Losing That Beautiful Smell After Harvest

[thepike1984]

As the title says. Just Harvested my 4th grow and 3 days off the plant and the smell has completely gone, AGAIN. This happens to me on every grow. Am i doing something wrong? I left my last harvest dry almost 4 weeks before smoking any. Still no smell to it. I hear smell is genetics but iv grown 4 well known strains that i know should blow your nose off when the jar is opened. It just aint happening.

 

[GeorgeSmiley]

Describe your drying and curing process and lets have a look see

How long do you hang? What point do you go to jars etc etc

Smiley

 

[thepike1984]

Previous harvests Iv cut the branches from the plant and hung them upside down in a dark room for about 1.5-2 weeks. By this time they have lost all smell. Then i start to jar them while smoking them which is atleast 4 weeks in total.

 

[HUGE]

Don't want to hijack the thread but I'm interested in this also. I know what heae talking about all the good stink disappears and you get a hay smell. This is usally after about 3 days hanging. I believe it is normal at this stage, but where I'm getting screwed is I think everything is drying to fast so the hay smell stays with the buds even after a couple weeks injars. My process so far is hang whole plant at 78F &45% RH for 7-10 days but they seem to dry in like 3-4. Then paper bag till they are dry enough for jars. Then burp jars daily for like 2 weeks. After all this I do have a very strong weed/skunk smell but it's very generic and I can't get a real big difference between strains. If I grind some up I get the notes of smell that I figured id get from just smelling the jar. It seems that once I take it out of jars and have a baggies exposed to air away from where all the curing goes down that the smell starts to get better.

 

[thepike1984]

No worries HUGE. You described the problem much better than i did anyway.

 

[jesushadafender]

I chop mine and dont touch them until the stem between a cola can snap. After this happens thats when I trim and I always have amazing smelling herb. I think the key is to gradually "sweat" out the moisture of the plant with the leaves on. This method has always worked for me to keep my herb smelling top notch. Lets see what else people have to say

 

[thepike1984]

Jesus inbetween your drying stages does the smell of your herb dissapear temporarily?
Can anyone tell me the ideal temp and humidity for drying? And does it make a difference leaving the plant as a whole while drying or is it best to cut branches off and dry them individually?

 

[smokesalot420]

I dry from 5-7 days (also until the stems snap) then place it in glass mason jars. I burp the jars 2-3 times a day for a few mins for a week or 2 and it is ready to smoke and should smell great!

Do you happen to be spraying Baking soda or Sodium Bicarbonate to battle Powdery Mildew? I noticed in one crop that I was fighting PM did not smell much after being sprayed (as baking soda is used to fight odors) close to harvest but this effect was temporary...

 

[jesushadafender]

It never really disappears. Especially after you trim and jar it up for a week or two the smell REALLY comes out. Honestly bro, thats the only method Ive used that really kept the taste and smell like how I wanted it. Im sure other ways work too this is just the one my buddies and I use for our drying method. Which really isnt a method at all Id say I just trim when they are dry.

 

[johnny butt]

Hopefully this will help a bit...

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=156237&highlight=curing

 

[smokesalot420]

I try to keep my temps between 70-75 degrees with 30-40 percent humidity for drying.

 

[jesushadafender]

Yea smokesalot is right. Gotta be burpin that jar on a regular

 

[thepike1984]

Not spraying it with anything smokesalot. If its not flushed properly could that cause it to not smell right?

 

[hempathy.inc]

I used to have this same problem, until I started just cutting the plant at the base and hanging it whole. Takes about 6-7 days to dry, then to paper bags for a day or to , then jars and now my herb smells up the whole place when you open the jar. And each strain has /keeps its unique smell. Hope this helps.

 

[thepike1984]

Johnny Butt thats a good link. Thanks

 

[IwannatokeNbone]

try adding organics, your brix level is probally to low, sugars feed the stink. ive grown in coco, one dose of blackstrap and the next day the plants reak about 25 percent more. then again im over hydro erb, parched erb from excessive salts with no smell development, just cant compare to good soil grown imo. but id say add organics-

jesushadafender point ive heard before as well, makes trimming a headache but people seem to swear by the method for stink salvation.

 

[thepike1984]

Hate to ask this but whats blackstrap?

Edit - Doesnt matter i googled it. So this increases odour? Does it effect the taste and smoke of your bud?

 

[statusquo]

A type of molasses

 

[sirharrynuggz]

.

 

[Mister Postman]

Unless your drying buds the size of footballs in a humid location, 2 weeks of haging is to long IME. You want to put the buds into paper bags/jars before they are bone dry, and crumbling. The key to great smelling bud is to allow the moiture to sweat out from the buds gradually.

I cut, and trim my buds when fresh. Cutting the branches off at the main stem of the plant, and hangin them to dry. In 70-73 degree temps and 30-45% humidity I let the buds dry for around 5-7days depending on size of buds, or untill I can hear a snap sound when bending the stems. The stems shouldn't be able to snap clean in half. You hear the snap of the fibers, but they should still hold enough moisture inside to bend. At that point I cut the buds from the stems, and place them into brown paper bags for a couple days, opening the bags up daily to mix the buds up so they dry evenly. After that time, when the buds have just become smokable I go ahead and place them into the glass jars for curing. I open the jars up daily as I did the bags to let out the moisture for the first week or 2, and if they feel damp to the touch I dump them out on a piece of newpaper for 5-10min or until the outside of the buds are once again dry.

With this method the scent of the varieties I grow litteraly explodes from the jars when opened, and is uncontainable in plastic Bags. Primo buds, but a liability if you gotta travel with it, or give samples to friends.