How to preserve smell and taste during drying?

I had a similar problem to you with my first two harvests. The way that I found to work was that I hung up the entire plant and trimmed the larger fan leaves. I let it sit for about four days or so and then individually trimmed the buds and hung them up until the skinny stems snapped but the larger ones did not. I then put them in a paper bag for a day and then jarred them up. The smell was prevalent about two days after I put them in the jar and only got stronger with time. Hope I helped a bit.

 

I have the same problem, had some bud that made my block wreak of goodness now after curing smells like shwagg .... OK so how does one get RH in the jar?!? Ill try sparkys method unless someone else has a better one....

 

I live in a dry climate and if I don't keep a humidifier in the drying room the buds dry too fast and lose their smell. The target RH in the drying environment for me is 45 to 50%. Buds go in the jars when they are crispy on the outside. If you leave the buds on branch stems (not the thick main stems) you can preserve some moisture content in the jars for a little longer. This also helps to keep a little space in between buds in the jar.

Don't jar really thick stems because that will make your buds smell like a wet sock but it works well to maintain the humidity in the jar if you can keep the buds on the smaller stems for a little bit. If your RH in the jar is over 70% no matter how long you keep the jar open then they either need to hang longer or the buds need to come off the stems. If I time the jarring right and hit the sweet spot I will wait a couple of weeks to chop the buds off the rest of the stems at the same time that I reduce jar opening to just a quick burp every day or two.

With all that said, some strains just don't have much smell. I would think the skunk and AK48 wouldn't fall in that category though.

 

dry for 5-7 day then cure for 7 days or longer lots of stickys on dry/cure methods

 

[quote name='"greenops"']

Thanks Sparky! It seems that keeping the buds moist for the first couple days is crucial to keeping the dank smell. As u hung the whole plant, you were able to slow down the drying process.
Do u remember the temps and rH of your drying room?
Are the buds still moist in the middle when you jar them?[/quote]

No problem! Glad to help. I would guess the temps were around 67-73. I don't know what the humidity was sorry but would assume it was around 50-60%. I should have checked. I had no way of telling if the buds were moist in the middle. I think your right about slowing the whole process down which is the most important part. I had two plants before where I trimmed the buds and hung them up individually and the terrible hay smell came through.

 

ahhh exactly!!!

 

Dried them too quick. Probably already been answered but just saying, you need between 10-14 day dry time depending on your climate. Congrats on the harvest though. This has got to be one of the more common questions

 

[quote name='"greenops"']

Thanks washedmofo! Yea its a common newbie problem and a common question but the there are too many contradicting answers:
not cured long enough, dry til stems snap, dont dry til stems snap, harvested too early, flushing etc...

So the only thing i wasnt able to do yet is extending the drying period. However,
I'm pretty sure there are growers who get dank smelling buds by drying them for like 3 days, then cure them...[/quote]

Thats because people's experiences contradict each other. One strain may dry perfectly in 5 days where as that same strain may take 15 days to dry correctly somewhere else.

No growers can dry there buds for 3 days and get a medical grade smell to it. You get a little back while curing but when you dry that quick you lose the majority of the stank. If you grind up your buds they still smell good but they will never smell as good as they were on the plant.

Most dispensary mj has been chopped a good 1-2 months before it's on their shelves. You need time to dry and cure.

 

My stuff dries in about 7 days, some 3-4. Usually has no smell going into jars, except recently!, and a slight smell coming out. Last crop I hung a plant upside down; this greatly increased smell. I imagine its both from the slower drying (allows the plant to metabolize stuff within it longer, because of presence of water) as well as the draining of phloem into the extremities.

My problem with letting it dry before trimming though, is the lost trich's during a dry trim. Everything is finely powdered afterwards. Are you supposed to take it down to be snipped before fully dry, with bendy stems still using this method? Or trim it while hanging, a little each day?

 

I mean it smells DANK! But, then again that whole crop smells damn good compared to my earlier stuff this year. I think it was the week long heat wave that came through and just made the outside stuff go nuts. It could be the genetics though; Diesel.

I think slower is always better; from now on im probably going to trim while on the plant(after cutting down). Not letting it fully dry before a trim (because of all those trichs lost from it being brittle) and instead trimming it right away wet as usual, but leaving nugs on the plant. Gonna hang it and slow dry. Maybe a looser trim, letting the frosty leaves drape over (I think they help the smell).

I'll try it with some nugs of lemon skunk I left on a plant. Main thing was harvested a week ago, and the rest I've been trying to turn purple (hehe, all leaves and now the buds are 50/50 and creeping more). The earlier harvest is really nice smelling, so this'll be a good test. I'll be leaving the nugs on the branch

 

/watch?v=p3P1iItwLW8 its a good watch on harvesting

 

[quote name='"1sttimegrower"']I mean it smells DANK! But, then again that whole crop smells damn good compared to my earlier stuff this year. I think it was the week long heat wave that came through and just made the outside stuff go nuts. It could be the genetics though; Diesel.

I think slower is always better; from now on im probably going to trim while on the plant(after cutting down). Not letting it fully dry before a trim (because of all those trichs lost from it being brittle) and instead trimming it right away wet as usual, but leaving nugs on the plant. Gonna hang it and slow dry. Maybe a looser trim, letting the frosty leaves drape over (I think they help the smell).

I'll try it with some nugs of lemon skunk I left on a plant. Main thing was harvested a week ago, and the rest I've been trying to turn purple (hehe, all leaves and now the buds are 50/50 and creeping more). The earlier harvest is really nice smelling, so this'll be a good test. I'll be leaving the nugs on the branch[/quote]

How did you get the leaves and buds to turn purple. And which lemon skunk are you growing

 

Greenhouse's lemon skunk. Right now the days are switching from back and forth betweeen warm days - cool nights to chilly/sunny days and frigidly cool nights.

The purpling is likely from the stress of the cold; all the leaves are 100% purp. I flushed with water 10 degrees under the ambient temp in the mornings (pretty cold water) in the past week to try and get the buds to turn. I don't know if it works or not, but the tips on all of them are purple and some are 1/3 of the way purple.

Kinda wish I hadn't harvested nearly the whole plant, because its so airy mold wouldn't have been an issue from the weather, as its not quite done yet. I'm hoping whats left turns 100% purple once it hits 15%-20% amber.