First harvest smells like hay

SaltyJane · Aug 17, 2022

Hello all!
I did my first harvest yesterday. It’s hanging in a dark closet, humidity is 52%. It smelled strong when I hung it at 4:00pm yesterday, and today the closet smells like hay. What did I do wrong?
Please advise. Thanks

Moshmen · Aug 17, 2022

First off be patient the hay smell will go away with proper dry and cure 52 is a little low but will work just fine what your temp? Around 65/70 works good for me - let them hang and dry until the outside feels a little crispy dried and the stems snap or break not bend .I guess this would take 5/6 days with your buds Then get ya jar for the cure

E9noxis · Aug 17, 2022

Dried to fast? That's what I thought my problem was on my first harvest too

Moshmen · Aug 17, 2022

Also there seems to be a lot of tan leaves left on ? I know some guys dry the whole plant I personally do not , I remove all fans and most bigger sugar leaves then dry trim before curing

Moe.Red · Aug 17, 2022

I *think* that the hay smell is typically the degradation of chlorophyll, a necessary process. It's sorta like when you cut the grass, at first there is a strong smell (some of which believe it or not is the grass's way of signaling distress and trying to summon beneficial insects) and then it just turns to that hay smell as the blades cook in the sun and dry out.

If it stays this way, you may have a problem.

Also, you don't mention temps. If you are below 70*F, generally terpenes are not excited and do not gas off at a high rate. This is actually a good thing at this point.

Shaded_One · Aug 17, 2022

Moshmen said:
Also there seems to be a lot of tan leaves left on ? I know some guys dry the whole plant I personally do not , I remove all fans and most bigger sugar leaves then dry trim before curing

You dry the whole plant when you are dealing with low RH - helps slow the moisture loss

2Bad · Aug 17, 2022

I dried at 55% humidity and 69f. It took me two weeks . You should be good. Your smell might not even come back. Not all strains smells come back depends how good of bud it is. But it shouldn't smell like ass once you dry and cure it. Where/how is your fan circulating? I keep a fan outside faced toward my closet oscillating back n forth so no extra dry spots.

2Bad · Aug 17, 2022

Shaded_One said:
You dry the whole plant when you are dealing with low RH - helps slow the moisture loss

Trueee

Almostthere · Aug 17, 2022

In my opinion it is from to high of temps. Anything above 70 and u will get hay smell. 69 is to close to my liking. 60-65 temp ideally 60 and 60%humidity. Slow cool dry for the win. 2 weeks it should take.

Johnlandy420 · Aug 17, 2022

From my experience it was hard to dry til break not bend. Slower is better but every time I take it that far the buds are too crispy. (Wet trimmer so yes I know) . I pull at 5 days and burp extra the first week. Terps come back for me at about week 2 cure.

dean1963 · Aug 17, 2022

i agree with moe. that's the smell of chlorophyll breaking down.
anyway you could up the RH a bit?
everything i've read says 62 and 62 for a perfect dry.
my 1 and only crop (so far) turned out fantastic at those numbers or so i've been told

Buzzzz · Aug 17, 2022

SaltyJane said:
Hello all!
I did my first harvest yesterday. It’s hanging in a dark closet, humidity is 52%. It smelled strong when I hung it at 4:00pm yesterday, and today the closet smells like hay. What did I do wrong?
Please advise. Thanks

Persistance of aromatic principles is genetic and shelf life is too,sometimes it comes on a bit after cure.

the rrock · Aug 23, 2022

jar it cure it patience,if it still smell bad its proll;y crappy weed buds look pretty fluffy

Madbud · Aug 23, 2022

Its probably those two hanging right of middle. You trimmed them more, cutting all the leaves, its like mowing a lawn. I let the leaves dry then trim before jarring. Don’t cut leaves, stems only and there is no hay smell.
Edit: get a scale to weigh a couple of those branches. When they stop losing weight they will be dry enough to jar and cure.

SmokinJo421 · Aug 23, 2022

E9noxis said:
Dried to fast? That's what I thought my problem was on my first harvest too

You gotta slow roll that shit man, keep the closet door slightly cracked and have an oscillating fan on the opposite side of the room the closets on and have the fan pointed toward the wall & oscillating.
Be patient. Also keep in mind how wet the pots were when you cut, and how much foliage you have on the branched.
Looks like you still had a few big ones still.
Check out Medical Growers Bible by Jorge Cervantes it's a te changer I swear

SmokinJo421 · Aug 23, 2022

SaltyJane said:
Hello all!
I did my first harvest yesterday. It’s hanging in a dark closet, humidity is 52%. It smelled strong when I hung it at 4:00pm yesterday, and today the closet smells like hay. What did I do wrong?
Please advise. Thanks

Also when ur drying you can hang the plant with the branch holding it on the hanger.

Sameperson775 · Aug 23, 2022

SaltyJane said:
Hello all!
I did my first harvest yesterday. It’s hanging in a dark closet, humidity is 52%. It smelled strong when I hung it at 4:00pm yesterday, and today the closet smells like hay. What did I do wrong?
Please advise. Thanks

Congrats on the first harvest. Shoot for 60°f and 60% humidity with at least 10 days of dry time. That's ideal, do what you can and just have patience. I'm in nevada I dry in a tent @ 68°f and 50% humidity and I can get a good 14 day slow dry done still. I don't have a fan in the dry tent at all, my intake to my seedling tent pulls from the dry tent so it is a very mellow air exchange.

Knight · Aug 23, 2022

SaltyJane said:
Hello all!
I did my first harvest yesterday. It’s hanging in a dark closet, humidity is 52%. It smelled strong when I hung it at 4:00pm yesterday, and today the closet smells like hay. What did I do wrong?
Please advise. Thanks

Buy some clothes pins for hanging. You can increase the humidity by wetting a rag, dish towel, etc. and leaving it on a pan or bowl on
the floor. For me I could increase the RH about 2 to 5 percent with a partially wet cloth left balled up. More cloth, wetter cloth and more RH.

SmokinJo421 · Aug 23, 2022

Knight said:
Buy some clothes pins for hanging. You can increase the humidity by wetting a rag, dish towel, etc. and leaving it on a pan or bowl on
the floor. For me I could increase the RH about 2 to 5 percent with a partially wet cloth left balled up. More cloth, wetter cloth and more RH.

Just avoid light and stagnant air!
Inthe house in the basement or a closet cracked open.
I put oscillating fan on opposite side of room on low oscillating pointed at the wall.
10 days usually you'll have dry stinky weed.
Dehumidifier helps but do what u can.
Multiple sources of de humidifying devices for cheap. Best of luck, hope it turns out rite

First harvest smells like hay

First harvest smells like hay

SaltyJane

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