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Overdried My Buds

growski

growski

New member
Hi GWE community!

So I was drying my buds for about 5 days (only took fan leaves off, hung entire plant, dry trimmed) and was running a humidifier to keep RH at around 45-50%. Around the fifth day, the small grow area started to smell a bit “musty”. I freaked out and shut the humidifier off (I also have the exhaust going and a fan blowing the humidity from the humidifier, not pointing at the plants) in the fear that mold could be developing. I thoroughly inspected the plants and found absolutely no mold. The plants dried for another couple days but the RH dropped to about 25%. After the second day without the humidifier I freaked again as the buds were really crispy (stems were NOT snapping, wth??), all the way into the centre of the buds, ugh.

So I cut them up and jarred them, the RH settled at about 46%. I rehydrated them by wetting a paper towel and laying it across the opening of the jar and closed the lid. I got the humidity to exactly 62% and after a few days the buds have started to smell really nice (they smelled very sharply “gassy” but have now started to smell more dank).

I have read in a few places that the cure is dead but I feel this may be incorrect and I’m looking for more
information on the matter. Is curing not the oxidative breakdown of chlorophyll and other components? Why would rehydrating not restart this? Does anyone really know what is exactly happening in the cure? Are my buds doomed?

really appreciate any info/help!!
 
Hi alltatup, thanks for the response. I read through that article and some others on curing and it seems that Nebula says that overdried buds still benefit from curing, though it may take longer. I rehydrated them mainly because they were quite brittle and pulling them apart made a bit of a mess. Nebula does go on to say, near the end, that adding moisture won’t affect the curing process or make it restart, so I’m a little confused. I’m just wondering why adding moisture BACK to the buds won’t affect curing? I guess the assumption would be that this is because the terpenes have been lost? Luckily, the RH in my drying area was very low but so was the temperature, so hopefully I saved the flavour and aroma?
 
growski, it's not that the terpenes have been lost--they shouldn't have been lost if temps were appropriate and darkness. On my November harvest, I overdried a little bud to around 46% RH. I immediately jarred it with a Boveda pack and it smells good now (3 months' later) and is pliable bud. If you've dried the bud to where it's crumbly, you can't get to go back to pliable. It's just too late, you feel me?

The curing process is a biosynthesis process that can only occur with the presence of water. When the moisture gets too low, the process of metabolism can't continue: it stops. Period. However, if you catch it fast enough and you create the right conditions, the bud will still be good. The bud I overdried stayed in a cool dark place with a 62% Boveda pack, and she never got dry enough to crumble. 25% RH is really low.

So you've learned that you have to be more mindful of the drying process. I check the moistness of hanging colas or the RH of jars at least twice a day: I don't want to fk up the bud I put so much time and $ into growing. I never forget about my girls when I'm growing/harvesting/drying/curing: what do they need? Is it time to burp them? Are they dry on the outside but the RH goes to 65% when I put them in the jar? etc.
 
Hrm, maybe I caught them just in time then. The room RH was about 25% but when I jar’d them, the RH sat around 46% inside the jar. They were definitely crispy (but stems did not snap!!) and seemed extremely dry all the way through. After adding humidity they feel and smell a lot like bud I’m used to, seems like there may still be hope, but yes, will learn from this for sure, lol.
 
Cool, they are supposed to feel totally dry on the outside, but then moisture from the bud interior re-distributes itself, which is how the biosynthetic processes continue breaking down the chlorophyl, etc. I'm still studying this stuff, so I can't describe the process in precise scientific terms, but I know it breaks down plant matter. It's parallel to curing tobacco or ageing wine. The aroma of the rest of my 3 month cured bud is totally different from 2 months ago. And I definitely "perceive" it as stronger.
 
I ran a strain and dried most jars normally and over dried a single jar to about the same RH. I did my normal cure, only in the over dried jar...I stuck a fresh stem in the jar (one that I saved in a plastic bag in the fridge from that harvest). The stem raised the RH and in the end only slight flavor loss was experienced in the overdried jar. All buds were potentant as hell.
I read that’s its a benificial bacteria that consumes the undesirables. Which would make sense why some say you can/can’t re-cure buds.
I myself have had luck. Like I said a fresh stem or leaf will help out in a pinch.
 
When you hang a plant the humidity around the plant will rise for the first few days- even in a 25%rh room.
What you experienced was a normal drying process and could have simply, been left alone- as the stems did not snap indicates there was plenty of moisture left for curing.

Once the outside of the buds dry, you are looking to draw the internal moisture through the whole bud to the exterior.
I would not recommend placing a paper towel, as you are increasing the rh and thus hindering the cure process of sweating/wicking the buds moisture to the surface.
If you need to increase moisture of already curred bud- then adding a healthy leaf works and some on GWE place stems in the jar (great idea).

My last plant was hung whole to dry for 17 days, while I was away.
I thought it was going to end up as edibles/hash etc.
The room rh was in the 20's- yet the small drying tent got as high at 46%rh.

I jarred the buds upon return and began the curing process- I didn't handle the buds and It is one of the few times I placed Boveda in the jars at the onset.
Keeping the buds at a cool temperature (under 66f) while away, is what likely saved this crop, as it slows everthing down.

The bud smoked just fine and the aroma is great.
[h=2]KISS @ Dry/Cure: https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/growing-community/193978-kiss-dry-cure[/h]
 
The buds being dry as hell and stems still being soft can be worrisome. I had the same thing happen one time.I just ust let the moisture from the stems slowly work its way out into the buds and after a few days they were super sticky and not over dried. I have cured herb that started to smell like hay, or a compost pile and scared the crap out of me but then a couple of days later it all cured out and was amazing smoke.
If you have over dried herb you can simply put one or two drops of water into the container and it will freshen your buds up for killer smoke again. Just do a drop or two at a time and it will freshen up over a few days. Sometimes I put a drop of water on the lid of a container if I have herb from the dispensary that has dried out too much. A lot of the herb sold in dispensaries is way too dry in my opinion and needs a little moisture to smoke right.
 
I agree. Just let them hang and they will be okay next time. It kind of makes sense that the plant dries this way because the leaves and flowers dry easier than stems and can be misleading and make someone think they have ruined their crop.
I read one time that if you break the main stem of the plant at the bottom or sever it and leave it in the sun/lights for 3 days it will turn gold and bleach out the chlorophyll like how Acapulco Gold used to be done.
 
If the moisture still resides inside the stems (uneven drying), then you need to sweat the buds. That’s when I use a brown paper bag (thin layer of bud on the bottom of the bag so that the buds are not touching each other) to slowly draw the moisture out of the stems.
 
Admittedly, this my first grow and I’ve definately got a lot to learn, especially drying. I had a humidifier in the room and kept RH around 50% but I’m not sure this was a good idea as after about 5 days it started to smell like a musty towel in the drying area, so I freaked and stopped adding humidity. I guess I also freaked and probably unnecessarily added humidity via the paper tower method. Yea, the low temps hopefully saved the crop.

I think I harvested a bit early too (77F, counting from flip) as there were very few amber trichs, but I haden’t noticed any change from about 70F to 77F and my plants were losing a lot of fan leaves and the sugar leaves were just starting to go too, do you think I should have waited?

I have sampled the bud and I feel like I may get a bit of a headache and maybe a bit of anxiety. Ugh, the grow went fairly well, but I feel I messed up the crutial parts at the end.

Thanks for the input, I’ll really use this info for my next grow.
 
Hrm, I should have popped a few stems in, but they seemed really dry too (even though they weren’t snapping), couldn’t have hurt to try though, I’ll keep this in mind for next time for sure! I guess it makes sense that if you REALLY overdry the cure will stop, as the bacteria likely die in extremely dry conditions?
 
Wow, you jarred your buds at an even lower RH than me and your crop turned out great, interesting! I let the buds sit in the jar overnight and my RH was sitting at about 46% the next morning, probably should have waited a day or two to see what the RH would have settled at.
 
That’s my understanding of it. The burping process controls the populations from over running the jars when food (undesirables like chlorophyll) is still abundant. When the less desirables are consumed (later on in the cure process) then burping becomes less necessary because the lack of available food is effectively controlling the populations.
If you kill the cure (overdry)...you can always start it back up by reintroducing a fresh batch (on some fresh leaves or branches) to replace the ones that died.
 
This does make sense. Also assuming burping probably lets out any gaseous byproducts that are produced by the bacteria. I’ve really been trying to find out the actual mechanism for curing but haven’t come across anything too detialed to this point.
 
growski, You want the fans to yellow but, once the sugar leaves start to yellow (all over the plant)- I harvest.
I think they could go a bit more- I'm just not willing to chance it.
 
Yes...it’s a gas exchange process the plant material experiences as well. I am no chemist, but the term cure literally means to dry. So...You are prolonging the dry in an attempt to savor as much flavor as possible. Too hot or dry, flavor suffers. Too wet too long and you got mold. So it’s a practice of finding that happy medium that preserves treps but doesn’t allow mold to develop.
 
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