Gave up pot after my stint at Berkeley in the 60's but decided to try growing a few autos recently. I grew a pair of plants indoors each year for the last four years with varying results. Northern Lights grew to 22” and was ready to harvest at 76 days yielding 24 good grams from 2 plants, Fast Bud only grew to 15 inches but was harvested at 61 days yielding 19 grams from 2 plants, an Auto-assassin never got over 4 inches and its mate died for a yield of 5 grams in 75 days, and finally a couple of Jock Horror got to 33 inches but I didn't have enough light for that tall of a plant so they did not do very well (and in the end the root structure was poorly developed) but yielded about 22 grams at 86 days. I still have some stash left from each grow (obviously I am not a big user) kept in glass at 50 degrees in the dark, and they are still good except that I am not sure about the Jock Horror, which was last year's grow and smells like paint thinner. I don't see any mold but the odor is quite strong and I'm thinking I should toss the stuff. Or is the odor just the skunk heritage influence? The other grows smell pretty much alike but the Jock Horror is definitely different. None of them smell like the sweet pot we smoked in the 60's, but that old stuff was not nearly as potent as the strains today. As far as effect, I like the up high of the Fast Bud best. The Northern Lights was scary powerful the first time I tried it -good thing I was close to a chair where I could set for a long spell. Think I should toss the Jock Horror? Not sure I want to smoke acetone.
CHL
If it's a BAD smell you're not used to and it seems to have appeared over time; chances are it's an odor caused by mold. An ammonia smell (or strong misplaced chemical smell) is often associated with mold in buds; it's possible something went wrong during your dry/cure, or that particular jar didn't get opened enough to release the moisture from the buds as they cured out (breeding ground for mold.)
I've grown Jock Horror once; the plant I had was very spicy smelling, with spicy (almost peppery) buds. Not sure if the all pheno's of that strain display those characteristics, but if you want to compare your notes with others on here; check out this link here:
Autoflower Strain Reviews/Smoke Reports
You can also do a search for "Jock Horror" using the
Search Function; should bring some grow journals of other people growing it if you want to see if you can glean any "smell info" off them.
You may find the smell you're smelling is the odor described by others of the strain (and then rest a bit easy.)
I'm a gut instinct kind of guy; if your gut says the buds are moldy and bad, you probably have a good reason to think so. Before making any hasty decisions though; if there visual clues of suspected mold, maybe try taking a few pictures and uploading them on here so we can take a look? Would hate to be wrong and you just deuce'd some good herb.
There are all SORTS of REALLY NASTY pathogens in mold spores; there are a LOT of stories of people smoking moldy buds and have chronic lung problems afterwards (in addition to knowing how bad mold is just in general for your health in most cases.) In my opinion; if you're that worried and can't come up with a 100% "feel-good" answer, it's best to err on the side of caution and maybe either ditch the buds or see if there's a salvageable method of doing anything with them (I'm not aware of any off the top of my head.)
Just my "My 2 cents" Be safe!
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Oh, and didn't even see this was your first post. Welcome to AFN! haha! I'm Hobbes; I'm one of the mods in the New Growers Forum. Lots of awesome people on here and we're big on community knowledge sharing; so feel free to ask anything you'd like about growing and we'll do our best to give you the best, most accurate answers we can based on our own experiences!
If you have any questions about growing; would love to see your next grow in a journal in the NGF!
Take care!
