Works perfectly! I removed the extra \.

my $ref = %date2solveInfo{ $weekDate}->{ $dow};

DB<2> x $ref
0  HASH(0x7f8f7e84a320)
   'secs' => 2272

DB<3> p $ref->{"secs"}
2272

DB<4> $ref->{"a"} = 16

DB<5> x $ref
0  HASH(0x7f8f7e84a320)
   'a' => 16
   'secs' => 2272

This allows me to create to key-values as I desire (dummy example with key “a” shown).

Thanks!!