Drying/Effects on sinuses/allergies

Ever since I started my new hobby I've never quite been able to get the drying part down. My bud always ends up smelling like hay and drying too quickly. I have a new approach this time around (going to alternate between drying and curing) and drag the drying process out longer. I have noticed that I get sinus trouble with this hay smelling bud. Could the chlorophyll still be trapped in the bud and maybe this is what is causing me so much trouble? When I used to buy good bud I never noticed it bothering my sinuses like my stuff does. Just wondering.. It's frustrating waiting so long and then fucking up the drying part. Any comments/suggestions?

The clorophyll will eventually disappear. It doesnt withstand being alive after its feeding source is taken away. Then it just withers away with time.

Could also be because you have alot of leaves in your weed and less bud.

I sneeze all threw harvest time I have a 7-10 day cure. Its easy peasy.
dry buds on rack for 24-48 hours (depending on bud size)
put in jar for 8-12 hrs
Put back on drying rack for 12-24 hours
Put back in jars and start popping every 4-8 hrs for a few days
Keep jars in darkness till smell of strain starts
If its feels wet in jar on popping days, let air out for 30 min or so

So how dry does the bud need to be? And if I pick all the leaves out next time that would help? Do the leaves contain allergens?

Ugh! I have been growing for years and I still do not have the cure down. My bud smells killer while harvesting and even while drying. But once they get jarred up, all I smell is hay until I but some buds open.

I dry with the leaves for 4-5 days and then dry trim. Then I do the whole burping thing and I have just never been able to get that killer smell. I hope someone can help us out here!

I trim while its wet, then dry

sk8nbmxr411 said:

Ugh! I have been growing for years and I still do not have the cure down. My bud smells killer while harvesting and even while drying. But once they get jarred up, all I smell is hay until I but some buds open.

I dry with the leaves for 4-5 days and then dry trim. Then I do the whole burping thing and I have just never been able to get that killer smell. I hope someone can help us out here!

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I have the same damn problem. I read online that in commercial grows in dry climates such as Spain they actually pump humid air into their drying room to drag out the drying period and that that chlorophyll smell gets trapped into the bud and that's why it smells like hay. Maybe extending this drying period is the key but you'd have to be super careful not to get mold. Fuck idk. Just thinking out loud.

s1dth3k1d said:

So how dry does the bud need to be? And if I pick all the leaves out next time that would help? Do the leaves contain allergens?

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sk8nbmxr411 said:

Ugh! I have been growing for years and I still do not have the cure down. My bud smells killer while harvesting and even while drying. But once they get jarred up, all I smell is hay until I but some buds open.

I dry with the leaves for 4-5 days and then dry trim. Then I do the whole burping thing and I have just never been able to get that killer smell. I hope someone can help us out here!

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Fellas, cure takes time. If I didn't know any better I would think cure was Latin for wait a couple months.

This is what I do;
At harvest take all fan leaves off the plant. Cut branches off one at a time and manicure. Hang to dry. When the buds begin to feel dry and slightly crispy on the outer edges, but the stems are still flexible, jar them up. Leave them alone for 24hrs. Open jars for an hour or so untill you begin to feel a dryness to the outside of the buds and then seal them up. Do this everyday for a while. How long is a while? IDK, depends on environment. But leave jars open everyday while buds are still moist till they start to get that dry feel on the outer edges then seal and repeat untill they become evenly dry'ish throughout the bud then slow your roll and open them less and less till the texture, smell, and moisture content is to your liking.

Real talk, it's a feel thang that only comes with experience. You will see.

My Bad. I'm like a kite right now.

Oh yeah! Allergies.

Way back in the day when I flowered in a tent in my bedroom I did notice that near the end of flowering I would become congested with a lot of nasal drainage.
Now I've grown up, yeah rite, I have a bedroom dedicated to flowering and haven't had that same type of sinus trouble since. It kinda bothered me because I been smoking forever an now the plants fuck my sinuses up? Go figure.

Them terps be potent to the air just like ragweed or anything else IM retardedly allergic to my golden goat. My nose runs the whole time IM trimming it. Last 4 I cut down I got sinus infection afterwards. But its one of my favorite smokes, its worth it

I went to a dispensary where a guy who had to do the trimming was allergic to it and broke out. He seemed to think it was okay. I would think you wouldn't do that job if it affected you lol. But yeah the smoking doesn't bother my allergies unless it's too damp or too old which I see more than I would like to.

s1dth3k1d said:

... My bud always ends up smelling like hay and drying too quickly...

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Really sounds like early harvest.

s1dth3k1d said:

Ever since I started my new hobby I've never quite been able to get the drying part down. My bud always ends up smelling like hay and drying too quickly.

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Are you in a dry climate? I am and it's challenging because the outer layers of the flowers dry too much (too fast) while the inner stems remain wet. I do what you described (alternate between dry/cure). I hang for a day (two days if RH is over 40%) then cut buds into a sterlite plastic bin, eliminating most of the branches. I adjust the lid to control how fast it dries. If it's too wet, I'll leave the lid off for 2 hours (back to drying), tumble the buds with my hands, seal and see where the RH returns to. Too high? Repeat. Coming down well? Leave the lid cracked a bit and keep an eye on how fast it's going down. Open and fan the lid if necessary. Tumble buds by hand occasionally.

Do you use Boveda packs? I have 62% for curing. But, I have a few 65% that I use after trimming from the Sterlite into the jars. It's my way of starting the cure at the high range, and bring it to 62% more slowly. In my environment, it's more likely to err on going too low and rehydrating back to 62. So, I target 65 first.

If you don't have Boveda and buds are too dry when you jar, you can breath into the jar to raise the ph and rehydrate. You can't work miracles, but it can help.

Buds smelling like hay could have a few causes:
-Genetics(strain is not very pungeant and/or potent)
-Improper drying process(refer to drying sticky threads on this forum)
-plant retains too much vegetative chemicals(try flushing (2) weeks prior to harvest)
Are some causes you can look at and correct next time you grow.

*In addition, plants harvested too early may have developed less resin and more leafy smell due to the lack of resin

Very interesting questions and responses. I've wondered a couple times if the live plants could be what triggers my allergies. After some looking, the only thing that I could find was a piece that confirmed what I have suspected a long time- smoking bud usually, in most study subjects, causes the tender membranes in the nasal/sinus cavities to swell slightly, giving a "stuffy head" feeling.
Since I grow indoors now, I haven't had any males or hermies around to disperse pollen, and no allergic reactions.

I think it all pretty much smells like fresh cut hay until it's completely dried and beginning to cure. JMO

I have been wondering the same thing...I've smoked weed for 30 years and now when I decide to start growing it I have sinus allergies from hell. So much tho that my dr has me on all kind of meds...Flonase, musinex, sudafed, and now insurance is paying to fly me to a specialist in Honolulu since there is only one ENT dr on this island and he's booked till April. I use a different dr for my MMJ license, and I hate for it to get back to him then perhaps I wouldn't be able to renew my license...so I just deal with it till I find the right strain that won't do this to my sinuses. As far as curing goes, after a trim the buds get hung for 5-7 days until almost crispy on the outside but the stem still bends the. I jar them up and burp for 2-3 weeks. I found something that take moisture out of ur jars in a hurry ...I don't use it often. If I'm dealing with big kine buds and my jars seem like too much moisture in them, I take some freeze dried strawberries(u can use any freeze dried fruit to ur liking) and it soaks up moisture super quick. I just take a small handful and put them in a coffee filter with a twist tie and leave overnight. Within a couple hours or so u can feel the crispy fruit start to become soft as it rehydrates.

808newb said:

I have been wondering the same thing...I've smoked weed for 30 years and now when I decide to start growing it I have sinus allergies from hell.

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I've always had allergies which manifest as sinus pressure headaches. Over the years I've determined mold and bermuda grass is the cause. I don't mind normal allergy symptoms like runny nose, sneezing, etc. But, the headaches are debilitating. I take pseudafed (the real stuff sold behind the counter, not the reformulated "PE" stuff) at the first sense of the headache. Goody's headache powder (acetaminophen, aspirin and caffeine) works wonders. Drinking Sprite helps the headache for some reason.

Anyway, when I started growing I had these sinus headaches more. Especially when drying. I just take more pseudafed. Maybe a Claritin antihistimine.

Hay smell is from drying to fast, has nothing to do with genetics or nutes or flushing or choppin early, there are lots of different ways to slow em down, put em in a cardboard box, wrap em in a sheet, paper grocery bag, run a humidifier if under 40 in the room. Humidity where you dry should be between 40 & 50 % mold happens above 60. You can test your conditions here dpcalc.org

Cannabis has 2 varieties vasodilator or vasoconstrictor one opens sinuses, one closes sinuses, I mostly grow vasoconstrictors as they open sinuses. It's a strain/genetic thing, ya just gotta find the best ones "for you"

Best advice in the thread goes to Polo the Don