About a month ago a family member that grows brought over a ton of freshly cut weed straight from the plant, we were told to hang it and let it completely dry out. The home owner was paranoid about the strong smell which was normal potent weed smell at the time, and instead bagged it all up in ziplocs. They brought out a little tin of it to smoke tonight, and when I grabbed the tin it felt pretty moist still, but most of all there is a pretty strong ammonia smell. I have zero experience with growing/harvesting so not sure what I'm looking for, but we have like half a pound that is very soft to the touch/damp and it all smells like ammonia. It's all gone brown and doesn't smell like it did at all when we received it. Is it salvageable or is it trashed now? For now we laid it all out in a thin layer on some paper towels to air dry for a few days but I am hesitant to smoke any of it as the ammonia smell is pretty pungent. We received smaller batches from the same family member over the holidays as gifts and it smells/looks normal. Brown stuff is the ammonia smelling weed, closeup shot is the normal stuff from a different batch that smells/smokes normal. Need advice on what to do with this stuff. Don't want anyone getting sick ingesting or smoking if it's gone bad.
ammonia smell is the (N) breaking down still rehang for a week, go 7 days at 70F and 70%Rh, nice and slow is the way, even just to save any burnt lungs good luck
It's all been broken up already as you can see in the attached pics, is it okay to leave out to dry on paper towels?
i use a spaghetti strainer or two just fill the edges and set in a dark closet for a day or so see if it gets better
On some pieces sort of but I tossed those pieces. We have it airing out on a table now and it already smells less pungent but I'm going to go with Vee's advice and let it dry for a week then reevaluate
Might be able to salvage some, but putting freshly cut weed in a sealed container is a death sentence for those buds. Maybe okay for an Iso wash.
=============== web grab The ammonia smell is coming from the decomposition of the wet plant material. This process is called ammonification and is the process of converting nitrites to nitrates, which give off ammonia in the process. The plant is in the process of turning to compost. Google ammonification or nitrification and you will find information about this . Properly cured weed should never smell of ammonia, only the natural plant Terpenes ================================= The ammonia smell is caused by anaerobic fermentation. It's caused by sealing (or tightly packing as in brick weed) pot that is not fully dried. The wetness in the absence of oxygen starts to ferment the plant sugars. It ain't the end of the world but it's not a good thing. Airing out the weed will stop the fermentation and lessen the smell. If you smell ammonia when you're curing weed, you're curing it wrong ===============End grab BNW
go for it,.... for now the veg maybe rotting, but the trics are still there I had the same thing years back when his boat sunk carrying my load it took weeks to get the boat up and the weed out ...lol
It will be harsh as hell with the Ammonia burning eyes and throat. The safest is to separate the Trichomes from the now ruined green leaf material. Ice Water Hash, Dry Ice Kief or Alcohol extraction will all get the best part separated from the garbage. If any remaining doubts are had then making edibles from the extracted concentrate avoids any inhalation issues. BNW
Sad to say I agree. I've had more than my share of mold and it's just not worth it to weed through the shit. Not to mention with all the good quality bud out there at great prices now, you'd have to be pretty desperate to smoke it. LOL. Start over and post as you move along with your grow. Using the knowledge of many here at GC, you'll have yourself a great grow that you'll be proud of in no time! Good luck