Bud in curing still smelling like hay

[Jermaine Concern]

Hey guys. Looking for some help here.
The strain is gelato x wedding cake, in fox farm soil w some perlite, 10 gallon pots, 6 plants, under 3 1000w HPS (for veg and bloom)
I vegged them out for a super long time, almost 5 months i’d Say, and did defoliation throughout the veg maybe once every ten days. Flipped to12/12 and never defoliated again.
Using Botanicare base grow and bloom

Being that I vegged them so long, I got impatient when it came time to cut down. I waited till 90%+ of the pistils were orange, then cut. I didn’t see very many, if any, amber trikes. But I read a few places it’s better to cut down early than late. I staggered a few plants at a time and let the other ones develop for a few days more.

The first two plants I cut down, I immediately snippedd off all fan leaves then I put them into a machine trimmer, the handheld crank one. Then, I put the Buds all on a hanging screen rack at around 50% humidity 65°F for five days with good (maybe too good, but still indirect) air flow. I noticed the buds were getting pretty dry on the outside, so I use the black garbage bag method and sweated them out for 18 hours and then put them back on the drying rack’s. I notice a little bit of the moisture coming back to the outside of the bud, so about 12 hours after that I put them into 1 gallon jars filled up halfway. My cheap hygrometers were reading around 60% Rh after a day in the jar, burped twice a day for the first two days.

The bud was still smelling like hey, so me as a newbie, also trying to sell it as fast as possible because I’m cash poor and sitting on pounds, I let them go back into the screens for another 18 hours. Then back into the jars. Since then it’s been three days.

They still don’t smell good. If I squeeze the bud I can tell it’s not completely dry, and I do get some smell after I squeeze it.

My question is, if I fucked up: where? Will being patient with burping restore the smell?

 

[Bonsaiweed]

Hey guys. Looking for some help here.
The strain is gelato x wedding cake, in fox farm soil w some perlite, 10 gallon pots, 6 plants, under 3 1000w HPS (for veg and bloom)
I vegged them out for a super long time, almost 5 months i’d Say, and did defoliation throughout the veg maybe once every ten days. Flipped to12/12 and never defoliated again.
Using Botanicare base grow and bloom

Being that I vegged them so long, I got impatient when it came time to cut down. I waited till 90%+ of the pistils were orange, then cut. I didn’t see very many, if any, amber trikes. But I read a few places it’s better to cut down early than late. I staggered a few plants at a time and let the other ones develop for a few days more.

The first two plants I cut down, I immediately snapped off all fan leaves then I put them into a machine trimmer, the handheld crank one. Then, I put the Buds all on a hanging screen rack at around 50% humidity 65°F for five days with good (maybe too good, but still indirect) air flow. I noticed the bugs were getting pretty dry on the outside, so I use the black garbage bag method and sweated them out for 18 hours and then put them back on the drying rack’s. I notice a little bit of the moisture coming back to the outside of the bud, so about 12 hours after that I put them into 1 gallon jars filled up halfway. My cheap hygrometers were reading around 60% Rh after a day in the jar, burped twice a day for the first two days.

The boat was still smelling like hey, so me as a newbie, also trying to sell it as fast as possible because I’m cash poor and sitting on pounds, I let them go back into the screens for another 18 hours. Then back into the jars. Since then it’s been three days.

They still don’t smell good. If I squeeze the bud I can tell it’s not completely dry, and I do get some smell after I squeeze it.

My question is, if I fucked up: where? Will being patient with burping restore the smell?

Some bud when first harvested does smell like hay. That is the chlorophyll you smell. When those sugars are consumed by curing, they usually change smell. But that isn't to say, the product will gain any other smell......

This is just information from reading from here. The more experienced people will chime in with their knowledge and/or opinion.

Also, welcome to our little village that people call the forum

We hope you stick around to become part of the group.....participate and it usually rewards in knowledge you may not have known.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Curing takes time. Usually after 4-6 weeks most of that raw smell is gone and the fine aromas are coming out.

I have screwed up plants before that never did smell right. I've got some in jars that's cured two years and it's still strange. Smells sharp and also looks a bit too green. I've been using it for making skin cream and hash and oil.
I blame those ones on not ripening it properly and not letting the plant burn through all the nutrients in its system before harvest. I usually taper nutes down to a low level several weeks before harvest- then switch to water-only, or a very light bloom nute, depending on how the plant looks.

But I don't mean to worry you. That hay smell you are talking about is common and it goes away after a few weeks.

 

[Jermaine Concern]

Thanks fam. Nah, I flushed the shit outta these girls. But you think cutting down too early (ripening) might effect it?

 

[Weaselcracker]

Probably wouldn't fully account for the hay smell. Maybe partly. I think that it will go away. But you know...flowers are flowers, their smell changes and evolves as they mature. So I've definitely harvested many that hadn't hit the proper state of perfection yet.
Ever have one month old wine? Usually pretty gross. And if it's not disgusting- you've got something that's going to be amazing in a year or two.
Or -like fruit that ripens on the vine as opposed to some that's cut early and ripens in a store. Not the same.
I do tend to associate the hay smell more with my earlier grow efforts. So I do think a big part of the problem falls on the grower. It varies by strain too. I mean- some strains are so smelly that they couldn't smell like hay if they wanted to. And in my early days I was growing more bagseed and some strains that weren't all that amazing anyway. And I didn't grow them well so they didn't smell as strong. Etc. It's a combination of things, almost all of them cured by aging. Aging of the bud, and aging of the grower. Growers need curing too before they get good.

I would never give away or sell anything that's been less than two weeks in the jar -period- because you need that window of time to make sure your RH is good and you have no fear of mold.

In reality six weeks is my normal minimum cure before giving weed away to friends or anyone. I might do four but only rarely and I'd mention it's still raw.

Three months cure is much better than 6 weeks. Three months is a cure I feel good about giving away to friends I respect.

6- 12 months and onward is the special primo reserve.

It just gets better, more slowly. But the biggest change is in that first few weeks and it's a very good idea to put that time aside, IMO.

 

[EastCoastGhost]

Wet trimming will makes buds smell like hay. That’s why I never wet trim. I’ll just take the big fans and leave the rest till after she dries and she’ll keep her dank smell. My first grow I wet trimmed and all my buds smelled like hay, most of it got its smell back once it cured but I had one that never did get good dank smell back. Another reason I don’t like wet trimming is it also speeds up the drying process a little bit. Imo if you don’t wet trim it takes a couple days longer to dry and improves the bud quality. This is just my opinion based on what I have learned so far.