Do low odor strains have a low terpene content?

What is the relationship of low odor strains to their terpene content? Are terpenes being sacrificed, in this case? I hope not.

mandotone said:

What is the relationship of low odor strains to their terpene content? Are terpenes being sacrificed, in this case? I hope not.

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Different terpenes have different odors and some are more noticeable than others.

My uneducated guess would be that certain terpenes are louder than others, my nose might not be very refined I guess yet but I usually fail to perceive the "gassy" terpenes in strains like sour diesel, it also happens to me with "cheese" strains and "earthy" terpenes.

However, I can smell citrusy and skunky weed from miles away lol.

xtsho said:

Different terpenes have different odors and some are more noticeable than others.

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So our sense of smell, generally, collectively speaking, is not an accurate indicator of terpene content or terpene amount in cannabis strains? In that case, "our nose, knows", is not accurate, then, right? Thanks.

Diferente terpenes are also more or less volatile, meaning some might evaporate a lot less than others at a set ambient temperature, giving off less smell
so i would think i could be that the plant has less terpenes or that the type of the terpene that's predominant in it is not going into the air
i'm growing a strain that would give off a lot of critric/pine smell when my grow was reaching 30ºc, got an ac and now at 24-25 it barely smells if i don't touch the thricomes fingers, when i do i can automatically smell it.

I've had weed that smells awesome but it doesn't come through to well in the smoking.
I've also had weed that didn't smell brilliant but was a nice smoke once lit so as a rule I'd say no but generally it's good start.

depends on a lot of factors with genetics maybe being the most prominent, but generally speaking, yeah terpene content is very closely correlated with smell/taste/effect. there are other contributors to odor/taste/effect produced by the plant too, though

mandotone said:

So our sense of smell, generally, collectively speaking, is not an accurate indicator of terpene content or terpene amount in cannabis strains? In that case, "our nose, knows", is not accurate, then, right? Thanks.

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There's actually a lot to this! I wouldn't say the nose is accurate for indicating, like, potency or anything like that, but you can tell the difference between a sample at like 4% terps and 0.7% terps immediately. Again though like I said, terpenes are not the only contributing factors to smell, taste, and effect, there's other junk such as flavonoids and cannabinoids, and our noses if anything help us sniff for a scent profile that makes our endocannabinoid system happy.

In layman terms, think of your endocannabinoid system as a way for your body to utilize compounds most commonly found in cannabis (and other things). Like, the way your body just does stuff with multi-vitamins, it is not literally the exact same thing, but a pretty similar concept.

So, really, when you smell things, if something smells better to you than something else, regardless of what the reason is, this is likely your endocannabinoid system doing the work, using your olfactory senses to tell your brain "pick this one" as best it possibly can. By all means, your nose absolutely knows! It just isn't a tool fit for scientific measurement

What is a low odor strain? I've smelled strains that were nothing like weed - Black Cherry OG, Pineapple Express, Tangerine Dream, etc. Growing Black Cherry OG right now though, and the young plants already have a strong smell for their size.

When I say "like weed" - it's sort of like sage/pine mixed with pepper and skunkiness.

Great comments. Keep them coming. Thank you!

If the oil is there you will smell it. If you're not smelling it then the terps are gone imo.

From my own personal 30ish years of smoking I would say so but I have zero science based evidence to back that up lol