Is cat-piss (animal urine) odour genetic or environmental?

[Drewsif]

Out of curiosity, are any odors tied to nutrient deficiencies/toxicities? I can't think of anybody who ever told me to diagnose my plant by smelling it, but I haven't met most people either. If there are dogs that can smell cancer, there might be somebody who can smell magnesium toxicity Good luck trying to quantify that though.

For sure, I've crippled enough plants to relate certain aroma changes to various stresses, deficiencies and abundances. Starved fruity strains will start smelling more burnt, acrid, like some petrified mummy fruit dug out the pharaohs tomb, or some weird burnt banana cult offering to the banana gods

 

[burningfire]

It's both but the proper genetics are a must.

It seems that there's always skeptics that think that the rank smells cannabis can produce are due to outside factors. There's plenty of healthy and thriving plants that smell like cat urine, juniper being one of them, there's an extensive list if you look for it.

There's obviously an environmental component to everything, and this is true for everything in life.

I don't usually see these types of threads on icmag but on other, more casual, forums you often see people convinced that their weed was sprayed with a chemical or something and are contemplating throwing it away.

Personally I've grown a plant that stunk up like a cat litter box, It was a mostly organic grow but what ferts I used, were kept to a minimum. I did amend the soil with some seaweed initially, so that could have contributed to the intensity of the aroma.


It had a sharp and acrid smell.. after the cure it still retained some of the qualities but in my mind it was a little closer to spruce than cat piss