Mold?

[OTFmoney]

Is this mold? Small unimportant little flowers from the bottom branches during harvest. Put them to the side & overnight this happened. The only flower that did this is dark the rest are green.

Im only curious so I can know what to look for with my harvest. These flowers like I said aren't important.

 

[Robert Celt]

More likely it wilted badly. Use a magnifying glass or loupe and look for a mass of white hair, like cotton strands. If you find this, then you have mold.

 

[OTFmoney]

I'm in the middle of curing my crop but I needed someone to hear me out to see if I'm doing this right.

Ok so I harvested Sunday morning. Hung the buds up that same day to dry, already trimmed, in the attic. Temperatures around here lately have been Highs of 76 Lows of 50 so I wasnt worried about heat. Yesterday I came home to hot temperatures in the attic. I could tell it was humid as fuck cause it rained & the air up there felt very humid. I dont have a temp/humidity gauge. So I panicked, knowing a little about mold I didn't want to lose the crop. I could smell the usual "fresh cut grass" smell or "wet hay", I know that's normal. But I didn't want mold to form. So I took them down and moved them into a big jar. Pretty much only let them hang & dry for 2 days. Is that bad? Also do I need to take them out of the jars to finish drying? How would I do that if I have to? Im trying different curing methods. I have about 7g in a brown paper bag inside my fridge. I took the biggest nugs and put them in a smaller mason jar. The rest are curing inside a big jar.

I just needed some pointers hopefully I don't fuck it up.
Anyway I can add a flavor or smell to the crop? Lemon peels?

 

[Robert Celt]

If they have only hung for 2 days, chances are the water content is still too high for jarring. Since you already have them jarred, monitor them closely a few times a day, opening the jar to let them air out for 10-15 mins a few times a day. After airing them, put the lid back on and shake them up to them from being squished and to ensure even moisture distribution. If you see moisture form on the inside of the jar, wipe it out before shaking them up.

As for the buds in the paper bag in your fridge, you are better served to put them in a cupboard somewhere then in the fridge. The inside of fridges tends to be quite humid and is more likely to mold your bud then dry it.

If you have more question, give a shout

 

[OTFmoney]

TheCelt you always come clutch with the info thank you. Should I take em out, spread em across newspaper in a better room/environment? I took those out of the fridge, put em in a jar in a cupboard. Since the buds still have moisture, will the mold in the jars? Anything I can do to spruce up the smoke like lemon peels or orange?

 

[Robert Celt]

If the moisture is too high in the bud when you jar them, they will mold, that's why you want to air them out a few time a day until they are dry enough. I lost about 50g I had put in a jar before I went away for 2 weeks. They had been in a jar for a few days being aired twice a day before I left but still weren't dry enough.

Putting them out on a newspaper to air out a couple times a day wouldn't hurt at this point

As for peels, I would avoid them as they may put too much moisture in the jar and cause mold. If you want to add extra smell/flavor to them, put a few drops of lemon/orange or other extract on a small piece of cloth and put it in the jar. This is something I have not done but won't cause mold and would be an interesting experiment If you do this, I would be interested in how it turns out for you

 

[OTFmoney]

Damn 50g is a lot. That would have been my whole harvest. I'll probably just monitor them, burping for 15 minutes or so. Might lay em out onceI notice they've dried up some more. I was thinking of trying the extract with maybe 10g in a separate vs doing the whole crop. I will definitely let you know how that goes

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Mmm TheCelt pretty much wrapped this up...

Reminds me of my 2nd ever crop when i didn't allow for suitable slow air drying & when i jarred em up for curing even with burping a good 70% went moldy... how gutted i was !


Humidity also plays an important part in slow air drying as if it is to high, bud rot can occur make no mistake about that...

So slow air drying is around the same RH as for flowering to avoid bud rot also temperature plays a part.


I prefer to use a dehumidifier these days to help control humidity for flowering & slow air drying.

Normally the first few days is when rot may happen due to a lot of moisture in the bud to which i like to keep RH around 40% to 50% as best as i can, i like a temp around 20/21c running this for about 3 days.

The rest of the slow air drying & with RH i do by best to keep it around 50% to 60% this taking several days more with same sort of temp ideally i would prefer a little lower around 18/19c but a tad unworkable controlling to such extent for myself.


This all takes an average 7 to 14 days or perhaps 10 to 14 days but involves ones conditions RH / temp effecting over all timing.


What we are looking at end slow air dry is that the stem should crack when force is applied but not fully break & that is about right time to start curing.

The first 2 weeks of curing requires burping of the jars twice daily for 15/20mins each time after this is done ya can pretty much close the lid & store for several months.


Btw the way ideal curing/storing humidity is aprox 60% about the same as cigars.