If you have the luxury of being able to acquire your weed from a legal dispensary near you, you may have noticed the huge variety of edibles that are beginning to overflow the shelves. These pre-packaged , pre-made THC infused treats are more accessible to everyday people nowadays more than ever before, but sadly many edibles still come packed with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and other unhealthy ingredients. While these processed food treats can be an easy way to get high on the go, many people prefer making their own infused snacks and meals — and for good reason. Join us as we explore all of the Current cannabis cooking techniques and become a master chef in no time!
Want to learn how to decarb kief? You’ve come to the right place.
It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the cannabis game or you’ve been doing it forever like we have, it’s essential that you know how to use every part of the pot plant — even the dust at the bottom of the grinder.
That’s where learning how to decarb kief comes in.
In this article, the experts at Honest Marijuana walk you through the decarboxylation process and discuss what to do with the ganja gold when you’re done.
What Is Kief?
In the cannabis world, kief has two definitions — one technical and one not so technical — both of which are correct.
From a biological standpoint, a kief (plural kief) is the bulbous formation on the tip of a trichome (the resin glands of the pot plant that contain THC, CBD, CBG, CBN, and other active cannabinoids).
From a cannaenthusiast standpoint, kief is the word we use to refer to the terpenes and cannabinoids of the cannabis plant (which, incidentally, are located in the trichomes).
However you look at it, kief is the stuff that gets you high or gives you the medicinal effects you’re looking for.
In regular weed (like the stuff you roll in your joint or pack in your bowl), the kief is mixed in with the dried herb, so it’s effectively “diluted.”
But, when you chop up your weed in a four-piece (or three-chamber) grinder, some of the kief is dislodged from the plant matter and falls through various screens to the bottom (or collection) chamber.
With repeated grinding, you’ll amass enough kief that you’ll be ready to put it to use.
First, though, you’ll have to decarboxylate it.
What Is Decarboxylation?
Any way you say it, decarboxylation is a mouthful.
In the meantime, here are the Cliffs Notes to get you started.
Technically speaking, decarboxylation is the process of applying high heat to raw cannabis products in order to transform THCA and CBDA into a form of the stuff that your body can use: THC and CBD.
If you don’t decarboxylation your kief (and all weed, for that matter), you’re basically just consuming ground-up plant matter like you would if you ate a big salad.
Decarboxylation is absolutely necessary if you want to experience the recreational and medicinal benefits that cannabis has to offer.
How To Decarb Kief
Supplies
Oven
Kief
Oven-safe baking dish with a lid
Parchment paper
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 240 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line the oven-safe baking dish with parchment paper.
Spread the kief on the parchment paper, making sure there are no clumps or mounds.
Cover the dish with the lid. (If you don’t have a lid, cover the dish with aluminum foil instead.)
Place the covered dish in the oven and bake for the following amount of time:
30-35 minutes for THC-dominant strains
60-65 minutes for CBD-dominant strains
As you bake it, the kief will get darker in color and some may melt a bit — that’s okay.
After the recommended bake time, remove the dish from the oven, leave the lid or covering on, and allow everything to cool completely.
The decarbed kief is now ready for immediate use or storage
If you choose to store the kief, be sure you place it in an airtight container and store it in a cool, dark place.
What To Do After You Decarb Kief
After you learn how to decarb kief, you may wonder, “What the blazes am I supposed to do with this stuff?!”
How’s this for an answer? Anything you want!
There are so many ways to use kief that we’re sure you’ll find something fun to do with your pot powder. All it takes is a bit of imagination.
While you’re working on your own unique uses for the grinder goo, here are some simple options to get you started.
1) Mix It In Your Edibles
Edibles are one of the easiest and most discreet ways to consume decarboxylated kief. You can mix it into everything from butter and honey to wine and candy.
2) Rub It In Your Bong
After you’ve packed your bong, rub a bit of kief on top of the bud in the bowl to quickly and easily transform beasters into headies.
Using kief like this is a great way to upgrade low-quality weed (and the low-quality experience it produces) to the grade-A stuff you’ve been dreaming about.
3) Spike Your Coffee Or Tea
One of our favorite ways to consume kief is in coffee or tea.
It’s super easy! All you have to do is sprinkle a pinch into your mug and stir. You don’t even have to learn how to decarb kief first.
The heat from the liquid will dissolve the kief and activate the cannabinoids for you!
As with all edibles — of which coffee and tea are two — your body has to digest the cannabinoids before they make it to your bloodstream, so the onset of effects will take a while.
The good news is that those effects will be stronger and last longer. That’s just the way edibles work. And, honestly, we’re glad for it, because our kief coffee is what we rely on to get us out of bed in the morning and through to lunch.
For more on cannabis coffee and tea, check out these articles from the HMJ blog:
Looking for a truly creative way to use your kief? Build your own moon rock weed. Moon rock weed is the triple combination of raw, whole bud, honey oil, and kief.
Many call moon rock weed the strongest cannabis in the world. We don’t know about that, but we do know that it’s a heck of a good time.
5) Roll A Thai Stick
A Thai stick is buds of seedless marijuana skewered on a stem, rolled in cannabis oil, sprinkled with kief, and wrapped in a whole marijuana leaf to form a swag shishkabob. When all is dry, you smoke a Thai stick just like a boss cigar or mega blunt.
6) Hash It Out
Hash (short for hashish) is a cannabis concentrate made from fresh resin glands (trichomes) that have been separated from the plant matter of a marijuana flower.
Hash is basically kief that — through mechanical means, such as heat and pressure or by mixing it with water — you form into a brick, bar, block, or ball.
There are several easy ways to make your own hash from the kief you produce in the bottom of your grinder, including:
Hand rolling (the most basic and traditional method of producing hash)
Pressing with a hot iron
Blending and straining
Passing kief through several bubble bags
If making hash is something you’d like to try, you’ll find step-by-step instructions for the four methods mentioned above in this article from the HMJ blog: How To Make Hash: The Complete Guide.
7) Press Your Own Rosin
Did you know you can extract the essence of kief directly from the cannabis plant without grinding? It’s true.
With a simple process we’ll describe in a moment, you can transform the kief into a liquid (a rosin) and squeeze it “out of” the plant matter (it actually comes off the surface, but that’s just being pedantic).
To make your own rosin, you’ll need a number of supplies, including a hot iron and some parchment paper.
Pack the parchment paper with a bit of bud, insert it between the two sides of the hot iron, and then press together for a few seconds.
Knowing how to decarb kief — and what to do with it afterward — is an essential tool for all wanna-be and long-time cannaenthusiasts.
But there’s an even more fundamental piece of knowledge that all cannaenthusiasts must master: Quality kief starts with quality bud.
That’s why we always recommend starting with fresh, high-quality, organically-grown cannabis, like the ganja gold we grow at Honest Marijuana.
Sure, you could save some dough by buying regs or mids, but the kief they produce is going to deliver an unsatisfying experience that will ruin the moment.
Instead, whenever possible, always buy the best beasters — or better yet, headies if you can swing it — to start your kief experience off right.
Plus, with a high-quality, organic strain like those grown at Honest Marijuana, you’ll need less kief to achieve the effects you’re after. In a very real way, a little dash’ll do ya.
With Honest Marijuana, you’re guaranteed to get the freshest, tastiest, highest-quality strain possible. Pop that in your grinder, and you’ll wind up with the best kief you’ll ever experience.
For more information on all things cannabis and to check out our 100% all-natural marijuana products, visit HonestMarijuana.com today.
If you grow your own marijuana plants for recreational or medicinal use — or if you’d like to start — consider cloning cannabis instead of growing from seed.
Cloning is an easy way to preserve a plant’s growth and production genetics from one generation to the next. You’ll have to start your grow the normal way, but, after it gets going, you’ll never have to buy seeds again.
In this article, the cannabis experts at Honest Marijuana tell you everything you need to know about this unique growing method.
What Is Cloning Cannabis?
Cloning is the process of cutting off a piece of a plant in its flowering stage, replanting the cut piece, and nurturing that sprout until it grows on its own.
Scientists call this cutting-and-replanting action cloning because it creates an exact copy of the original plant (known as the daughter and mother respectively).
This may not seem like a big deal, but the daughter plant will have identical genes and growing characteristics as the mother.
So, if you clone a mother plant that produces lots of flowers with high levels of the cannabinoid you’re after, chances are high that the daughter plant will, too — all without having to spend money and time starting from seed.
What’s more, cloning cannabis is drastically different from growing a new plant from seed because the seed itself contains slightly different genetics than the mother plant from which it came. Sorry, but that’s just the way plant biology works.
For example, if you take a seed from a mother plant that produces lots of flowers with high levels of the cannabinoid you’re after, put it in a pot of soil, and grow it to maturity hoping to get the same traits in the new plant, you might be disappointed.
The next generation may produce lots of flowers, but tiny genetic variations may reduce the concentration of the cannabinoid you’re after. If you continue harvesting seeds generation after generation, eventually, all the traits you enjoyed in the original plant will change.
Cloning cannabis, on the other hand, preserves the genetics, growing characteristics, and plant traits from one generation to the next.
How To Get Started Cloning Cannabis
Choose The Right Plant
Not all strains of cannabis make good subjects for cloning.
In fact, not all plants within the same strain make good subjects for cloning.
So, how do you go about finding the right mother plant to cut?
Here’s the bottom line: Choose the plant with the right combination of characteristics to maximize your bud yield.
Yes, the strain is important as it applies to general growing characteristics and the effects you hope to achieve with the finished product (i.e., recreational or medicinal).
With cloning cannabis, however, it’s more important to find an individual plant within the strain you choose that demonstrates a specific set of traits.
We recommend cloning cannabis from a plant that:
Grows quickly and vigorously in the vegetative stage
Grows quickly and vigorously in the early part of the flowering stage
Because plants that grow slowly often take a long time to restart, re-veg, and get going again after you clip off a piece for cloning. That’s why we like to clone plants that grow quickly in the vegetative and flowering stages.
Similarly, you want to choose a plant that grows lots of stems and bud sites with as little outside interference as possible. Why? Because, really, that’s the whole point of cloning cannabis — to get as many flowers as possible from a single plant.
When you find a plant that grows lots of stems and bud sites, that trait will transfer to all the clones cut from the original plant and give you the high yield you’re looking for.
The last thing to consider is the height of the original plant. You don’t want a mother plant that is too short (because it will have a hard time restarting), nor do you want one that is too tall (because the daughter may be even taller).
For optimum growth and yield, choose a medium-height plant that fits with the other characteristics on the list above.
And, as we mentioned, never try to clone an autoflowering strain. These types of cannabis plants are not affected by light exposure so you cannot force them to revegetate.
For example, let’s say you want to clone a high-CBD/low-THC strain, like Harlequin, and you germinate five seeds.
Watch for a plant or plants that exhibit the characteristics we mentioned above — fast, vigorous growth in the vegetative stage and early part of the flowering stage, lots of stems and bud sites, medium height, and is not of the autoflowering variety.
Keep in mind that some plants will have these characteristics and some won’t.
You may only get one or two plants that fit the bill, and, from those, you may only take one or two clippings. But those will turn into brand new plants that you didn’t have before.
Now that we’ve discussed how to choose the right plant, let’s dive into the particulars of cloning cannabis.
Cloning Cannabis Option #1
Supplies
Razorblade, scalpel, or sharp scissors
Rubbing alcohol
Glass of water (properly pH-balanced if possible)
Plastic bag
Long-term growing medium
Grow lights
Directions
At about three weeks into the flowering stage — 28 days into the 12/12 bloom cycle (that’s 12 hours of light, 12 hours of dark) — choose your best female plant.
Sterilize your cutting tool with rubbing alcohol.
Select a branch low on the plant with two or three nodes (avoid woody branches).
Place the cutting in a cup of water so that the liquid covers at least an inch of the stem.
Cover the cup with a plastic bag to retain moisture (make sure the bag isn’t airtight).
Change the water every three days.
Transplant the clone into the long-term growing medium when the roots are at least one inch long. Some growers wait until the roots are six inches long. This takes more time but doesn’t shock the plant as much when you transport the new growth to its final growing space. If you don’t want to wait that long but you still want a modicum of shock prevention, try transplanting when the roots are three inches long.
Nurture the clones back to the vegetative state by exposing the new growth to the same light/dark schedule you’d use for a regular plant in the vegetative state (e.g., 18/6, 20/4, or even 24/0).
Maintain this re-veg process until the clones branch profusely and their leaves return to normal growth and appearance (about 30 days from taking the cuttings).
Continue growing the clones as you would a regular pot plant from seed.
Cloning Cannabis Option #2
Supplies
Razorblade, scalpel, or sharp scissors
Rubbing alcohol
Rooting compound gel or powder
Rooting cube
Long-term growing medium
Grow lights
Directions
At about three weeks into the flowering stage — 28 days into the 12/12 bloom cycle (that’s 12 hours of light, 12 hours of dark) — choose your best female plant.
Sterilize your cutting tool with rubbing alcohol.
Select a branch low on the plant with two or three nodes (avoid woody branches).
Find a spot about ¼ of an inch below a node.
Cut into the branch at a 45-degree angle below the node.
Remove the bottom leaves from the cutting.
Dip the stem in rooting compound.
Poke a hole in the rooting cube with a pencil.
Place the clone in the rooting cube.
Keep the rooting cube moist. If you’re using a plastic tray, maintain about ¼-inch of water at the bottom.
After a few weeks, you’ll notice roots pushing through the bottom of the rooting cube.
Transplant everything (rooting cube and all) into the long-term growing medium.
Nurture the clones back to the vegetative state by exposing the new growth to the same light schedule you’d use for a regular plant in the vegetative state (e.g., 18/6, 20/4, or even 24/0).
Maintain this re-veg process until the clones branch profusely and their leaves return to normal growth and appearance (about 30 days from taking the cuttings).
Continue growing the clones as you would a regular pot plant from seed.
Should You Try Cloning Cannabis?
If you always buy your bud at the corner dispensary and leave the growing to someone else, it’s probably not a good idea to try cloning cannabis your first time out of the gate.
Instead, cultivate a plant or two all the way through to the end first so you have some idea of what’s involved in the entire process.
Once you’ve gone from seed to smoke sesh with your own grow operation at least once, you’ll be better prepared to take on the more advanced task of cloning cannabis.
On the other hand, if you’ve grown at least one crop of sinsemilla to completion, you should absolutely try cloning cannabis.
As we discussed in this article, the process does require a bit more time, effort, and knowledge than raising plants from seed, but all that extra work will be well worth it when you’ve got piles of ganja safely tucked away for a rainy day.
For more information on all things cannabis and to check out our 100% all-natural marijuana products, visit HonestMarijuana.com today.
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