Earlier this summer, Jesse Porter joined Pat Jack and Charlie McKenzie on the CropTalk Podcast for a conversation about drying and curing high-quality smokable hemp flower. Jesse is InSpire’s Cannabis Business Specialist, where he works to help cultivators with cannabis climate control designed to mitigate risk and maximize profits. He has more than a decade of experience in the cannabis industry including teaching, managing dispensaries, overseeing cultivation facilities and even operating his own cannabis garden supply store.
The CropTalk Podcast is dedicated to helping today’s agricultural leaders explore the foundational values that will help lead to success. Every episode takes a deep dive into specific topics related to agriculture, like growing tips, leadership, company culture, operational excellence and more. Jesse’s episode of the CropTalk Podcast is titled “Smokable Hemp Flower.” Growing a great, smokable hemp flower crop is one thing, but drying and curing that crop so the plant can reach its full phenotypical expression is vastly different.
Jesse kicks off the conversation by discussing the importance of the drying and curing process: “I’ve watched fantastic products being cultivated with passion and care and then – all of a sudden – they turn into not great products during the curing process. All that thought and research that went into growing is overshadowed by a lack of knowledge and space on how to cure and dry. You see products that are beautiful and gorgeous on the vine turn into a dry, crumbly mess that just isn’t appreciated by the market.”
Jesse, Pat and Charlie go on to discuss a variety of topics related to drying and curing:
- InSpire’s role as a company in the smokable hemp flower market
- The importance of cannabis HVACD equipment (and specifically dehumidification) in the drying and curing process
- How plants use airflow and moisture throughout the plant life cycle
- Challenges, pitfalls and successes from Jesse’s experience in cannabis cultivation
- The extension of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) into the drying and curing process
- How skillful curing can help position your product in the marketplace
- Increasing the value of product during long term storage
“There is an opportunity to bring something to the market that isn’t there in bulk,” says Jesse. “The more and more people that embrace the process of curing, the more and more market share they’re going to get. You can dry in the oven, but you cure with care. The difference is that one of them will stand out in the market with consistency, dependability and it’s something that people can count on to be satisfied with.”
To listen to the full “Smokable Hemp Flower” episode, visit: https://www.croptalkmedia.com/listen/episode/2d00c95c/102-smokablehempflower-dry-trim-and-cure-quality-or-ruin-with-jesse-porter.
Looking to learn more about the importance of drying and curing? Jesse also hosted an InSpire webinar surrounding drying and curing cannabis to preserve terpenes and other secondary metabolites. Tune in here.