Powdery Mildew & Dry Trimming

[Nicotin]

After 2 weeks of curing I am sad to report that even though buds look great and show no signs of PM, all the smell and taste are completely gone just like on my first grow. When I open up the jar it does smell great but the smell is quickly replaced by hay after a couple of seconds. When I grind them up the amazing smell it had all throughout flowering comes back but it doesn't really make the smoke taste like anything. Remember when you were young and stopped using matches to light bowls because the smoke tasted like burnt matches? Similar taste to that. Joints also have trouble remaining lit after 5-8 seconds of not puffing.

I can only attribute this to the fast 4.5 day drying period due to high 28°C temps, since RH was on point during drying (55%-60%) and was at 50% for the first week of curing and 62% afterwards after I introduced a boveda pack.

It really sucks man, yet another experience of patiently waiting for months, carefully taking care of pest, just to see it all go to shit in the last step. It makes me want to give up growing since buying equipment to climatize a room for two weeks per year is tremendously cost-ineffective and unrealistic for a small time grower like me.

 

[OGpapa]

2 weeks of curing is minimal. What you smell is chlorophyll. It will slowly go away. Usually about 30-45days I have some plants come straight dank, and 8 have others that need a longer cure to be stinky tasty

 

[SmokingWings]

After 2 weeks of curing I am sad to report that even though buds look great and show no signs of PM, all the smell and taste are completely gone just like on my first grow.

What you smell is chlorophyll. It will slowly go away.

@Nicotin, the photo shows buds and stems that are still green. While the green color does look great for some of us it is also a sign that there is still chlorophyll there in the plant material. The longer it takes to dry and then cure the less green color to the buds and even the stems will change color.

 

[013]

congrats on the harvest and your jar looks fabulous!!! Yep I’d hit that….

ditto OGpapa & SmokingWings - it’s way too early to evaluate properly… it’s too wet still so it doesn’t burn and we can tell the cure is lacking because of the hay smell you describe and only 2 weeks or so has elapsed since the day of chop…

you can grow in a tent or cardboard box, same goes for drying your weed. Heck you can even do whats called low & slow fridge cure…. its easy as ever.

it’s easier to control the environment in a small space like tent or grow box as opposed to conditioning the air for an entire room.

Hang in there, growing weed is a slow process, nothing good happens fast… it takes weeks and weeks to grow great nugs but pest or disease can happen seemingly overnight

 

[SmokingWings]

I can only attribute this to the fast 4.5 day drying period due to high 28°C temps, since RH was on point during drying (55%-60%) and was at 50% for the first week of curing and 62% afterwards after I introduced a boveda pack.

It really sucks man, yet another experience of patiently waiting for months, carefully taking care of pest, just to see it all go to shit in the last step. It makes me want to give up growing since buying equipment to climatize a room for two weeks per year is tremendously cost-ineffective and unrealistic for a small time grower like me.

The way I look at it I am not lighting up a joint just 'cause I like the color or shape of the buds that got ground up. Nor am I looking for terpine smells or tastes so if I get them all is good. All I want is a nice buzz and a smoke that does not cause me to cough my lungs out and my throat raw.

When I started getting into growing I had to do something with all the harvests. I cut & trimmed and put the buds in a paper bag and left it on an out of the way shelf in a low light area. It took a week to 10 days to get them dry enough to get the stems to barely start to snap when I bent them. Then into the jars and opening every day for awhile and then every couple of days until after about 3 to 4 weeks they can be put away in a dresser drawer or the closet shelf.

Anyway, what I am getting to is that you do not need to change a room into a climate controlled area. You should be able to get by with a "low and slow fridge drying" as @013 mentions. Though the drying is in the fridge and the cure is usually in jars outside the fridge.

 

[OGpapa]

The way I look at it I am not lighting up a joint just 'cause I like the color or shape of the buds that got ground up. Nor am I looking for terpine smells or tastes so if I get them all is good. All I want is a nice buzz and a smoke that does not cause me to cough my lungs out and my throat raw.

When I started getting into growing I had to do something with all the harvests. I cut & trimmed and put the buds in a paper bag and left it on an out of the way shelf in a low light area. It took a week to 10 days to get them dry enough to get the stems to barely start to snap when I bent them. Then into the jars and opening every day for awhile and then every couple of days until after about 3 to 4 weeks they can be put away in a dresser drawer or the closet shelf.

Anyway, what I am getting to is that you do not need to change a room into a climate controlled area. You should be able to get by with a "low and slow fridge drying" as @013 mentions. Though the drying is in the fridge and the cure is usually in jars outside the fridge.

X2

I usually hang 7-10days more than less. I try to get to 30days in a jar before I pull a nug to test. Sometimes it's still a little less fragrant to me. But the wife always comments how dank the plants are, and I'm around them so often with work/grow area. So I'm probably nose blind.

 

[OGpapa]

Have you ever checked out Ecoworks ec?

Cannot remember if I mentioned it.

Manufactured using 100% high quality neem seed kernels from selective regions from south India, ECOWORKS EC is formulated with cold pressed neem oil as the active ingredient and food grade formulation inerts. ECOWORKS EC is effective against powdery mildew, spider mites, aphids, whiteflies, thrips, fungus gnats, and plant diseases such as botrytis and pythium, making it a truly versatile pest control tool.

 

[InTheShed]

Have you ever checked out Ecoworks ec?

Cannot remember if I mentioned it.

Manufactured using 100% high quality neem seed kernels from selective regions from south India, ECOWORKS EC is formulated with cold pressed neem oil as the active ingredient and food grade formulation inerts. ECOWORKS EC is effective against powdery mildew, spider mites, aphids, whiteflies, thrips, fungus gnats, and plant diseases such as botrytis and pythium, making it a truly versatile pest control tool.

Most folks stay clear of neem in flower for a number of reasons, among them are that it makes the flowers taste like neem (and being an oil it won't wash off at harvest) and it can brown the pistils.

 

[OGpapa]

Most folks stay clear of neem in flower for a number of reasons, among them are that it makes the flowers taste like neem (and being an oil it won't wash off at harvest) and it can brown the pistils.

I gotcha. It's not my first go-to. But it is a go-to.

 

[Keffka]

After 2 weeks of curing I am sad to report that even though buds look great and show no signs of PM, all the smell and taste are completely gone just like on my first grow. When I open up the jar it does smell great but the smell is quickly replaced by hay after a couple of seconds. When I grind them up the amazing smell it had all throughout flowering comes back but it doesn't really make the smoke taste like anything. Remember when you were young and stopped using matches to light bowls because the smoke tasted like burnt matches? Similar taste to that. Joints also have trouble remaining lit after 5-8 seconds of not puffing.

I can only attribute this to the fast 4.5 day drying period due to high 28°C temps, since RH was on point during drying (55%-60%) and was at 50% for the first week of curing and 62% afterwards after I introduced a boveda pack.

It really sucks man, yet another experience of patiently waiting for months, carefully taking care of pest, just to see it all go to shit in the last step. It makes me want to give up growing since buying equipment to climatize a room for two weeks per year is tremendously cost-ineffective and unrealistic for a small time grower like me.

How did you grow these plants? What style, medium, and nutrients did you use? How do your trichomes look, I can’t tell from the picture? What you’re saying sounds to me a lot like what happened to my MIL on her recent grow. Do you have a journal I can look at? I don’t want to start making assumptions and recommendations without more information. You sound like you’re ready to give and I don’t want anyone to walk away from this place feeling defeated.

 

[Nicotin]

Posted a journal here as promised.