How should my curing buds feel????

I cut off some lower branches a few weeks ago to experiment on drying/curing for when my actual harvest will happen here in a week or so.

Keep in mind these were smaller fluffy buds from underneath the canopy.

I dried them upside down in a dry, 65 degree, and dark room. They dried for 5 full days and at the end they felt crispy. I put them in an air tight jar overnight and now they feel soft and moist again.

Is this a normal part of curing? I have been opening the jar at least 3 to 4 times a day for the past 2 days.

I imagine this is the normal process and I'm just being paranoid. I wouldn't worry, but they don't smell just quite right. Again, it could just be my paranoia for creating the perfect product. Thanks!

firstly, yah, the odd smell is perfectly normal.. this is simply the break down of the cholophyl in the buds, a natural process..

and also, the buds getting wet again is also natural.. if you put them into jars too soon, they will get super wet in a few hours in the jars.. if this happens, i take them right out of the jars and dry them some more for a few hours before putting them back in the jars.. after which, i will open them idk, like every few hours for a few to ten minutes or so, just long enough to exchange the air inside of the jars.. if they are still on the wet side, sometimes i'll take all of the buds out of the jar and rearrange them so the buds that were on the top are now on the bottom, if they don't feel too wet, i'll just burp them every few hours for a week or two.. after about two weeks or so, you can get away with burping them only once a day instead of every several hours..
i've found that after about 18 days to three weeks, the smell returns to the buds and you'll have a good idea of what the final product is going to smell and smoke like... how long you cure for is really up to you, but i like to give them at least three weeks like i said just to make sure the smell is solid... any longer is just a bonus imo..
i forgot to mention that a lot of people say that they like to wait till the stems on the buds no longer simply bend but rather snap before they put the buds into jars for curing, but i've found that if i wait that long, my final product ends up too dry for my tastes... so now i like to wait till the outside of the buds feel dry to the touch... they will pretty much feel like what a smokeable bud will feel like to me... then in the jars they go and i follow what i said above..

hope that helps some m8 as the cure really is one of the most important parts of the grow imo, and can really make the difference between top shelf bud and just your average run of the mill weed...

i sometimes put the bud in a brown sack and hang till its dry, then back in the jar.

thats good info racerboy

Thanks for the responses!

Puts me at ease. Since this is my first grow (and I'm used to medical grade Cali weed) I don't know all the looks and smells of the In between product. I'm learning a ton!

Im mostly learning I need to chill out and just keep doing what I'm doing

lol, me too, let em grow...just keep smiling....

Thanks! This helped me too since I just harvested the other day and am now curing.. I thought my weed is garbage because of the smell and taste it has right now.. I have been sampling small buds but my nice buds are curing I wont be touching those for weeks. My bud looks real good, frosty and red pistils everywhere but I am experiencing this odd smell and i hate it! I really hope it goes away with the cure.

Once again Im no expert but I followed guidelines and used my instinct as far as growing anything goes, the shit I grew was nasty skunky for the first part of drying but it maintained a nice dense feel without getting overly dry. Put mine in ziplock bags in the fridge where its been for about a month and Ive been letting it take a breath every day by opening the bags up....the skunkyness went away fairly quick and now it smells mildly sweet with the undertone of weed and it tastes great and gets a guy nicely crispy. Had my doubts at first but the final product was great. Still have about a pound in my house fridge and you would never know it by smell!

If like you said, you ony took the lower popcorn off then dried for a full 5 days, there is no point curing. You have probably dried it out completely which you dont want, it will not cure at all. Your aim is to crisp up the outside but the inner is still moist. The curing is a process of slowly and evenly drawing that moisture out, back into the sweet leaf / cripy bud, each burp alows the bud to dry a bit more and spead the moisture again. As this is happening the chemistry magic takes place. Too dry and the chemistry just don't happen and there is no cure.

The big buds take me 5-6 days and the popcorn gets jared after 2-3 days ish.

My lower popcorn had decent sized nuts. After drying I cut off all the buds from the two branches and it weighed 9 grams.

It all went moist after being in the jar over night so I think I timed it right. I do see what you're saying though if it would have gotten overly dry from the star.

thechemist310 said:

My lower popcorn had decent sized nuts. After drying I cut off all the buds from the two branches and it weighed 9 grams.

It all went moist after being in the jar over night so I think I timed it right. I do see what you're saying though if it would have gotten overly dry from the star.

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sweet, sounds like you caught it, my bad.... sorry.

Another indicator I use incase ya to quick to jar is if the bigger buds flatten under there own weight. If they do then ya a bit to soon for the jar, hang em up a bit longer.

I dry until crispy but the stem still bends.

Then jar them for 12 hours.

After 12 hours they will be moist again. Take them out of the jars and spread them out to re-crisp should take 20-30mins maybe a little longer. Then re-jar for 12 hours until they become moist and repeat the process.

After around 1 week of this the buds won't need the 30 mins re-crisp and will just need burping for a few minutes each day.


After 2weeks the true aroma will begin to develop and it just gets better and better the longer you leave it.


J

jondamon said:

I dry until crispy but the stem still bends.

Then jar them for 12 hours.

After 12 hours they will be moist again. Take them out of the jars and spread them out to re-crisp should take 20-30mins maybe a little longer. Then re-jar for 12 hours until they become moist and repeat the process.

After around 1 week of this the buds won't need the 30 mins re-crisp and will just need burping for a few minutes each day.


After 2weeks the true aroma will begin to develop and it just gets better and better the longer you leave it.


J

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Exactly how I do it, been doing it that way for quite some time now and it works best for me.

I think its the most overlooked step by most growers. A bad dry and a bad cure can sure ruin what was very good buds.

Yeah, I thought once I grew the bitches the hard part was over!

Thanks for all the info guys. Once I figure out things should look and feel through the whole process I should be an allstar grower! I've always had a green thumb. Came from years of mom training.

Merry Christmas!

Np man, and merry XMas to you as well.

Remember this, its just like growing in the idea that if youre patient and do things properly you will be rewarded in the end.