YAAAYYYY HORSE FOOOOD!

verbal719

verbal719

Well-Known Member
Yup. So once again. The smell sucks. I just cant get it right. Plants smelled brutal before harvest. I could smell them from the street in front of my house. I have 3 more plants left to chop. If I don't get the smell I want I don't think I will grow anymore. I cut my grape ape. When I chopped 80% amber trics. Let stay in dark for two days before I chopped. Left all the leaves on. Hung for 5 days. The outside of the buds seemed way dry and didn't have much smell. I manicured the buds to jar. After the manicure and when I first put them in the jar it was out of this world. I have never smelled weed so dank. It was a mix of fruity pebbles and jet fuel.

I put the buds in the jar with an RH meter. The meter said 45% when I closed the lid. 30 minutes later the RH was 60% and it smelled like hay. I took the buds out of the jar and put in a paper bag for about 8 hours. I put the buds back in the jar with he RH meter and left for 8 hours. RH was then 58% and smelled like hay. Took the buds out and put back in the paper bag for a couple hours. Put back in the jar and now i am sitting at 50%. The buds are dry as fuck and when I open the jar and it smells like motherfuckin hay!!! If I leave the lid open for a minute the hay smell goes away a little and I get the good smell but I can still smell the hay. I am furiously angry and ready to give up.

This is my 6th year and I can grow great plants but when it comes to the dry and cure something gets fucked up. There is not one single video on YouTube that is worth a shit. Yes I know the stem has to snap. I know you cant harvest too early. I know it cant be too wet when it goes in the jar. I have tried wet trimming. I have tried dry trimming. I have tried everything. It is a huge fucking let down. Even some dude I know grew the exact same way as me. Cut and trimmed the exact way. And his buds although kinda dry smell fuckin good. He didn't even cure. Just hung and dried. In his garage like I did in mine. He lives a block away. That's it. I'm at the end of my rope.

I'm in Denver so the humidity is low. Right now the humidity outside is 25%. I cant dry inside for lack of space.

Strains are Grape Ape, OG Kush, GSC, Durban, AK 47. All grown from clones. Its not bad genetics. Its bad fucking harvester/curer. I cannot figure it out.
 
Flagg420

Flagg420

Well-Known Member
you seem to be making it pretty complicated... and expecting pretty instant results....

let ur shit dry til its lost 75% of its weight, jar it. After 6hrs, open the jar for a while. If the buds are back to feeling soft n moist, dry them another 8hrs, back in the jar.... Bigger buds may require this multiple times before they stop getting wet feeling, as the denser larger buds have wetness inside... that WHY you have it in the jar. To force natural laws to bring the moisture out of the center...

Once it stops getting all damp feeling between jar periods (8-12hrs, open jar an hr) and dont need to hit the rack to dry again, stretch out your jar time. 2-3 days... then a week...

NOW your shit starts to smell good, and the longer you let it cure, the more that happy smell builds...

The hay smell is your buds curing, its the process, but to prevent it from settling in, you open jar or re lay out the buds.... just keep going.
 
vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
Know doubt about it ...you can grow great plants, so why be a smart ass, and fuck your plan...?
1: you harvest plants
2: chop at the base, with sharp scissors
3: remove all fan leaves and those water leaves you don't smoke
4: cut the bud into 12-18" sections
5: and hang on a prepared line in a dim room at a steady temp 70-77f/66=55%Rh
6: leave them hanging until you get a distinct snap when then stem is snapped
7: then trim them of the stalks (continue manicuring if you wish I don't)
8: then add them to your cure jar
9: for the first week open daily for 1-2 hours
10: 2-3 week 1 hours every 2-3 days

easy?​
 
Flagg420

Flagg420

Well-Known Member
the best I can do is 3 days on the drying rack, and 3-4 days curing.... minimum. A week from harvest if the buds arent massive, and longer if I want it to stink good...
 
verbal719

verbal719

Well-Known Member
vostok said:
Know doubt about it ...you can grow great plants, so why be a smart ass, and fuck your plan...?
1: you harvest plants
2: chop at the base, with sharp scissors
3: remove all fan leaves and those water leaves you don't smoke
4: cut the bud into 12-18" sections
5: and hang on a prepared line in a dim room at a steady temp 70-77f/66=55%Rh
6: leave them hanging until you get a distinct snap when then stem is snapped
7: then trim them of the stalks (continue manicuring if you wish I don't)
8: then add them to your cure jar
9: for the first week open daily for 1-2 hours
10: 2-3 week 1 hours every 2-3 days

easy?​
Click to expand...
The first sentence of your response in very confusing. What doubt am I supposed to "know" about? Also, I do not really have a plan besides stop growing if I cant get my shit right. Anyways man, thanks for your suggestions.
 
vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
verbal719 said:
The first sentence of your response in very confusing. What doubt am I supposed to "know" about? Also, I do not really have a plan besides stop growing if I cant get my shit right. Anyways man, thanks for your suggestions.
Click to expand...
I am just saying stay with the plan and avoid deviating, or trying new stuff out until you feel comfortable with your current result
 
verbal719

verbal719

Well-Known Member
Flagg420 said:
you seem to be making it pretty complicated... and expecting pretty instant results....

let ur shit dry til its lost 75% of its weight, jar it. After 6hrs, open the jar for a while. If the buds are back to feeling soft n moist, dry them another 8hrs, back in the jar.... Bigger buds may require this multiple times before they stop getting wet feeling, as the denser larger buds have wetness inside... that WHY you have it in the jar. To force natural laws to bring the moisture out of the center...

Once it stops getting all damp feeling between jar periods (8-12hrs, open jar an hr) and dont need to hit the rack to dry again, stretch out your jar time. 2-3 days... then a week...

NOW your shit starts to smell good, and the longer you let it cure, the more that happy smell builds...

The hay smell is your buds curing, its the process, but to prevent it from settling in, you open jar or re lay out the buds.... just keep going.
Click to expand...
I pretty much did the exact thing you just mentioned. The thing is nobody says ya your shit is gonna smell like bullshit for awhile. One dude said the rh in the jar should be around 60-65% and should not open the jar to allow O2 to get in. Something about science and anaerobic bacteria eating the chlorophyll and sugar so let the stuff stay in the jar for a week without opening as long as the rh is steady at 65% or so.
 
verbal719

verbal719

Well-Known Member
vostok said:
I am just saying stay with the plan and avoid deviating, or trying new stuff out until you feel comfortable with your current result
Click to expand...
I like to try new things. The thing is I grow outdoor. I have one shot a year. If I fuck up I have to wait a whole nother year to try something different.
 
GreatwhiteNorth

GreatwhiteNorth

Global Moderator
Staff member
When I got serious about this I tried the "drying until the stem snaps" after wet trimming and found that IMHO the buds were way too dry and would not cure properly. I go by feel - when they begin to feel a bit "crispy" on the exterior I jar them & do not take them out unless they feel really wet. I just open the jars (daily and sometimes for hours) to allow the moisture to escape like that.
If the buds are initially allowed to dry out too much, a proper cure cannot happen and shit won't smell right.
 
Flagg420

Flagg420

Well-Known Member
you only re-rack the buds if they are SOFT to the touch, otherwise, ur just burping, u open for that hr to let the moist air out, if u never open it, the water level inside the jar can not change... once it reaches equilibrium in the jar, it will mold if not released.

If you dont have a basics book by now, bloody get one... cervantes or rosenthal.... knowledge is grand, but theres no doubt that being able to fall back on the hardcover researched book helps any time you are a little unsure...
 
Diabolical666

Diabolical666

Well-Known Member
Curing is an art. Verbal, get some humidity packs and throw them in your jars and burp daily. You'll get your smell and flavor but its going to be a minute. Dont get discouraged bro,you've done this before;)
edit: you say you have 2 more to chop... if your buds are too dry...clip off one of your fresh buds and throw it in the jar for a cpl hours, take it out, then start your burping again
 
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danknugg

danknugg

Well-Known Member
You can't undry a bud, you can only make it wet again, so your best bet for flavor is to chill out and slow down, many strains lose the smell and flavor during the dry because smells come out so much with the moisture, which you are trying to get rid of. You have to go slow or you have a good chance of never getting back to how it was before the chop. Also drying outside in the sun is a bad idea because the sunlight will degrade your buds in all manners.
 
WeekendSupervisor

WeekendSupervisor

Well-Known Member
Have you tried Simon's method? It's the first sticky in this forum. 1/2 way through my first cure and it's dank goodness.
It's not based on mumbo jumbo and chicken legs like most cure methods, it's derived from traditional tobacco curing information. Just sayin...
Good luck, keep trying!
ps- for extra credit, Chester Copperpot on youtube has some decent info.
 
Dan Drews

Dan Drews

Well-Known Member
verbal719 said:
Yup. So once again. The smell sucks. I just cant get it right. Plants smelled brutal before harvest. I could smell them from the street in front of my house. I have 3 more plants left to chop. If I don't get the smell I want I don't think I will grow anymore. I cut my grape ape. When I chopped 80% amber trics. Let stay in dark for two days before I chopped. Left all the leaves on. Hung for 5 days. The outside of the buds seemed way dry and didn't have much smell. I manicured the buds to jar. After the manicure and when I first put them in the jar it was out of this world. I have never smelled weed so dank. It was a mix of fruity pebbles and jet fuel.

I put the buds in the jar with an RH meter. The meter said 45% when I closed the lid. 30 minutes later the RH was 60% and it smelled like hay. I took the buds out of the jar and put in a paper bag for about 8 hours. I put the buds back in the jar with he RH meter and left for 8 hours. RH was then 58% and smelled like hay. Took the buds out and put back in the paper bag for a couple hours. Put back in the jar and now i am sitting at 50%. The buds are dry as fuck and when I open the jar and it smells like motherfuckin hay!!! If I leave the lid open for a minute the hay smell goes away a little and I get the good smell but I can still smell the hay. I am furiously angry and ready to give up.
Click to expand...
Verbal - Definitely sounds like you're over drying your buds. Your first paragraph looks good, the only thing I'd want to know is what was the temp and RH in the room your dried in for the first 5 days. If the temp stayed around 60 - 70 degrees and RH was around 60% AND your buds are no longer spongy, you should be in good shape at this point to trim and jar as you did.

Then you describe putting the buds in a jar and checking the RH 30 minutes later - I don't think that's long enough to wait. At that point, you want to check RH inside the jar after 4 hours or so to allow the buds time to sweat (moisture deep in the buds will soften/moisten the outside dry material until it's all moist again). If RH was still @ 60% after 4 hours, you're in the cure zone. There's no reason to put the buds in a paper bag for 8 hours where it will dry out even more.

If the RH in the jar rises to 70% after the initial 4 hours, then I'd put the buds in the paper bag for 8 hours with a hygrometer and check the RH again. Continue to do so until the RH in the bag gets down to 65% or so, then it's time to go back in the jar. If you find the buds are sticking together (indicates they're still a bit too moist), gently shake/roll the jars until the buds separate. Assuming the RH in the jar stays at 60 - 65%, the only thing you should need to do is open the jars daily for 15 minutes for the first week or so, then maybe 5 minutes a day, every other day for a couple weeks.

As others have mentioned, you can try leaving your over dried buds sealed in a jar with a Boveda 63% pack for a few weeks to see if the smell improves. If it still smells like hay, it got too dry and wasn't able to cure properly but the Boveda will correct the bone dry buds to something 'fresher' to smoke.
 
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