Do leafier buds smell more musty?

jimbonorman

Well-Known Member
Hi all, I’m relatively new to growing and don’t have a ton of experience so I’m wondering if those with more experience can answer this question:

Has anyone noticed (anecdotally) a difference in the smell of your buds if they have more sugar leaves or less sugar leaves? Specifically, if your bud is quite leafy, does it smell more musty or possess more of a hay-like aroma (after/during curing) compared to if you really clean them up and trim all or most of the leaves prior to curing?

I have been curing for 2-3 weeks and have no mold, been keeping a close eye on temp and rh, but I still find some earthy presence in the aroma when burping or even when smelling the buds right up against my nose. However, when I break the buds up I get the true strain aromas. I have one jar full of all the trimmings just as an experiment and it smells super earthy and not skunky at all…so that’s what’s leading me to think that a greater presence of leaves on the buds puts out a mustier smell. I trimmed my buds fairly well but I prob could have removed more leaves.

Would love to hear others thoughts or opinions on this…
 

ismann

Well-Known Member
It's mainly the chlorophyll breaking down causing the hay smell -- same as after you cut grass. The more leaf matter, the more chlorophyll, the more smell. It's normal to smell it while drying the flower but it should go away by cure time. If not, then maybe the harvest was too early or the flower dried too quickly. A longer cure will remove the smell as chlorophyll continues to break down but ideally you want to prevent that in the first place.
 

jimbonorman

Well-Known Member
I also didn’t do much trimming before drying, so maybe that’s a factor? Might try a full-fledged wet trim with the next run and see if that makes a difference.
 

jimbonorman

Well-Known Member
I prefer dry trimming myself. How long did you dry for and what temperature, relative humidity?
Dried Acapulco Gold for basically 2 weeks at roughly 70 degrees F and 58% RH. Been curing for 3/4 weeks now

Dried Lemon Bubble for maybe 11 days at roughly 68 degrees and 56% RH. Been curing for 2+ weeks now

environmental factors were sort of out of my control, hence the variance between the two. Acapulco gold has more of an earthiness aroma…maybe that’s just the strain?
 

jimbonorman

Well-Known Member
Leafier buds will have a more grassy hay smell
This would make sense per the Acapulco Gold smelling earthier. The buds were very airy and wispy so I had a hard time trimming the leaves without worrying about the bud staying together (smaller calyxes, lots of pistils, etc) and as a result the AG is leafier…hence, it smells earthier/mustier
 
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