Pressing Rosin

Back in the day, pressing rosin used to involve things like hair straighteners and other interesting solutions.

While these methods work, they are inconsistent and definitely have less yield that more modern methods.

Now there are many options specifically dedicated to pressing flower rosin that are way more reliable and consistent than these old makeshift methods.

You also may be surprised at how affordable and high tech these newer presses are.

Rosin Presses like the NugSmasher Mini are within reach of the average person these days, although the cost is still much higher than a hair straightener to be sure.

There are some other basic things that affect the rosin pressing process no matter what method you are using.

Here are some common thing you should keep in mind.

Freshness

It is important to not wait too long to press your flowers.

Plant material should be pressed as soon as possible after it is dried and cured for the best results.

If you do wait too long, and the flowers start to dry, then your rosin quality and yield will be lower than it would be otherwise.

Waiting longer will also make your rosin darker.

Humidity and Yield

The amount of moisture in your product will have a large impact on the amount of rosin you can extract.

If the flowers are too dry there will be a huge impact on the yield as well as the quality and consistency of your rosin pressing.

Basically, if the flowers are too dry they will reabsorb the oil extracted instead of you being able to collect it.

Optimal Humidity

What should the plant material’s humidity be?

Well, for optimum results most experts recommend a humidity range of around 55 – 65% for plant material when pressing rosin.

Measuring Humidity

The next question you will probably have is, how do I know the humidity of my material?

There are tools called hygrometers that measure humidity and can be used for this purpose.

You will commonly see hygrometers in cigar boxes since cigars are affected by the humidity level.

There are both simple analog and more feature rich digital hygrometers available.

Quality Product

This probably goes without saying, but quality plant material will give better results than plant material of lower quality.

Plant material quality is one of the most important factors that influence the quality of your final rosin results.

No matter how perfect your process or equipment is you will not be able to get good output if you are using low quality input.

Growing Method

The care of the plants seem to have more of an impact than the method used to grow them.

Most rosin producers have found the grow method (regular soil, hydroponics, etc) does not seem to have any significant impact on the rosin quality.

Genetics

Genetics of the plant material play a large role in the quality of your final rosin product.

It is best to use strains that are known for their quality and potency to make sure your rosin pressing results will meet your expectations.

Cold vs Hot

There is some debate there among experts on the best temperature for rosin pressing.

Some prefer the cold press method while others swear by the hot press method.

Cold pressing is done at a temperature range of 160 – 190 degrees F (71 – 87 degrees C) for usually 1 – 5 minutes.

Hot pressing is done at a temperature range of 190 – 220 degrees F (87 – 104 degrees C) for 45 seconds to around 3 minutes.

Generally, pressing plant material at a colder temperature will produce a higher quality rosin at the expense of the yield at a higher temperature.

Of course there are limits, going too cold will hurt the yield and not product any increase in quality.

On the other hand, going to hot will hurt the quality without any improvement in the rosin pressing yield.

Conclusion

As you can see there are a lot of factors that go into pressing rosin that significantly influence the quality and yield of you final product.

These are just guidelines, and you will need to experiment with these factors to get the best results using you equipment.