Dried Flower Testing

Dried flower testing encompasses laboratory analysis of cured cannabis material to quantify terpene profiles, cannabinoid ratios, and chemical composition. This post-harvest evaluation differs from fresh flower testing, as the drying and curing process alters volatile compound concentrations through oxidation, evaporation, and enzymatic degradation. Breeders and producers rely on dried flower testing to establish baseline phenotype expressions and predict storage stability. Terpene data from dried samples helps geneticists identify which cultivars maintain aromatic complexity after processing. Testing protocols typically use gas chromatography or liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS or LC-MS) to measure individual terpene percentages.

Breeders use dried flower testing data to select parent plants that retain desirable terpene profiles through the cure cycle, informing decisions about which genetic lines maintain consistency across multiple generations. Standardized dried flower testing also allows breeders to document phenotypic stability and compare how different environmental conditions or drying methods affect the same genet