Smelling like hay

[justballs48]

Hi everyone, I need help. This doesn't happen very often but it pops up every now and then and I just don't know why.  Sometimes while I'm curing I take the tops off my jars to burp them and I lose all the smell except a hay smell. It's not always the same strain. The grow looked good all the way through but not a lot of smell.  I'm an indoor grower and a friend of mine just harvested his outdoor grow and he told me the same thing happened with one of his strains.  We both grow in soil and use smart pots any help would be appreciated.    Thanks !!

[Tokage]

Are you giving them enough hang time when you dry them, perhaps they are still to wet when they go into jars?
 

[jankahar]

sounds like they dry too fast and get crispy? if it takes under 5 days for your buds to get them jarring dry or if they are crispy than it is probably too fast or dryed too far and you need to slow drying down.

 with slow and even drying that takes at least 7-10+ days, buds feel  little spongy when pressed and sticky when you jar them, not crispy stem breaks and folds easy but it shoudnt be crispy dry. this gives perfect cure

the buds should still contain about 10-15% moisture at this point and thru out the cure, if it goes lower than this in jar potency and taste start to suffer in long term and curing stops completely the humidity in jar should be near 60%

 

you need hygrometer to see what humidity range they get while drying and in the jar to get control of it,  50-60% would be ideal in open space and you could even pre trim and cut them

but if you have much lower ambient humidity you must cut them in big pieces, buds still in stems delay trimming to after drying and possibly hang them inside closed cardboard boxes and control the airflow around the box, with higher ambient humidity 55+ you can cut and trim them smaller and still get perfect results.   never blow buds directly with high airflow, slow air movement is fine, keep them in dark  or taste and potency will also suffer

 

for example i have 20-30% ambient humidity thru the cold months so i need to adjust my drying spaces constantly to keep that proper level near 55%. i must use all the tricks to achieve this. i cut in big pieces, hanged inside cardboard box that is inside cabinet with controlled slow airflow, dry trimming, this way i can keep them near 55% over week in 20-30% ambient

 

when they go in to jar you want to keep 60-62% humidity to keep curing going on, if they loose too much moisture the curing stops completely and they start to loose potency, smell/taste

i use boveda 62% two way curing packages to achieve this right curing level inside the jar and for long term storage, the product works great, they can also be used to refresh little bit too dry buds if they got too far and the product can be reused for long time

[justballs48]

Thanks for the tips and I will get a hydrometer and try the boxes. I let them hang for like 3/4 days and jar them before the branches snap.