Smells Like Hay.

Me and a couple of my friends weed always smells like hay after curing..

We all do the same thing when curing so I figure this has got to be what does it.. We leave it out to dry, wait till it is dry on the outside but still has a little softness inside. Then we bag it in large ziplock bags, the outsides of the nugs soften back up a bit, then we just air it out again, then seal the bag again, air it out, etc. I've read this is the way to do it.. Could it be the plastic bags? I've been thinking of going to kmart for a bunch of their large sealed glass jars. Would curing in glass be better? Or is it something else entirely that is making it smell like hay when curing?

Thoughts?

the reason its not curing is because your not curing it.bags breathe and are not air tight...need to place the bud into mason jars after they are dried and leave them there for at least 2-3 weeks..some cure up to a year

Cool, I had a feeling it might be the plastic bags, though I didn't realize it was because the plastic is not air tight... I'll pick up a bunch of the large glass mason jars for this next batch. I planned to try that anyway.

You don't just seal it in the glass jar for 2 weeks straight do you? I thought you had to air it out to let the outside of the buds crisp back up, then seal the jar again, and repeat this process over a couple week period?

Yes you are correct you still have to air it out every 12 hours for an hour or so until they reach your desired consistency then seal em up...... but I might take a stab at your hay problem and say it could be due to early harvesting as well as too quick a dry time, should take 6 or more days to get to jarring condition.......also if there is any mold in your drying environment it will quickly find and degrade your material and smell

If it were one of those things it could be drying it too quick. I often put it in my bathroom with a space heater to speed up the drying. I'll make sure I stop doing that too. I don't think it's mold, that's part of why I was fast drying it, to help avoid mold. And I open the bags and air them often enough to avoid mold (I think).

Next crop i'll switch to large mason jars instead of plastic zip locks and no space heater.

Ya I had two harvests early in my grow career that suffered from quick dry times(4 days) and never really recovered there smell(always get kinda like chocolate/hay) but I learned one time when I put a bunch of my lower stuff in between two of the PAPER (not wax coated) plates to dry and it took a bit longer and they ended up reeking to high heaven so I now keep them in an enclosed environment that can be controlled, never really measured humidity or anything but they take 8-10 days to reach jar condition now and they STINK and taste better too

I was just trying to think of a good consistent way to dry a bunch at a time. I really have no rooms that aren't in use. The cabinet I grow my starts in would work great but it has starts going while i'm clearing the room. I can't dry it in the room with plants still finishing budding because there would be humidity in there.... What's the enclosed environment you're using?

I have been having the problem you have, and I'm almost certain it's because I dry too fast. I am going to get a few cardboard boxes, and run fishing line through them so they can hang in a covered box to dry for a week. I had been hanging for 2-3 days then into jar and they smell like hay before even going into the jar for the first time.

It's such a disappointment when it smells so good on the plant, but after a few days it smells like hay.

It's the chlorophyll and other nasty stuff that escapes when you dry it slow. When you dry it fast that stuff gets trapped that's the hay smell you talk about and when smoked will burn your throat. Try this 70 degree 40-50% humidy and when you trim your buds you will smell dank promise. Once you jar after 4-5 days and burp everyday the smell will only get stronger trust me.

infinitescrog said:

I have been having the problem you have, and I'm almost certain it's because I dry too fast. I am going to get a few cardboard boxes, and run fishing line through them so they can hang in a covered box to dry for a week. I had been hanging for 2-3 days then into jar and they smell like hay before even going into the jar for the first time.

It's such a disappointment when it smells so good on the plant, but after a few days it smells like hay.

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Yes, cardboard boxes with fishing line strung through...Jdubb is right on the temp and humidity...I also leave the top of the box open and put newspapers on top of the box one at a time(every day or so) as it dries to reduce ventilation as they get drier, saw this in a thread on here, works by slowly reducing airflow through the layers of newspaper to prolong dry time. So by the end you should have 6-10 layers of newspaper on top the box and stinky almost dry buds.

Nice. That should be pretty easy to do. My normal humidity in my house is in that range so I won't need to tinker with that.

Thanks for the tips guys! I'll try it that way next time for sure. Then into mason jars intend of plastic zip locks for curing.

The only time I've ever got that "hay" smell is when I jarred up buds that weren't really ready, and didn't burp them quick enough. You have to find that balance where there's just enough moisture left in the bud to cure, but not so much as to encourage bacteria or fungus to take hold.

Wolverine97 said:

The only time I've ever got that "hay" smell is when I jarred up buds that weren't really ready, and didn't burp them quick enough. You have to find that balance where there's just enough moisture left in the bud to cure, but not so much as to encourage bacteria or fungus to take hold.

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Very true, I find that if condensation forms in the jars, I didn't wait long enough. That's the tell.

Let hang in a closet to dry until the stem snaps... after it snaps not just a snap, crackle or a pop on a bend ..... throw it in the jar. I usually dry mine in hanging up 4-6 days and turns out great. I usually find there is a 1 day window as too dry is not a good thing.

it can also be a genetic thing also, some phenotypes simply dont have much of a smell or a flavor to them another reason to grow from clone.

My drying process takes 2 to 3 weeks before I am ready for jar depending on the strain - I use a 99% sealed plastic shelf unit with drawers (I crack the drawers) and then I have metal cooking racks inside that the buds sit on - I control the humidity of the room keeping it between 45 and 60 and the temps are between 50F and 70F.

My friends often tease me because it takes me so long to dry but who is the one laughing when they complain cause their bud all taste the same? me

Drying and curing takes just about as long as flowering for me with 2-3 weeks on the rack initially and then 3 to 8 weeks for curing in the jar.

I too have ended up with the hay smell. For us, the solution was to dry slow for the first couple days. We like around 55%-60% humidity at 70F for the first 2 days. Then, we lower the humidity to around 40% for a few days. I don't actually let it go until the stems snap. Once the buds are crunchy, but the stems don't quite snap, we strip the buds off the stems and place the buds into a paper bag for 24 hrs. Then, we lay them out on a screen overnight in around 50% RH. Then, back into the paper bag overnight. Now, if they're ready for the jars we put em in. If not, we repeat the screen step.

I believe the higher humidity at first allows the buds to use up the chlorophyl. Whenever I dry too fast right off, I can never quite get rid of all the hay smell. Since we are a med op and need to get the meds out ASAP, I usually dry for about a week, and do the jar burp thing for about a week. I know that longer is a little better, but we can't have that much weight hanging around for too long.