I am currently curing my second harvest ever. It’s sitting in the jars and I’m almost certain that the smell is what people are talking about when they say smells like hay. Thing is though, it smelled that way before harvest**, like all the way through the grow. The smell is improving with the cure but it’s still a strong hay smell.
I flushed with just water for a week and gave 3 days of darkness before chop, then hung individual branches upside down. waited to trim until the stems snapped, and the buds popped off without leaving a string. The environment averaged 44% humidity. I know that’s too dry, but it was still eight days until it was ready. So maybe it dried too fast, but it wasn’t THAT fast.
My first harvest smelled great until I put a dehumidifier in the tent. I think the digital light made it herm and I ended up with brown, seedy weed. It started smelling like hay but not until after harvest.
So what gives? I thought this grow was a success, but the smell has never been great. Other people even commented on the lack of smell during the flowering stage.
The smell can still improve…stay the course. You may have let the buds get a little too dry. I usually start to cure before the stems are snapping…when I use Grove bags. Make sure your humidity in cure is around 62% and 68 degrees.
I am stuck in an uninsulated shed for both growing and drying so I can try to get the environment right but it’s tough. And yea I’m hoping the smell continues to improve. It’s been in jars for two weeks, humidity is at 60% in the jar. I still don’t understand why it smelled like that from the start of flowering. It makes me wonder if it really is the hay smell or something else. (I’m pretty sure it’s the hay smell lol)
What were your temps at the end of flower…too high can do that. Also, some plants just smell that way…especially Indicas
Are your drying plants basically being lit up during lights on for the other girls? LEDs can have a negative impact on trichome degradation and terpene profile if drying plants are continuously exposed.
If you opened my tent right now at day 8 of dry/cure all I can smell is hay. I didn’t even trim fan leaves. However the buds themselves smell like candy and diesel. When drying it’s best to recreate the jar environment. 68F 59-61% rH. I’m skipping the burping “cure” by doing that with a 16 day hang and cure in the tent. Granted we all can’t keep those exact variables so we do the best we can.
Check out BuildASoils method:
My quote about it from another post
Temps were low. About 60
Nope, no light. In the tent by itself in darkness
Are you burping those jars?
When needed I have used large trash bags to hang my cut plants in to keep the humidity up. I cut vents to allow for enough air circulation. Put a little rH meter in there so you know whether to increase or decrease the venting to maintain rH around 60%.
@Bfreezy your smell should improve how many days did your plant hang before you put in jars my friend
Yep, every day for the first week or so and every second or third day after that
Eight days
Yea I could try that. Scared of mold though
@Bfreezy i would have to say the fast drying could be the reason for the hay smell but i could be wrong. Drying and curing is tricky you have to dial things in for your environment because all of us growers have different environments it will take few time to get things right if you need anything just give us a shout my friend happy growing
How many days has it been since jarring for cure? It can be a few days to a couple weeks for the smell to straighten out. I’ve also found a tighter trim, removing all fan and most sugar leaf material can have a better impact on aroma and flavor.
Its normal ,all it is is the chlorophyll leaving the plant. Curing in glass jars minimum 2 weeks. Curing changes the molecular structure over time and lets the moisture evenly distribute throughout the bud also allowing gases to escape . A proper cure has to be done to achieve maximum potency flavor and terpene profiles. I hang mine to dry roughly 7 to 10 days in a closed closet with fan blowing on low to maintain airflow and always total darkness, until i did this i produced junk,tasted harsh and smelled like alfalfa lol
2 different plants ,one is a pic of a wet trim i did yesterday. The others have been cured and smell like sweet pine and skunk mixed
The hay smell you are experiencing is called off gassing. This is completely normal and can vary from plant to plant. It sounds like to me that maybe you initially overdried the product. In my opinion waiting for the bud to “snap” off the branch is alittle to long.
When I harvest I cut the branches individually. Shop off the largest of the leave. Leaving the rest. The auger leaves wil dry and somewhat form a cocoon around the flower. Protecting the resin heads from light exposure etc.
Just before the flowers get to the point of snapping of the branches I put everything into plastic tubs. This is the sweeting phase. I close the tubs with the lids and let them set for 24hrs. I basically burp and fluff the product for the next couple of days. This helps remove and extra moisture from the middle of the stall evenly through the flower.
Afternoon happy with the product I buck it. This is removing the flower from the stalk and any large leaves. (Not trimming it) the product sits in turkey bags from here on out tell I’m ready to trim and smoke.
This has worked the best for me 
Is 8 days really that fast though?
It’s been in jars for 16 days. Still a very strong hay smell