Ready to Quit over Crap Quality

SauronBlue said:

I've dialed in things as much as I feel I can, there's not much more that I can naturally think to change the issue I'm having. I can't say it's something I've forgotten vs something that I never learned, bc I've never had stinky plants to know that I'm doing it right.
I've read example after example of the fundamentals, but I still re-read the post you linked, bc who knows what you forget over time. They do say that low rh can help terpine production, so that's interesting, as I have been at the high end of my humidity range.

I see others liking posts, but I don't see any options other than report or reply

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SauronBlue said:

Smell and potency for me. I can smell everything else just fine, and I've had other people confirm no smell, my gf hates the smell of strong cannabis, smells almost nothing in my flower room. I smell the chlorophyll coming off of veg and bloom after lights out. My sniffer works. I can smell them a bit if I hold a growing bud right to my nose or pinch a bud and smell my fingers. Smells great, just weak.
I'm doing my best to ensure my strains aren't the prob, I just got a pack from a local breeder w good reviews, popped them all and the freebie. Gonna pheno hunt, but it'll take a while to tell the results

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SauronBlue said:

I've been growing on and off for about 5 of the last 10 years. I've mostly done soil, but I've been switching to coco lately, to try to get out of my rut. I started with 600w MH/HPS combo for veg/flower in a tent. Back then, I had little invested, and my environment was really hot, rh wasn't something I checked. Back then, my buds would turn brown as soon as I dried them. They would dry in a week at most, as all I had was a closet to hang them, no rh control. The bud was absolute crap, but I was working too much to give the grow much attention.
Fast forward to 2 years ago, I decided to take it seriously and learn to grow quality, or just give it up. I inversted in 2 HLG550R full-spectrum LEDs (about $1000 each) to be sure that concern #1- light level, was handled. I've been using GreenLeaf Nutrients 1-part fert as my main food, but I try other lines on a few plants here and there as a comparison, but so far nothing has shown me a big difference, I might try AN next, idk. I've added an 8k a/c, a beast of a dehu, CO2 cycles from 800-1400 about every 2 hours (lowering the a/c setting to increase temps and allow more CO2 to enter stomata also saves enegry and somehow keeps CO2 from dissipating as fast, and raising the rh to further open stomata keeps the dehu from cooking the room, so I like the synergy). I'm using ProMix HP CC with 30# of castings mixed thru the media. I've added terpine boosters- started with Terpenez, now trying signal by TPS. I add recharge for microbial help, but not every week, only at clone to 1g pot, 1g pot to 5g pot, and veg to bloom (and sometimes halfway thru bloom).
Everything LOOKS great now, wonderful veg growth; fat, dense buds, covered in crystals, green foliage until the flush (1-2 weeks with only terp booster and blackstrap molasses- I add a bit of molasses to every watering, to feed the microbes), the buds are sticky and leave just a bit of intoxicating smell on your fingers, but that is the main problem.
My room is full of plants, and it never smells. I do have a can filter with a fan going 24/7, but I should still smell something, and before I added that, there was just as little smell. If I stick my nose to the plant, I can smell it, but not strong at all. I've tried drying in a cabinet I made out of a huge storage tote, then built wooden racks with window screen to hold the buds and an rh controller hooked up to 4 pc fans to vent moist air to outside. When it's staying at about 60% without the fans turning on, I'd switch to 5 gal buckets with lids and boveda packs. recently, I hung up a small harvest in a closet of the grow room with no door, but I covered the top half with a curtain to keep light away, but allow air to circulate. 8 days hanging and then to the boveda bucket. All of my bud, when drying, when curing, whatever, has almost no smell, and what there is is just hay. Always. I've tried different strains, and I really love how this cheeselicious forms nice tight buds with white/popcorn yellow pistils, while purple diesel daze is a bigger, but fluffier bud. No matter what I do, I'm left with no smell and a quality that only my mom and her friends seem to prefer, but I want something to knock my head back, not relax with old ladies.
I'm growing with permission/ licensing from the state, but it's a constant stress if my landlord will find out and get pissed. If I can't get the quality I want, it's just not worth the stress and utility bills, but I love MJ and love growing it, so I'd rather make it work than give up.
What am I doing wrong? Why does everyone else seem to get this so easily, while I struggle so much? I know others who are putting WAY less time and money into this, and seems to have way better results, meanwhile I'm scouring the web, watching hours and hours of weedtube vids, anything to get my skills up. Please help!!

PS. note on the pics: You can see the difference in the cheese vs purple, as the cheese are tighter buds and the diesel is puffier. The brown water in the pic with the can fan is because I just watered with molasses in the water. I clean up the water before lights out every day, I just didn't feel like taking a new pic for that. I changed some pic around to put the foxtailing cheese at the end. I think it's because I increased the co2 level and the heat/humidity after about 4 weeks of the 10 weeks I plan on for this grow, and I think the girl is getting so much more out of it that she went into foxtailing with the boost.

PPS. I'm planning to dry in the flower room closet, using a hanging rack. I'll keep the humidity in the room to 60% for the time that the buds are drying(then heat and humidity up to get the co2 boost), then I ordered turkey bags to use with boveda, all inside 5 gal buckets for the cure. But if I hardly smell anything before the chop, how much can my cure possibly bring back, even if I do it perfectly?

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