Hay smell when drying - Any actual solutions?

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Kushizle

Kushizle

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Hey guys, I just harvested my outdoor girls and opened up my dry tent to yet another shit smelling hay/cut grass crop. I know there is a ton of threads on this already but my question is this:

Has anyone with the hay smell ever actually solved the issue? Like you had the hay smell, implemented changes and now have a dank smelling dry room? If so what were the changes implemented? Or is this just to be expected every time I harvest? It honestly makes me want to vomit every time I stick my head in the dry room

I would like to add that when it’s all trimmed up it goes back to normal smelling weed. Here’s my current dry scenario: (I try something new each harvest)

- full plant hang with fan leaves
- room is 65F-70F and 60-65% RH
- I typically harvest 5-10 days after the recommended period (60 day strain I let go for 70)
- I harvested at night while the plant is not photosynthesizing

I am also using an amended "living soil" blend with the typical inputs and I don't feed anything but un-pH'd 200ppm tap water in flower

My very first plant was my only non-hay smelling crop. It grown in sunshine mix #4, wasn't fed a single nutrient and was flushed like crazy for 8 weeks (100% runoff each and every watering). It had virtually every drop of chlorophyll sucked out of it as there was practically zero green left in the plant. I don't ever want to do that again for obvious reasons so what gives?

Thanks!
 
Jimster

Jimster

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The hay smell is a normal part of plants drying and is usually the result of chlorophyll. During the drying process, chlorophyll is broken down by enzymes and bacterial action and goes away after a while. Once things dry up a bit and age for a few weeks, the hay smell goes away and the more complex tastes and smells develop. Drying too quicklky preserves a lot of chlorophyll... like drying a fresh bud in an oven. It tastes terrible but still does the job. Drying and aging gets rid of the nasty hay flavor.
Once I put my freshly dried buds in a mason jar and let it sir for a few weeks, things change for the better. Patience is key.
 
Kushizle

Kushizle

34
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The hay smell is a normal part of plants drying and is usually the result of chlorophyll. During the drying process, chlorophyll is broken down by enzymes and bacterial action and goes away after a while. Once things dry up a bit and age for a few weeks, the hay smell goes away and the more complex tastes and smells develop. Drying too quicklky preserves a lot of chlorophyll... like drying a fresh bud in an oven. It tastes terrible but still does the job. Drying and aging gets rid of the nasty hay flavor.
Once I put my freshly dried buds in a mason jar and let it sir for a few weeks, things change for the better. Patience is key.
Thanks for the long reply. So should I expect the hay smell everytime and not worry?
 
Madmax

Madmax

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No you shouldnt expect the hay smell .something isnt right how you are drying it.Try trimming your buds and leaving it on the branch..and get the humidity down to say 50%of the whole room and leave the tent open.only time ive got the hay smell is when along time ago jarring it when its not dry..so id guess its because its all confined in the tent with leaves and all with too much humidity.
 
Madmax

Madmax

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Try a few things like trim it up and place on a rack or even in a wooden draw lined with paper .
 
Kushizle

Kushizle

34
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No you shouldnt expect the hay smell .something isnt right how you are drying it.Try trimming your buds and leaving it on the branch..and get the humidity down to say 50%of the whole room and leave the tent open.only time ive got the hay smell is when along time ago jarring it when its not dry..so id guess its because its all confined in the tent with leaves and all with too much humidity.
Thanks, I tend to agree with you. I'm going to try this for my next harvest in a few weeks. The bud smells great once it is bagged up though, my dry room is just overpowered by the smell of a literal barn
 
Kushizle

Kushizle

34
18
I'm not sure what the issue is then. I would say its not all that uncommon. Doing a longer dark period at the end before chop may reduce the initial smell but if its not persisting once dried I dont see an issue.
I think it's just ego hahaha. Every time I show friends and family my dry room their reactions are pure disappointment until it's trimmed hahah
 
R

redshift75

Guest
I had the same problem when i started to dial in my dry tent this year. Sounds like you got it.


I found when i was dialing in my dry room(which i could say im still fine tuning). I was going too high in the beginning because of the sensors. and the equipment's over-compensating for the sudden uptick in RH trying to lower it to my initial desired RH. Essentially baking them in the beginning. My buds i harvest from same plant the following weeks ended up much better. Then the first ones i threw in because of that. Which is to @Jimster point about locking in chlorophyll. With what could be described as warm super dry air. The dehumidified air it was blowing before i dialed it in mostly using FAE could be equivalent to a low wattage heat gun(hair dryer) blowing across the surface of the leaves. Less than ideal. Took me a little bit to dial it in so it was truly drying vs cooking out moisture in the beginning. which i supplemented with increased FAE and more airflow (for diffusion). Through dialing in more FAE i was able to maintain a more desired an stable RH environment with less dramatic shifts.


My observational data to my experience was... By dialing it in a little slower in the beginning when putting them in. I noticed i was able to keep those aroma's it had while in flower without them turning directly to the "hay smell". which looking at all the data I had available to the temp/rh, etc. I noticed a pattern of it over working in the beginning. Which I would consider 'normal' when trying to Dehumidify an area. The downside to the over work and increase and constant dryer air seemed to be it was trapping that chlorophyll in. I now am hitting that mark i can maintain constant airflow and long drying. That helps it act as a dry/cure. More along the lines of preserving lots of the profile than anything else. I tend to only notice the hay smell now in the first few burps where i catch a faint under or over tone of it. Quickly followed up by the opening up of the profile. That continues to mature and bolden over the rest of the time. Which has finally settled in after about 6 weeks.

in short- shorter less drastic swings at initial stages of drying appeared to allow for better chlorophyll break down and preservation of the flavor profiles throughout the extended drying process.

i still had a long dry. But making it a 21 day dry didn't matter when i started it off like i was baking them for a short dry. **something to that effect. The equipment and there effects can be deceiving at face value some times. Great for the middle and end stages of drying(little oversight needed to maintain), tricky at the beginning if you dont watch em like a hawk. Especially if its new equipment.

best thing i got for drying to advert failure was the humidity power controller. twice my dehumidifier stayed running and that shut it off avoiding cooking.

which echos the key points of drying being "perfect air flow, Perfect air exchange, Perfect environment" - the pursuit of perfection that never ends.
 
quirk

quirk

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Mine lose the green smell after 7-10 days in my grow/dry room. And I dry in the pot.
 
Jimster

Jimster

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Thanks for the long reply. So should I expect the hay smell everytime and not worry?
Pretty much. Some strains have a lot of other smells, like a strong skunk strain... but most buds will have a hay smell whenfresh. Wheather or not you can smell them over a skunky smell is questionable, but once the chlorophyll dissipates, you get the taste that you normally expect. After nearly 40 years of growing, I still worry about the smell and taste.
 

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