Why do my buds stink & a couple of curing questions

[ATrueBlackThu]

Last night I finally trimmed the buds the rest of the way and put them in jars, but I noticed that after I did the buds smelled really bad. Any way to correct this?

I read I should be opening the jars for 15 mins, twice a day to circulate air, is this true? And what does it mean if the temp and RH stay the same inside the jar as it did outside the jar? 66* and 68%

 

[TheFertilizer]

re: Why do my buds stink & a couple of curing questions

Well the danger is they were too wet and they're molding now so you should definitely pull them out, look them over, air them out a little just to be on the safe side of things. Do they clump together inside of the jar ( assuming you left room for them to move around ) or fall around loosely? If they clump together they're still pretty moist so you might need to be burping them for longer.

However all that said in my experience buds will usually smell kind of bad on the first couple of burps. That's what the process of curing does, it lets the decomposition gasses escape the plant material while keeping it from drying out, so those gasses are all going to build up inside the jar. I'd say the first two or three times I burp a jar it doesn't really smell very great. Like someone ate a bunch of cabbage and has bad gas or steamed brussel sprouts. Other strains don't smell bad though, my platinum girl scout cookies smelled like buttered popcorn for a while.

Do you know what mold/mildew smells like? If you have some trim or something like that left over to toss in a bag and let it get all rotted and moldy it wouldn't be a bad idea to get a frame of reference for it. Otherwise if it doesn't smell like mold, and you don't see any when you inspect it, then I am guessing it will get better through the cure.

 

[Dwight Monk]

re: Why do my buds stink & a couple of curing questions

If it is chlorophyll smell that you smell then that is part of the curing process and reason to do it, so it doesn't have that green hay taste/smell. So depends what you mean by "smells bad", as if a musty smell then needs to dry more before being in jars....but if it stays under 70 RH in jars you should be ok, shooting for 60-65RH for curing zone, after cure done it kind of personal preference but most folks shoot for the 55-62RH range for longer term storage.

 

[ATrueBlackThu]

re: Why do my buds stink & a couple of curing questions

Well the danger is they were too wet and they're molding now so you should definitely pull them out, look them over, air them out a little just to be on the safe side of things. Do they clump together inside of the jar ( assuming you left room for them to move around ) or fall around loosely? If they clump together they're still pretty moist so you might need to be burping them for longer.

However all that said in my experience buds will usually smell kind of bad on the first couple of burps. That's what the process of curing does, it lets the decomposition gasses escape the plant material while keeping it from drying out, so those gasses are all going to build up inside the jar. I'd say the first two or three times I burp a jar it doesn't really smell very great. Like someone ate a bunch of cabbage and has bad gas or steamed brussel sprouts. Other strains don't smell bad though, my platinum girl scout cookies smelled like buttered popcorn for a while.

Do you know what mold/mildew smells like? If you have some trim or something like that left over to toss in a bag and let it get all rotted and moldy it wouldn't be a bad idea to get a frame of reference for it. Otherwise if it doesn't smell like mold, and you don't see any when you inspect it, then I am guessing it will get better through the cure.

Yea they stick together big time, turned the whole jar upside down and they wouldn't budge. Maybe I should buy a drying rack?

I haven't seen any sign of mold thank God and it definitely doesn't smell anything like it either.

 

[Dwight Monk]

re: Why do my buds stink & a couple of curing questions

Yea they stick together big time, turned the whole jar upside down and they wouldn't budge. Maybe I should buy a drying rack?

I haven't seen any sign of mold thank God and it definitely doesn't smell anything like it either.

Depends on your humidity where you are, spread them out on a paper plate (or something like that) and leave them out for an hour or two, then back in jar and check them later (sometimes takes a day for meter to balance out). Probably have to do it for a few days (or I did when I put into cure a day or two early as this is all new), but once they in the 60-65RH range then you can go back to burping them daily for a few weeks. If they sticking together or on walls in jar separate them or roll it around to separate them so you don't get wet spots (want them all same so mold don't get a chance to start), it will balance itself out far as moisture in your buds and self regulate dryness to a degree.

 

[TheFertilizer]

re: Why do my buds stink & a couple of curing questions

Depends on your humidity where you are, spread them out on a paper plate (or something like that) and leave them out for an hour or two, then back in jar and check them later (sometimes takes a day for meter to balance out). Probably have to do it for a few days (or I did when I put into cure a day or two early as this is all new), but once they in the 60-65RH range then you can go back to burping them daily for a few weeks. If they sticking together or on walls in jar separate them or roll it around to separate them so you don't get wet spots (want them all same so mold don't get a chance to start), it will balance itself out far as moisture in your buds and self regulate dryness to a degree.

I like to use paper bags when doing that instead of leaving them in the open air, but I usually have very low humidity so the paper bag is a good mix between breathable but also closed enough to not get them too dry. I just leave them about half a day, put them in the jar, for half a day, and then see how they are and repeat that until they're good in the jar.

 

[Dwight Monk]

re: Why do my buds stink & a couple of curing questions

I like to use paper bags when doing that instead of leaving them in the open air, but I usually have very low humidity so the paper bag is a good mix between breathable but also closed enough to not get them too dry. I just leave them about half a day, put them in the jar, for half a day, and then see how they are and repeat that until they're good in the jar.

Yeah depends on humidity, when I was trying to dry them out more the RH was higher in the house than in my jars, so air drying like that was only way I could get them to drop.