Storge and use of leaves from defoliation

[Spanky]

Hi,
if I try out defoliating my plant as described in Nebula Haze's tutorial, how should I store them and can I use them to make canna butter?

Recipes appreciated!

Thanks!

[9fingerleafs]

There is no cannabinoids in the leaves so I wouldn't bother. Some claim they still have medicinal properties

[redbeard]

That's what I've always heard. But my grow this time my fans got a lot of tricomes in by the stems. Google tells me if there's trichs then u can use them I'm curious to I'm a newbie how some of the gs will way in.

[9fingerleafs]

Ohh then yeah if they have trichomes go for it. It probably won't be very strong but the only way to know is to experiment

[Spanky]

Just ran to look at my plant. All the leaves are pointy on the ends. What am I missing?

[9fingerleafs]

Hey spanky. I'm talking about the trichomes. Some are round and some spikey

[Spanky]

Thanks for clearing that up! Haven't made it yet to trichomes...just entered flowering this week for first time, but I never would have known about the difference if you hadn't mentioned it. Thanks.

[St.buds]

Ive made good cannabudder with crap trim and as a kid we used to start a couple plants at my neighbors all the time tell his dad would find them and make us pull them so we never got nuggs but we used to make a pipe outa a potato and smoke up the leafs lol not very strong but def gave u tht brick weed lazy high but useing it for cannabudder is definitely a better use of the leafs

[Spanky]

That sounds pretty easy and pretty goo too! Do you think I should freeze the leaves I remove during flower so I can add them to the trim once I am there?

[Spanky]

Sorry, pretty good too! But maybe it will be goo as well

[St.buds]

Lol. Yea it is easy if u just want to use two oz just cut the recipe in half and I dnt no I hear about baken and freezeing trim for dif things and reasons but ive never done it I honestly keep mine in a zip lock and let trim dry then add it to the bag

[Joker]

I once made brownies from the leaves from a mature male plant, got me so high it was scary.

[9fingerleafs]

That sounds promising

[OzBud]

you can also use the leaves with no trichomes to make topical ointments and salves as they use the properties of cannabis plant material, not cannabinoids.
You can also eat them in things like salads.

[Spanky]

Now that sounds promising! I recently attended a class on salve making using an olive oil base and common garden flowers. Wouldn't it be great if it turns out that cannabis salve is an effective tick repellent!?

[Spanky]

OK everybody, thanks for weighing in.

Now, how should the leaves be stored if I am collecting them over a few weeks and my goal is canna butter?

Should I freeze them? Should I dry them? Should I refrigerate them?

And, how long will they keep using your recommended method?

[9fingerleafs]

I think you should treat it like buds (dry and cure) but surely someone with more culinary experience can clear that out

[bblv]

My 2¢ on fan leaves... for my first full harvest, I wanted to do a "rooter to the tooter" approach! Defoliated through veg and flower. I separated regular fan leaves from frosted fan leaves. Made cannaoil from both. The ~4oz of fan leaves without any trichomes ended up giving me 1574mg... which based on our local collective prices, can average about $150 worth of edibles. Now doing the calculations, that ends up being a measly 1.5% potency... definitely not a whole lot going on but still something depending what you have to work with. Frosted leaves churned out to be 10.75%. And when I do tests, I drop 20-30% to account for any attrition in my process/testing, our personal preference to understate rather than overstate (that rule may not be best for medical use though).

The 4oz of non frosted leaves took roughly a full day's worth of effort. I was on the verge of saying it wasn't worth it, except it was such a pleasant high that I will continue to do it. I keep defoliated leaves in a paper bag until I'm ready to decarb then extract with coconut oil. I don't recommend freezing or refrigerating trim. That brings out the chlorophyll and adds more of a deep green color and grassy taste to the oil. Although you'll still get that with the leaves anyway, chilling them first will accentuate it even more.

And in case you're interested in how I processed ~4oz of weak leaves to make a difference in edibles... I separated the leaves into about 5 equal batches. After running the first batch through oil, I drained out the leaf matter then repeated with the infused oil and the next batch of leaves; so the potency compounded into the same oil with each batch. You lose a bit of oil as you go along because it's absorbed and not released by the leaves. But you can wash the oil out of those leaves to retrieve that also. So yes, lots of steps, but I have a hard time saying it's not worth $150 in edibles

[Spanky]

Wow! How do you "run" the leaves through the oil? Does the coconut oil add a coconut flavor? Do you think i could use olive oil instead? How much defoliating of regular fan leaves do you do during flowering, and for how long? Same questions for frosted leaves. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[bblv]

Hello Spanky, sorry for the incredibly late reply... here's my preferred method for making cannaoil:

Preheat oven to 240
Grind 1/4oz flower or 1oz trim
Spread grinds on foil-lined pan
Bake on center rack for 30 mins, stir, spread, bake another 30 mins
Add 1/2c or 1c clarified butter or coconut oil to slow cooker (1/2c butter per 1/2oz bud)
Turn on low to melt butter/oil
Remove grinds from oven, cool 10 mins
Spray or sprinkle baked grinds with 1t soy lecithin granules, stir
Spray or sprinkle baked grinds with 1t everclear or high% alcohol, mix, spread grinds, rest 10 mins
Add grinds to slow cooker on high (low if not using a water bath) for 2-8 hours (depends on dryness of matter)
Squeeze liquid from grinds with French press, strainer, or cheese cloth (nylon is best)
Cool liquid to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight in a bowl or open mouth container, do NOT freeze, do NOT use a jar

Unrefined coconut oil has a coconut flavor, refined coconut oil does not. However, I hate coconut flavor but the unrefined oil is moderate enough for me... surely depends on preference. Olive oil is possible, but you won't get as much extraction. I can go further into it, but basically different oils and butters have different fat contents... THC attaches to fat molecules... coconut oil is most versatile with a very high fat content. I've done side by side compares of ghee and coconut oil and the oil tested
with up to 100% more THC extraction. I defoliate with GWE recommendations from Nebula's and Sirius's blogs... as much as the plant will handle without suffering... and I save and use all leaves. I don't defoliate sugar leaves until trimming during harvest... they're too close to buds to risk damage.

I'm happy to share what I've learned if it can help anyone! Best wishes in whatever you decide to try!

[LuckyAcres]

Leaves for bubble hash!!!!