Hay v. Dank smell

Mrs. Weedstein

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
I realize the debate over why some weed ends up smelling like hay has been debated ad nauseam, but I’m curious if there’s info on what is actually going on with the plant matter. I had colas that I harvested prematurely as a hedge against rain that smelled dank beforehand and now smell like hay. Did all that dank smell get off-gassed or is the hay smell just overpowering it? I’m thinking the latter because when I touch the nugs my hand is sticky and smells like weed not hay. I am hopeful it will get better over time or I will learn how to harvest and cure better...
 
The Gram Reaper

The Gram Reaper

Well-Known Member
*Tries to think of something useful to contribute to bro science*

I got nothin'. Interesting question. Would be great to know.

Maybe you are drying the bud in too high of humidity and its trapping moisture in leafy part of the bud?

This happens to me in moist seasons when the drying takes too long. If it dries by 5-6 days it is usually dank smelling with a crispy outside and a moist smelly center. Putting it in containers at that point draws the dankness and moisture out of the center of the bud.
 
Mrs. Weedstein

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
Brettman said:
I’m assuming it’s hanging right now ? So far all my harvests done that too me. As soon as they go in the jars it smells amazing.
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Ok great, that gives me hope. Yea it’s still hanging — harvested last Friday and Saturday.
The Gram Reaper said:
*Tries to think of something useful to contribute to bro science*

I got nothin'. Interesting question. Would be great to know.

Maybe you are drying the bud in too high of humidity and its trapping moisture in leafy part of the bud?

This happens to me in moist seasons when the drying takes too long. If it dries by 5-6 days it is usually dank smelling with a crispy outside and a moist smelly center. Putting it in containers at that point draws the dankness and moisture out of the center of the bud.
Click to expand...
That’s certainly possible — my wife doesn’t want to reek up the house, so it’s in the garage. Been pretty rainy the past week, so moisture could be getting it. It seems to be drying OK, tho this is my first year growing so I don’t have much to compare it with except finished bud.
 
Mrs. Weedstein

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
Xs121 said:
This happened when the plant is still active (in the case of cannabis, the plant has not reach its peak maturity). A distress signal which eventually will go away. Let it dry good before jarring otherwise you will be jarring the hay smell too.
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Got it, good to know. My buddy jarred his after only 2 days of drying even tho he harvested earlier and he said the hay smell isn’t going away. That’s probably why.
 
L

LinguaPeel

Well-Known Member
Youve got to be getting complaints from the neighbors to end up w dank.

The hay smell (or the mythical chlorophyll smell) is simply masking the dank smell? You can't smell a bail of hay for 3 blocks.. So that's not the case.

Hay smell means your bud is borderline rotten. Its staying too wet and your res is stagnant. Youve introduced rot microbes, they were devouring your small amount of secondary metabolites while the plant was growing and moved on to rotting the fiber at harvest when you tell them to. It's the same reason you dont till in your strain specific compost until the end of season, the rot microbes will spread to living plants of the composting strain. Youve seen brown weed before,same thing.. Its a battle between dank microbes and rot microbes at that point, who knows which side will win, good or evil, angels or demons!



The smell of dank (been using the term since 95, before the internet ruined all concept of reality) comes from fatty acid break down, not unprovoked terpene synthesis. Microbes enzymes and oxygen attacking omega 3 and 6 oils. If you want to grow dank, just find some untainted non-commercial heirloom genetics and grow them in healthy soil without over watering (like you're feeding a growing child a balanced diet, so no molasses, sweets, lolly pops koolaid soda pop or potatoe chips, no matter how cool the AN mascot on the bottle looks). The food pyramid for secondary metabolites is not npk. Metamucil isn't molasses and grape skins either..
 
Mrs. Weedstein

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
LinguaPeel said:
Youve got to be getting complaints from the neighbors to end up w dank.

The hay smell (or the mythical chlorophyll smell) is simply masking the dank smell? You can't smell a bail of hay for 3 blocks.. So that's not the case.

Hay smell means your bud is borderline rotten. Its staying too wet and your res is stagnant. Youve introduced rot microbes, they were devouring your small amount of secondary metabolites while the plant was growing and moved on to rotting the fiber at harvest when you tell them to. It's the same reason you dont till in your strain specific compost until the end of season, the rot microbes will spread to living plants of the composting strain. Youve seen brown weed before,same thing.. Its a battle between dank microbes and rot microbes at that point, who knows which side will win, good or evil, angels or demons!



The smell of dank (been using the term since 95, before the internet ruined all concept of reality) comes from fatty acid break down, not unprovoked terpene synthesis. Microbes enzymes and oxygen attacking omega 3 and 6 oils. If you want to grow dank, just find some untainted non-commercial heirloom genetics and grow them in healthy soil without over watering (like you're feeding a growing child a balanced diet, so no molasses, sweets, lolly pops koolaid soda pop or potatoe chips, no matter how cool the AN mascot on the bottle looks). The food pyramid for secondary metabolites is not npk. Metamucil isn't molasses and grape skins either..
Click to expand...
You may be right but it doesn’t look rotten and I smoked a bunch yesterday, definitely worked pretty well. Also, I harvested this before it started raining so it doesn’t seem likely it’s too wet. I guess we’ll see, tho...
 
Kingrow1

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
Weed takes a week to dry but two for the process to fully complete. There is no need to jar or cure to age well and the first two weeks are when most things happen.

The actual science of curing would be that once dry aka 10-15% moisture certain enzymes and bacteria that like that low moisture level carry on breaking down certain compounds all be.it slowly.

Zero idea what most are on about and if byd smells like hay after fully dried then you screwed up or the plant wadnt grown that well.

Drying is all you need to do to produce primo bud, how many have hung dry top quality bud and observed the change in smoke over two weeks or are you all following some weird humidity jarring method that wasnt how its been done for hundreds of years? :-)
 
Kingrow1

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
The Gram Reaper said:
*Tries to think of something useful to contribute to bro science*

I got nothin'. Interesting question. Would be great to know.

Maybe you are drying the bud in too high of humidity and its trapping moisture in leafy part of the bud?

This happens to me in moist seasons when the drying takes too long. If it dries by 5-6 days it is usually dank smelling with a crispy outside and a moist smelly center. Putting it in containers at that point draws the dankness and moisture out of the center of the bud.
Click to expand...
The jar equalizes the moisture or brings it into equilibrium. Thus trapped in moisture in the centre equally migrates into the druer regions and air until moisture equilibrium is reached.

What can i say but this is the point most people burp but i would frown on this and say hang longer as the jar brings equilibrium but hanging will bring full dryness inside and out - it is at this time that you should jar to avoid burping. Now when it reaches equilibrium in the jar it stays fully dry and the enzymes and bacteria that work at this moisture level can get to work in the cure.

Rewetting and restarting the bacteria enzymes and fungi that like it anywhere but dry aka 10-15% and even extending their activity is counterproductive since they complete their processes very quickly in the length of time it takes to dry i.e. Two weeks.

Ive jarred at a week and found it prone to excess bud moisture but at two and a low humidity day ive found optimun.

Ramblings.... :-)
 
Mrs. Weedstein

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
Kingrow1 said:
Weed takes a week to dry but two for the process to fully complete. There is no need to jar or cure to age well and the first two weeks are when most things happen.

The actual science of curing would be that once dry aka 10-15% moisture certain enzymes and bacteria that like that low moisture level carry on breaking down certain compounds all be.it slowly.

Zero idea what most are on about and if byd smells like hay after fully dried then you screwed up or the plant wadnt grown that well.

Drying is all you need to do to produce primo bud, how many have hung dry top quality bud and observed the change in smoke over two weeks or are you all following some weird humidity jarring method that wasnt how its been done for hundreds of years? :-)
Click to expand...
It’s my first year growing so it’s entirely possible I fucked it up. I will probably cure some in jars and some without just to see if I notice any difference.
 
Mrs. Weedstein

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
Kingrow1 said:
The jar equalizes the moisture or brings it into equilibrium. Thus trapped in moisture in the centre equally migrates into the druer regions and air until moisture equilibrium is reached.

What can i say but this is the point most people burp but i would frown on this and say hang longer as the jar brings equilibrium but hanging will bring full dryness inside and out - it is at this time that you should jar to avoid burping. Now when it reaches equilibrium in the jar it stays fully dry and the enzymes and bacteria that work at this moisture level can get to work in the cure.

Rewetting and restarting the bacteria enzymes and fungi that like it anywhere but dry aka 10-15% and even extending their activity is counterproductive since they complete their processes very quickly in the length of time it takes to dry i.e. Two weeks.

Ive jarred at a week and found it prone to excess bud moisture but at two and a low humidity day ive found optimun.

Ramblings.... :-)
Click to expand...
Yea it makes sense the jar would be conducive to uniform moisture, which is why it seems logical. I’m probably gonna run out of jars tho, so might as well have a control group!
 
K

KryptoBud

Well-Known Member
LinguaPeel said:
Youve got to be getting complaints from the neighbors to end up w dank.

The hay smell (or the mythical chlorophyll smell) is simply masking the dank smell? You can't smell a bail of hay for 3 blocks.. So that's not the case.

Hay smell means your bud is borderline rotten. Its staying too wet and your res is stagnant. Youve introduced rot microbes, they were devouring your small amount of secondary metabolites while the plant was growing and moved on to rotting the fiber at harvest when you tell them to. It's the same reason you dont till in your strain specific compost until the end of season, the rot microbes will spread to living plants of the composting strain. Youve seen brown weed before,same thing.. Its a battle between dank microbes and rot microbes at that point, who knows which side will win, good or evil, angels or demons!



The smell of dank (been using the term since 95, before the internet ruined all concept of reality) comes from fatty acid break down, not unprovoked terpene synthesis. Microbes enzymes and oxygen attacking omega 3 and 6 oils. If you want to grow dank, just find some untainted non-commercial heirloom genetics and grow them in healthy soil without over watering (like you're feeding a growing child a balanced diet, so no molasses, sweets, lolly pops koolaid soda pop or potatoe chips, no matter how cool the AN mascot on the bottle looks). The food pyramid for secondary metabolites is not npk. Metamucil isn't molasses and grape skins either..
Click to expand...
What an utter load of bullshit
 
C

CarlGustov

New Member
KryptoBud said:
What an utter load of bullshit
Click to expand...
Just started reading this. KryptoBud could u please expand on your thoughts as to the hay smell, as there's a lot of different answers here and I like to get as many thoughts and experiences from as many as possible

Just wondering what your thoughts are,,, lol other than that other guy is full of shit lmao.

Thanks for everyone's input. Much appreciated as I have only been growing a year now
 
Mrs. Weedstein

Mrs. Weedstein

Well-Known Member
Hay smell seems to be receding, just as an update. The nugs smell sort of... neutral. Or maybe I am just becoming inured to the odor. But like I said — when I handle them, my hand smells like weed. It’s kinda bizarre but I’m guessing that’s just because the trichomes and terpenes started volatilizing when they rubbed off on my fingers. It’s been a week so I’ll probably jar it in one more. Meanwhile, I’ve been harvesting more colas prematurely as we’re having a near-record wet September. It’s not the most unbelievably beautiful flower you’ve ever seen but the stuff I chopped a week ago seems to “get the job done” and that’s ultimately better than a bunch of rotten goo. I wet trimmed most of the buds but the attached photo is of another approach I’m experimenting with: just clipping the bigger fan leaves but leaving the sugar leaves and smaller leaves on. Going to be interesting to compare how it dries and cures compared to the trimmed flower...4B1938E2-4F38-4658-8142-840FFA8295A9.jpeg
 
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