Flower Sterilisation of Flower

[Dooby Doo]

Right, I've always and still do prefer non irradiated flower, don't get me wrong I've had some nice beta and gamma but gamma is my least best process as a lot of flower don't like it!
We heat up our flower whether it's vaping or smoking, so doesn't the flower get sterilised as its heated up.
Non irradiated, Bug in the bud probably dead, heated up and sterilised while waiting for your flower to get to a temperature to vape, Surely, flower in the first place doesn't need to be sterilised.
It was just a thought as flower does loose terpenes though the beta, gamma processes and I've found out I do go through more Medical Flower than flower with full terpenes that I've grown in the past myself.

 

[BudGuy]

The problem is that bacteria, funghi, etc, all grow in population very rapidly, so if the time between the buds being packaged and you finally getting them up to temperature can be week/months, then that's plenty of time for a microbial population to explode. It's not just the bugs baked in at the factory, but the ecosystem of bugs that results from them the whole time it's stored before getting to you.

Also, the handling of the cannabis, particularly grinding, sounds like an excellent way to spread fungal spores around, and those are now also going to be multiplying and creating a new ecosystem in your grinder that's going to grow on your desk in front of you for the next few weeks at least.

Some of those microbes also feast on THC and terpenes themselves, so you don't necessarily get to keep all your terpenes if you don't kill the bugs. Irradiation is often the best compromise of terpene retention, all considered.

Plus, let's not forget that having a good waft of the buds and the ground herb before vaping is all part of the experience, and we shouldn't be asking our immuno-compromised friends to forgo that aspect of the experience for fear they might inhale the bug that finally dooms them.

Although yeah, arguably it might be good of the industry gets to the point that most strains have the option of an irradiated or non-irradiated version, and the bud gets to the patient much fresher, then those of us without those concerns can benefit from a fuller terpene profile if that is indeed the case. Having said that, we are people who eat strawberries off a 2 week ship through the Atlantic from Morocco.

I've only had one non-irradiated strain so far, and I'm glad it's from Glass Pharms packaged in the UK. Can't say I'm able to detect that it has more or less terpenes than my non-irradiated strains since that would be expected just from natural variation anyway. It would be very interesting to get an irradiated and non-irradiated version of the same strain back to back, I feel it'd be impossible to pick apart the effects of irradiation without that sort of test.

There's also something to be said for the fact that it's a very slippery slope if we suddenly announce to pharmaceutical companies that, actually, we're alright with a bit of risk-taking as far as medicine-safety goes. Better to keep them erring on the side of the caution than otherwise.

 

[Dooby Doo]

The problem is that bacteria, funghi, etc, all grow in population very rapidly, so if the time between the buds being packaged and you finally getting them up to temperature can be week/months, then that's plenty of time for a microbial population to explode. It's not just the bugs baked in at the factory, but the ecosystem of bugs that results from them the whole time it's stored before getting to you.

Also, the handling of the cannabis, particularly grinding, sounds like an excellent way to spread fungal spores around, and those are now also going to be multiplying and creating a new ecosystem in your grinder that's going to grow on your desk in front of you for the next few weeks at least.

Some of those microbes also feast on THC and terpenes themselves, so you don't necessarily get to keep all your terpenes if you don't kill the bugs. Irradiation is often the best compromise of terpene retention, all considered.

Plus, let's not forget that having a good waft of the buds and the ground herb before vaping is all part of the experience, and we shouldn't be asking our immuno-compromised friends to forgo that aspect of the experience for fear they might inhale the bug that finally dooms them.

Although yeah, arguably it might be good of the industry gets to the point that most strains have the option of an irradiated or non-irradiated version, and the bud gets to the patient much fresher, then those of us without those concerns can benefit from a fuller terpene profile if that is indeed the case. Having said that, we are people who eat strawberries off a 2 week ship through the Atlantic from Morocco.

I've only had one non-irradiated strain so far, and I'm glad it's from Glass Pharms packaged in the UK. Can't say I'm able to detect that it has more or less terpenes than my non-irradiated strains since that would be expected just from natural variation anyway. It would be very interesting to get an irradiated and non-irradiated version of the same strain back to back, I feel it'd be impossible to pick apart the effects of irradiation without that sort of test.

There's also something to be said for the fact that it's a very slippery slope if we suddenly announce to pharmaceutical companies that, actually, we're alright with a bit of risk-taking as far as medicine-safety goes. Better to keep them erring on the side of the caution than otherwise.

Thankyou for the knowledgeable reply, I was wondering why they irradiated our flower and now i fully understand why so thanks again for the informative reply its much appreciated. I did notice some of Glass farms had been irritated and it was that, that really got my thoughts going, I was thinking why have they irradiated their products when it's going to be sold pretty quickly and it's been grown here under strict conditions and won't be stored for a long period of time, why is it irradiated. It got me a little confused. Like fish too talking about strawberries being shipped from afar. They say the fish is freshly caught and in your supermarket next day, the fish could have been on the boat for 2 weeks or more before reaching the fish market.
It would be interesting to have the taste and effects comparison with the same flower, non and irradiated.

 

[Delta 9]

I would say it hides alot of bad batches of cannabis with mould mildew etc, All about longer shelf life and saving batches of weed that would be binned due to mould.

I dont think its a case of i am growing this for immuno compromised patients. Non irradiated do alot to buffer what might get them a no pass which takes skill , experience and passion shows in the flower where irradiated (not all) can be grown by suits with not much experience because they have an irradiation machine lol.

I think ozone and RF is the future for steralized cannabis and would be good to see a comparison with ozone , rf ,gamma,beta,non on terpenes and other stuff

 

[BudGuy]

I would say it hides alot of bad batches of cannabis with mould mildew etc, All about longer shelf life and saving batches of weed that would be binned due to mould.

I dont think its a case of i am growing this for immuno compromised patients. Non irradiated do alot to buffer what might get them a no pass which takes skill , experience and passion shows in the flower where irradiated (not all) can be grown by suits with not much experience because they have an irradiation machine lol.

I think ozone and RF is the future for steralized cannabis and would be good to see a comparison with ozone , rf ,gamma,beta,non on terpenes and other stuff

Probably yeah, it's the same as the "chlorinated chicken" argument. Americans claim their chicken is cleaner because they chlorinate it, we argue that the fact that they HAVE to chlorinate it in the first place means their chicken is filthier.

But at least radiation doesn't stick around in the bud after the event like chlorine does in chicken.

 

[Delta 9]

Probably yeah, it's the same as the "chlorinated chicken" argument. Americans claim their chicken is cleaner because they chlorinate it, we argue that the fact that they HAVE to chlorinate it in the first place means their chicken is filthier.

But at least radiation doesn't stick around in the bud after the event like chlorine does in chicken.

Yip pretty much the same and good comparison , chlorinated chicken would hide a multitude of sins in that industry where you dont need to be a good farmer to sell a steralized product you could be a suit with a warehouse but know how to chlorinate.

yip it does not stick to the bud just ruins the theraputic benefits to a large degree

How about some pastureized cannabis lol

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-93264-y

 

[BudGuy]

Yip pretty much the same and good comparison , chlorinated chicken would hide a multitude of sins in that industry where you dont need to be a good farmer to sell a steralized product you could be a suit with a warehouse but know how to chlorinate.

yip it does not stick to the bud just ruins the theraputic benefits to a large degree

How about some pastureized cannabis lol

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-93264-y

I'm not very tall, so most cannabis plants are pasteurised to me.