Harvest lost its smell help!

I did a partial harvest just on the top colas, and i am wondering if i pulled too early...I let them go 8-9 weeks in flower with a 1000w hortilux and noticed most of the trichomes were cloudy/ some clear.
I trimmed down to individual buds and dried them on a screen at 70f / 50% humidity for 3 days...then i jarred them up for 12 hrs and took them back out and they lay on the screen for 8 hrs or so. Then i jarred them up again for curing....

It is so frustrating....why do they have hay smell/ no smell till squished? Do i have to vacuum seal/squish them up for it to smell dank like the commerical peoples do? Do they just squish it all together still partially wet so they stink? Somebody tell me, im going nuts lol...
I know it is good quality and tastes great, it was a soil grow....maybe thats why? Do nutrient pumped hydro or coco grows just smell more dank? Bc i used all organic in soil and they rarely ever needed any nutes, they would just get nute burn....
???

Hey jake, there are a lot of factors but genetics (strain and even specific phenos within a strain) plays the biggest part in smell. I recently ran 2 different strains I hadn't run before and multiple seeds, gave me multiple phenos and some had a great smell while another pheno didn't have much at all and completely different. I'm running another 4 seeds of Harlequin, from the 4 seeds I got 3 phenos with different smells, one is a subtle fruity smell, one is strong/sweet/fruity smell (the keeper), another smells like the fruity smell but then like someone dumped a can of gas on the plant. Some, possibly yours, don't have much smell until you break up the bud, then they stink up the room.

Over the years I've found some strains to have that hay smell before curing, but change the smell after a couple of weeks or curing (most important step imo). Also, outdoor tends to get that hay smell more so if it's been wet just before harvest. Indoor you may have pulled them while they were very wet (soil still soaked) and can contribute to the hay smell. Another factor that seems to contribute to that hay smell is if you dry too fast, 3 days is fast, I shoot for 7-10, usually 7-8 days and it's a lot better for maintaining smell/flavour. I still cure/burp for a minimum of 2-3 weeks, depending on strain and how slow i was able to dry it. Good news is most strains will loose that hay smell and bring out the nicer bud smell during curing, just burp them consistently for a couple of weeks, you should notice a change after about a week. Cheers.

To get that commercial smell you refer to takes planting and finding the right strain and pheno(s) over a period of time, picking the best phenos and cloning them for production, that's the name of the game.

I have a strain that takes 4 wks to start getting the smell, but my others start in 10 days or so

The smell will return as they cure properly.

Did you wet trim or dry trim? Wet trimming is when you trim immediately after cutting the plant down and then dry the buds. Dry trimming is when you pull only the biggest fan leaves and leave the smaller "sugar leaves" on the bud as it dries. Dry trimming is by far the best method for retention of aroma. Here is a post I made sometime back that explains our experience:

We used to wet trim but now we exclusively dry trim everything. We pull the colas and all larger water leaves. Leave all sugar leaf on the buds, Hang upside down on coat hangers stretched across the top in vented cardboard boxes (to keep some humidity in and dry slower). Leave 'em in the boxes for 7-10 days or so, depending on bud structure and density, Once the branches reach a point where they begin to snap and not bend we trim. Much, much easier and leaves a far better nose. Some of the positive differences for us include:

1) easier post-trim clean up. When wet trimming the wet leaves get crunched on the floor and leave green stains that have to be scrubbed up. Hard to get off too. Lots of work getting room ready for next run.

2) easier trim process. Less sticky leaves to deal with on the scissors. Many of the sugar leaves can be broken off and don't even need to be touched with scissors. I was skeptical at first but was convinced after first attempt at dry trimming.

3) sugar leaf trim is already dry when finished. No need to dry post-trimming before extraction of oils. Bag it and send it directly to the CO2 machine.

4) end product is noticeably better. Aroma (the "nose" of the weed) is far better than wet trimming. Leaving the sugar leaves on seems to retain more of the natural plant aroma as it drys. Our Skywalker OG and Super Lemon Haze are off the charts when it comes to their nose. Pop open a jar (or food grade bucket) and the aromatic goodness just slams you in the face.

Just my experience over the last several years... others may get different results but this works very well for us. No problem holding $$$ over $3k/lb even in this difficult market. Hard to argue the bud is not worth top $$$ when the frosty nugs stink up the entire store ...

Ya I wet trimmed, thx for the info on the dry trimming....I figured they might dry too quickly the way I just trimmed everything off the stems...I guess I will just compress/vacuum it all together to get it stinky again. It sure was sticky at first too...I wish I could keep it fresh and brite green forever "(

Oh well, the cure will bring it out some..

hang it til it snaps.ya jarred it and it was prolly wet.patience grasshoppa.

Sounds like you jarred a bit early. No worries though, as long as it doesn't smell like a bale of hay is hanging around your place you'll get some of auromatics properties to return. One thing to remember about terpens when curing is that the profile changes as they age, similar to a cigar in a humidor.
I have a jar of some northern lights that I tried curing with some boveda humidipaks (thought I'd give it a try) and jarred them up a bit too soon, about 5 days dry time, now they don't give off that dank smell until it's ground up or smoked.
And good on you for going organic! You should dig around on rols and notill if Organics interests you a lot.

Yeah, you probably jarred too early. Like Knott Collective above, I prefer the "dry" trimming method for most of the reasons he lists. Here's a link for next time. This link is stickied at the top of the "harvesting & curing" forum here.

But for now, burp your jars daily. If you don't have a cheap little humidity meter (aka hygrometer, Caliber III or IV, get 'em on amazon for $20), leave 'em open for an hour or so. If you get a hygrometer follow the time suggestions as per the link, based on relative humidity.

Midwest-Weedist - As an experiment, I've used Boveda humidity packs to cure in the past. The first time was with some outdoor Sour Jack. Couldn't tell the difference between the Boveda cure and a traditional jar cure. The 2nd time was some indoor Northern Lights, no taste at all, the effect was there, but not the taste even after I've ground it up. I wonder if it's just a Northern Lights characteristic?? I've got some more indoor NL I harvested 12/3. It's hanging in the garage, still too wet to dry trim. I'll try the traditional jar cure on this and see how it compares to last time.

jake.snake83 said:

Ya I wet trimmed, thx for the info on the dry trimming....I figured they might dry too quickly the way I just trimmed everything off the stems...I guess I will just compress/vacuum it all together to get it stinky again.

Oh well, the cure will bring it out some..

Click to expand...

Didn't notice this statement before my other post. Don't do that......just burp your jars. The buds should be placed LOOSELY in the jar. DO NOT CRAM THEM IN. As others have stated, the dank smell will return with time.

I have harvested a few times and I usually gently put them in jars, but I think that explains the lack of smell.
Bc when I take out a bud and put it in say, a cellophane or baggy, it starts stinking again I guess bc the fresh air exchange or whatever activates/degrades the terpenes in the bud?