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Drying too quickly or trying to cure when the bud is too wet both affect the smell. I suggest finding and reading the "Perfect Cure Everytime" thread here (by "Simon" I think.)
Bud that has dried too much will not cure properly and though some of the smell might return, it will never smell like it did pre-harvest.
Bud that has dried too much will not cure properly and though some of the smell might return, it will never smell like it did pre-harvest.
I gotta agree that those buds look/sound off. The darker coloring, and liquor type smell is give away. They were either put into containers to wet, and or not burped regularly enough, or hung/dried in a place with to much moisture in the air, and not enough air movement.
I suggest next time you trim off the fan leaves, and sugar leaves when the plant is still fresh. IME doing so will not be any detriment to the finished products smell/taste if the drying/curing process is done right. After you remove the leaves from the plant, cut the branches from the main stem, and hang them individually to dry. Doing it like this will reduce your chances of the buds taking on mold during the drying process. I also feel it's gentler on the trich heads as they are much more likely to break off when the plant material is dry, and your handling the buds trying to trim off the excess leaf after the fact.
When the buds go into the jars for curing they should be dry enough on the outside to light up with a lighter, but they should still hold some moisture deeper within the bud... This moisture gets sweated out of the buds with the daily opening/burping of the jars during the first few weeks of the curing process. If the buds are ever damp to the touch when you open the jar you gotta dump the buds out, or leave the lid off till they feel dry on the outside once again..
I suggest next time you trim off the fan leaves, and sugar leaves when the plant is still fresh. IME doing so will not be any detriment to the finished products smell/taste if the drying/curing process is done right. After you remove the leaves from the plant, cut the branches from the main stem, and hang them individually to dry. Doing it like this will reduce your chances of the buds taking on mold during the drying process. I also feel it's gentler on the trich heads as they are much more likely to break off when the plant material is dry, and your handling the buds trying to trim off the excess leaf after the fact.
When the buds go into the jars for curing they should be dry enough on the outside to light up with a lighter, but they should still hold some moisture deeper within the bud... This moisture gets sweated out of the buds with the daily opening/burping of the jars during the first few weeks of the curing process. If the buds are ever damp to the touch when you open the jar you gotta dump the buds out, or leave the lid off till they feel dry on the outside once again..
T
thepike1984
These dark colours started showing during flowering. They havent just appeared during the drying process. Defo mold tho. I totaly agree with you there. Do i realy need to bin this bud?
puff adder
Member
I find it pretty easy to tell if it's mold or not by the feel. If it crumbles too easily or dissentigrates into powder it's moldy.
IMO the two biggest mistakes one can make is to chop early, and bag/seal too early.
Sealing/jarring/bagging with moisture is asking for trouble IMO. I've done the official "cure", jarring with some moisture and burping, but EVERY time it smelled like hay after a day, and only after burping for a week or 2 did the smell return, plus it's a recipe for mold.
Playing it safe by drying (however you dry, wet trim-hang or dry the whole plant then trim) until most of the stems snap, then into paper bags about 4"-8" deep, tumble once or twice a day, until ALL the stems snap, THEN into jars or bags, works perfectly every time. Even though all the stems are snapping, there is still enough moisture deep in the nugs to equalize, once sealed. Then burping once or twice a day for 15 minutes to 1/2 hour a day for a few days until everything is stable and perfect.
The whole process takes a couple days once into the paper bags, and a couple more once sealed, and careful monitoring is crucial.
You will see that when you seal up what you thought were totally dry buds that after a day the moisture equalizes and rehydrates the nugs slightly. There's enough moisture left to cure the weed, but not enough for mold and not enough to lose the smell or make it smell like hay.
I like to get the majority of the moisture out as quickly as possible, to minimize the possibility of mold. Then into the paper bags, and then finally sealing. This slows the drying process down without fear of mold, or losing the smell.
It's hard to over-dry fresh weed if you follow this process and carefully monitor the process.
I've let plants hang for a month and then finally trimmed them and the smell was better than ever, so I'd say it's better to err on the dry side than wet.
IMO the two biggest mistakes one can make is to chop early, and bag/seal too early.
Sealing/jarring/bagging with moisture is asking for trouble IMO. I've done the official "cure", jarring with some moisture and burping, but EVERY time it smelled like hay after a day, and only after burping for a week or 2 did the smell return, plus it's a recipe for mold.
Playing it safe by drying (however you dry, wet trim-hang or dry the whole plant then trim) until most of the stems snap, then into paper bags about 4"-8" deep, tumble once or twice a day, until ALL the stems snap, THEN into jars or bags, works perfectly every time. Even though all the stems are snapping, there is still enough moisture deep in the nugs to equalize, once sealed. Then burping once or twice a day for 15 minutes to 1/2 hour a day for a few days until everything is stable and perfect.
The whole process takes a couple days once into the paper bags, and a couple more once sealed, and careful monitoring is crucial.
You will see that when you seal up what you thought were totally dry buds that after a day the moisture equalizes and rehydrates the nugs slightly. There's enough moisture left to cure the weed, but not enough for mold and not enough to lose the smell or make it smell like hay.
I like to get the majority of the moisture out as quickly as possible, to minimize the possibility of mold. Then into the paper bags, and then finally sealing. This slows the drying process down without fear of mold, or losing the smell.
It's hard to over-dry fresh weed if you follow this process and carefully monitor the process.
I've let plants hang for a month and then finally trimmed them and the smell was better than ever, so I'd say it's better to err on the dry side than wet.
T
thepike1984
Lemon skunk is down and it doesnt have that horrible disgusting smell. Isnt as brown as the g13 either. More a dark purple almost grey colour. Doesnt taste the best but much better than the g13 which is in the bin now.
its your curing method thats fucking them up. you are drying for too long. if your stems snap, sorry you went too far with drying and will not have enough moisture left for them to cure properly.
once a large amount of initial drying is done, with the stems still bendy but the outter leaves of the bud starting to crisp up.. bag them. allow the moisture to spread around overnight, then next day lay them out and allow the leaves to crisp again (takes an hour maybe) then bag again, and repeat this untill there is only a small amount of moisture in them, but not enough to mould and leave them in a sealed bag/jar. open the jar for 10mins and turn over the buds, then seal again. do not leave jar open for long. you should find they have a piney smell maybe slight hay smell, which disapears, then the original smell of the buds is there.
my buds always smell perfect, a light fruity smell and they smoke smoothly and really soft.
just watch out trying to copy what everyone says on here and remember the aim of getting your buds to smell perfect is to do the final 25-50% of drying slowly. and if you judge the moisture content wrongly, eg too dry or too damp(mould risk) and it will go wrong.
once a large amount of initial drying is done, with the stems still bendy but the outter leaves of the bud starting to crisp up.. bag them. allow the moisture to spread around overnight, then next day lay them out and allow the leaves to crisp again (takes an hour maybe) then bag again, and repeat this untill there is only a small amount of moisture in them, but not enough to mould and leave them in a sealed bag/jar. open the jar for 10mins and turn over the buds, then seal again. do not leave jar open for long. you should find they have a piney smell maybe slight hay smell, which disapears, then the original smell of the buds is there.
my buds always smell perfect, a light fruity smell and they smoke smoothly and really soft.
just watch out trying to copy what everyone says on here and remember the aim of getting your buds to smell perfect is to do the final 25-50% of drying slowly. and if you judge the moisture content wrongly, eg too dry or too damp(mould risk) and it will go wrong.
T
thepike1984
I agree drying to fast is whats making me lose the smell of my buds but as for the mold, that was during the grow. Iv fixed the smell issue as my lemon skunk is reeking. Thanks for your input
My plants are dry enough to bag after 3 days. I think it depends if you have AC going, which lowers relative humidity. Then I remove buds from plants and put into plastic zips. These bags are gas permeable, and the herb will cure nicely if you don't overload the bags. You can leave the bags "unzipped", ie., with a slight crack, and put them into a larger paper bag. After they have partially cured in the zips, I put them into jars. Works for me.
