I chopped a few plants last Saturday, wet trim, left on stems, placed in a net to dry in an empty 2x4 tent. I have the mesh vents open at the bottom and a tiny fan blowing at the vents. My humidifier on a timer running on low setting for about 15 minutes every hour and a half typically keeps everything nice at between 60 and 65% humidity where I’ve had great results previously. Somehow I must have kicked off the timer. Came home last night to absolutely dripping buds. Humidity was at 95% like it rained in the tent. Tried my best to shake them off, air the tent and get them in a dry net, no humidifier upped the indirect airflow. May have gone too far the other way, now there’s a little crispness on the outer leaves but some moisture left in the stems. Bend but don’t snap or crack. Got a bit of nasty hay stank going on now, UGH!
Thoughts for saving or at least getting rid of the hay smell? Try to re-humidify a bit or shuck em off the stems and jar em up and hope for the best?
Ok- it seems like you’re still in the ring here. Final round to win the fight!
If I were in your shoes tonight I would be shucking off those buds into either a huge plastic bin where there’s a ton of sealed airspace or a large paper bag. I’d leave them there for 24-48 hours and see how they feel once the moisture sort of evens out. The hay smell will usually back off once you get to the right moisture level. I think right now the insides are probably super wet still and you’ll need to get that corrected before moving into jars.
Once you’ve got buds that will start to break down if you roll them in between your fingers it’s time to jar. I’d slowly burp this batch down and target the 58% area instead of the 62% area for jars.
Im in central arizona and 10 hours in @ 35% humidity did evaporate most of the excess moisture. They feel near back to where they were before my mishap, some of the sugar leaf tips are crispy though. Maybe split it up and try a couple methods. I’ve got 3 more plants I let go an extra week yet to chop tomorrow thankfully. I suppose if one batch tastes like trash it can be used for edibles or add to the freezer stash for bubble hash.
No worries but usually the hay comes from temperature, IME… what are the temps like?
Basically what @Blowingupjake & @Foreigner said; don’t f*ck with them & get them trimmed if anything & proceed as usual, maybe cure a bit longer if possible…?
Temps have been hanging between 55 and 60 but looks like it crept up to 68 today. This tent is in the garage. I have a 4x4 on the other side in there finishing up. I have a heat source but tried to keep it away. Those are coming down tomorrow along with the heat source and could get the temps down to the 40s mid 50s since the next project wont start until 1/1.
Thanks for the advice @Foreigner and @Blowingupjake I actually tried both letting some dry a little quicker and bucking some buds and paper bagging and both worked out. Don’t really see a difference in either except a slightly drier on the former, but should even out in the jars. The hay smell did go away for both!!! I’d do cartwheels but im old and my insurance sucks. Jarred up for cure and wonderfully stinky again. TYTY
With your low humidity you’ll usually be fine to just get the fan back on them and let them dry naturally. I’m in Southern Colorado and I have the opposite problem, they dry out too fast. I was on crutches this year and also had a much larger harvest than I anticipated and things just dried out faster than I wanted. I was gonna use a humidifier to slow it down but I had too much and no help at all. Glad you got things under control! peace
