Mattywolffer
Member
Hey guys. This season up in MA I grew 6 plants, all different strains, outdoors for the first time and completely organic. Yielded about 1-1.5lbs per plant. During flowering I had dealt with issues of Caterpillars which led to budrot and cost me about 10-15% of my harvest. Due to this, at chop I extensively searched and cut out and around affected areas until there was no sign of it at all. This was the case for multiple plants unfortunately.
Each plant was washed in an H2O2 bath and dunked vigorously in plain water, left outside to dry with a fan for about an hour-two until it was dry to the touch, and then moved into the dry room.
*IMPORTANT PART*
The dry room is a medium sized walk in cedar closet that I lined with plastic painter wrap for better cleanliness. Temps were between 67-72 degrees and between 45-53% RH (in the middle of those numbers for a majority of the time) with a fan exhausting out of the closet. Plants were left to dry for 7-8 days, then cut up into nugs and left to dry for another 3-5 days accordingly, and spread out on a large piece of cardboard.
The first 3 plants dried phenomenally with no problems, were trimmed and put into turkey bags and started curing fine.
The last two plants of the grow were put into turkey bags (about 1/2 - 2/3rds of a lb per bag) to start curing - however they were untrimmed due to a busy schedule and having to hand trim, which takes quite a lot of time, I couldn't trim them right as the dry period ended. I was still burping the bags twice a day for 30m-1hr and rotating the buds around inside the bag.
Out of the two plants that I had to do this to, this particular plant (Underdawg OG from TH Seeds), was dried the same way as all the others, but some issues starting showing up about 10 days later. When I finally got to trimming, I hadnt noticed anything out of the ordinary. But a few days later, I found a couple buds that were soft and pale brown in the middle, with some pieces snapping off and some coming off silently.
Under further inspection of the rest of the nugs, most of them have this pale brown discoloration and still feel pretty dense/moist, although the leaves on the outside are crispy and crumble when you rub them between your fingers.
Under 30x zoom (have a 60-120x zoom microscope coming in tomorrow to check again), I could not see any signs of mold spores, but I have read that there doesnt need to be evidence of the spiderweb/cottony-like substance for mold/rot to be present.
This strain smells absolutely DANK - almost identical to how GMO smells, extremely pungent garlic/onions/sweaty gym sock smell - NO smell of ammonia or mustiness and compared to how it smelled on the plant - it smells almost exactly the same dried.
Now id like to see why this problem came up, I know this batch is more than likely a goner which is a shame because it smokes so smooth, and the high is amazing (going to end up blasting into BHO)
Could it have been that although the leaves were dried on the outside moisture was still trapped inside? Even though the other 5 plants including the second plant that was put in turkey bags untrimmed after drying came out fine? Or was the few nugs i found that were particularly mushy inside are left over rotted sites from harvest, and im overthinking this way too much? Id like to hear some of your thoughts, so myself and anyone else who comes across these issues can diagnose and prevent it in further grows. Cheers!
Pictures of the soft/dense brown discoloration spots
Each plant was washed in an H2O2 bath and dunked vigorously in plain water, left outside to dry with a fan for about an hour-two until it was dry to the touch, and then moved into the dry room.
*IMPORTANT PART*
The dry room is a medium sized walk in cedar closet that I lined with plastic painter wrap for better cleanliness. Temps were between 67-72 degrees and between 45-53% RH (in the middle of those numbers for a majority of the time) with a fan exhausting out of the closet. Plants were left to dry for 7-8 days, then cut up into nugs and left to dry for another 3-5 days accordingly, and spread out on a large piece of cardboard.
The first 3 plants dried phenomenally with no problems, were trimmed and put into turkey bags and started curing fine.
The last two plants of the grow were put into turkey bags (about 1/2 - 2/3rds of a lb per bag) to start curing - however they were untrimmed due to a busy schedule and having to hand trim, which takes quite a lot of time, I couldn't trim them right as the dry period ended. I was still burping the bags twice a day for 30m-1hr and rotating the buds around inside the bag.
Out of the two plants that I had to do this to, this particular plant (Underdawg OG from TH Seeds), was dried the same way as all the others, but some issues starting showing up about 10 days later. When I finally got to trimming, I hadnt noticed anything out of the ordinary. But a few days later, I found a couple buds that were soft and pale brown in the middle, with some pieces snapping off and some coming off silently.
Under further inspection of the rest of the nugs, most of them have this pale brown discoloration and still feel pretty dense/moist, although the leaves on the outside are crispy and crumble when you rub them between your fingers.
Under 30x zoom (have a 60-120x zoom microscope coming in tomorrow to check again), I could not see any signs of mold spores, but I have read that there doesnt need to be evidence of the spiderweb/cottony-like substance for mold/rot to be present.
This strain smells absolutely DANK - almost identical to how GMO smells, extremely pungent garlic/onions/sweaty gym sock smell - NO smell of ammonia or mustiness and compared to how it smelled on the plant - it smells almost exactly the same dried.
Now id like to see why this problem came up, I know this batch is more than likely a goner which is a shame because it smokes so smooth, and the high is amazing (going to end up blasting into BHO)
Could it have been that although the leaves were dried on the outside moisture was still trapped inside? Even though the other 5 plants including the second plant that was put in turkey bags untrimmed after drying came out fine? Or was the few nugs i found that were particularly mushy inside are left over rotted sites from harvest, and im overthinking this way too much? Id like to hear some of your thoughts, so myself and anyone else who comes across these issues can diagnose and prevent it in further grows. Cheers!
Pictures of the soft/dense brown discoloration spots
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