Bud smells extremely potent in jar, almost tingles nostrils, mold?

So i had a beautiful harvest, and i chopped down at about 5-6 days of drying because i did some pre-trimming and the humidity was super low. The buds smelt so amazing in the jars for the first few days, but after two weeks:

Burping 2-3 times a day for 15 minutes for the first week, and 1 -2 times every other day the second, the sweet smell is gone, and replaced with something overwhelming. The bud has no signs of mold, and out of 90 tops in the harvest, only one had bud rot (discovered and removed when trimming), and I carefully inspected everything before jaring. I don't know if this is just the strain, but it seems like the quality might be dwindling, and the smell is not what it used to be. There are no patches or webbing of white or any other color. I have been smoking the bud for two weeks and have had no side effects (at least that i can tell). I live in california and conditions are good, but they did get a little hot for a day or two. Would love some advice before i start asking friends if they want to buy larger amounts..

Keep in mind, when I take the nugs out of the freshly purchased mason jars, the smell turns sweet, and can stink up a car. The jars have this weird smell to them when they are new, and I am wondering if this could be the issue. I am going to have a rough 4 months if the conclusion is mold or spores of some kind. Would love some input.

I did a 10 day flush, and changed the res twice monitoring PPM from the runoff of my hydro medium and the plants.

PS>Smoking this stuff in the beginning, couch locked you, and put a smile on your face. I could be building a tolerance to it after smoking 2-3gs for 2 and half weeks

Descriptions often do very little. Pictures, as they say, are worth 1000 words.

I have noticed that most plants will do that to you once they are jarred up. The dankness dwindles as the weeks go by. I can never make a final decision on a plant until I get to test its ability to retain the funk. The best OGs are very good at keeping the smell but sweet plants tend not to as much. One trick I have learned is that when you open a jar don't stick your nose right in, let the smell waft to you from a foot or two away. It will have more of a skunky coffee smell but your nose will get used to it very quickly.

Do you have a way to measure the humidity in the jar?

I have one of those remote thermometer/humidity combos, would that be useful?

Pictures added. I had my buddy smell the jar (he knows what ammonia smells like), and he said that is not it. Then i had him smell a new jar, and the horrible smell inside, and I think the conclusion may be that the jar lids are masking the smell. I just soaked my lids for 4 hours (air drying now), and I am letting the buds and jars air for that time. I looked at the buds and any spots that looked interesting under my 15x scope, and see no webbing or anything that looks like mold. The stems have hairs, but I have read that is normal. Would love some more opinions on this one. I need to know if this is just jar lids, characteristics of the genetics, bad cure, or mold, or something else all together. I have been smoking for 2 and half weeks and have had no side effects that I can physically see at 2-3 grams a day.

nothing wrong with sneezy weed , ive grown it b4 . its like getting a bit of black pepper in your nose and aaaaaachooooo.

Half of my strains have an ability to throw one into a sneezing fit if smelled in the jar or fresh on the plant !

Is it the smell of starches going stale? Does it smell like stale bread? That happens when there's a lot of starch/sugar left in top of the plant (stem,leaves,buds) when you cut. Does it crumble easily when you break it up, or is it really... starchy? lol

i think that it dried too quick and that smell is the clorophyll next time i would advise against any trimming before its dry just hang the whole plant upside down and leave it to dry 2-3 week

I wash my jars out before I even use them. I know the smell you are talking about when you first buy your mason jars. Curing is definitely an art form that I still haven't quite mastered yet, but hopefully I will soon. It is basically going to be a bit of trial an error until you find what works for you. Good luck!

Yeah that new mason jar smell is an issue. Gotta wash em out first. Also, I learned this year that it is important to only trim large fans when wet, after hanging to dry for a week, then cut large buds off the branches and leave the branch stems attached to each section you cut, Then jar them for a good 2 week cure. By leaving each bud attached to a large thick branch portion the cells continue to break down properly. Then..... the fine trimming starts. Cutting the buds off the sectioned branches and manicuring all the little sugar leaves. I find that this brings out fresh dank aroma when trimming all the sugar leaves when they are dry. Sweetness. Not hay.

Thanks for the comments guys. So here are my conclusions:

1. Jars smell like shit, i should have boiled them and left to air dry over night before curing. The jar lids I should have soaked overnight in some water. I think the smell of the jars/lids may have attributed to my results.

2. I think that the hot weather recently in california may have had negative effects (slight but present) Anyone have any thoughts? 84F max, 40% humidity (4-6 hours a day).

3. When I think its dry, I will let it go another 12-24 hours just to be safe.

4. I will probably not pretrim anything besides the larger fan leaves. I think the smell may have something to do with it.

5. I will make sure to have the ac on, and jars stored indoors if it is hot.

So after soaking my jar lids, the nasty smell is gone, but now there is little smell. Others tell me it reeks, could just be because I have smelt the same thing for 3 weeks. I am smoking the bud and it doesn't look as nice as it used to, well the mothers do, but it is doing the job, and still no signs of mold as far as I can tell. I think some of the sweet smell is coming back, so I moved the jars inside and I am burping once a day for 10-15 minutes. Hopefully everything stays decent.

I am going to take a break from growing for the next few months and save some more money. I need to grow in a more controllable environment, and purchase some more goodies. So you may not hear from me for a while. Thanks for all the responses.

azryda420 said:

Yeah that new mason jar smell is an issue. Gotta wash em out first. Also, I learned this year that it is important to only trim large fans when wet, after hanging to dry for a week, then cut large buds off the branches and leave the branch stems attached to each section you cut, Then jar them for a good 2 week cure. By leaving each bud attached to a large thick branch portion the cells continue to break down properly. Then..... the fine trimming starts. Cutting the buds off the sectioned branches and manicuring all the little sugar leaves. I find that this brings out fresh dank aroma when trimming all the sugar leaves when they are dry. Sweetness. Not hay.

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I think you nailed it. That hay smell is exactly what it was. I still get destroyed from the bud, and it looks great, but the smell reminds me of something lower quality even though its not.

Again, if the bud smelled sweet in the jar at first for a few days and now smells like hay, it's probably because there was a lot of sugars and starches in the leaves and bud when you cut. They smelled sweet at first, but like most sugars and starches, they start to go stale fast. Reducing N toward harvest and harvesting before the lights come on is supposed to reduce the amount of starches and sugars in the leaves and buds. I've read from many sources that saps go down into the roots at night and come back up during the day.

A bud low in starch will crumble up very easily when dried.