Most consumers—and some cultivators—open a container, stick their noses in to inhale the flower’s strong aroma. But that strong smell doesn’t prove flower is fresh. Quite the contrary, a strong smell tells you that terpenes have escaped because of evaporation. When stored without humidity control in a container, flower immediately starts to degrade.
Terpenes are the aromatic essential oils in cannabis. They reside with cannabinoids in the mushroom-shaped glands called plant trichomes—those delicate, resinous outer “hairs” of the flower. Since terpenes and cannabinoids are more or less what consumers pay for when they purchase cannabis flower, almost all of that flower’s market value is contained in this highly exposed and intensely fragile part of the plant.
Trichomes are the source of the therapeutic, medicinal and recreational compounds of this healing plant.
90% of flower is stored too dry, according to a 2018 product analysis conducted by Boveda with third-party testing.
Most flower is stored for upwards of two months before it’s sold or consumed. By the time it reaches the end consumer, most cannabis sold in regulated environments in the U.S. and Canada is far too dry.
The smell, a critical part of the experience, is lost forever.
Precious THC and THCA oxidize, shift to CBN and lose their efficacy.
Trichomes become brittle and break off.
Water weight evaporates, reducing flower’s dollar value.
WHY STORING FLOWER IN AN AIRTIGHT CONTAINER IS JUST THE BEGINNING
Think closing up flower in a jar, CVault®, bin or bag is all that you need to do?
An airtight container doesn’t protect trichomes from losing moisture. Terpenes merely evaporate into the headspace of the container. You have to maintain consistent relative humidity (RH) in the range of 55-65% in that container to keep flower from degrading.
Best practices for keeping the flower protect is to use a humidity protection like Boveda to properly hydrate and protect the trichome shield.
So when shopping for your favorite flower, ask about humidity, find out the relative humidity of your product and make sure she is protected with a shield the keeps her quality entact.
