Hay smell

Hello All,
So I have been at this a while and this happens every so often. I let my girl grow until she was mostly all smokey tri's and a "little" amber. Trimmed it while still on the stalk. Hung it until it was under 70RH, Jared it, 2 days later, were at about 68% RH (Stems are not snapping yet, they wont until I hit about 63% RD), now eher's the problem, I crack the jar and a whiff of hay comes out. It looks great, full of crystals, red hairs. I am now going to let it set outside the jars in a low RH room to let them dry a bit more and continue the cure. Hay anyone else experienced this hay smell while curing?

O one more thing, if I squish a bud, it will still stink like crazy.

Let it dry out more. I notice that smell from either an early harvest, trapped to early, dried too quick, Warm/Hot temps and stale air(wrong conditions).

Properly grown bud should smell nice after initial dry normally for me 10-14 days for some 5-14.
It is really as simple as just letting it dry slow. I think the most important keys to keep in mind are to keep
clean air circulating and do not let the temp raise above 72F and don't let it dry to dust before jarring it.
Hope this helps.

Always dry slow as you can till you can hear that snap then,paper bags or big zip locks for a month.then the sealed jar..buds need to off gas for few weeks,jars don't alow this to happen,hence the hay smell...

Flash63 said:

Always dry slow as you can till you can hear that snap then,paper bags or big zip locks for a month.then the sealed jar..buds need to off gas for few weeks,jars don't alow this to happen,hence the hay smell...

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That probably depends on one's ambient humidity. When mine is 20%, there's no way I could put buds in a paper bag for a month. They're crispy after hanging for just a day.

I hang, then cut the buds into a Sterlite container, dry more slowly with that (down to about 68%, fanning the lid over the box 4-5 times a day, leaving the lid off for periods of time depending on how moist the buds are and the ambient humidity) then jar it with Boveda 62 (or 65 when my ambient humidity is down to 20%). Burp 3-4 times per day after they're down to 65%, then once a day after it's been 62-65% for a week. Burping's essential. If I don't do it I get the hay smell.

To me, the trick is getting the buds down to 62-65% without the outer material getting too crispy. Letting the inner moisture rehydrate the outer material, in stages. Then, as you mentioned, regular fresh air (burping) the first week when it reaches that 62-65%. But then the risk is overdrying, especially when my ambient humidity is 20%. Bovedas help hold it in the range even though I'm introducing air 3-4 times a day. I'll also exhale into the jar to help the Boveda (for example, if I left the lid off too long. Usually I just fan the lid for 30 seconds, blow into it, fan the lid, etc. Sometimes I'l leave the lid off for 10-20 minutes. If I forget and it's closer to an hour, I'll exhale into it to help the Boveda pull it back.

The OP has to be aware that everyone's suggested technique is largely dependent upon their climate. Hygrometers and Boveda packs can help him find what works for him.