1st grow failed! What went wrong?

[Lizard guy]

I grew 1 very healthy looking auto-flower (Julie's cookies) - seeds purchased from gorilla seedbank. She grew some relatively big buds that looked okay - not as frosty as I was hoping, but the buds were so bad I had to bin the whole lot (approx 1.1 oz).
I'm really not 100% sure as what went wrong, was hoping someone could help. My set was this,

1 Autoflower "Julie's cookies" strain
18-6 light/dark schedule
Mini grow cabinet 45x45x96cm
Soil grow, Biobizz all mix
300W CFL (Blue for veg and switched to red when pistils started appearing)
Applied biobizz nutrients (bio-grow for vegging, switched to bio-bloom at flowering) as per the biobizz nutrient schedule
Intake and exhaust fans with carbon filter

In the beginning, I was getting temps averaging 33-34 degrees c. I know this is quite extreme but this was a really hot summer and the plant seemed to be doing quite well. Due to the high external temps, I decided not fully close the frow cabinet and switch of the ventilation fan in order to control the temperature, athough I did leave the intake fan on constantly.
The entire vegging stage went really well, no diseases, mould, and no signs of nute burn or watering issues. In the last weeks of vegging I decided to close the cabinet as there was a slight odour that could be detected, so the whole flowering stage occured in a fully closed system. Flushed during the last 7 days of flowering with plain water.

At the end of the flowering stage is where I suspect it went wrong. The top colas grew too close to the CFL bulb and got burned and had to be discarded. I don't know if this had a knock on effect on the rest of the buds but when I harvested the first set of buds, they were about 70% orange/brown hairs and about 80% milky white trichomes - I should state here that in hindsight I shold have probably waited an extra week to make sure all trichimes were 100% clouded. Coupled with the consistently high temps due to sumer, the final buds were fluffy, and had almost ZERO aroma to them. The lack of odour is what concerns me the most. I also fucked up the drying process by not allowing them to dry out enough and subsequently mould took hold of one of the biggest buds after being glass jarred.

The second lot of buds I let dry for about 7 days (sticks didn't snap when bending) and mason jarred the rest. It's been over 4 weeks and they have only ever smelled like dry grass, grinding one up only reveals the slightest fruity odour, but nothing that resembles skunk. Crushed some up and loaded my vape pen. The taste was disgusting, and they only got worse with time, not better as they should have with curing. Why?

I really like know people's thoughts as to what caused these weak, fluffy, tasteless, odourless buds. Was is one simple thing, or a combination of several things? How can this be avoided in the future. I really don't want to screw this next one up. She's already 2 weeks into vegging.

Any input is highly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Calvados]

Did you take any pics before you harvested?

Smell and taste is mostly about drying and curing. The hay smell means they aren't dry. They still contain chlorophyll which if smoked will taste like shit. Not smelling is no big deal.

You need to air out your jars a couple times a day for at least a month. That's one way to do this.

 

[Lizard guy]

Did you take any pics before you harvested?

Smell and taste is mostly about drying and curing. The hay smell means they aren't dry. They still contain chlorophyll which if smoked will taste like shit. Not smelling is no big deal.

You need to air out your jars a couple times a day for at least a month. That's one way to do this.

I didn't take any pics unfortunately. I did open the jar once a day for about 10 minutes for 1 week but this has done nothing to increase the potency or improve the taste.

 

[MassMedMan]

There's a lot there mate. 7 days drying on the second lot isn't long enoukigh. You tasted what you should or would. Sorry about that.

Those grow boxes are, ok, I guess, I have no first hand. But, I assume if your environment isn't locked on then you'll, your plants and results will suffer.

Is that all you have to grow with?

300 watt CFL will make some buds, but you may have switched late. Blue is good for early flower. But, you build trics with red.

Any pics?

 

[Papageno]

Well...there is a lot to this question my freind.

You say basically "I grew a plant...I burnt it hard and stressed it bad. Dried it too fast and jarred it the minimum time. "

I think that is what you wrote.

So the answer would be a number if things. Fist you have to grow a fat tasty bud. Many buds look big but are low on resin. Resin and terpin production make all that stuff you want. That is the real ripening of the plant.

Light damages the resin. Which builds up at night.

So you likely had low sugar production and burned off a lot of terpins too close to the light.

If you had stinky stinky buds then you need to dry them slowly for much longer to get the water out of the stems.

Then you can cure.

It is possible they have low terpins and not near enough curing. I like to cure not less than 2 months and prefer 4 or more.

 

[Calvados]

I didn't take any pics unfortunately. I did open the jar once a day for about 10 minutes for 1 week but this has done nothing to increase the potency or improve the taste.

You are probably better off making butter or oil.

 

[Archiweedies]

Your not gonna like this but environment is like ultimately what grows this plant to It’s full capability. Get environmental factors dialed in and you got half the battle done.

 

[Lizard guy]

There's a lot there mate. 7 days drying on the second lot isn't long enoukigh. You tasted what you should or would. Sorry about that.

Those grow boxes are, ok, I guess, I have no first hand. But, I assume if your environment isn't locked on then you'll, your plants and results will suffer.

Is that all you have to grow with?

300 watt CFL will make some buds, but you may have switched late. Blue is good for early flower. But, you build trics with red.

Any pics?

I'm restricted to a box due to space and stealth. I switched to red at the first sign of pistols at the node sites. Surely that can't be too late?

 

[Lizard guy]

Well...there is a lot to this question my freind.

You say basically "I grew a plant...I burnt it hard and stressed it bad. Dried it too fast and jarred it the minimum time. "

I think that is what you wrote.

So the answer would be a number if things. Fist you have to grow a fat tasty bud. Many buds look big but are low on resin. Resin and terpin production make all that stuff you want. That is the real ripening of the plant.

Light damages the resin. Which builds up at night.

So you likely had low sugar production and burned off a lot of terpins too close to the light.

If you had stinky stinky buds then you need to dry them slowly for much longer to get the water out of the stems.

Then you can cure.

It is possible they have low terpins and not near enough curing. I like to cure not less than 2 months and prefer 4 or more.

In a nut shell, yeah. Hopefully this time should be better as temps are dropping so it will less heat stress for the plant. Thanks