Hi, so I’m new to growing but have successfully pulled off 2 grows in the last year, with the third around the corner.
The problem is, I have grown several different strains that all look and smell the same, and it’s not really a good smell.
Should I be able to smell or taste differences between strains?
Now there were a couple buds I dropped in the floor behind the tent, which when found was obviously crispy but had that typical smell I thought I would get.
So I cured the first time by hanging them upside down until the smallest branches were brittle enough to break off. This first time I wet trimmed. After that they went into jars with humidity packs and sensors and were burped several times a day. That’s been 6+ months ago. Smells like a spice like old oregano or something.
2nd time, I did the same but did my best to let them hang dry longer, with temps and humidity around 65F and 55-60% so I didn’t over dry them.
These I dry trimmed, SO much easier. They do smell a bit better, and don’t have as much of a smell like the first batch and comes closer to what you would expect, but still it’s not right.
I did not flush any of these and they were soil grown without organic materials.
Drying and curing are big factors in taste. A slow dry is essential. 60F and 60% humidity. If I dry in the summer, I also have a hard time getting below 65F…so I up the humidity a little to slow the dry. should take 7 - 14 days. I also sweat the buds before curing, (put in grocery bags and let them all stabilize at the same moisture content)
Curing is where the smells and tastes really develop. This should be 68F and 62% humidity. You only need to burp until the humidity stabilizes. I use Grove bags since it skips this step
I have not noticed a difference if I flush or not.
Do you burp at all with the Grove bags? I’m about a month or from harvest and picked some up for ease of use but then read some people still burp them for the first week or so.
Good to know. So you just dry until moisture meter reads 12 ish and bag? I read something about using painter tape instead of heat sealing too I was going to try with them. Also I got the ounce bags. Have you used that size before? Someone recommended the 1/4 pound bags after I ordered but the shipping is the most expensive part so just planning to run through these first.
Amen. As slooooow as possible to preserve all those aromas and flavors. Quick Dry = Hay.
I’ve used air, paper bags, cardboard boxes, mason jars, grove bags, and now i exclusively use c-vaults for cure.
Couple tips…flower them till they are really ready…usually longer than u think. Her terpene profile will intensify, and mature, and her buds will swell up in those last 2 critical weeks. (Not accusing you of early harvest)
Personally, I find the plant to be a little too dry when the smallest branches break. I usually manicure and set to cure before that, but you need to be vigilant in those first couple days monitoring humidity.
Dry/Cure in complete darkness, no air directly on the hanging plants.
My herb takes about 4 weeks on the cure to really start to give off thank dank smell we really love. It’s there from the start, but really matures in those first weeks of cure and loses the grassy fresh notes in exchange for more typical dank aromas.
You can’t make crappy weed good with a good dry/cure, but you can sure make good weed crappy with a bad one lol!
I thought I had read to keep the air circulating with fans in the drying phase? Do you just not point the fans at the rack or you don’t use fans at all?
I dry in my 5x5 tents at the moment and i use the intake and exhaust fans on super low power…just to keep a slow exchange of the humid air with fresh air from outside the tents. No fans on the hanging plants whatsoever (for me anyway)
I dry in a shower in a spare bathroom. I have a small fan blow air at one end of the shower curtain (from outside the shower) and it comes out the other so there is not directly flow onto the buds.
You can see the small fan on the left. Notice the window is covered to keep it dark. I have inkbird controllers for temp and humidity. I wet trim so I use racks
Good to know. My basement sits pretty close to 60/60 so I was planning to dry in my 4x4 with low exhaust. I actually bought another oscillating fan for the dry to cover the height of the rack but makes sense the vent fans should be moving anything inline with the drying rack anyways (ac infinity 2 foot rack). They’re great for training anyways though so no loss I guess.
Nice setup! I was just planning to wet trim fans and then dry trim sugar leaves using a similar rack. Do I need to trim sugar leaves first? Also super sorry to OP, let me know if we should hop threads just trying to prep up for this phase too and this thread was hitting on my questions.
I’m staggering them, so it’s like 2 seeds go in, when those start to flower 2 more seeds go in. The 2nd set starts flowering by the time the first set was harvested.
I waited the first time until about half of the trichromes were milky, most hairs were orange.
The 2nd time, I waited until like 90% of them were milky and all but the tiny buds pistols had changed.
It’s entirely possible I messed this part up, however I did post some photos of the 2nd grow to get recommendations on harvesting and I did that one right around several others opinions.
Your photo is basically what it looks like, it just does not smell good, haha.
The first time around was definitely a smell, and to be honest, that’s probably the better description of how it smells, hay with a zing.
I did install a fan to blow on the wall, which would “ bounce” and gently circulate the air in the area. I actually dried them in a grow tent so I could monitor the temperature and humidity better and keep it dark.
The first time, I know I did pull them early- well, not at the time but it’s obvious I did. The 2nd time, I waited until they did swell up at the end. The 2nd time the smoke is 100% better, smells a bit better.
I can smell what it should smell
Like when I grind it up, at least a bit, but it is still Covered in that odd smell.
We’re at the same point on the learning curve but here is an opinion based on that. I’ve had 2 runs of a particular strain that got me high with no other particularly outstanding quality, kind of like what you describe. This last run included a Mephisto Chemdogging that has this great pinesol odor/taste and the best chilled out high I’ve had in a while. I grow indoors but don’t have great control over my environment other than temperature, so it could be that but I think genetics is key. Good luck finding your chemdog.
agree! Weed is not like pizza, bad weed tatses like bad weed 