Does THC crystallize along with THCa?

Just started doing diamonds and finished a few batches. Some were small crystals
and other ones that I did with the hot jar tech were more powdery.
Just did a batch were I poured out most of the terp sauce and then spin
the rest of the diamonds/powder in a fuge to get the THCa as clean as I could and
ended up getting a good separation with a really dry, pure white powder.

I got it tested at the lab and it came out at only 86.5% THCa with the other 12%
being THC (total 98.5%). I though only the THCa would crystallize and that the THC present in the flowers would end up in the terp sauce.

So, is it normal for the THC to end up in the THCa crystals?

THC is not a crystal, and as far as I know will never be a crystal outside of freezing your distillate.

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No but if you crashed out fast it probably trapped some D9 in the thca.

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And even then, it’s not crystalline. THC belongs to the glass class of materials when cold enough.

Interestingly enough, however, is that racemic THC do crystallize.

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To get it cleaner and closer to 99% you have to recrystallize

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Here is a pic of the powder I used;

That one came out really powdery, other times, it comes out as small sea salt
size crystals;


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Just looks like thca.

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I was planning on using it to recrystallize with pentane. I am starting to learn
that process. Just hope the fact there is THC left in it won’t affect the results.

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Yeah. Don’t understand why there is so much THC left in it

Maybe get a second 3rd party analysis.

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I noticed when I used that powder to recrystallize with pentane, the mother
liquid is really sticky. Does anyone know if pure THCa dissolved in Pentane
supposed to be sticky?

When I tested the dry powder with my hands, it felt dry and not sticky

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I was also thinking that maybe the lab got it wrong

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If it really is THC in there you should be able to separate it by breaking up the crystals and washing them with a cold alkane.

THC is more soluble in alkanes than THCa.

What’s the problem they look fine?

Most flowers have a bit of THC along with the THCa. Some strains have more
than others.

Anyone knows what is supposed to happen to the THC when doing crystals.
Is is suppose to end up with the terps when you pour out and seperate the crystals?

It’ll stay in the mother liquor. The terpenes act as a solvent and generally holds onto the THC.

Shouldn’t matter the thc content of the flower. Thca crystallizes and separates from the rest.

If your tests are showing thc, I would expect your crystals to have more color to them because it usually indicates the presence of mother liquor. Not the color, but the thc content.

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I think you’re tripping over some bunk test results. That looks pretty clean to me. Good job.

Yes the thc usually ends up poured out with the volatile layer. Due to everything being a volatile thats not thc-a in the supersaturated mixture. Though these volatiles can get trapped. Which is why the cold solvent rinse should remove most everything else.

New at doing this so just trying to learn why THC ended up in my end product
and not in the terp sauce. Will be using it to do a second crystallization
with pentane so I am trying to get as close to 100% THCa as possible.
Not sure if having THC present will alter the results with the pentane but I
will figure that out in the next couple of weeks.

if you’re breaking down the crystal, washing, and recrystallizing then I see no reason why your product won’t hit 99%+

I’d imagine your lab is the issue in this case. Try another one if you can

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