5 ways to use extra weed
When you grow your own weed, the harvest is one of the few times of the year that you might be wondering, “What should I do with all that extra weed?”
With an average of ¼ – ½ pounds per plant, or at least 112-224 g, even if you only grow one or two plants, you will likely have more weed than you can start with.
You can save and store your buds for later, but chances are they won’t be as fresh as when they were harvested. Also, there is a chance that after months you will get tired of smoking the same thing.
So, if you’ve just harvested a few weed plants, or otherwise have tons of weeds, here are some products to make if you have too many weeds on your hands.
Bubble hash (ice water hash)
Bubble hash is a great, cheap, and easy way to convert extra weed without the use of chemicals. Bubble hash, also known as ice water hash, is made by breaking trichomes from buds and plant matter in extremely cold temperatures, which are then collected to form hash.
Bubble hash takes its name from how it melts or bubbles and is rated based on its “meltability”. “Full melt” or “six-star” bubble hash is the most sophisticated, and it measures up to one star.
To get even a small amount of potent hash, you need lots of bud. We recommend starting with at least an ounce, if not more.
Fortunately, you can usually buy all of the equipment you need to make bubble hash for under $ 100. All you need is:
- Two 5 gallon buckets
- Bladder pockets
- ice cream
- tap water
- Stir stick
To make it, you soak the buds in ice water in a 5 gallon bucket for at least 20 minutes, then stir or stir them. Then pour the ice water-plant material mixture into a set of bubble bags in a second 5-gallon bucket.
Bubble bags are a set of mesh bags, each with a different fineness or micro-quality. Once the ice water / plant material mixture is in the Bubble Bags set, pull them out one at a time to refine and further refine the trichome mixture.
The finer your bags, the more sophisticated your bubble hash will be.
Read more about ice water or bubble hash here.
rosin
Rosin is another great concentrate to make at home that doesn’t use chemicals. Using heat and pressure, rosin is made by pressing buds between two heated plates and catching the hot oil that oozes out.
You can make rosin with a curling iron and some parchment paper and pinch the buds together until they crackle. Or you can invest in a rosin press that will make you a few hundred dollars. Presses usually come with a device for packing flowers into small pucks which are then pressed.
After pressing, remove the pressed grass from the parchment paper, scrape off some rosin with a dab tool, and load it into your favorite dab rig.
Find out more about the production of rosin here.
Cannabutter
Edibles are great for consuming weed without smoking or vaping. To make them, shred your weed to create more surface area, decarbonize it, and simmer it in butter. The THC binds to the fat in the butter and then uses that cannabutter to make anything you want: brownies, cookies, cakes, and more.
You need:
- 7-10g of grass
- 1 cup of butter
- 1 cup of water
- Cheesecloth
To decarburize (or decarboxylate) your weed before simmering, heat it on a low heat for about 30 minutes. The heat activates the weed by converting THCA to THC, which gets you high. When smoking, this is done with your lighter; When making cannabutter, this is done with an oven.
After decarburizing the grass, cook it in butter and water for a few hours, then strain it through a cheesecloth. Let it set, then toss it in whatever baked good you want. As you eat your creation, remember: start low and go slow.
Learn more about how cannabutter is made here.
You can also use a similar process to make cannabis coconut oil. You can cook with it, add it to food, and even use it as a topical.
Related
How To Make Edibles: Leafly’s Guide To Cooking With Cannabis
Cannagar
Nothing says “I have too much weed for my own good” like a cannabis cigar. A modern take on a Thai stick, you will likely need several friends to help you complete this dense blade of grass.
To make one, you need a special shape: for example, this one from Purple Rose Supply. Grind about 2-3 grams of grass and fill it into the mold with a stick in the middle. Let it sit and set for a while, then pull the stick out to allow air to flow.
You can wrap it with a blunt wrap or any rolling paper you want. If you want to be really classy, save a few fan leaves from your harvest and wrap them in them.
To give it a more Thai stick feel, you can also pour hash oil or another concentrate over it before wrapping it to really enhance it.
Tinctures
Weed tinctures are the ultimate in discretion – they don’t smell and you can just put a few drops under your tongue for a quick effect. This product takes a little longer to make, but it lasts a long time.
Tinctures can be made by soaking flowers in wood grain alcohol. We recommend one ounce of weed per 750 ml bottle of alcohol, or about 3.5 grams per 3 fluid ounces.
You’ll need to decarboxylate your weed first, like in the cannabutter example above. After decarburizing, place in a mason jar with the alcohol for a few weeks and shake once a day. Then strain through a coffee filter.
You can also make weed gums with your tincture.
Learn more about tinctures here.
Related
Cannabis Tinctures 101: How To Make, Consume & Dosage Them
Bonus product (during harvest): finger hash
When trimming your crops and handling plants, resin builds up on your hands and you can collect and smoke it. An ancient form of this is called charas – weed farmers in India got their hands on resin while caring for their plants and rolled it into hashballs to smoke.
Some people stay away from it because it can be tough, but if you can’t wait for your weed to dry and harden, fingerhash is a quick way to get high and you’ll get the most out of your harvest.
Weed storage tips
For the rest that you can’t smoke, squeeze, or infuse, be sure to store it properly. Store it in airtight containers in a cool, dry place out of sunlight. You can use a Boveda pack or similar product to control humidity.
And always remember: label everything you keep unless you want to surprise your future you with mysterious weed.
Pat Goggins
Pat Goggins is an editor at Leafly, specializing in growing cannabis after working for a commercial breeder in Oregon for two years. Unless you’re correcting typos, you can likely find it on a boat or in the mountains.
View article by Pat Goggins
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