Five Powerful Strategies to Stop the Hay Smell in Weed After Harvest
When home growers first began cultivating weed, the terrible “hay smell” of dried buds has been a pain in the ass. The awful scent can sometimes be detected throughout the drying process, and other times it only becomes noticeable when the buds are placed in jars to cure.
After all your hard work, it is really frustrating to smell hay, and many growers are baffled as to why it occurs. What causes the scent of dried or cured buds to be described as “harsh,” “fresh cut grass,” or “hay”? We’ll explain to you why it occurs and how to prevent it today.
Why do buds that have been dried occasionally smell like musty hay?
This is what novice growers frequently experience:
- Before harvest, buds smell nice.
- After drying, there is a musty “hay” fragrance.
- Curing buds in jars either improves the smell or occasionally makes it worse!
Break this terrible loop!
Would you believe that if you dry buds properly, they smell amazing as soon as they’re done? At that point, jarring the buds will intensify the aroma and make them smoother to smoke, but there won’t be a time at which they smell “bad.”
Five Powerful Strategies to Stop the Hay Smell in Weed After Harvest
You’ll learn how to develop the most fragrant buds in this part.
1.) Try to air dry in a cool area.
Cut off individual branches, then turn them over and place them in a place with minimal ventilation. Some cultivators place their buds on mesh drying racks, however this causes the buds to become flat in areas. While drying, maintain a temperature of 60–70°F (15–20°C). We use a grow tent with gentle air circulation to dry buds, and set the air conditioner to the lowest setting. Every time, perfect buds. If your drying area is always warm (such as the interior of numerous closets), try to choose one of the following two solutions.
To consistently generate good buds free of hay odour, air-dry in a softly ventilated room with a temperature below 70°F/20°C. Buds emerge flawlessly within 7 to 10 days.
2.) Utilise a bud dryer
There are weed-specific dehydrator/dryers that can be used as an alternative. While bud dryers employ mild heating, most food dehydrators have excessively high heat settings that will cook your weed.
These are dryers designed specifically for your herbs, but you have to use them correctly or you won’t get good results because buds are easily over-dried.
When used correctly, dryers produce good results in a range of settings; nevertheless, if you’re not careful, it’s very simple to over-dry your buds. They perform effectively even in warm drying environments, although low humidity usually produces poorer outcomes.
3. let it air dry in a paper bag or cardboard box.
Air-drying in a box (or even in a paper bag) in a room is your best alternative if you don’t have access to a dryer or a cool, aired environment.
A nice bud drying environment can be produced by the characteristics of paper and cardboard, especially when accompanied with some modest air circulation around the box.
Like a personal drying chamber, hang the buds upside down from within the box. Make sure there is enough airflow and avoid letting the buds come into contact with one another. For instance, make some indentations on the box’s sides or leave the top slightly ajar.
To guarantee some air flow in the space, point the fan’s blow towards a wall rather than the box, unless the fan is really weak. While the box is air drying, smell it inside. Reduce ventilation to prevent buds from drying out too quickly if it smells musty in the slightest. Just bear in mind that when buds are air-dried in a warm atmosphere, they are more likely to acquire a hay smell, so if at all possible, keep them cool.
When you don’t have a cold drying area or a dryer, drying in a cardboard box (or paper bag) is a terrific old-school yet effective way to lessen the smell of hay. In low humidity conditions, boxes also aid in the better drying of buds.
4.) Dry the buds until the little stems break rather than bend
If you put buds in jars before they are completely dry, they may become musty. To make sure the buds are completely dried, try these two tests: The buds will break off the stem without creating strings, and the little stems will snap rather than bend. If the buds are taking stringy stem pieces and you have to use scissors to clip them off cleanly, they are too damp inside and require more drying.
When buds are completely dried, how to tell?
5.) Keep an eye on the jars’ buds’ humidity (keep them below 60% RH)
In general, it’s advised to ensure that the humidity is 62% or below, but if you’re concerned about the scent of hay, it’s safer to stay below 60% RH. Make sure the buds in jars or wherever you’re storing them aren’t too wet. A musty scent can be caused by mould or bacterial growth.
Occasionally, as water moves out of the centre of buds, the outsides become increasingly moist, which might encourage the growth of undesirable organisms. A hygrometer can be useful for keeping an eye on the buds. Invest in a Boveda to assist remove excess moisture from your buds if you’re experiencing problems getting them sufficiently dry, such as while living in an area with excessive humidity. The ideal humidity in jars is also gradually maintained by these packs, thus a hygrometer is typically not even necessary. They function by storing excess moisture in specially made crystals inside the packet. When the packets turn hard, they should be replaced because they were initially soft. They come in beneficial for rehydrating buds that have become overly dry.
- Before being sealed in jars, buds that feel moist need to be further dried since they are too wet.
- Use the tiny hygrometers in your jars to check the humidity and make sure it doesn’t exceed 60%.
- Adjust humidity with humidipaks (58%), which can help dry off too-wet buds.
When curing and storing hay, use humidity-control packs with a 58% humidity level to minimise the development of hay odour.
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