Dried bud in jar smelling like ammonia - what to do?

Discussion in 'Harvesting and Processing Marijuana' started by rnz, Mar 27, 2021.

  1. Just harvested a plant, dried until stems started snapping (6 days), so put it all in a jar with a hygrometer.

    Within hours the hygrometer stabilized at 65f with 59% RH.

    These readings maintained even the next day.

    Then I burped it, and had a smell... OOF ammonia smell grossness :sick:

    Since then I have left the lid off the jar and I gently shake them around occasionally.

    The smell has gotten better, but it is still there.

    Should I just keep it in the jar with the lid off until the smell completely disappears, then put the lid back on (and add a boveda if needed)?
     
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  2. "started" snapping?
     
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  3. All the stems would snap when bent, yep. Not completely break in half, but, audibly snap.
     
  4. Check your hygrometer.........buds can't get moldy in a jar at 59% RH.
    Do the salt test to check the accuracy of your meter.
     
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  5. Are you sure you didn't have some bud rot before you dried and jarred your bud? Where you at all suspicious?
     
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  6. I would burp the jar daily for a couple minutes.
     
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  7. Some strains have a weird fucking smell when curing. Almost musty but not a full on overpowering piss smell, if you smell full on CAT OR HUMAN piss then you're fucked. Ammonia could be the buds breaking down whilst curing happens to me occasionally and then they are fully cured they smell lovely
     
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  8. You should be burping the jars once or twice a day for the first week or two then just once a week if things appear good.
     
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  9. Thank you everyone! Sincerely appreciate your time replying.

    The smell is/was definitely ammonia.

    Early in flowering I did have some issues with bud rot. I was on top of it before it spread all over. When I first found it, it was only in literally one bud, so I just removed that whole branch.

    From that point, I would go through every tiny little part of every branch every single day, and if even a small bud on one branch had a tiny bit of rot, I got rid of the whole branch. I lost about 30-40% of my plant, but it stabilized and for the rest of flowering period I saw no rot.

    The bud I dried and is in the jar now looks pretty damn beautiful. No visible signs of anything wrong at all, it looks great :(

    As far as the hygrometer, I am using a Caliber IV hygrometer so I figured surely it is accurate, but I will google the salt test and double check.

    I guess I will just keep it in the jar and burp for a few min every day and hope everything is good in a few weeks? Not much else I can do at this stage, huh?
     

  10. Bin it bro, if you're saying you had bud rot why the fuck r u curing it for? You're simply curing rot and making it 100% worse than it is. Bin it
     
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  11. It seems like he did have *some* and largely addressed it through removal of the affected area?
    I've done this, and not had any issues from the remaining. Not sure there's cause for such a scorched earth approach, the limb was already removed.
    Don't get me wrong, I'm aware there's a chance of some remnant or something systemic...but I'd, if I was him at least try to see where it'll go in the end.
     
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  12. If you must, pick your buds apart looking in the middle of each bud. As you know bud rot can hide inside. If you're lucky you may find the infected bud and if the smell clears up after you remove it you may not get sick when you smoke the rest. We've all smoked a bit of moldy bud without knowing it. If you have weak lungs, take steroids, or have an immune problem then toss it, it's not worth the risk. Personally I'd toss it. If it was from an inside grow then invest in a good dehumidifier for the next grow.
     
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  13. Thanks, yes, I was extremely over-zealous in removal. If there was a tiny bit of rot in one bud on a branch, I'd remove the whole branch. Yields mean nothing to me, this grow is for effects testing. And thankfully I have a lot of time at home to go over plant/s every day thoroughly.

    Thank you. I will do this. It all looks so nice from the outside. And the ammonia smell has weakened quite a lot, it was really intense a couple of days ago, but after leaving lids off for a day it is much weaker. I will inspect everything and keep doing what I'm doing and see what happens!

    Thank you all for the advice, truly appreciated.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  14. If I threw away every outdoor plant that gets bud rot I would never have anything.
    I don't even remove the whole stem, as you take a nice pair of sharp trimmers and cut out about an inch around the area.
    If it's in the middle of a stem I'll trim the buds out and wipe the stem down with some hydrogen peroxide.

    Never had a problem with it showing up during drying or curing.

    It does seem like some bud will smell wonderful as you're drying it, and then just smell rancid in the jar for a while.

    Give it a little squish with your fingers to feel how dry it is.
    I've had some that I've had to take the lid off for a day every other day to get it to be right. You can feel it get dry and crackly by the end of the day, but by the next day it's just extremely soft and damp.
    Then others that you throw in the jar and just do the twice a day burp.

    Sent from my phbgf uijj tplkjn
     
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  15. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences, that's awesome to hear. I think next time I will definitely do more precision removal of any mold spots - though I plan on not getting any mold, if I can help it. This round I was just eager to get ANY yield at all for testing.

    Good news is, all of my jars no longer smell like super strong ammonia, and seem to be smelling more like weed. I will closely monitor and see what happens with extreme caution, but still definitely worth a shot.
     

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