Why You Shouldn’t Waste Your Cannabis Stems

Most people when using cannabis are careful to pick out the unwanted stems – as they generally don’t taste the best when smoking cannabis flower. As true as this may be, we want to encourage you to change that habit and save those stems to put to use later! What you may not know is that every part of the cannabis plant can be used for something, so to avoid waste we’ve highlighted some good uses for your cannabis stems below.

Cannabutter

Cannabutter is a very popular edible that can be made using cannabis stems. Depending on the potentcy you’re wanting your butter to be, you can use more or less stems in the process. To make cannabutter, start by melting the shortening of your choice into a saucepan at a very low heat. Next, take your stems and grind them up finely and sprinkle them on to the melted butter. Let the mixture sit and simmer for half an hour, again, on low very heat. After you 30 or so minutes are up, remove from heat and use cheese cloth to strain out the unwanted plant matter over a small jar. Voila! You now have cannabutter to use however your heart desires. Might we suggest cookies? 

Cannabis Stem Tea

Take out the stems you’ve been saving up and decarboxylase them. You can learn more about that process in this article we’ve shared here. This will activate all the cannabinoids present in the stems to make them ready for brewing. After decarboxylation, let the stems cool down, and then crush them up carefully. Once made into smaller pieces, add the stems to a pan of water and warm them up on a low temp letting the stems steep as you would with your usual tea. Once brewed, you can add you favorite tea sweeteners, sit back and enjoy the relaxing experience to come.

Tincture

Making cannabis tincture at home is not only relatively easy, but can be fun too! There are a few different methods so today we will share one of the easiest and quickest methods. To begin, the only ingredients you need are cannabis stems and your choice of grain alcohol. Take a glass jar and fill them with stems – The more stems you use, the more potent the mixture will be. Next, fill the jar with alcohol, ensuring you cover all the stems and close the cap tightly. Place it in a cool, dark place for about a week, remembering to shake the jar every once in a while when you can remember. The alcohol will extract all the goodness from the stems leaving you with the infused grain alcohol. Strain with a cheese cloth and pour into a dropper bottle to use whenever.

Use Stems as Mulch

One of the most easy ways to make use of your cannabis stems are to simply use them as a mulch. To do this, you simply grind them up and add them to your plant’s soil. This will give your plants all the cannabinoid’s nutrient goodness as you water it – while also saving you from having any cannabis waste. 

Key Takeaway

As you have read in the above sections, there really is no reason for any of the cannabis plant to go to waste. We encourage you to start a jar collecting your stems rather than simply throwing them away to waste. There are so many great uses your cannabis stem can serve, and this article is just to highlight a few! As always, we encourage you to do your research when extracting to ensure you’re doing things properly. 

Thanks for reading and have fun,