Please help! Can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong... I have a bigger harvest coming up soon and I don’t want to fuck it up! The last 3 times I’ve dried my beautiful indoor plants they lost pretty much all smell, fragrance, terps! And they smelled oh so good & strong before drying! 1st time I hung dry in room 2nd time hung dry in tent 3rd time dried in paper bag Any suggestions, advice, & recommendations for preserving fragrance & flavor are welcome! Proper temp, RH, successful methods?
You could be drying too quickly. Hang your plants in 65-70% humidity and at about 70F for a week or so. It'll take longer to dry but you won't lose the terps as you do when the outsides of the buds get overly dry while the insides are still damp. When the outsides get too dry the terps evaporate and no matter if you correct the moisture content later, the terps are gone. You can hang them as long as they need and you'll be pleased with your results, I certainly was. In some climates it's a challenge to keep the humidity up but you can do it, hang wet towels in front of a fan etc.
After their dry from hanging and trimmed I lay them on a cardboard box at the bottom of my tent for 36 hours then paper bag for 24 or so. By this time my nugs are hard and dry but still smell like crap. I jar them in mason jars and about 4 days later the smell starts coming back. 2 weeks later it's loud.