Hi there, and thanks in advance for your help. I am a first time grower and have a question about the smell of my white widow. Started from ILGM white widow seed on windowsill and transferred to outdoor Garden after about 1 month. Plant went crazy outside and grew to about 11 ft. Didn’t prune when I should have. Buds smelled awesome, but branches got so heavy by mid September and then a few snapped off so I had to harvest part of the plant early. So I figured why not dry these and see what happens? Put them in garage with two rather strong fans but we had a heatwave and they dried too quick. Smell changed from nice to nasty quick after that. Wasn’t sure what to do so I put some in a black garbage bag - friends suggested it - and washed rest in lemon and baking
Soda mix. Now drying latter batch with smaller fans inside but smell is still strong and not in a great way. I know I had a few caterpillars and so had treated with BT before harvest (and then it rained) but not sure what else it could be. Trying to learn now so the rest of the harvest in a couple weeks is not a waste. Thanks for your knowledge!
Pictures of the bud would help
These are taken after washing
Sorry, first one is after washing. Photo with bud in Tupperware is before.
I’m seeing some brown on some of the buds could be bud rot and did you bud wash dried buds that is not recommended
Did you dry your buds then wash? This isn’t really the general practice. Brown spots are no bueno. Have you broken buds open and inspected them? Caterpillars get deep inside and eat the plants and deficate in them. Also, when drying, plastic bags do no good because the moisture has nowhere to be released. This puts the buds at even higher risk for mold when still drying.
Standard harvest process and est. times…
- Cut plant whole or branches. 3 minutes per plant
- Bud wash. 30 minutes per plant
- Drip dry. 1-2 hours
- Hang dry (or Weedryer bag). Fans with plenty of air circulation, but not directly pointed at buds, in a dark environment as close to 60°F/60%rh as you can get. 7-14 days, the longer the better.
- Cure. 58-62% rh, Grove Bags are simplest. Jars involve burping, sometimes several times a days. 14 days
- Enjoying your own fat, tasty, sticky, homegrown buds. Timeless!!!
When you trim in the process is up to you. Trimming at the end, before curing, helps make the dry longer. The longer the dry, the longer the chlorophyll and other undesirable plant matter have to break down. Though the buds aren’t necessarily wasted, a bud wash after drying could potentially ruin a harvest with either mold, or damaging the dry flower material.
It’s just me…but it Doesn’t look like rot from here… More like a contrast of green sugar leaves alongside clusters of red/brown pistol hairs.
Thank you. I guess there is no “gold standard” way of determine whether it is or isn’t ?
I’m not seeing bud rot if the bud breaks up just kind of falls apart is one way to tell and it will smell bad but don’t inhale to deeply
