I recently harvested an autoflower Gorilla Glue. Grow wasn’t great. I had a bit of a thrip problem in the last two weeks before harvest, but even before that the plant just didn’t seem as healthy through bloom as some of my previous grows. I wasn’t terribly concerned with it since I didn’t use any nutrients other than molasses and some homemade compost throughout the grow. I was trying full organic.
The point of this post is the smell. It didn’t smell as strong as my past grows, even at the end. If I touched a bud I could smell a sweet, almost blueberry smell, but just opening the tent I could smell nothing. Harvested and hung to dry in a cardboard box inside the house (72 degrees and 50-60% humidity) for about five days, until buds felt popcorn dry. I could smell it in the room where the box was, but not super strong. Trimmed into jars and over the course of about five days continued drying to 62% RH, opening the jars, closing the jars, opening the jars, opening, closing etc. even during trimming the smell wasn’t strong, but when I would stick it right up to my nose it just didn’t smell right. It was a little bit of hay, a little bit of berry and a dash of musty. Certainly not the awesome aroma we’ve all come to love and enjoy. Once it was dry and I rolled one up, it didn’t taste right either. Hay and a little musty. The high was very mild and short lasting, which is a big disappointment since I was looking forward to the GG kick. My wife would smoke it at all and said after one toke - it tastes bad.
I searched the web for musty smelling bud and of course I get everything from its poisonous to its normal. Also lots of discussion about how the smell and taste will improve with a long cure. The poisonous comments scare me and I’ve got 7 jars of this stuff I’m considering throwing in the compost bin. It’s been jarred and curing for about two weeks and the taste/smell is no better. The buds all look great and I see no signs of mold, though I don’t have a black light to check for the tell tale glow. No black spots or fuzzy stuff, even in the middle of a bud I split down the middle.
Again, I feel like it’s hardly worth keeping and certainly not worth the risk if it is moldy. Besides, I have other stuff jarred to tide me over.
This is my 7th completed grow and really none of them smelled super strong until you cut or grind them up. I have saved one 4 oz jar of all of them and when we were talking about the smell I decide to go grab all those jars (sealed since they reached 62% and stored in a cool dark place) to open them up and have a smell. The most mature having been sealed for 9 months. None of them smell any better than when I put them in the jars. Breaking open a bud from each one releases the good smell and all of them were good stuff and did their job when I had their respective full jars. Even the strongest smelling one I’ve ever grown (ILGM bubblegum I harvested a couple of months ago) didn’t smell great in the little jar.
I just wanted some thoughts and opinions from here to share and spread the wealth of knowledge from some of the more experienced growers here. I also wonder if seed bank seeds may be bred to have less odor.
I’ve grown regular AK47 (twice) and bubblegum from ILGM. Chocolope, purple haze and white widow autoflowers from seed city - all less impressive than ILGM plants.