Are you fond of homemade edibles? Do you want to increase the potency of your weed edibles without using cannabis-based ingredients such as cannabutter? Then you need to know how to decarb weed in a microwave.

If you use the pure form of cannabis, it does not have strong psychoactive effects. The simplest method to boost the psychoactive effects of your raw cannabis is to decarboxylate it.

Decarboxylating cannabis helps to activate cannabinoids. This produces more potent psychoactive effects. Let us learn more about what is decarboxylated weed and how to carry out the process in a microwave.

What Is Decarboxylation?

Decarboxylation is the process of using heat to activate the raw cannabis plant. In addition, decarboxylating cannabis in a microwave helps to activate the inactive compounds called cannabinoids.

The molecular structure of cannabinoids consists of an additional carboxyl ring. When you warm raw cannabis plants, the chemical composition of the cannabis acids changes, resulting in activated cannabis compounds.

These activated cannabinoid compounds interact with our body’s endocannabinoid system, enhancing the effects of THC and CBD.

Since cannabis has hundreds of cannabinoids, you need to decarboxylate cannabis to initiate a chemical reaction that stimulates these cannabinoids for them to interact better with your nervous system.

Why Should You Use a Microwave to Decarb Raw Cannabis?

Heating cannabis buds decarbs terpenes and cannabinoids, boosting their effects. However, if you do not use the best methods to decarboxylate marijuana, it will result in intense heat that can destroy some unstable molecules present in the cannabis plant.

Thus, you need to use safe and reliable methods for cannabis decarboxylation to properly stimulate THC, terpenes, and other cannabinoids for a higher dosage.

When you burn cannabis buds, the inactive THCA and CBDA transform into active counterparts.

But you cannot burn weed if you’re going to consume cannabis in edibles or in cooking. So how do you unlock weed’s psychoactive properties when growing your own cannabis?

You need to remove the extra carboxyl group COOH present in the cannabinoids by decarboxylation. This proper process to decarb cannabis requires time and heat. Many cannabis enthusiasts use drying and curing cannabis for partial decarboxylation for the decarb weed microwave process.

Prepare Your Dry Cannabis Buds

High intensity of light and heat is detrimental to the plant as it damages the potency of your weed. Therefore, you must keep the cannabis plant in the dark and cool.

Once your cannabis plants are ready for harvest, you have to cut the branches and hang the plants upside down in a drying room.

The room must not have direct light. Avoid keeping your plants in the fresh air, and make sure that your drying room has about 45%-55% humidity.

The ideal drying process takes about two weeks or until the cannabis branches are brittle. After that, you can use a vaporizer or a smoker to decarboxylate marijuana further.

This will help you avoid the curing process. However, vaporizing and curing affect the terpenes present in the weed plant. Therefore most cannabis users proceed with the curing process.

Curing Cannabis Plant

If you’re looking to increase the potency of your cannabis for making edibles, you must preserve the flavor and aroma of your cannabis buds. Curing the buds will help keep the aroma and the taste.

Cannabis experts cure cannabis buds by storing them in mason jars. You can fill up 3/4th of a pot, allowing it to have some air.

Once you fill up the glass jar, place it in a cool and dry place.

Check your cannabis buds by opening the glass jar to allow some fresh air into the mason jar. Then, please keep them in the mason jar for two weeks for better results.

How to Decarb Weed in a Microwave

If you don’t want to decarboxylate marijuana in the oven, microwaving it is an excellent choice. However, microwaving your cannabis flowers is a more challenging process as you cannot regulate the heat.

Moreover, microwaves vary in features. Thus it is challenging to manage the specifics you require for proper decarboxylation in the microwave oven.

Choose a low microwave setting if you’re worried that you may burn the cannabis through microwaving.

Instead, allow the cannabis to cook for a little longer. Occasionally check your cannabis to make sure that it does not burn.

Here’s how you carry out the decarboxylation process in the microwave.

Grind Your Cannabis Flowers

The first step in decarbing your weed in a microwave is to crush the cannabis buds moderately.

For example, you can place the weed buds on parchment paper and grind them until they have a moderate consistency. Next, put the ground cannabis into a microwaveable bowl.

Microwave the Buds

It would be best if you only microwaved the cannabis buds after dialing the power to the minimum. If you overheat the weed at high power, it can ruin the potency and texture of your cannabis buds.

Higher temperatures overheat the marijuana, burning the terpenes and cannabinoids. Therefore, you must stick to a low temperature and slow time to have potent marijuana.

We suggest you put the weed in a microwave-safe tray and keep it inside the microwave once you’ve adjusted the settings to minimum power.

You can either microwave the weed in short bursts of about 10 to 20 seconds on full power or let it sit in the microwave for 90 seconds on minimum power.

After every burst, you should open the microwave door to let the steam out. Then, stir your buds before microwaving again.

Check the Texture

Occasionally take out the microwavable bowl and sniff the plant material. It should smell pungent.

Mix the ground buds and microwave in short bursts for 60 seconds until the weed is decarbed. Decarbed weed changes color from green to medium brown.

Things to Remember

You can employ different microwave settings to decarb your weed but make sure you choose a slow and reliable setting.

If you use a higher temperature for warming marijuana, it burns the cannabinoids and affects the terpenes, lowering the potency. This also ruins the overall efficacy of the product. Therefore, we suggest you choose low heat settings and more time for effective decarboxylation.

Moreover, you can keep wet paper towels in a water bowl and place them in the microwave. It helps with the pungent smell and keeps your home from smelling like a frat house.

If you microwave your weed more than necessary, it will dry your cannabis for smoking but lower the THC and terpene content.

So you wouldn’t be able to enjoy the high you get from decarbed weed if the heat destroys the terpenes and THC. Therefore you should also look into other decarboxylation methods.

Some other decarboxylate weed techniques use common household materials such as an oven, glass jars, sous vide method, a slow cooker, or a double boiler.

Closing with Decarb Weed Microwave

Decarboxylation is the magical process that enhances the aroma and flavor, allowing you to make delicious treats. Once you decarboxylate marijuana, there are numerous ways of using it.

Since decarboxylating cannabis preserves aroma and flavor, making weed edibles is the most suitable use. You can also use decarbed cannabis for making infused oils and tinctures.

You can use it for making cannabutter and cannabis oil. There is no hard and fast rule to making cannabis edibles or canna oil, so you can experiment with various recipes and cook something you like best.