The amount you are drying can definitely effect how fast it drys. More important is the ambient humidity you’re drying in. In AZ, the air is so dry you could probably dehydrate fruit overnight! I try and live by 65 degrees F, 60%rh dropping to 55 or 50% rh depending on how fast it’s drying, 7-14 days. The better you can control your drying environment, the longer you can hang them.
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120 year old house. I run a humdifier full time. A pot of water on the stove. The wife has a humidifier across the room from her. We are at 72 F and humidty is always below 40% …for now
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Yeah, I hear ya… that’s dry! I use a dedicated tent to dry in, so it helps control the drying conditions a little more.
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A lot of good info in here, some not so good. There’s always outliers, so I’d recommend listening to what they have to say, but don’t factor it into your internal calculus.
The stem snap test is just a terrible way to judge dryness. Absolutely terrible. Some plants’ stems never snap no matter how dry they are. Better to, as was said, judge by dryness of a bud or two and jar early rather than late, then pay close attention to burping to avoid mold.
But beyond that, some strains just don’t smell much. Especially those of unknown origin. If they weren’t stinky in veg and flower, they might never be stinky when dry. I find if they’re stinky in flower, they’ll usually be stinky no matter how much I overdry them.
And the opposite is sometimes true - for some very mild smelling flowers, I can jar them wet and they’d never develop much of a smell beyond a mild “green oldschool bag of outdoor weed” smell. And then there’s everything in between.
Me personally, I don’t really care, but I’m an outlier in that respect. 
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I have a small tent with a humidistat set for 60% RH. This allows the humidity to build up to 60%, then the fan comes on if it goes above that. Ever since I sealed my workshop, low humidity hasn’t been an issue.
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Yes. Another point. One plant at a couple ounces…will dry much faster than say 6 hung in a small tent or cabinet. So size of the hung harvest. A single plant will dry out way too fast in a week
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I have a similar thing going with a small cabinet. If…and only if there is enough product to keep it above the target RH and the room RH is lower …can use one of those T-4’s with controllor…but I have to flood the bottom of the cabinet when rh is too low (boot tray and a pint of h2o) and then set the controllor
Edit-Flooding in this manner can lower temps due to evaporation and could lead to mold or mildew…not ideal. Need to keep temps above 70 F IMO to keep away pm Mixing moisture and curing is less than ideal
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Do you flush your plants? 
I don’t know if that hay smell is equivalent to the grassy one when there’s much chlorophyll left while curing, just wondering … 
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Yeah, pretty much this… which is why people hunt for good phenos in packs and pass around good clones, of course 
I could prob dry GMO in a trash bag in a car on a hot summer day, and it would still come out stinky 
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I’m around mine so much I don’t get the real smell of it. If you are around it all the time eventually you get nose blind. Used to could tell who was harvesting by what they smelled like walking in the grow store.
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Yup pretty much what everyone has been saying.
The longer you take to dry, the better the herb will be. Drying too fast will 100% give you a hay smell from the chlorophyll not being able to breakdown.
~60RH and ~60 degrees Fahrenheit is about perfect. The RH is the most important of the two, temp can swing a bit in either direction but if you get down to the low 50s or 40s Fahrenheit with that high of a humidity, you’re asking for mold. Try and keep the ratio similar.
Smaller plants do dry faster, but if your RH is under 50% the whole time, especially if its over ~65F, you’re gonna have a bad time.
Drying IME, is just as important as the entire rest of the grow.
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@HolyAngel “Drying IME, is just as important as the entire rest of the grow.”
what a way to ruin a great grow trim it bad and dry it wrong 
always make hash or edibles 
all the best and be safe
Dequilo
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This last time I did not. The previous run which also had the same smell until it was all gone(i smoked it all), I did flush. I think a majority agreed when it over dried, it locked in the smell that should have been removed during curing.
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What Do they smell like when busted up?
Im kinda on the train that if you are smelling terps in the jar then that means terps are breaking down.
But I mean, like others said, some just reeks no matter what and some doesnt smell much. A lot of new strains have a terrible floral flower smell and I have no clue why anyone likes it.
Legit Fruity is a different story, give me cherry flavoured weed all day every day
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Through the hay smell, I do get whiffs of berry, and other more appropriate smells. It smells like it wants to be amazing behind that. I feel like its too much to ask someone experienced to grow one out, but ive always been curious how this one would look in the hands of someone even half competent 
edit: I think my next run will be autos, but maybe my diary after that willl have to be these seeds again, with you all looking over my shoulder that isnt exactly on topic though. I can improve the dry/cure on any run.
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Well it feels sativa leaning, because it will keep me up all night if im gaming and smoking, and forget to check the clock xD. It’s my default smoke if I need to be functional Always learning / making it better.
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had some jars didn’t have a lot of smell …then you grind them up and it smelled like diesel. Every strain is different. I agree though about the longer the dry the better it is. I have been experimenting in slowing it down with plastic bags of late. But for the most part I make sure it does not over dry too soon and shoot for a week to having them in the jar and curing. Burping done. Seems to work. And if I grind it it has plenty of smell.
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I will definitely hang them whole, and I just added a humidifier to the room today, so hopefully i can get that dialed in. I think my takeaway here is that I was not acknowledging humidity much at all, and im paying for that. Cant mess around, especially in AZ. Thank you everyone, lots of help, quickly. I love this site
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It’s Danny Terpintine’s Patented Pancake Test Tech.
…If you squeeze a bud and it flattens into a pancake it is way too wet.
…If you squeeze a bud and it gets squished, but puffs back out as well you are good to go.
…if you squeeze a bud and it’s crumbly, you have gone too far!
From there, you just have to learn how to read the bud with experience. But that should help if you’re really not sure.
Stems get iffy - the smaller ones will dry quicker, hollow ones will dry quicker, etc. Then you get confused.
Whole plant hang for drying. Do not trim your fan leaves as they will help maintain humidity.
If you can get your environment to 60F/60% you’re golden.
…as for the hay smell - as others have mentioned, dried too fast initially.
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