Grow like a pro

Eh y'all,

So I've done several grows through soil with good lights soil and nutes + strain. Though every harvest after curing I'm still getting that hay taste & smell. If I was to grow hydro would this solve that problem ? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. The bud looks hella nice and taste alright but as I said it ain't no dispensary stuff. Any suggestions ? Thanks.

That's in you harvest and cure. Has little to do with your grow. I've seen some beautiful buds wrecked with a bad cure.

It's all about the dry and cure. I feed up to the end and have delicious buds. Check out the proper cure thread, I've posted quite a bit in there in the last couple years .

BurnzyBurnz said:

Eh y'all,

So I've done several grows through soil with good lights soil and nutes + strain. Though every harvest after curing I'm still getting that hay taste & smell. If I was to grow hydro would this solve that problem ? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. The bud looks hella nice and taste alright but as I said it ain't no dispensary stuff. Any suggestions ? Thanks.

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The 2 things I've seen the most times over the years cause this issue are, drying too quickly, and harvesting too early. The combination of the 2 will almost always give you poor tasting buds.

It’s not the soil, I doubt hydro will help. If you squeeze or rip a bud in half can you smell heaven? It’s there being masked by the hay. First, are you sure your not harvesting too early? I would bet that no toker in the history of growing weed has harvested too late. Second, what is your fert schedule especially after week six. You should be backing down on fert, don’t starve them but ease down, especially on the N. Third, are you drying and curing properly? What’s your method? It should be SLOW and COOL. You want to keep the metabolism going as long as possible once you cut. I hang whole in a cool tent with full environmental controls to dry. By the time the buds go in a paper bag to cure, in a week or two, the hay smell is gone.

It's not even the fast drying thing. I just had to educate a bunch of peeps on ig about this. I dry for three days, and then burp/sweat down to 62%rh to cure. It's used to take me closer to a month to get the chlorophyll out, I've got it down to about a week these days to get a smokeable product. This topic has been coming up a lot around the myherbsnow dryer. Because it dries you buds in 3-4 days. It's all in the cure. I think I'll be giving that unit a shot in the future.

BurnzyBurnz said:

Eh y'all,

So I've done several grows through soil with good lights soil and nutes + strain. Though every harvest after curing I'm still getting that hay taste & smell. If I was to grow hydro would this solve that problem ? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. The bud looks hella nice and taste alright but as I said it ain't no dispensary stuff. Any suggestions ? Thanks.

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Your jarring it too soon. That hay smell is improperly dried weed, exact same thing hay is. Hay is a not just grass but can be several things like legumes and other herbaceous plants. Mine is a blend of Timothy grass and alfalfa. The reason all hay crops smell similiar is the horrible drying conditions it gets. Then it gets stored not properly dried and that lovely "hay" smell is there.

Thundercat said:

The 2 things I've seen the most times over the years cause this issue are, drying too quickly, and harvesting too early. The combination of the 2 will almost always give you poor tasting buds.

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^^^^^ 100 percent!!

BurnzyBurnz said:

Eh y'all,

So I've done several grows through soil with good lights soil and nutes + strain. Though every harvest after curing I'm still getting that hay taste & smell. If I was to grow hydro would this solve that problem ? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. The bud looks hella nice and taste alright but as I said it ain't no dispensary stuff. Any suggestions ? Thanks.

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pic will tell the story.

Yeah do you have any pictures of the plants right before you harvested them? And any pictures of the buds now?

How long did you actaully dry them for? What was your process?

Thundercat said:

Yeah do you have any pictures of the plants right before you harvested them? And any pictures of the buds now?

How long did you actaully dry them for? What was your process?

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Yes I included pictures in this comment. I dried for 3 days @ 23C & 50%RH. Jarred and been burping every 24hrs for 1 or 2 hrs. Here is a pic of the plant before cut and a tray of after cut and now in jar.

If you are really hay frustrated, water cure 1/2 your run while you are getting dialed in.

Water cure is fast ,easy AF and end result will be smoother than anything you have smoked . However there is a cost of intense flavor but you won’t be losing an entire run to a learning curve.

BurnzyBurnz said:

Yes I included pictures in this comment. I dried for 3 days @ 23C & 50%RH. Jarred and been burping every 24hrs for 1 or 2 hrs. Here is a pic of the plant before cut and a tray of after cut and now in jar.

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Bro.... right here 3 days? This is why your weed tastes like hay. Try drying for 9 days or so and see how she doing. I'm on day 5 of drying right now and still havent looked at her yet.

BurnzyBurnz said:

Yes I included pictures in this comment. I dried for 3 days @ 23C & 50%RH. Jarred and been burping every 24hrs for 1 or 2 hrs. Here is a pic of the plant before cut and a tray of after cut and now in jar.

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You need hygrometers in your jars. This is pretty close to what I do. When it hits 75% I dump them and let them get some air for a bud, then back into sweat.

nc208 said:

Bro.... right here 3 days? This is why your weed tastes like hay. Try drying for 9 days or so and see how she doing. I'm on day 5 of drying right now and still havent looked at her yet.

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No it's not. Hang drying for 10-14 days losses more terps than this method. He's close, just a little off on technique still.

BurnzyBurnz said:

Yes I included pictures in this comment. I dried for 3 days @ 23C & 50%RH. Jarred and been burping every 24hrs for 1 or 2 hrs. Here is a pic of the plant before cut and a tray of after cut and now in jar.

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I'm impressed, they don't look like you chopped them super early good job waiting! However, 3 days is just too fast imho. I've tried many different drying methods in the last 10 years. I definitely think that 7-10 days is the minimum amount of time they should be dried in.

I remove fan leaves, and hang branches for 7-10 days until the outside is crispy and the stems crack, but don't totally snap in half. Then I remove them from the stems, and toss the buds in paper bags. They stay in there for another 5-7 days usually. I shake them around every day and check on them. This allows the moisture to balance out in all the buds. Once they are perfect for smoking I put them in jars or plastic bags, and thats how they stay till its gone. This has given me the best flavor and smell of all the methods, and also happens to be simple, and cost nothing.

nc208 said:

Bro.... right here 3 days? This is why your weed tastes like hay. Try drying for 9 days or so and see how she doing. I'm on day 5 of drying right now and still havent looked at her yet.

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I did that for my last 2 grows and it was way to dry and crumbling.

BurnzyBurnz said:

I did that for my last 2 grows and it was way to dry and crumbling.

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That's because your temps are too high. Shoot for low 60s with a breeze around them, not on them. Your humidity was fine. I dry for 2 weeks. The only thing that crumbles are the little tips of the sugar leaves. Inside is still squishy and moist. Nothing good comes from a cure at high temps.

3rd Monkey said:

That's because your temps are too high. Shoot for low 60s with a breeze around them, not on them. Your humidity was fine. I dry for 2 weeks. The only thing that crumbles are the little tips of the sugar leaves. Inside is still squishy and moist. Nothing good comes from a cure at high temps.

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Thanks my dude !

macsnax said:

No it's not. Hang drying for 10-14 days losses more terps than this method. He's close, just a little off on technique still.

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Yes it is. If you put weed in jars too early you will get the hay smell. Also said try drying for 9 days or so which could be slightly less. Where are you pulling 10-14 from?