Hello everyone,
My auntie and uncle (in their 70s) read that cannabis leaves can be used to make a tea to use for pain relief. They are not planning on getting high or intoxicated. They know I grow and asked me for the leaves. My uncle is like a 2nd father to me so I’d love to help. My question is, what leaves do I need to provide for them to make this tea? The fan leaves? Or the trim while harvesting?
I defoliate my plants 2 or 3 times in a cycle (once on flip to 12/12, 3 weeks into flower, and 3 weeks after that). Are these what they need?
Do they just dip the leaves in boiling water like you would with a tea bag, or is there some process?
Wow thank you for such a fast reply @Growdoc! Noted about dried and chopped. Are they after the fan leaves during my defoliations? Will these work, especially since the ones from flip to flower will not even have any trichomes (or would have just started to) yet?
@MagicCultivator420 I’ve made tea from smaller buds forming that’s trimmed off that won’t make much and leaves dried out as @Growdoc saying works really well my friend happy growing
My wifes cousins use what i give them. They make tea. American Indians. Kickapoo Apache. Thats why my wife runs the house. She would scalp me in my sleep
You can use any leaves on the plant. The leaves don’t have as much THC (usually less than 2%). If you use sugar leaves from around the flowers, they have a much higher THC level and you use less of them for the same effect.
Leaves and flowers need to be soaked in boiling water for at least 10-15 minutes, preferably longer. I’m not sure boiling water will convert THC-a into THC due to the water temperature being 100 degrees Celsius and I think it needs to be 120-130C to convert it (someone correct me on that if it’s wrong). The darker the water goes, the stronger it will be.
You could grow a CBD plant for them and they could use the flowers for pain relief and not get high.
Thank you for everyone’s replies, they are greatly appreciated. I feel like they are steering me in the right direction, but I still have some clarifications on some things please.
@MidwestGuy This is a very interesting topic, thank you for the link! I bookmarked it as it has some very helpful recipes for when I will attempt to try making edibles in the future! I couldn’t find a recipe for the tea from fan leaves though unless I’m missing something.
@Reed71 how do you store the dried leaves? In a jar in a cabinet, or should they go in the freezer?
@Storm Your scalping joke made me chuckle (hopefully it’s a joke ). By ‘my wife’s cousins use what I give them’, what do you actually give them? Even leaves trimmed during late veg and early flower?
@randylilgnome Thank you for the process and the information, can I clarify some things please to have a better understanding? By ‘any leaves on the plant’ as I asked Storm, even leaves during veg and early flower? How will these leaves have any effect (especially the late veg ones) if there are barely any trichomes on them, and the trichomes that there are will still be very under-developed? Should the leaves be decarbed also beforehand, or just dried? You mention the sugar leaves, won’t these get them high since they’re quite potent?
One final thing, googling around about making this tea, I read that THC and CBD bind to fat better instead of water, so using milk, butter or coconut oil was recommended. Any opinions on this?
Thanks again for the information and knowledge everyone!
Maybe give them some of each and tell them to let you know what works best.
Give them some fans with no trichomes on them that most people would just trash, and give them some of the good trim from “sugar” leaves that have not been decarbed and then give them some of that same good trim that you did decarb.
As far as brewing the tea, that can be done so many ways, basically just steeping organic material in water and straining the soild bits out absolutely anyway you can.
Dry or wet, though dry is usely better most would say
You could even “brew” it like coffee just simply pouring hot water over it trough a filter, but that wouldn’t be as strong as letting it soak…
Really no wrong way to make tea as just play around and find what you like
@1HappyPappy I like your suggestion, and I’ll be giving my uncle various types as you stated and he can start experimenting thank you for all the information about brewing also.
Thank you everyone for all the advice. Greatly appreciate it as always! Happy growing everyone!
@JPhoenixX nice to hear from you again, hope your grows are going well haha oh definitely not a bad problem, with a very satisfying reward at the end ^-^ thank you, yes it does look nice, I reckon she’ll yield about 130g dry!
I’m dating myself, but way back in 1970 when Mexican brick weed was the norm, I’d score an lb and manicure it, with all the “trash” stems, leaves, etc going into a big pot of water to simmer on the stove, and the bud being divided into three-finger bags. I can’t say that the taste was appealing, but it doggone sure got me stoned. It did cause some gastrointestinal distress, too, so I didn’t do it again.
Happy weekend, and happy growing everyone 
