The Ultimate Guide to Weed Storage
Cannabis isn’t so simple anymore. You’re no longer purchasing whatever quantity of whatever strain you can get a hold of. You walk into a dispensary, and it’s like falling into wonderland.
You have dozens (if not hundreds) of strains to choose from, and many of them are perfect candidates for your stash. It’s easy to build a sampler of new strains or keep a well-stocked stash of your favorites.
But what do you do when you bring all that cannabis home? You have a substantial selection, but you may not have a straightforward storage solution that will keep your cannabis organized and fresh until you’ve finished up each strain.
That’s why cannabis storage is so important. Here’s what you need to know about keeping your weed tasty and extending its lifespan so you can enjoy it down to the very last joint.
Your Cannabis Came Perfect
The team that grew your cannabis set the perfect stage for you. They lovingly tended to every single plant, perfectly harvested it, meticulously dried it, and expertly cured it. Throughout every step of the process, they were concerned with cultivating the highest possible quality of flower and maintaining it throughout the process.
That’s how your cannabis arrives looking alive. It’s still green. It’s still soft. It’s extremely aromatic and covered in crystalline trichomes, packed with cannabinoids and terpenes. It’s so perfectly preserved that you’d never assume that the flower has technically been dead for months.
Hats off to the growers for doing all the hard work. They’ve given you incredible cannabis, and all you need to do is keep it that way.
The Key is Maintaining Your Cannabis
Storing your weed isn’t a labor-intensive process. All you need to do is place it in an environment that mimics the environment where the cannabis was cured. If you mimic its initial storage conditions, the cannabis will stay nearly frozen in time. You don’t have to do anything special. You just have to toss it into a well-prepared container.
How Long Can Cannabis Stay Fresh?
Under ideal conditions, cannabis can stay fresh for at least a year. Over time, even in proper storage conditions, it can begin to degrade. As long as you use it up by the 18-month mark, you’ll still be able to enjoy the majority of the strain’s effects.
Here’s Where Most People Go Wrong
What do you do when you bring your cannabis home? Are you putting it in a pasta sauce jar you washed out and upcycled? Are you sticking it in a zip-top bag and tucking it in your ugly holiday socks?
If you are, you need to ask yourself an important question: would you do that with gourmet chocolate or a top-shelf bottle of red wine? If the answer is yes, we need to have a talk about how to treat nice things. If the answer is no, it’s time to change your storage strategy.
Proper cannabis storage isn’t difficult. It’s as easy as can be. Most people don’t consider proper cannabis storage because they’re in the mindset that their cannabis is something they need to tuck away or keep private. That’s not the time we live in. Put that mindset in the rearview mirror.
High-quality cannabis, like wine, isn’t cheap. You should be treating them both the same way.
Preventing Light Exposure
Light is the best friend of growing cannabis but the absolute enemy of cannabis that’s already been harvested. When cannabis is growing, it uses light and moisture to produce cannabinoids and terpenes. These compounds naturally transform. Terpenes evaporate into the air, and cannabinoids transform as the plant needs them.
When your cannabis has been harvested, there’s no way for this process to continue. Light will cause the cannabinoids to convert into less useful forms and the terpenes to evaporate, and they won’t be able to replenish themselves.
When they’re gone, they’re gone.
Many people believe that glass jars are proper storage for cannabis, but they’re not helping. If you can see your cannabis in the jar, that means light is getting inside. Only a completely opaque container will keep your cannabis protected.
Stori’s storage pods are made of food-grade aluminum. They’re lightweight, they don’t let the light in, and they won’t shatter if you drop them. The pod is designed to keep your cannabis protected at all times, including during travel. In fact, Stori tubes are designed to make a joint perfectly portable.
Limiting Air Circulation
The terpenes in your cannabis are what make each strain so unique. Terpenes are aromatic compounds that the cannabis plant uses to interact with its environment.
The plant releases these terpenes into the air, sending a message to its potential predators that they shouldn’t eat it and sending a message to pollinators that the plant is delicious.
When you smoke a particular strain, you experience the flavors and aromas unique to that strain of cannabis. You receive the messages the terpenes are sending. When you really like that message, you’ve found a winning strain.
Terpenes are finicky and designed to float away. Just a little bit of air circulation and a little bit of light will send them flying away.
Stori’s pods have tight-fitting lids that don’t allow air in or out of the pod. They’ll keep your terpenes safe, especially if you turn each pod into a humidor.
Maintaining Proper Humidity
Cannabis requires very consistent humidity. If it loses too much moisture, it will shrivel up, degrade, and wither away. If it gains too much moisture, bacteria and mold will breed inside the flowers and cause them to rot.
The cannabis you purchased is already at optimal humidity. All you need to do is keep it that way.
Inside the lid of every Stori pod is a little place to put a size 1 Boveda pack. Boveda packs work to maintain the humidity of your Stori pod. They lay down a monolayer of purified water on the surface of the cannabis. This layer is just enough water to prevent the terpenes from trying to escape.
The Boveda pack doesn’t really need your help to retain the relative humidity of the pod. All you need to do is check on it once in a while. When it feels as though the entire pack is beginning to harden, just toss it out and replace it with a new one.
Do You Have Kids or Pets?
If you have children in your house, you probably keep your wine locked up. Kids are quick, and it’s astounding how easily they find everything they’re not supposed to have. That’s why Stori pods are equipped with child-resistant lids.
Your kids and your pets won’t easily be able to get to the contents of the pod. They’re just as safe as any medicine bottle.
If you have children or pets, you should keep your medicine bottles and Stori pods in a place that isn't easy for them to reach just as an extra precaution. A high shelf or dresser should do the trick.
Keeping Your Stash Organized
Most people like to have a selection of cannabis. You have your favorite nighttime strain, your favorite daytime strain, the strain that makes you feel really creative, and the strain that makes you feel less stressed.
It can be difficult to keep track of all your strains, especially if they’re all in identical containers.
We thought of that, too. That’s why each Stori pod has a color-coded lid. You’ll easily be able to denote which strain is which by entering the information into the Stori app.
You can track the name of the strain, when you bought it, how much you spent, your rating of the strain, and your own personal use notes. You can also find similar strains to the ones you like.
The Whole Case Serves a Purpose
Aside from holding six Stori pods and six Stori tubes, the Stori case also offers a place to hold your rolling papers or lighter. The top of the case is designed to be used as a rolling tray, and the whole case is designed to be portable.
We’ve made it as easy as possible to store your cannabis like a pro. All you need is the Stori kit and a box of Boveda packs to help keep your stash fresh and tasty.
Sources:
Analysis and review of trichomes in plants | BMC Plant Biology
How Evaporation of Terpenes in Cannabis Can Cost You | Boveda Inc