Why does my weed taste so harsh?

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Have you ever smoked cannabis that tasted harsh and didn’t burn evenly? Did you wonder why? There is no one answer that encompasses why your weed is harsh because there’s a multitude of causes. Some of the most common reasons are: improper flushing, poor curing, residual pesticides, and mold. 

Improper Flushing

Improper flushing is one of the most common reasons why your toke seems to poke your throat and lungs. Flushing occurs right before harvesting and is when you feed the plant pure water to use up existing nutrients already stored within the plant. Leftover salts from nutrients have a very harsh taste and burn unevenly. If you rolled a blunt and one side is burning faster, this can be due to un or poorly flushed weed and unrelated to your rolling skills. You shouldn’t be experiencing any brutality in a quality smoke. Improper flushing happens with alarming frequency due to the urge to push more product out of a grow. Many grow facilities are on a strict schedule of growth that does not allow the required time for a proper flush. An easy way to tell if your weed has too many salts left over is when it burns, you should be left with a nice white ash. If you notice black spots these are partially burned salt deposits. It is not unsafe to smoke, it’s just a little gross and tough on your respiratory system.

Poor Curing

Another reason your puff can be merciless when consumed is from poor curing techniques. If you fail to develop your terpenes post-harvest, your bud will smell and smoke like hay. After a plant is harvested and the bud trimmed, it needs to be dried and cured. The easiest way to explain the process and differentiate the two is this: drying occurs immediately after harvest to get the bud to a desired humidity while curing is the process of letting the THC and terpenes mature. Like wine, good cannabis must sit for a bit after it is harvested and dried. This allows the terpenes to develop and mature after having the water evaporate. As with improper flushing, grows have an incentive to put out product as quickly as possible in order to make more money. Sometimes this means little to no curing.

Realistically, the bulk of your harsh pot will be for one of the two reasons above. The following two reasons, while more troubling, are less likely to actually occur - at least if you’re buying from a licensed business in a place with testing requirements. 

Residual Pesticides

Residual pesticides are a scary but very real possibility. Most approved pesticides, when used according to the label, are safe and do not leave a residue. The issue comes when grows have pest or mold issues and try to treat it without following the legal guidelines from the manufacturer. While most bud is tested for residual pesticides, until there are state-governed independent testing labs, one cannot be certain that labs are up to standard. 

Mold and Mildew

The most terrifying reason your bud could taste bad is mold and mildew. Luckily, it is one of the easiest to spot. THC forms in individual stalks that look like mushrooms under a magnifier. Botrytis, also known as bud rot, forms on the inside of the bud when the moisture content is too high and it is not being hit with air. In its early stages, it looks like white webbing that can be confused as THC to the uneducated. In its advanced stages, it turns black and compromises the structural integrity of the bud. Powdery mildew (PM) naturally exists in most gardens. It’s the white fuzzy stuff on tomato stems. 

Well-run grows are clean grows which are constantly battling and mitigating invasive pests. Because of testing requirements, if you purchase from a licensed store in a state with testing requirements, you can feel confident your flower is not full of mildew and bud rot. If you are buying marijuana that may have been grown illicitly or wasn’t tested, be on the lookout for white fuzzy stuff on the outside or inside of your pot. It’s not trichomes. More on trichomes in the next post.

Photos below: trichomes (good) and spider mites (bad)

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