Carrot's ´phenotype´

[NYCDiesel]

Hello, I dont kno where to post it so I did post here. Can someone explain to me about carrot´s smell and taste in cannabis, becouse I found it in a few different strains with different lineage. I know it´s no go breeding material. I personly hate it, it makes me wana throw up.

 

[browntrout]

Not sure what your thinking is behind the carrot smell, but in my expirience it comes from more wild strains. My North indian sativa hybrid has a strong sharp fresh carrot smell with a background funk. Decent smoke. Taste doesn't transfer.

 

[BredForMeds]

had this happen to an og kush cross.. was disgusted by it.. too lol.. I wanted nice tasty kushy buds.. and got some carrot bud. I think its genetic... but also can express itself more with nutes an environmental changes.. kuz it happened for 1 harvest..and the next it smelt different?

 

[NYCDiesel]

It happend to me with ojd´s sssdh, diselrella and some mendocino strains. But in my case, taste and smell was there in clones from those seeds, some of my friends liked it tho, but I nah like it. I think some bad genes must be involved? Maybe some strange genetic drift? I do not know! Someone with more expirience can tell a bit more, some breeder maybe?

 

[Dropped Cat]

I have some Zamaldelica, by Ace, that smells like carrots, has a bit of
mango for balance, I like it.

I think carrotine is the terpine responsible, needs citation.

 

[sota]

I bought 2004, a package Arjans haze1.
The first plant I have grown was almost odorless.
Just a boring carrot odor.
but the effect was very euphoric - I got higher and higher.
Other seeds from the same pack revealed several Phenos.
Unfortunately, the carrotpheno was no longer there.
They all smelled slightly floral.

 

[v1ru5]

I have had it in a few strains of different lineages too, mostly in sativas.

Santa Maria (Planck) cut has been BY FAR the most carrot-smelling cannabis I have grown in my 12 years of growing time.

 

[Only Ornamental]

...
I think carrotine is the terpine responsible, needs citation.

You mean carotene aka carotin . That's responsible for the yellow, orange, or red colour in several plants like carrots but not for flavour or taste. Carotenoids are terpenes, although tetraterpenes and not mono- or sesquiterpenes.
The carrot smell, much like mango and watermelon aromas, are not caused by a single constituent but a mixture of many which in their pure form often don't even remind of the final product. How and why the different terpenes work together to create a new olfactory entity is not really understood; perfumers still struggle in creating the former two aromas. On the other hand, the watermelon smell is now, thanks to a snow-dwelling watermelon-odorous algae, synthesised and reconstructed using compounds not present in watermelon at all .

So far, I've had the carrot smell in a few Finola individuals and a Slowakian hemp landrace. I don't like it much. Fortunately and as said, it comes from a blend which needs the right proportions. Drying or curing changes the latter and hence lets the carrot fade away... at least theoretically and in my experience.

 

[Dropped Cat]

Thanks, Only Ornamental.

I wonder many times on the mechanism behind the terpene
thing. Stacking terpenes to create scents is what I'm interested
in.

Color theory comes to mind, you know, yellow and blue make green.

 

[Goldy]

if it is carotene effecting the taste, which it could well be, it could be to do with lighting. Certain wavelengths cause differing rates of production for the carotenoids (as well as other pigments). So could be to do with tyoe of light used etc. Also if you had particularly powerful lighting I think its possible it'd increase carotene production as it has a protective function. So maybe decrease the light or increase the distance..
Also nutrients may cause different pigment production, as well as temp, stress etc.

While the flavour and colour terpenes are different compounds, it certainly seems that they are linked...

If you wanna look into it i'd search something like "increasing terpene production" etc. into google scholar.

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v24/n11/abs/nbt1251.html
theres an interesting one..

 

[Only Ornamental]

Carotenes don't smell, they are too big to be volatile, and they have not much of a taste either .
But they are synthesised by the same biosynthetic route for isoprenoid precursors (i.e. MEP pathway) as monoterpenes (but not sesquiterpenes which come from the MVA pathway), the main responsible molecules for fragrance in cannabis.
Intense light and high temperatures are known inducers for the MEP pathway and result in an increase in carotenes (as you guessed right, it's a defence/protection mechanism) but also monoterpenes. Regarding nutrients: nutrient starvation induces plant hormones linked to an increased activity of the MEP pathway (octadecanoid pathway, Yang cycle) whereas abundance in nutrients stimulate gibberellins. These in turn shift the isoprenoid synthetic route towards the MVA pathway.

Besides, I prefer sciencedirect and pubmed as search engines for scientific publications .

And BTW: Cannabinoids rely on both pathways which is somewhat annoying...

 

[Goldy]

Is that definitely the case? I was under the impression a large number of scented oils were made up of sesquiterpenes..is it only the monoterpenes that are smelling then?

e.g. valencene from oranges is a sesquiterpene.

I agree in general that google isn't the best. However, while you and I may have subscriptions to pubmed etc..I'd assume the majority of people don't..

Amazing stuff in these papers. Just a hell of a lot to read through

 

[Only Ornamental]

Is that definitely the case? I was under the impression a large number of scented oils were made up of sesquiterpenes..is it only the monoterpenes that are smelling then?

e.g. valencene from oranges is a sesquiterpene.

I agree in general that google isn't the best. However, while you and I may have subscriptions to pubmed etc..I'd assume the majority of people don't..

Amazing stuff in these papers. Just a hell of a lot to read through

Maybe I didn't formulate correctly... it should have meant that mono- and sesquiterpenes are responsible for scent but only the former share a pathway with carotenes (tetraterpenes).

I don't find more or less free articles with both versions, it's just that I prefer how the results are presented and may be filtered etc. .

 

[Goldy]

yea man you're right re scholar...lets in a whole bunch of absolute crap as well as decent articles.

 

[Goldy]

apparently most of the taste of carrots seems to be caused by acids..so perhaps more cure?

 

[Daub Marley]

It seems to be in sativas mostly. I had a NYC diesel and a white widow that both smelled like carrots. It's not bad smelling, and anything that has a unique smell is worth keeping for breeding experiments. I have some catpiss that smells like meatloaf. It tastes so weird. Actually not bad though.

 

[Skinny Leaf]

Golden Tiger from ACE has a lot of the carrot smell and taste.

 

[homebrew420]

As said earlier the carrot aroma/flavor I have found in Mango Haze with numerous phenotypes. The 2 aromas seem similar forming in conjunction. The flavor always transferred well in the examples I had. Wild type indian I feel was spot on.

Peace