Not getting much smell from my flowers. Need advice please

[moonymonkey]

lighta moved back and watering can afect the stank.watering afecting calcium..also the cure thing,method which variations work for you,this is why i like to know a lot of diff. ways of growing always a way out.know ur enviorment.peace

 

[mowood3479]

Cooler temps have done wonders for the extra funk in my rooms.
I grow similar style (coco dtw).. I used to keep rooms 84 or so.. I've dropped that to 75 or so.. .. Try 75 for a run and see if u don't get more funk.
Just my two cents., I could be wrong.

 

[Weed Gretzky]

I have somewhat the same deal as you. No Stank, i don't even have to run carbon filter in flower.I do just in case but there have been weeks when its been off and almost no difference. and i think the people mentioning the high temps might be right. i always run 82-85 because i use co2 and thought the plants liked it a little warmer but i think i will try to drop the temps now that some people have mentioned this. i'm scrogin under cooltube 4x600w hps lights are 3 feet from canopy. its not like the weed smells bad it actually smells really grape. Maybe just this pheno of sensi star x critical i have. It's just missing that open the bag skunk in the face thing that other growers buds have. I've flowered 20 different strains from different breeders over 100 seeds. I have never really ever had an odor issue or found a particularly skunky plant. maybe i should order up a real stinker, any suggestions?lol

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Dropping your temps? Make sure you drop your RH as well since the plants won't be using as much transpiration for cooling. Cannabis is going through mass transpiration during flower, if you drop the temps this will slow down. Dropping the humidity will increase transpiration for hydration purposes, keeping it more in the range where you had it before.

72F max canopy, 20%RH... this is what I shoot for. This is where the funk lives.

 

[BakedBandit]

I would try to either get the lights a bit further from the plants or lower lights on temps 3-5 degrees and see if it helps. My understanding is that some terps can be lost at canopy temps in the 80s

 

[ugmjfarmer]

a well-cooled system -- is unfavorable for maximum terpene development and stability. UV-B wavelenths in the 320-290nm range are said to increase terpenes, or at least slow their degradation, so replacing the HPS with CMH, Metal Halide and/or reptile UVB lights.

This is indeed true, let me just qualify you this with my last side by side test.

I ran DE HPS at 3ft over canopy vs LEC 630w Fixtures hung at 2ft. Moonshine mix soil which is Ocean Forest, Light Warrior and Planting Mix from FoxFarm. 50Gal of RO water was obtained and maintained by humidifiers, ppm 0 @ 7.1ph. Date of harvest chosen by visual observation of trich heads to some amber and light browning of the pistils. Both plants were inadvertently pollinated by stray male pollen from my veg room resulting in 4 seeds per ounce average. It is not likely this had an extreme effect on terpin or potency given the little amount that happened. All seeds found were dark tiger stripe colored, hard, and viable.

Genetic chosen were TH Seeds Chicle. Cross is Bubblegum x Chemdawg. Unsure on which was the Male and which cut of Chemdawg TH Seeds uses, I would guess Chemdawg D given the expressions. Phenotype choices were made from original seed plants, which were then converted into the mother for both sets of plants. After blooming was finished, one phenotype was discarded due to leaf:calyx ratio.

There is just no second guess about it, you can tell. The HPS side had foxtail ends, copper deficiency (high light causes this), leaf burning and rotting, thinner leaves; less floral clusters per node, elongated node spacing, increased stem output, lower flavor; higher acid content as noted by the sharp sour taste compared to the same genetic grown just next to the other.

Both buds did not even dry and cure the same. LEC's more compact round buds that had no signs of foxtailing were placed into a jar until it was completely full removing all the stem possible. LEC buds dried faster. I placed as much of stemless nugs as I could into a jar and weighed out 56g in one quart. HPS buds were trimmed and manicured the same as the LEC buds and removed from the stem as much as possible given the different shape. After trimming, again I packed a jar as full as I could with HPS product. Placing this on the scale, I was shocked to see that only 48g fit in the same jar space. Puzzled i decided to do another test; compare volume of product with weight consistent. Again I found the same thing, LEC buds were more compact and heavier per volume than HPS buds. Visually you can see the difference on the table, the HPS product was not as compact and took up more space; you would think the LEC bag was not the same weight.

let's move onto smell before I talk about potency. Both plants smelled like the same genetic from the mother; but the intensity was much increased on the LEC side. Upon burning the product after 4 months of jar curing- the LEC buds will knock you on your ass with mango and orange flavors that seem just jump off of the smoke and roll around in your head. The HPS buds smoke has the same taste, except it is masked with a non-specific green smell of "cannabis" on the aftertaste. In fact, everything under the HPS seems to have this non-specific flavor dominating their aftertaste. LEC buds were just tastier; and again heavier in the bag.

Now; subjective potency test.. my guess is that there isn't a large difference in-between both HPS and LEC. But I have to give the edge to LEC slightly because it is easier to get higher potency material from the plant. This is best measured scientifically in a LAB with cannabinoid profiles (which I cannot access at this time due to laws); but just given that LEC will produce heavier more compact buds, I can easily conclude that LEC has an actually higher THC % per dry product than HPS.

I do not know how many real world tests you need to see, but people are reducing their cooling needs and pulling the same or higher yields from less wattage. If the uMOL/s specs are the same LEC will always outperform HPS regardless of the wattage used. Potency; lets just be honest-- the LEC wins because it has more trics per plant material. You can physically get more medicinal effects from the same amount ground up because of this. But the LEC just seem to have the edge in every category and smoke flavor and effects are certainly more pronounced and easier to achieve.

One more thing; LEC doesn't suffer from creating a large amount of thermal infrared. Plant leaf temperatures ran 5-10F higher on the HPS side. This has a drastic affect on plant metabolism. Factor this into the test as there was no way to cool the leaves down using fans; therefore the LEC plants had better temperature and transpiration control. It could be argued that if there wasn't such a disparity between the two plants in transpiration that there wouldn't have been such a drastic difference between both plants in jar post cure. A further test I would like to explore keeping the transpiration rates the same and seeing which light outperforms the other when the plants metabolism is kept the same. Even if the room temperature is identical; HPS plants will be hot hot hot hot because of the infrared photons striking the leaf surfaces. LEC keeps the plants cooler with the lack of infrared in it's spectrum.

Another test I would need to figure is how the reflectors used had any effect on the plants. I tried to keep the lights as equal as I could using a light meter on LU setting. The DE was a NanoLux DEF-NC reflector designed for an even light over a 4x4. This certainly put more light on the corners of the canopy. The LEC light was a Nanolux 630w dual bulb and it is similar in design but it seems to light more of a rectangle than the DE. I think that if the reflector was improved on the LEC that the yields would also increase. I intend to make this irrelevant by moving the light over the canopy with a lightrail. It might be worthwhile to check out calicropdoc on youtube where he ran a 1000w on a mover over a 4x8 vs 915w LEC in three reflectors over the same space. Of course, the LEC outperformed the same HPS wattage in yield. You can tell he needed to tweak the stop time on the mover for the HPS so it stayed 10% longer on the ends, but so what- the results shown speak for themselves. I will second guess buying HPS lights now because of this. I think he could have easily gotten another 12% without the glass on the HPS side by going to a DE bulb thereby nullifying the weight results.

One more tip that the OP can implement without it costing a dang dime is this: Terpenes are at their highest in the morning before the lights go on, hour 12 of darkness. Harvest before the lights come on. Let the plants rest in dark for longer than 12 hours before chopping. Run 11on/13off for the last days of the plant's life. All will increase the flavor and terp yield. Terpenes are organic acids and alcohols. They tend to boil off at lower temperatures over the day. Plants are at their absolute smelliest point just before the sun rises. Take advantage of this when you harvest. I tested this as well; completely true. The OP and I could have written the same guide on how we dry and cure our product; so I doubt you lost terps there.

CHEERS!

EDIT: so much talk about RH and Temperatures. My test things were consistent at 78F and 55% RH. I use a lung room to control the CGE for both veg and bloom. I find drier = more flavorful. I also see people suggesting HPS until the last week then LEC. Disagree. LEC all the way, HPS is like a crippled old man in comparison if you cannot cool the plant surfaces. Dang thermal footprint is so high.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

There is just no second guess about it, you can tell. The HPS side had foxtail ends, copper deficiency (high light causes this), leaf burning and rotting

wtf? How is this a straight comparison? Shouldn't you 'properly' set up the room for a viable test? Measuring terpene production on a crispy fried plant is kinda pointless, no?

Edit: The cannabis after flavor on the HPS nugs you complained about is also an indication you messed up with those plants. Just saying.

 

[Sativan]

Do you provide enough sulphur to your plants? That's what is primarily responsible for the scent of bud. Just sayin'.

 

[Snook]

some say not to have fans blowing directly on the buddage during flower

just put an osculating fan on the floor blowing up into the girls and a small personal 4" fan at the base of each plant (the small fans have been there) but turned off the wall fan blowing on/across the cola tops yesterday (exhaust runs mostly 24/7 with 4 15 minute breaks a day and night) and today, my house smells like WEED! coincidence? dono. top leaves are much flatter now. Its such a great thing to watch..

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Do you provide enough sulphur to your plants? That's what is primarily responsible for the scent of bud. Just sayin'.

I personally use Epsom salt for feeding the mag hungriness of cannabis. The sulfur does make a difference, another reason I wonder why people buy so many calcium-nitrate/mag products for the same purpose.

 

[topset1976]

Awesome info I now stagger a de 1k hps then a 600w de cmh through out the room. I've added cooling and humidity. I'm running good vpd at 78f and 62% humidity. Added more molasses (sulfur), but also dropped the lights a little since I could with new cooling. I'm about 2.5ft of canapy. Much better results. Smell is better along with yield. I'll send some pics. Got over 4# on a 8x4 tray with a de hs and de cmh. Thanks everyone