Water curing fresh weed will save a lot of time and prevent you from drying your flowers twice.

Should You Try Water Curing Weed?

You should only really water cure your weed if you have to, as doing so will reduce its aroma and flavour. Of course, if you desire a smooth, albeit less-flavourful, smoke in a matter of days, water curing is likely the best avenue for you.

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Privacy Policy - Royal Queen Seeds

To ensure a safe online environment and guarantee adequate data protection, we strictly comply with all legal requirements. In this privacy statement, we provide information about how and for what purpose data is collected, safety measures, storage periods and contact details.


COMPANY NAME: SNORKEL SPAIN, SL (hereinafter ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS)

C/ Vilar d'Abdelà, 5 (nave 1) CP: 08170 de Montornès del Vallès

+34 937 379 846

support@royalqueenseeds.com


The present Privacy Policy sets out the terms on which we will treat personal data at ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS; this includes any personal data collected through our website https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/ as well as any other data we process in the course of our business activities.

ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS collects the following personal data for the purposes listed below:

SECTION 1 – PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

1.1 Account purchases

Account purchases can only be made if you are in possession of a personal account. When you create an account or purchase something from our shop, as part of the buying and selling process we collect the following personal information that you provide to us:

This information is required for delivery. In addition, when you browse our shop, we automatically receive the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer. Based on this information, we can optimise your online experience and at the same time protect our online environment.

Purpose of data collection

We collect and store account-related data for the following purposes:

(a) to carry out obligations arising from any contracts between you and us, and to provide you with information, products and services that you may request from us;

(b) to set up, manage and communicate with you about your account and your orders;

(c) to conduct market research and analysis;

(d) to confirm your age and identity, and to detect and prevent fraud.

1.2 Newsletters

With your explicit permission, we may send you newsletters about our shop, new products and other updates. We send newsletters based on your explicit consent. In the event that you purchase a product, and in accordance with current regulations, we may send you commercial communications in accordance with the legitimate interest of our company, always about products or services similar to those you have purchased or contracted. In any case, you may exercise your right of opposition through the channels announced in this Privacy Policy. The following information is collected in relation to the newsletter:

We do not need to know the sex of the person in order to send the newsletter (data minimisation: by law we must ask for data that is strictly necessary to provide the service, and in this case knowing the sex is not necessary to send the newsletter).

Purpose of data collection

The data collected is used to:

(a) personalise our emails, including your name and gender;

(b) provide gender-specific content.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by using the link provided in the newsletter or the contact information provided in section 2.

1.3 Customer service and contact form

In order to provide appropriate support, our customer service employees have access to information related to the account. Consequently, their support will be highly effective and friendly. The data provided in our contact form is used by our CRM provider, SuperOffice. We will only use your details to respond to your message.

SECTION 2 – LEGITIMATE INTEREST

If you have purchased any of our products, please note that we may process your personal data for promotional purposes, based on Royal Queen Seeds' legitimate interest only to offer you products or services from our company and about products or services similar to those you have purchased. You may exercise your right to opt out of future messages by the means set out in this Privacy Policy or through any notification you receive.

2.1 How do you withdraw consent?

If you change your mind, you can withdraw your consent for us to contact you for the purpose of collecting, using, or disclosing your data at any time by reaching out to us at: support@royalqueenseeds.com.

SECTION 3 – DISCLOSURE

We may disclose your personal information if we are required to do so by law or if you breach our Terms of Service.

SECTION 4 – HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR DATA?

At Royal Queen Seeds, we will not retain your data for longer than is necessary for the purposes described in this Policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data; however, the longest period we will normally hold any personal data is 10 years.

4.1 Account information

Data relating to the account remains relevant for as long as the consumer is in possession of an account. Therefore, the data remains documented for as long as the account exists. When our customers delete an account, the associated data will be deleted within a reasonable period of time. Requests regarding the inspection or correction of stored personal data or the deletion of an account can be sent to support@royalqueenseeds.com.

4.2 Newsletters

In the event that you give us your consent to inform you about our products or services, we will keep your data until you express your wish not to receive any further communications from us. However, we regularly (every month) carry out a relevance check. Registered customers (and their personal information) will be deleted whenever customers do not reply to our request. In addition, our newsletter mailing has an opt-out feature. Consumers can withdraw their consent by using this opt-out feature.

SECTION 5 – COOKIES

Cookies are small information files that notify your computer of previous interactions with our website. These cookies are stored on your hard drive, not on our website. Essentially, when you use our website, your computer displays its cookies to us, informing our site that you have visited before. This allows our website to function more quickly and remember aspects related to your previous visits (such as your username), making your experience more convenient. At Royal Queen Seeds, we use two types of cookies: functional and analytical.

5.1 Functional Cookies

Functional cookies are used to enhance your online experience. Among other things, these cookies track what is added to your shopping cart. The use of these cookies does not require prior authorization.

5.2 Analytical Cookies

Analytical cookies are used for research and market analysis. The data collected with these analytical cookies is anonymous, making it unusable for third parties. The use of these cookies does not require prior authorization.

SECTION 5 – THIRD-PARTY SERVICES

Third-party services are required to conduct transactions and provide our services. In general, the third-party providers we use will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to enable them to perform the services they provide to us.

However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies regarding the information we must provide to them for your transactions.

We encourage you to read the privacy policies of these providers so that you can understand how these providers will handle your personal information.

In particular, certain suppliers may be located or have facilities located in a different jurisdiction than yours or ours. Therefore, if you choose to proceed with a transaction involving the services of a third party, your information may be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction in which that service provider or its facilities are located.

Once you leave our website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Service of our website.

Web analytics service (anonymous data)

On this website we have integrated an element of a web analytics service (with anonymisation functionality). Web analytics can be defined as the gathering, processing and analysis of data about the behaviour of visitors to websites. An analytics service collects, among other things, data about which website a person came from (the so-called referrer), which sub-pages they visited or how often and for how long they visited a sub-page. Web analytics is mainly used for website optimisation and for a cost–benefit analysis of internet advertising.

Courier service

To complete deliveries we use a courier service. This courier service carries out the delivery between our company and the consumer's home. To complete these logistics, the company requires access to the consumer's name and address information.

Mailing service

Royal Queen Seeds uses a third-party mail service provider to send its newsletter. This provider has access to limited account information related to opt-in consent (e.g. email address).

Marketing services

Royal Queen Seeds has the support of a company that specialises in marketing and communication activities. Their access to personal information is very limited and mostly anonymous.

Payment services

At Royal Queen Seeds we use external payment services to handle our transactions (e.g. credit card payments).

SECTION 6 – SECURITY

To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry standard best practices to ensure that it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed.

If you provide us with your credit card information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL) and stored using AES-256 encryption. Although no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional industry standards that are commonly accepted. Information related to the account is protected with a hashing method. This method transforms the information into a generated hash. As a result, confidential information is protected and invisible, even to us. In addition, our databases are exceptionally protected against unauthorised access. For example, access to the database is only possible and permitted via approved IP addresses (e.g. from Royal Queen Seeds headquarters). Other attempts and addresses are rejected at all times.

Furthermore, data is anonymised as much as possible, so it cannot be directly linked to a specific consumer. With this data, however, we may be able to carry out market research and analysis. In addition, the third parties concerned (e.g. mailing service) are examined prior to our collaboration, comply with the GDPR from the EU and receive a processing agreement. Within Royal Queen Seeds, employees are assigned different access permissions. Specific permission provides access only to information that is strictly required to perform a task. Digital security measures are subject to change and must meet high requirements to ensure the safety of online customers. That is why, at Royal Queen Seeds, we appoint a security officer. Regular verification and improvement of security measures (where necessary) are part of the role.

SECTION 7 – CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please check back regularly. Changes and clarifications will be effective immediately upon being published on the Website. If we make substantial changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated so you will know what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.

SECTION 8 – YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO: