How To Store Weed for Best Results

There’s a place for everything. We have wine racks and wine fridges, gun racks, and safes. Bread boxes, jewelry boxes, produce drawers, laundry baskets, salt shakers, and containers labeled “sugar” and “flour” on our kitchen counters. Everything has to go somewhere, and we keep things in their designated places because they’re meant to live there. 

Your cannabis has to have a home. Proper cannabis storage is the key to sustained freshness. If you store your strains the right way, your terpenes will be just as tasty on month two as they were on day one. 

Here’s Why Cannabis Storage is Important

Just a short time ago, cannabis was a living flower. It was attached to the stalk of a plant. It was growing and thriving. Then, it had to be harvested. At that point, it ceased living. The same can be said for the tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, parsley, and basil in your kitchen. Consider what would happen if you didn’t store them properly.

Harvested plants will naturally decompose. Your cannabis underwent a special drying and curing process to naturally extend its shelf life for as long as possible. If you want it to stay perfectly preserved, you need to store it appropriately. The grower started the process, but it’s a little like a relay race. When you get your weed, you’re holding the torch. 

If you don’t store your cannabis properly, all the terpenes will evaporate. It can become brittle and shrivel up from lack of moisture. It might become too moist, collecting water, growing mold, and eventually rotting. Light and heat can destroy the cannabinoids, killing the potency of your cannabis and rendering it useless before you get a chance to smoke it. 

The short of it: if you don’t store your cannabis properly, it ultimately becomes the equivalent of throwing most of it in the trash.

Keep Everything Organized and Separated

You should be able to tell what each strain is and when you bought it. If you have a bunch of little bags in your sock drawer, you’re going to get everything mixed up. You won’t be able to tell your Purple Kush or Sour Diesel. You won’t know the difference between the cannabis you bought last week and the cannabis you purchased last year.

Put every strain in a unique container. Stori’s pods have color-coded lids that you can write on with a dry erase marker. You can also use the Stori app to include your strain information for each color. Include the date you purchased your cannabis on the lid or in the app. 

Knowing when you purchased a strain may encourage you to finish it on time. You’ll have a reminder of its age present at all times, and you might pay a little more attention to that strain if you have a significant amount left after a few weeks. 

Keep Your Cannabis Out of the Sun and Away From the Heat

Your cannabis might look pretty in a clear jar on the windowsill. After a day in the window, that cannabis becomes purely decorative. Dried and cured cannabis should never be exposed to light or heat. When the flowers are alive, they use light and heat to grow and transform. After they’ve been harvested, light and heat will technically cremate them. 

Cannabinoids are very responsive to the sun and heat. The cannabinoids in your cannabis don’t become active until you smoke them. The act of lighting your joint causes the extra carboxylic acid groups to burn off the cannabinoids, converting them from the form that the plant needs to the form that your body needs in just a few seconds. 

If you allow your cannabis to be exposed to the sun or heat, that process occurs before you’re ready to use your cannabis. The cannabinoids convert and burn right off. The potency is significantly knocked down in the process, the flower shrivels up, and it begins to crumble. There’s no point in attempting to smoke it once it's fried to a crisp. 

Choose a Storage Container Made of the Right Material

There is absolutely no room for zip-top or cellophane bags in the cannabis world. These do nothing to keep your cannabis protected from the elements. Many of us may be accustomed to this way of thinking due to our previous habits before high-quality recreational cannabis was easily accessible. Still, we’ve moved up in the world. 

There’s also the Pinterest crafter side of everyone who loves the idea of upcycling old jam jars or mason jars by turning them into cannabis storage containers. Unfortunately, clear glass will let a ton of light into the jar. Even tinted glass allows some light through.

There is the exception of violet biophotonic glass, which is extremely expensive but highly effective at protecting light-sensitive herbs and herbal preparation. The only problem with glass is that it isn’t very durable. You can’t travel with it, and larger glass containers are very heavy. 

So what about opaque plastic? It’s lightweight, and you can’t see through it. It’s also prone to creating static electricity charges that fry the sensitive trichomes off of your cannabis. You’ll lose a lot of cannabinoids and terpenes when you store your cannabis in a plastic container.

That’s where food-grade aluminum comes in. Aluminum isn’t prone to static buildup. It’s lightweight, completely opaque, and does a great job of maintaining its temperature. It’s also sturdy and durable enough for travel. That’s why Stori makes our cannabis storage pods and tubes out of aluminum. 

Fill Your Container Properly

You should never stuff all your cannabis into one container without leaving any headroom. When cannabis is tightly jammed into a small space, the exterior of the flower is damaged, and the trichomes can break off. On the other hand, you don’t want to dramatically underfill a container. If the container contains more air than cannabis, you run the risk of your cannabis degrading too quickly. 

A Stori pod is designed to hold up to seven grams of cannabis. If you only have a gram or two, make yourself a couple of pre-rolls and pop them in the Stori tubes. If you prefer to use cannabis differently, you can grind it up and pour it into the tubes for later use. 

Maintaining Consistent Humidity

During the curing process, cannabis is kept at a consistent and ideal humidity level. Harvested cannabis requires just enough moisture to keep it from withering but not enough to cause it to rot. It’s a very selective process, and most cannabis consumers would be glad that they never have to cure their own bud. 

After you receive your cannabis, you need to continue what the grower started. Thankfully, it’s much easier for you than it was for them. The lid of every Stori pod is designed to hold a size 1 Boveda pack, which turns each pod into a low-maintenance humidor. 

The Boveda pack works to establish consistent relative humidity while providing a very thin purified moisture shield on the surface of each flower. It’s just enough moisture to prevent the valuable terpenes from evaporating.

These packs can last for months, and they’re very easy to replace. Just be sure to write the date on the pack when you pop it in, and periodically check the texture. When it becomes solid with no soft spots, it’s time to swap it out for a new pack. 

Stori Makes Everything Easy for You

There’s no reason to improvise and hide your cannabis in strange corners of your bedroom. The Stori case is a functional storage solution designed specifically for your cannabis. It’s kind of like a wine cellar, but it’s a weed cellar. And it’s far more portable and space-saving than an entire cellar. You get the point. 

When used with the Stori app, the Stori case can help you keep track of your cannabis. You’ll know how much you bought, when you bought it, what you spent on it, and how well it worked for you. 

Stori got you covered on all fronts...keeping you organized with its color coded system, air tight pods, made from aluminum and built in a Boveda holder to keep mold and light away.

Sources:

How Evaporation of Terpenes in Cannabis Can Cost You | Boveda

What is decarboxylation, and why does your cannabis need it? | Leafly

Biophotonics: Introduction to Biophotonics | World Scientific