Why do i always loose smell during curing?

My goal in all this has always been simple: To grow the best pot I've ever smoked.

Years later I have still not achieved that goal and maybe never will (damn hippies and their super bud)

I have grown good stuff and not so good stuff, but the one thing that I can never get right is the smell. The last plant I cut was extremely potent. It smelled great in bloom and I was really excited to see how it turned out.

The smoke is great, smooth taste and great effects. However the smell disappeared during the drying and curing. The bud has been curing for about a week after a week of drying. The smell gets less and less every day. I recently added a boveda pack to the jar, and it seems to have made the smell even worse.

I can't understand why this happens.

I hang my plants to dry for 6 days in a dark room with a fan blowing across the room. I then cure them in mason jars in a dark place. What am I doing wrong?

Probably need to get that dry/cure down.

Whats the temps/rh of the drying room?
Temps/rh of the area with the cure jar?
Any light?
How do you trim?

Try to break up a nug with your finger and explain the texture? Does it snap,tear apart or turn to dust?

If you squeeze it does it get stuck or fluff back out?

SPLFreak808 said:

Probably need to get that dry/cure down.

Whats the temps/rh of the drying room?
Temps/rh of the area with the cure jar?
Any light?
How do you trim?

Try to break up a nug with your finger and explain the texture? Does it snap,tear apart or turn to dust?

If you squeeze it does it get stuck or fluff back out?

Click to expand...

The temps are 60-75, humidity varies. This last batch had very low humidity in the drying environment around 30%. I cut off the fan leaves at chop and hang the plants on the branches. I always trim dry. The bud kind of snaps apart into chunks. It doesn't chafe at all when handled but it grinds very fine.

I use organic dry ferts. I dont overfeed my plants.
I read cervantes and rosenthal and set my dry tent to their specs, dehuey, heat, ac, air exchange.
I have a hanging multi basket rack in their and a work bench. I wet trim and remove buds from large sticks
and lay them in the baskets. 2 weeks later they are awesome by any standards ready to use, 4 weeks later they're prime and ready for sealing up.
Jarring is fermentation, I just wont have it here and never needed it with those settings. check it out for perfect sticky spongy hard buds that always smells like it did in flower.

If your humidity is low then it is likely drying way too fast; you want to try and aim for no less than 7 days. The plant is very much still alive whilst drying and those biological processes need time for breaking down that chlorophyl, dry too quickly and you will lose quality on the nose and flavor and it'll never recover from hay/grass problems.

My dry area is around 72F and 60% for a week, then boxed for 2-4 days to draw out more moisture.

Another way of extending dry time is avoiding chopping up the plant too much at harvest. I cut major branches only and retain every single leaf during drying. Try it!

Ivan___ said:

The temps are 60-75, humidity varies. This last batch had very low humidity in the drying environment around 30%. I cut off the fan leaves at chop and hang the plants on the branches. I always trim dry. The bud kind of snaps apart into chunks. It doesn't chafe at all when handled but it grinds very fine.

Click to expand...

A controlled drying room helps, 30% rh is too low.

Only a few things that i can think of would make smell fade over-time, that's assuming it was dank when they first went into the jar.

improper storage - not air-tight,high temps,contaminated

mold spores - you threw it in too early, a hygrometer helps

jarred it too dry - smell is all downhill from here,again a hygrometer helps (this is what it sounds like).

Ivan___ said:

My goal in all this has always been simple: To grow the best pot I've ever smoked.

Years later I have still not achieved that goal and maybe never will (damn hippies and their super bud)

I have grown good stuff and not so good stuff, but the one thing that I can never get right is the smell. The last plant I cut was extremely potent. It smelled great in bloom and I was really excited to see how it turned out.

The smoke is great, smooth taste and great effects. However the smell disappeared during the drying and curing. The bud has been curing for about a week after a week of drying. The smell gets less and less every day. I recently added a boveda pack to the jar, and it seems to have made the smell even worse.

I can't understand why this happens.

I hang my plants to dry for 6 days in a dark room with a fan blowing across the room. I then cure them in mason jars in a dark place. What am I doing wrong?

Click to expand...

I cut and hang the buds on branches with the bud leaves still attached.

7-10 days with only indirect air flow/exhaust to keep humidity in check and then close trimmed by hand.

Into quart mason jars the buds will usually be opened a few times the first day. A couple the second and so on depending on the individual plants bud structure.

When I open the jars I smell the grassy/ ammonia type smell and leave the jars open until it dissapates and smells "smoother". Sometimes 45 min to an hour in the beginning. Agitating and making sure the buds are not sticking together or feel wet at all.

This takes less and less time as the buds start to dry in the middle. The smell is the gasses let off by the bacteria left in the buds eating the chlorophyll.

As the more chlorophyll like odor goes away upon jar opening it usually gives way to the strains or plants specific terp profile.

It's kind of a by feel and smell thing for me.

But it takes at least 3-6 weeks for any real results in my opinion. Some strains less some more.

8-12 weeks is how long I like my head stash jars to go.

Fruity crap seems faster. Fully/ skunky/ hazy longer.

Some stuff is completely different the second month.

Sometimes the high evolves along with the smell and taste.

Sorry for the long post. I'm babbling high.

IMHO its mostly a strain thing.

I cut a shooks rum kush recently. Did the same drying process(big leaf removal and hang dry whole plant for 10 days) and soon as i was done trimming sugar leaves the plant was so stanky. A true triple bagger. The blue dream,I had drying with it just didnt have the same,pungent odor.