Culprit of hay/grass weed

[DankDoctor420]

I been just probing my buds against plastic so my finger dont throw reading off.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

I had another grower say they been having trouble for 6 years on and off with this issue. I have had the same problem for 3 years on and off. My thoughts I told him were either...

1.Wet trimming, wet trimming seems to me at least to bring on the fresh cut grass or hay smell. When you cut your lawn it stinks like fresh cut lawn right? I feel this could be a big culprit.

2. Jarring too early with too much miisture in the buds I feel can also cause the hay/fress grass smell.

3. Drying too fast so loses terps or dried too much so it skips the cure.

Anyone agree or disagree? Any other culprits behind hay weed? I dont wanna give a growmie wrong advice so I am reaching out to others to make sure im giving the right advice. Thanks

Here's a little bit of a scientific take:

When plant tissues are cut (meaning there is tissue damage,) they release GLV's, or "Green Leaf Volatiles," which are volatile organic compounds (VOC's) primarily made up of saturated and unsaturated aldehydes (which can have an almond-like smell,) esters (usually fruity smells,) and alcohols (like leaf alcohol, which is described as an intense "grassy" smell.)

A great example we can probably all relate to is the smell of fresh cut grass. It smells like grass before, but after you chop it, it floods the air with that "fresh grassy" smell.

Plants are always giving off GLV's, but when they are "untouched," meaning "not stressed," they give off far, far less.

Plants use GLV's in part as a defense mechanism. When plants release GLV's, other plants in the area perceive the signal and activate the expression of genes related to it's defense mechanisms (meaning the plants are basically "primed" up against potential threats before they even show up.) The acacia tree is a good example of this; when a predator starts eating it's leaves, it sends out a signal to other acacia trees, which causes them to release tannins, making their leaves (which were once tasty to the predator) very bitter and unpalatable.

The amount of GLV's released is directly related to the amount of stress/wounds the plant receives. So if you're wet trimming your plant, you're releasing a lot of these compounds (plants don't just immediately die when you chop them down, there are number of biological processes that keep going until they slow to a stop.)

So there's a bit of the science behind creating wounds on plants (regardless of whether it's cannabis or not.)

The train of thought of NOT suggesting wet trimming cannabis is that the GLV's may directly affect the smell and taste of your finished flower (although I will admit, I'm not sure how scientifically proven this is, but I do think anecdotally there is some correlation to "why do my buds smell like fresh cut hay" when growers first put them in the jar, but that also points us into the discussion of the decomposition of chlorophyll, sugars, and minerals in the flower itself.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Some food for thought about the topic:

A friend of mine here in Colorado owns the company Trim Crew, one of the more well known commercial cannabis trimming services in the state.

I sent him a message in regard to wet vs dry trimming, verbatim:

"Do you find grows more often prefer dry trimming? Or do they prefer wet trimming? Or has there not been much of a preference or distinction?"

And that's it, I tried to not slant the question.

His response was:

------
"Hands down, dry trimming produces a far more superior product. We have a lot of companies that ask us to do both, but wet trimming is far, far less costly in terms of labor (can be done almost entirely by a machine,) so it's often done by companies "just wanting to push out the product as fast as possible" and it's way cheaper for them.

Wet trimming is shit for concentrate making vs dry though, because it's just bits of wet green material that usually gets lumped into a pile and dried how it sits, versus properly dried flower where the trim is already dried and more easily collected."

The companies that put out the best flower products are dry trimming their flower.
------

Take that for what you will (just because cannabis is grown commercially doesn't mean it's grown PROFESSIONALLY or with any scientific basis,) but when your job and your company is to literally trim cannabis for commercial farms all day, all week, all month long, I think that opinion can hold a little bit of weight (in my humble opinion.)

 

[DankDoctor420]

Great info @Son of Hobbes

 

[Tamaro]

Some food for thought about the topic:

A friend of mine here in Colorado owns the company Trim Crew, one of the more well known commercial cannabis trimming services in the state.

I sent him a message in regard to wet vs dry trimming, verbatim:

"Do you find grows more often prefer dry trimming? Or do they prefer wet trimming? Or has there not been much of a preference or distinction?"

And that's it, I tried to not slant the question.

His response was:

------
"Hands down, dry trimming produces a far more superior product. We have a lot of companies that ask us to do both, but wet trimming is far, far less costly in terms of labor (can be done almost entirely by a machine,) so it's often done by companies "just wanting to push out the product as fast as possible" and it's way cheaper for them.

Wet trimming is shit for concentrate making vs dry though, because it's just bits of wet green material that usually gets lumped into a pile and dried how it sits, versus properly dried flower where the trim is already dried and more easily collected."

The companies that put out the best flower products are dry trimming their flower.
------

Take that for what you will (just because cannabis is grown commercially doesn't mean it's grown PROFESSIONALLY or with any scientific basis,) but when your job and your company is to literally trim cannabis for commercial farms all day, all week, all month long, I think that opinion can hold a little bit of weight (in my humble opinion.)

Given the fact that when I started growing the whole shit was illegal and it’s still is in the country where I’m from (but do not live anymore), to think that there’s a company that just trims plants is a non existent idea.
Huge respect to you for asking a guy who works around the topic.
I love the cannabis community and I regret not engaging more often on AFN before.