Feeling a little discouraged about end product

[Edubbs]

Hey everyone! I come to you all with frustration about the results of my growing. I've had 3 grows now and I keep ending up with nugs that are hay like in scent, not dense, after about 3 days drying, 6 weeks of curing. When I harvest the buds everything looks so good, and furthermore, they are COVERED in crystals. I feel like my grows have been up to par, up untill harvest. I've tried the stem snap method and decided it's a poor indicator of actual bud wetness. My drying environment dries fresh cut very quickly so ive learned that waiting till stemp snap is not plausible. When my grow area is empty after harvest, I simply hang them inside, leave things at about 40% humidity, 80°F, Fans on light. From this point things smell like hay, and I haven't been able to shake the smell despite curing very carefully. Now that the weed is 6 weeks into cure it's just not desirable. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong but it def pisses me off when my home boy comes by with these huge dank nugs. Help me out folks. I've even considered switching to hydro to see if these res really a difference. Thanks for any thoughts PEACE

 

[OlderGrower]

Curious, and maybe you covered this. Do you flush your plants the last couple of weeks before harvest? Also you may consider washing your buds, I will be doing that on this grow, it is a technique that I believe Doc developed, that many on this site swear by.
What ever you decide I wish you the very best.

 

[JuanCarlos]

I believe it's the way you cure. Can you get humidity up in the tent to extend the drying time? What kind of humidity are you seeing in your containers once the bud is dry and curing?

 

[BuddroGreen]

Try to dry at 60% RH, temp 70f-74f, and cure @ 62% RH with Boveda packs..temp 70-74. Also, cure longer than six weeks...3 months is were it gets really tasty for me.

 

[Edubbs]

I did flush for about 10 days, I use an ro system. I've been a great admirer of the General Organics line. While I'm mostly leaning towards a problem in harvesting, I suppose I could be using a different light for budding. I use 2 650wt LED hangers. While it's enough to bud maybe it could be stronger during flower? Idk. Thanks for the well wishes.

 

[Edubbs]

So humidity has been a huge problem in the grow. For some reason, despite my huge plastic reservoir, I cant seem to be able to get humidity past 40-50%. Bought a scrubber fan speed control, that helped tone the circulation down. I've looked into humidifiers, seems like the next logical step. Control of humidity. I placed the buds in the jars 3/4 way full, perfect dryness. One jar of cola started to give a light musky smell when opened so I laid em out to dry for a couple hours. Other than that cure went ok, Or so I thought. No mold, just didn't translate into good smoke.

 

[JuanCarlos]

Get you some humidistats and Boveda 62 packs. The Bovedas aren't great at bringing humidity down in my experience, but can bring it up. You need to have a humidistat in the jar with your bud so you know what the humidity is.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

3 days to dry ya bud is pretty quick !

The slow air dry takes about 7 to 14 days on average. i normally aim for 10 to 14 days myself... RH i like around 50% for the first few days then the remaining period about 60% which gives me pretty optimal conditions for the curing, ye i sure a dehumidifier myself to help control the RH as best as i can, i do live in a higher RH part of the world tho. I only do this to avoid bud rot during the slow air dry tho which can happen.


I think ya drying to fast myself, as the slow air dry process allows for chlorophyll & other plant pigments to escape which may lead to a hay smell & harsh smoking bud ! it may mean with a fast dry you are trapping such pigments in the bud material it self.


Ye most of the time i still get a hay smell during the slow air dry at some point but with correct environmental conditions for slow air drying your bud should be pretty alright to sniff & full of flavor before curing starts. Personally i like to dry at around 20/21c at all times with RH around 50% for the first few days when the bud is most moist after that RH around 60% for the remaining period it serves me just well

 

[Emilya Green]

I agree with the above posters that you must be dying the product too fast, getting below the 60-65% RH in the buds, and then curing is over... no matter how long you put it in the jars. Do not put a fan on your product as it is hanging, and as others have stated, do what you can to slow that drying process down to at least 5 or 6 days. Snap but not break is an age old time tested way to determine when your buds are ready to go to a paper sack for a day to dry a little more... and then you go to jars.

You also must have a humidity meter when you get to this stage, at least once so you can see what your buds look like at this stage. They should be crispy on the outside, but still obviously moist on the inside. When you put it in the jar, if you are above 70% RH, put it back in the paper sack for another day and try again. Once you are below 70% RH, then you can start burping the jars for ever decreasing amounts of time until you can stabilize your product in the 60-65% RH range. The longer you can keep it here, the better your cure will be, and that is where and why people use the Boveda packs... to keep it in that range. Once your product dries out internally to the point that your RH is below 60% in that jar, curing is done... no matter what you do artificially to raise it at that point. Keep it above 60%, and you can cure for years in that jar... but once below that threshold, Jorge Cervantes himself could not restart the curing process.

 

[rillos]

You are drying to fast, at least let them dry for 7 days.

 

[Rifleman]

How do I properly dry and cure my harvest?

What is the best way to dry and preserve the cure for smooth, sweet buds?

Drying, Curing, and Storage - Paper Bag Method

 

[Icemud]

My suggestions would be to let the plants go about 2-3 weeks longer until all of the white pistils (hairs) turn brown and start to shrivel, and at this point you should see the buds fatten up as the calyx's swell.

For drying I would suggest raising the humidity to around 60% for drying which should allow for the buds to take a few extra days to dry. Usually mine take about 5 to 7 days to dry before getting jarred.

I personally jar the buds slightly before the stem snaps, but it is rigid when bending. You can definitely feel the buds are dry and crispy on the outside but also feel just a slight water weight inside the buds. This is when I personally prefer to dry them.

During curing, I always pay attention to the buds outsides, and if they feel wet or flexible and aren't dry and slightly crispy, I open the jars until the outer edges of the buds become dry and crispy again, which is when I close the jars up. During the 1st week of curing I may open the jars as many times as 2-3x per day for the first few days, and as the week progresses typically by day 7 the jar will only need to be opened about 1x per day for about 10-15 minutes. After week 1 there is little to no moisture left in the buds and at this time I leave the jars sealed for a day or 2, open them and feel the buds. Again if the buds are crispy then you can close the jar right back up but if the outsides of the buds feel moist or damp then I leave the jars open until the buds crisp up. Don't let the buds fully dry too fast because this will not allow for the chlorophyll to break down completely which typically causes the grassy ammonia type smell. After the 2nd week of burping (if needed) I let the jars sit for about 1-2 weeks closed and no burping is necessary, but I do open them about 1x per week for air exchange for a few minutes and close them back up.

I did notice when buds are dried too early, or picked too soon then I will get the grassy/hay smell. Everyone does curing a little different and for me I prefer the slow burping method above because it really makes for smooth tasting hits, no coughing at all and deep flavors, however it does also sort of dull the "bag appeal" of the buds. I'm all about the overall smokeability and experience so I would definitely trade bag appeal for flavor and smoothness.

Some people I know let the buds dry completely before jarring or bagging up the buds for curing and/or distribution to dispensaries, and this makes for some really nice bag appeal, but also seems to promote a harsher smoke. IMO.

Hope this helps.

 

[MRXC]

I dry my buds in a room humidity at 70 % and 20c it takes 7 to 10 days and the buds taste nice after just a dry but after a cure even better if i start curing i want the jar humidity at 60%. And a hydro system will not improve tast it will only improve weight

 

[Edubbs]

Thanks very much all for the comments. At least I have the grow down! So I see all the things I need to do. Got some 2fast&vast, west coast og, XXL White Widow seeds popping up right now so I'm optimistic! Humidity mastery is my next project, THANKS!!

 

[AKgramma]

I have the same problem. Ambient RH is quite low here (25%) and my buds want to dry in a couple days. Will putting them in an open plastic baggie or a large, partially open tupperware bin provide higher RH and slow the process down?

 

[Emilya Green]

the trapped air spaces in the bag might induce mold to grow... i would try just putting a bucket of water in the room to raise the RH... have a water gun fight... lay some wet towels out....

 

[Rifleman]

Water closet and a very hot steamy 10 minute shower every so many hours?

 

[AKgramma]

the trapped air spaces in the bag might induce mold to grow... i would try just putting a bucket of water in the room to raise the RH... have a water gun fight... lay some wet towels out....

I can do that. My drying box (a cardboard moving box) is large enough to lay out a small pan of water or hang some wet paper towels.

 

[Icemud]

I hang wet/damp towels in my grow area when I need to raise humidity. A small hand towel can raise the RH of my 2x4 tent by about 5% and a large body towel can raise it about 10-15%. Usually they need to be re-wet about 1x per day, but I use this method for not only my grows, but also drying quite often and it works well.

 

[Edubbs]

Mud, I would have been to worried about mold on the towel to try it. Idk, if it works it works, id be mold cautious thigh. You think paper towels would do a similar thing? Just spray em 2x day?