Drying And Curing Smell...

[Panacea79]

I've been growing about 2-3 plants per grow for about a year now in a tent under CFL's. My question/concern is this: when harvest time comes my plants, obviously, smell pretty stinky. For example I just finished some Afghan Skunk autos (btw that's all I do right now is Autos for various reasons) and cut them down, hang dried them then started to cure them in mason jars. The thing is is that it seems that as they dry out the smell gets fainter and fainter (keep in mind these are SKUNK PLANTS so you'd expect it to be pretty smelly and noticeable) but it seems that by the time I've had them in the jars for about a week and a half or even earlier that they no longer smell all skunks. They have a kind of, idk, sweet maybe but definitely not what you'd expect a skunk plant to smell like. Most of my friends agree that they smell 'weird'. I mean they burn fine, taste fine and, most importantly, get you stoned. So some might say that as long as you get the desired effect that how it smells shouldn't really matter but in getting rid of my medicine all the other person has to go by is smell sometimes. I do use Advanced Nutrients during the grow/bloom process and I also do a final flush so I just hope someone can explain why the pleasant odor seems to disappear once the flowers are dry? Oh and also this hasn't been only an issue with this one strain since I've grown at least 3 others since then with the same results. Anyone have an idea what's going on? Thanx

 

[str8smokn]

The sweetness could be coming from the Afgani side.. How long do they hang dry for,what temp are they curing in,what humidity? These are all factors from what I've been learning.
STR8

 

[tobh]

I agree with str8smokn. Temp and RH during initial dry are very important to retaining the terpene profiles. The cure also, but ime it's during the drying time that a lot of smell can be lost. Also, a lot of times some of those more prolific pungent smells dissipate until they have a solid cure on them of minimum of 30 days. Last run, my ladies didn't smell too strong initially in the jars. Come 30 days though, if I were to gift someone a bag, I had to double bag as the stench was simply too much. Would reak up my whole car and being in a not-as-legal-as-other-states type place, that was of definite concern. Either way, slow down the dry as much as you can with the coolest temps you can. Could also look into sublimination.

 

[Panacea79]

I don't quite remember what the temp or rh was during the cure. I'm guessing the temp was around 72f or so and if I closed the jar with the hygrometer in it sometimes it would go up to 99% so that led me to believe that I didn't let them dry long enough. It always seemed that ( and this is true fo the blue diesel auto AS WELL as my auto afghan skunk) for the buds to be 'dry', in my opinion, it really only took like3 full days. Although I didn't quite follow the guidelines I'd read such as bending the stem and listening for a snap; if it bent but DIDNT snap then leave it out some more. But I also read, and it makes sense to me intuitively, that you don't want to dry it 100% that it's good to start to cure it slowly when it's about 80-85% dry, 'burping' it like 2 or 3 times a day for the first week or if the bud actually FEELS moist then I'll take it all out and get it back to the dryness it had going in. I mean I read all these drying and curing guides and most of them said it takes anywhere from 4-10 days to properly dry your buds but the thing is that I'm growing autos which have been (in my case) tending to be smaller colas and or more popcorn type buds which, obviously, dry much faster than a 8 inch long 54 gram (when wet) grand cola. So what should I do with my next harvest? What is the prime temp/humidity to dry in and should I use the stem-snap guideline? I've always thought that leaving a little moistness in the bud AIDS in the curing process; that the process of sugars in the plant breaking down play a big role in the whole curing part. Thanx guys!

P.S. I just recently got some Boveda 62% humidipax. Now are those just to keep your product at THAT rh once you've already dryer and cured them? Or can I use it from the first day of curing because they do say that they're "two-way which I'm assuming to mean that if its higher than 62% it'll bring it down and if it's LOWER then it will bring it up?

 

[DemonTrich]

I dry on racks for 3-5 days, then sweat/burp them out in jars. 75* 55% rh is ideal dry/cure numbers. keep burping the jars until your rh meter hits 55% - 60%, NO lower. then keep sealed and check rh 24hrs later. if stable, then leave sealed, but check daily. as the weeks go by they start curing and the dank smell will begin to fill the jar. after 2-3 weeks my curing is just about done.

on another site, theres a fool proof tek for drying and curing. simon is his sn and its a stickey on the mag. ive bene using his tek for 4 yrs and always have 100% results.

and anything over 70%, sealed over time will cause mold and ruin all your herb.

put the packs in ONLY after your curing is started. it will NOT remove nor help with the drying process. think of the packs like a cigar humidor. they just keep the herb fresh, nothing more.

 

[tobh]

I follow similar to DemonTrich with the exception of I try to aim for about 70* 60%RH hang dry for around 7 days. I'm a micro grower so my buds aren't anywhere near as big as some of these guys. Takes about 7 days to get a good snap without full on break of the stem. Outside of the buds kinda crunchy but still spongy feeling. Into paper bags until they all have a consistent feel (about three or four days) then into jars and burped daily for an hour. After a week of being burped I leave em be, check on em daily to make sure there's no excess moisture build up. Normally once they're in the paper bags they start gaining some of that stank back. A week or two in the jars and they fill a room up with the smell as soon as the lid is cracked. The key is don't let them dry too quick.

That's why I initially recommended sublimination. 30 days in a deep freeze and you have perfectly dried and cured buds, ready to smoke. It really reduces a lot of the headache behind drying and curing from what I've read, though I have no first hand experience.

 

[Panacea79]

Thanx guys and I'm with u tobh insofar as yields go. I'm growing for my wife medicinally so....and I DID use paper bags back about 6 years ago on my first ever grow so maybe it's time to reinstitute that. Btw, what is sublimation? U talking about freezing the buds??

 

[tobh]

Yup, throw em in a freezer for 30 days, out comes dried, cured ready to smoke product that is supposed to be the best ever.

 

[str8smokn]

We need Tnelz to do a thread on that. He got me interested in it and then you start talking about it, @tobh

 

[tobh]

I'm pretty sure there is a thread about it, there was a guy on here when I first joined that told me about it. There's quite a bit of information floating around about it and some die hards that say once you go that route, you don't prefer anything other than.

 

[RG420]

Yup, throw em in a freezer for 30 days, out comes dried, cured ready to smoke product that is supposed to be the best ever.

Wow I've heard or read bits about this but never paid any attention to it but is it really that simple? Harveat, trim, de-stem and throw buds straight into my freezer for 30 days????

 

[Panacea79]

So wait, DONT EVEN NEED TO DRY THEM AT ALL??? That seems like that would just freeze ANY H2O that's in the plant and then just thaw back out upon removing it?? And what kind of container do you put them in?

 

[tobh]

Search button guys, but yes. You harvest, do a general trim, throw them in a tupperware container without the lid and leave in the freezer for 30 days. Process is called sublimination and since I don't have first hand experience, you'll have to search out exactly how it works and how to do it. Sorry can't help much further, just know it's supposed to be the cat's elbows, bees knees of drying and curing.

 

[FooDoo]

I don't think I'm brave enough to try that freezing technique

 

[RG420]

Yeah confused me a little as there saying to freeze dry as in using dry ice not sure, think I'll stick to what I know tbh then again they say to dry the herb for a few days then stick into a tub in a freezer with no ice formed, apparently the part about the freezer not having any ice is quit important. Might clean the ice out of my freezer and experiment with a few nugs next harvest :)

 

[tobh]

Yeah, the no ice part is vital to dry herb at the end. I know a commercial grower out in Mass. that just bought three freezers just for this process. His trust in the method says something too just based on the volume he produces.

 

[FooDoo]

Oh jeez. The day I start taking quality tips from a commercial grower is the day I take honesty lessons from a politician

 

[tobh]

Lol shit... that got me laughing. Just saying though, the guy knows what's up. His gf comes around here every once in a while. Haven't done it myself yet though as I only produce a QP per run max, can't really afford to lose an ounce on an experiment.

 

[frebo]

I am trying it with a few strains in a paper grocery bag. I believe the freezer needs to be a frost free unit. Making ice in an ice tray you can see the ice evaporate over time. The same thing happens with the buds.