buds squishy in middle - rot or not?

Couple weeks ago I chopped a nice ripe white russian. I grew it out into a bush with many large main colas. I did my usual harvest method, and chopped down one branch at a time, did a full manicure, then placed the completely trimmed buds on drying racks. The racks are in a dark room with a fan constantly circulating the air around them. When checking on my drying process after one week, I noticed a few mushy spots on a few of the dense colas. Clipping the bud away from the stem, I noticed the stem on the inside of the cola was quite soft and mushy. The color of the adjacent buds were a more brownish and yellow than the typical green. The stem on the exterior was completely dry and snapped when bent however, and most of the bud was very dry too. However, these isolated mushy spots seems to showing up in many of the large dense colas, while the rest of the bud seems completely dry.

My question: Could these mushy spots be from a lack of air circulation due to the bud's sheer density, and it's just needs a little more time to dry?

OR

is it some kind of bud rot that is decomposing the bud and turning it to mush from the inside out?

I got paranoid about loosing an entire crop to rot, so I freaked out and trimmed up all of the colas into smaller popcorn buds, looking for signs of rot or mold.

didn't find much more than what I already described. quite a few of the bigger colas had these mushy inner stems, but no outright obvious rot or mould.

I actually prefer to keep the colas somewhat intact, just for aesthetic reasons I guess, so I dont like having to chop them up like this.

Is there something that I am doing wrong to make my plant susceptible to this? Something I'm missing in the harvesting and drying process?

Would appreciate any input. I don't have photos of the problem at the moment, but it's hard to see in a photo anyway. you have to feel the mushy stem to understand.

Yeah, it sounds like rot. That mush stem part gave it away and the bud that is adjacent to the mushy stem is all brownish yellow? Yeah, definitely rot. Sounds like it.
This is why you always want to break up those bigger colas to make sure that it isn't in there when it is drying/curing. The first thing a (knowledgeable/educated) smoker will do when buying big outdoor buds is break it up and make sure it checks out. No mold, especially on the buds touching the middle stalk.

Sounds like it could be bud rot. But you've done the right thing in chopping it up/out. Just in case it is, sterilize everything, but even then you may have to resign yourself to it always popping it's head up. Sprays form the hydro shop work great. I've had a spot of this my last two grows, just harvested a white widow x big bud today and finally have no signs of it, thanks to spraying with Rotstop imo.
Of course, they could be fine and just taking a while to dry...dense buds right?
Let's hope so anyway.
(Edit) I wouldn't smoke it though!!!

If I were you Id cut away the safe (dry) bits to stop it spreading, with the remaining 'mushy' bits you can continue drying and salvage what you can later. By the sounds of the colouration it may well be rot, its a pain in the arse when it happens but if youve saved the majority of your harvest through finding it early then your luckier than some. in short, act now before it gets worse, just in case

I personally trim fat colas down to more manageable bud lengths. the key to drying a curing is even moisture distribution and evaporation.

No one wants to ruin there beautiful cola's. But hey, if it rots its ruined anyway.

It's definitely bud rot. I have grown lots of White Russian; it is susceptible. Chronic was the worst strain ever for mold though, in my experience. It's best to find it before you harvest, so you can cut it out and it doesn't spread throughout the bud or to other colas. The only outward sign early on is you might spot one sweet leaf withering up; If you pry open that part of the cola, chances are you'll see the tan mush. cut cut cut. This usually shows up around week 6 or 7 and WR, of course, is a ten week strain. Ugh. The best prevention is maintaining a lower humidity during flower. Once I started air conditioning my grow and the humidity went down below 60%, the problem went away.

Thanks guys. Yes, the colas are very dense, and the middle stem just seems to get no air flow. I ended up going through each single bud, so I think I found the ones with the most damage, and cut them out completely. I think 90% of what is there is still perfect, I was able to isolate the infected spots before they spread at all. Most of the time it was only the stem that was getting mushy, and it hadn't worked its way outward yet so looks like it was good timing. I'll have to keep a close eye on these dense colas in the future.

So I've got all the colas trimmed into individual buds now, and they're out on drying racks. I've got a fan pointed at em all day long at low speed, in a dark, cool room.

I don't want to risk any more of this mold, but I've heard having a fan on them while drying is a no-no.

Is this true? I really don't want to take any chances with mushy buds.

It's the first time I've heard of it, I've got a fan directly at buds harvested yesterday anywaze. Bud rot spray/mister solutions still work, and are worth doing imo, even if it's been harvested. Just make sure the bud stays damp for a few hours so the friendly bacterium can get to work.
Hope I helped; bud rot is a bitch! BITCH even...

sworth said:

It's the first time I've heard of it, I've got a fan directly at buds harvested yesterday anywaze. Bud rot spray/mister solutions still work, and are worth doing imo, even if it's been harvested. Just make sure the bud stays damp for a few hours so the friendly bacterium can get to work.
Hope I helped; bud rot is a bitch! BITCH even...

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I'm not familiar with these sprays, what are they exactly? I grow only organic, so are they synthetic or natural?