For one reason or another, you’re holding some really crispy buds in your hand. In fact, they’re so crispy that smoking them is like smoking dry wood. Have no fear – they can be salvaged. Try the rehydration methods in this article with great care and tact to make sure you don’t make them wet!
There are a few reasons you might have ended up with weed too dry to use:
- Maybe you harvested a lot after the last season and just didn’t really store it properly.
- Perhaps you forgot about that old stash of weed you had and all of a sudden, you’re having some cravings.
- Or… you bought a brick of cheap weed because… well, it was cheap. No judgements here.
Whichever one you are, there are ways to rehydrate your weed!
If you’re going to be making edibles, it doesn’t even really matter that your weed has become super dry. It won’t matter once you dump it in a pot of butter or oil. But if you’re smoking it, ultra-dry weed can be a harsh, non-pleasant experience to say the least.
So, before you concede to throwing that dry herb in your bubbler, pipe or joint, try some of these tips we have for rehydrating your buds!
1. The orange or lime peel
This suggestion is among the more popular ways to try and get some moisture back into your herb. The “peel” method seems interchangeable between orange and lime, both resting on the same principles and having the same effect.
What you’re essentially doing is transferring some of the moisture locked in the lemon or orange peel into your dried-up buds. Actually, it’s the same principle across all of the suggestions in this article.
So, the way to do it is to remove all the fruit from a piece of lemon peel. You don’t have to use the whole lemon peel. Half will do. Make sure there’s no fruit, because that might just soak your weed in lemon juice, and your mission would be failed.
Put the peel in a jar with your buds and close it. Check on it in a couple of hours. If it hasn’t rehydrated to your liking, keep checking it at intervals. Don’t leave it in the jar for too long because you risk losing your buds to mould – and there’s no way out of that one, unfortunately.
The aftereffect to this method is that your buds will end up with the taste of lemons or oranges in them. You can use this method on any strain of weed, but you can definitely do this to strains that have citrus hints, such as Trainwreck, Hawaii Maui Waui and Swiss Miss! It will further bring out the citrus flavours!
2. The banana peel method
Although this dry weed remedy could also be lumped under the “peel” category, the method is slightly different. Banana peels contain more moisture than lemons or oranges, so you will need to be extra careful on checking your jar. Check it for the first time after one hour. And then check it at 15-minute intervals.
Your buds will definitely taste strongly of bananas after leaving them in a jar with banana peels. Delicious!
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3. Fresh buds
Freshly harvested buds contain a lot of moisture. If you happen to have some plants growing that could use a trim, then you can throw a few fresh buds in a jar with your dry ones.
The same rules apply with this method. Check on it regularly to avoid your dried-up buds getting too moist in the rehydration process. Although with this method it can take a little longer to rehydrate than with fruit peels. Check your buds every three hours, and when they’ve taken up enough moisture, remove the fresh ones.
With the “fresh buds method” you don’t risk changing the taste of your rehydrated weed. Some smokers will opt for this method to avoid any unwanted after effects.
4. The cotton ball or paper towel method
These methods are for intense rehydration. Either you have a lot of buds that need rehydrating, or you’ve simply let them dry down to pure crispiness. For this method you’re going to need either some cotton balls or a paper towel, and a plastic bag. You can use a small plastic grocery bag or a sandwich bag.
You want to soak your cotton balls/paper towels in water and then put them in the plastic bag. Poke holes in the plastic bag to allow some of the moisture to escape. Then put the bag in a jar sealed with your weed. Obviously the more soaked material you use, the more moisture will come out into your herb.
Shake the jar every now and then to get the moisture to spread evenly over your weed. In general, this should take 2-3 hours. Be really mindful – you have pure water coming out of that soaked cotton or paper. And you don’t want to end up ruining your buds beyond repair.
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5. The hot pot
Again, this is for some serious hydration. The hot pot requires some safety measures, because you’re going to be dealing with steam. You’re also going to need a t-shirt of the thickest material you’ve got. You won’t ever wear this t-shirt again (for reasons that will become obvious in a minute) so make sure you’re okay with letting it go.
Put a pot of water on the stove and bring it to the boil. Wrap your buds in the t-shirt to create something like a “bag” and hold them tightly over the steam. This is where safety counts! Be careful not to burn your hands on the steam. The steam will rise up through the material and into your buds. Oh, and be careful not to drop anything in the water.
Keep checking on the buds to make sure you don’t overdo it!
How to stop your buds from drying out
Ideally, you never really have to use any of the methods that are listed above because you’ll have taken proper care of your buds. We’re only human and we slip up sometimes, but here are a couple of tips for making sure that your buds don’t become too dry.
Avoid paper and plastic: you should only keep your weed in paper or plastic for a few days at most. Better yet, just keep your weed for the immediate future in plastic or paper. This will help you avoid the problem of dry weed in the future.
Cure in glass jars: glass is undoubtedly the best material you can use for curing your weed. Once it’s cured, it will stay for a long time in glass jars – even years! Well-cured buds are the real solution to avoiding too-dry herbs! When it comes to the storage process post curing, always choose glass.
Hopefully no buds are harmed in the process of rehydrating. You should always be careful you don’t attract mould in the interim. Hopefully some of these methods prove to be as successful for you as they were for other stoners!
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Thank you for this very useful information . Please keep articles like this coming
I think is amazing ?
thanks a lot. What if you have a large quantity that is try. how do you rehydrate. let’s say maybe 5 kg
How do I dry crack rocks?
As though they’re at all similar. Hilarious.
Very helpful information thanks . Am looking forward to more helpful info.
I left my banana peel in my baggie overnight. The pot is moist and tastes good:) Is it dangerous it stayed so long?
I snuck some ganj on a plane and had it double bagged in a dryer sheet and it came out like dryer sheets. Is the orange/lemon/banana peel method good for just getting that flavor out? I dont wanna have to waste good green I took on a trip lol
Nah its fucked man, sorry for your loss
Thanks for this, I got some cheap ass weed and was horrible,, I used the lemon peel (and also a bit of lime) and the results are so much more then i expected,, It doesn’t even taste or smell the same,,,, Cheers 🙂