Are crunchy, crusty buds OK or a sign of mildew?

Hey all, sorry for the question but I haven't found an answer anywhere.

We had a little rain here in Sonoma County, CA a week ago and I harvested 1/2 a Purple Urkel before the shower, and the other half a couple days after the rain shower. The buds that were harvested after it rained dried for 5 days at approx. 70 degrees and 60% humidity with a fan blowing lightly from about 20 feet away.

After 5 days, the outside leaves were very dry and the buds all felt firm. When I started trimming, the flowers inside varied from crusty crunchy to still moist, depending on the cola. The buds that had crusty flowers (maybe 20%) are very firm and it's almost like the trichomes had "carmelized", turning darker and hard on the outside, kind of like comparing popcorn to carmel corn. I trimmed the crusty part off and it was softer underneath but today some seem to have "carmelized" again.

For full disclosure, I did have some bud rot caused by bud worms, maybe 4 or 5 spots on the plant, but I carefully removed and trashed about an inch above and below each spot prior to drying. I found NO bud worms or worm crap in the buds I dried and trimmed.

Is this 'crunchiness' a form of mildew? There are no white threads of mold growing anywhere and I currently have the buds sitting in an open jar. The smell is overpowering, but it's the same good smell as the buds harvested before the rain with no sign of ammonia.

Should I go through my jars and throw away ALL the crusty buds, or am I an idiot newbie with another lesson to learn about curing? And by the way, drying/curing is far more difficult to do right than growing, that's for sure.

Thanks in advance for responding, and even greater thanks for the wealth of information provided here.

Please take some pics. It is impossible to determine what the problem is without them. Do they smell moldy, or like mildew?

Unfortunately the best way to take pictures of the problem would have been to shoot video during the trim process. I dumped out the buds last night and I didn't find a photo op that would show the exact problem, so the description above is the best I've got.

crunchy or crusty could be from the fan blowing on them, dryin them too fast, but typically a mold issue would make the bud more of a brown color, and they'b be very "crumbly" when dried, normal nugs will keep their consistency somewhat (meaning they still need to be manipulated to come off the stem and such) if they crumble into like a dusty substance, they probably are bad. Best way to tell is via a microscope.
I hear ya man, I lost about 8KGs when it rained here last week (santa cruz redwoods) it rained and by 2pm that SAME day, it was 85 degrees out) Plucking brown mushy turds off the cola's and now I have to harvest early.
I also think that curing is like growing, simple is better, you'll get the hang of it.

Thanks Greasemonkey, being a newbie I was very concerned about the rain getting in and ruining my flowers. I mean, seriously, since when does it rain in California in the summer??

The crusty buds seemed to have survived the trim job I gave them, and are curing with no negative traits so far. I probably threw away an ounce of crusty buds total during the trim, the ones that would fall apart as I trimmed them.

The weather is what led me to harvest 2 and a half of my 3 plants 'early', luckily the trichomes were mostly cloudy with some amber. One thing I noticed (again, through the eyes and nose of a newbie) was that even though the buds weren't getting significantly larger the last 2 weeks, the smell from the buds went from noticeable a few feet away to pungent and pervasive around the neighborhood. Ultimately, the quality of the stone has been better than I hoped for in my first attempt.

I maybe lost 2 - 3 ounces to bud rot/bud worms and plan to be much more aggressive with the BT and organic pest control next time even though my plants seemed in perfect health until the last 2 - 3 weeks.

I wanted to keep my plants short due to the fence height between me and my neighbor by planting them in 7 1/2 gallon buckets in a location that only got about 6 hours direct sun and I still manage to get about 10 Quart size Ball jars about 60% full with primo buds. The tallest plant got to about 6 feet, the second was about 5 1/2 feet, and the Purple Urkel was only about 4 foot tall but with thick, heavy buds shooting out from everywhere.

Overall a fun, learning experience I've wanted to do for about 30 years now, and more importantly I learned a ton, thanks to everyone at this site and others.

Dan Drews said:

Thanks Greasemonkey, being a newbie I was very concerned about the rain getting in and ruining my flowers. I mean, seriously, since when does it rain in California in the summer??

The crusty buds seemed to have survived the trim job I gave them, and are curing with no negative traits so far. I probably threw away an ounce of crusty buds total during the trim, the ones that would fall apart as I trimmed them.

The weather is what led me to harvest 2 and a half of my 3 plants 'early', luckily the trichomes were mostly cloudy with some amber. One thing I noticed (again, through the eyes and nose of a newbie) was that even though the buds weren't getting significantly larger the last 2 weeks, the smell from the buds went from noticeable a few feet away to pungent and pervasive around the neighborhood. Ultimately, the quality of the stone has been better than I hoped for in my first attempt.

I maybe lost 2 - 3 ounces to bud rot/bud worms and plan to be much more aggressive with the BT and organic pest control next time even though my plants seemed in perfect health until the last 2 - 3 weeks.

I wanted to keep my plants short due to the fence height between me and my neighbor by planting them in 7 1/2 gallon buckets in a location that only got about 6 hours direct sun and I still manage to get about 10 Quart size Ball jars about 60% full with primo buds. The tallest plant got to about 6 feet, the second was about 5 1/2 feet, and the Purple Urkel was only about 4 foot tall but with thick, heavy buds shooting out from everywhere.

Overall a fun, learning experience I've wanted to do for about 30 years now, and more importantly I learned a ton, thanks to everyone at this site and others.

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you are welcome, im happy to help, just wait until you get a location on a southern facing side of a hill getting unobstructed CA sun all day, that's when you get the nice nugs, some of the best herb I've ever gorown outside was on top of a hill at 3000 feet up, I got sunburned like three times as fast up there, and I think the plants responded similarly, because the same strain I've been growing for years turned out WAY more psychedelic than normal, my theory anyways