Plant goes Bad - Need Your Help

Hi guys. I need help, I'm desperate. Every time I try to grow the plants go bad near the end of the flowering stage. Let me explain in full.

I grow autoflowering plants indoors and use 400W light. At first it grows fine, without any visible problems, leaves look good and green, then the flowering stage comes and at first it's all looking good and fine, the smell is also amazingly great. However, after two or three weeks when the buds start to develop more and more, the plant start to smell up, real bad. Not a nice smell, makes you want to puke if you smell it to close, sort of ammonia or some rotten grass or something. At the same time the buds look okay, the plant doesn't go yellow or anything.

First two times that happened I was growing them in a small room with an electric fan blowing over them and the temp around 77. So I thought that was the problem, not enough cool air around the plants. But this last time I grew it in a huge room with an air conditioner ON the whole time and tried to keep the temp around 32 in the final stage constantly, which wasn't hard due to a working A/C blowing nicely over the plant. I also had a soil moisture sensor installed so to make sure I don't water it too much nor would it get too dried out.

Any way. Today I walked in the room and I really didn't like the smell, so I was worried. I chopped one of the buds to check and, well. It happened again. It smells horrible. Not sure if the plant went bad overnight or it's been going on for a while. Last thing that I changed is brought the light down a bit, to make sure it covers the below buds too. That actually made the temp around the plant go a bit higher, probably to 71 from like 67. Maybe it was too close to the plant, I don't know. It made it evaporate a lot of water, so I guess the plant had to drink more to stay hydrated. Another thing I noticed when I chopped the plant, it was a bit to dry. Don't know if that could be an issue.

Any how. I don't know what to do, other than give up on ever growing a normal healthy plant. Maybe anybody can help out and point out what can the problem be. Maybe not enough oxygen? The room wasn't really ventilated, just ACed, although the air movement was plenty. But I'm not an expert, maybe not enough ventilation leads to some sort of bacteria developing inside the plant or in the air, I don't know. I need your guys advice. I still have another 3 seeds but I don't see the point in planting them anymore if all the time and effort just goes to waste.

are u spraying them with anything ? how is your water are u city ?

Not spraying them with anything. Actually was watering the last ones with my own water supply from the store, not tap water.

I don't know if it's mould or something. Some people suggest to get the humidity gauge. I might try that but not sure if that really is the problem.

Pictures would be helpful. I will say this, just because your flower smells like puke, or has some offending smell, don't automatically think there's something wrong with it. I have a pheno that smells like puked up rotten oranges...but it's really nice stuff. Otherwise, maybe some pics of your flowers or the one you took off might help someone here help you. Good luck.

CannaCountry said:

Pictures would be helpful. I will say this, just because your flower smells like puke, or has some offending smell, don't automatically think there's something wrong with it. I have a pheno that smells like puked up rotten oranges...but it's really nice stuff. Otherwise, maybe some pics of your flowers or the one you took off might help someone here help you. Good luck.

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thanks. Yes, sure. Pics:

Well the thing is, the whole plant starts smelling terrible, not just the buds, stems too.

All things considered it looks ok.

It could use more light to fatten and harden the buds.

What about your sense of smell? Do any other items around you smell more to you than other people?

Visually there is little wrong with those pictures.

lokie said:

All things considered it looks ok.

It could use more light to fatten and harden the buds.

What about your sense of smell? Do any other items around you smell more to you than other people?

Visually there is little wrong with those pictures.

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Well, I know how good weed smells like. Smoked a ton in my days. That's just isn't it. I don't know, maybe I should try curing it and after that see what it's like. I'll try that for now. Thanks.

WeedDude69 said:

Well, I know how good weed smells like. Smoked a ton in my days. That's just isn't it. I don't know, maybe I should try curing it and after that see what it's like. I'll try that for now. Thanks.

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Different strains do smell different, some a lot stronger than others.
What strain are these seeds? Bag, bought or gifted?
Before these beans have you smoked/smelled this strain before?

half a bow or a bow

lokie said:

Different strains do smell different, some a lot stronger than others.
What strain are these seeds? Bag, bought or gifted?
Before these beans have you smoked/smelled this strain before?

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Gelato Auto. Didn't try them ever, but as I said before, this same issue happened previous times I tried growing. They were different strain.

WeedDude69 said:

Well, I know how good weed smells like. Smoked a ton in my days. That's just isn't it. I don't know, maybe I should try curing it and after that see what it's like. I'll try that for now. Thanks.

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If the plants look healthy, and don’t have any mold or mildew growing on them, then you are smelling the terpines. I’ve had perfectly healthy plants put off a light scent that could be easily confused as mildew during mid flower that didn’t last long. A flowering plant is not going to smell similar to the dried and cured bud you smoked a ton of in your days. Flowering plants can have a more pungent smell, before being dried and cured, and I’ve had strains that smelled like baby formula vomit.
TLDR: If your plants are healthy, and there’s no mold or mildew in your tent, then don’t chop them up, because there is nothing wrong with them.

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

If the plants look healthy, and don’t have any mold or mildew growing on them, then you are smelling the terpines. I’ve had perfectly healthy plants put off a light scent that could be easily confused as mildew during mid flower that didn’t last long. A flowering plant is not going to smell similar to the dried and cured bud you smoked a ton of in your days. Flowering plants can have a more pungent smell, before being dried and cured, and I’ve had strains that smelled like baby formula vomit.
TLDR: If your plants are healthy, and there’s no mold or mildew in your tent, then don’t chop them up, because there is nothing wrong with them.

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Very interesting. Okay, I will follow your advice man. Thanks.

After a certain consideration I think you may be right about the flowering stage smell. And I think I was wrong comparing the smell to ammonia, it's more of a something like a pungent smell of a freshly cut grass or something like that. The thing that ticked me of is that it didn't smell like that before. During the earlier flowering stages it just smelled like weed, really magical and fragrant weed. And since now it just smells like some sort of wet grass it just didn't feel right.

I will try curing it for a couple of weeks and see how it goes.

Hello again guys.

So, after almost two weeks of drying and curing it, that's how the bud looks like.



I'm obviously not an expert, so how does it look to you? I think it seems okay, but am interested in your opinion. Some parts seem maybe too dark to me and I read that mold can appear dark or black but not sure. Tell me if you think it looks okay or not.

The smell I was describing earlier has gotten a lot softer now. Once in a jar for the night it smells kind of stronger but if I let it take some air for about 5-10 minutes, it disappears completely. Once in a jar for a while it comes back again though, but as I said, much softer, not like before. I think this could just be a fresh weed smell I'm not used to, because I used to consuming a ready, cured product.

I tried it already and it's not bad. Any way, just thought I'd ask your thoughts on the picture.