My weed does not smell

Harvest76

Well-Known Member
It should return after you reach a lower moisture content, like around 60% for curing. If the hay smell stays then it was chopped too soon. Pics?
Also, few fan leaves at harvest, hung for 3 days whole plant, trimmed off remaining leaves and broke up the plant for the remainder of the dry.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
I shoulda stated "close ups" lol

Do you have any live closeups or high res photos of them just before chop? I am looking for calyx swell.

Did they shrink excessivley?
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
I can't really zoom in much on the live shot you posted, but I kinda think the calyxes look sorta swollen but it's really hard to see.
 

Harvest76

Well-Known Member
I shoulda stated "close ups" lol

Do you have any live closeups or high res photos of them just before chop? I am looking for calyx swell.

Did they shrink excessivley?
No calyx close ups, yes they swelled around week 6, I wouldn't call the shrink excessive. About what I was expecting.
 

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Harvest76

Well-Known Member
Plain RO water PHed for the last 1.5 weeks. Live soil grow, so hard to flush it like in a hydro grow, but still did it
During ripening I was using a low/mid-level dose of FF Tiger Bloom and cal-mag each watering, mid-level seaweed and molasses every other watering.
 

Fevs.

Well-Known Member
Try this with some of your bud...

 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
No calyx close ups, yes they swelled around week 6, I wouldn't call the shrink excessive. About what I was expecting.
For future reference, when looking for clear/cloudy/milky/amber we want to examine trichomes on the calyxes more so than the sugar leaf. Sometimes the leaf will be the same but often they will turn earlier.
Plain RO water PHed for the last 1.5 weeks. Live soil grow, so hard to flush it like in a hydro grow, but still did it
Well you denied feed when it's most important for terpene production. Potassium, sulfur for example are critical. You smell terpenes as they evaporate. As the plant is alive it's producing them faster than they evaporate but denial of feed interrupts terpene production. You want a solid ripening feed to the end, low in N, P but high in K, Sulfur, a little Cl...

Some strains can produce enough terps in flower to still have stink after such starvation but others will either just be getting started on real terp production and/or terpene production is slowed due to a lack of critical compounds while the lights and fans are beating terps off in ripening. The best most intense smelling crops will have a solid feed to the end as I stated before during the end we want, low N, low P, High K, Sulfur and Chlorine (commonly in a bloom bottle as KCl).

High P will make for bowls that leave terrible ash and don't burn well and it will ruin terpene production / flavor. High N ruins flavor and makes for that harsh "sparkler" bud. During ripening we can basically zero out the N and let the plant consume it's fan leaves for that, so you want to see them yellow from the bottom up and die off. That indicates they are using up those reserves and we would like to see that happen as they finish, not too early like in mid flower for example...

So if you were feeding at an EC of 2.4 at peak flower then I would want an end of days feed at least 1.6.

Another tip is during ripening we want to have cooler temps, dimmer lights, lower CO2 PPM (if enriched). This will actually make for harder nugs, prevent fox tailing and make for better quality and yield. Some strains need this earlier than others to get optimal results.

So I hope this helps you in your growing endeavors, it is truly valuable information.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
During ripening products like Potassium Sulfate, Potassium Chloride can make good things happen while stuff like MKP monopotassium phosphate will ruin a crops terpene production and flavor. Avoid many commercial PK boosters for this reason.
 

Harvest76

Well-Known Member
For future reference, when looking for clear/cloudy/milky/amber we want to examine trichomes on the calyxes more so than the sugar leaf. Sometimes the leaf will be the same but often they will turn earlier.


Well you denied feed when it's most important for terpene production. Potassium, sulfur for example are critical. You smell terpenes as they evaporate. As the plant is alive it's producing them faster than they evaporate but denial of feed interrupts terpene production. You want a solid ripening feed to the end, low in N, P but high in K, Sulfur, a little Cl...

Some strains can produce enough terps in flower to still have stink after such starvation but others will either just be getting started on real terp production and/or terpene production is slowed due to a lack of critical compounds while the lights and fans are beating terps off in ripening. The best most intense smelling crops will have a solid feed to the end as I stated before during the end we want, low N, low P, High K, Sulfur and Chlorine (commonly in a bloom bottle as KCl).

High P will make for bowls that leave terrible ash and don't burn well and it will ruin terpene production / flavor. High N ruins flavor and makes for that harsh "sparkler" bud. During ripening we can basically zero out the N and let the plant consume it's fan leaves for that, so you want to see them yellow from the bottom up and die off. That indicates they are using up those reserves and we would like to see that happen as they finish, not too early like in mid flower for example...

So if you were feeding at an EC of 2.4 at peak flower then I would want an end of days feed at least 1.6.

Another tip is during ripening we want to have cooler temps, dimmer lights, lower CO2 PPM (if enriched). This will actually make for harder nugs, prevent fox tailing and make for better quality and yield. Some strains need this earlier than others to get optimal results.

So I hope this helps you in your growing endeavors, it is truly valuable information.
Not sure what you mean about denied feed, can you clarify? Three waterings with plain water is a pretty mild flush, plus they are already in a super soil, so there should still be plenty of residual nutes. I also top dresses with Dr. Earth Flower Girl early in the flowering, otherwise they got an additional dose of K every watering throughout flower other than the last 3 waterings of plain ro water. I had no signs of nutrient deficiencies, it was a "perfect" grow, in that I had no issues whatsoever.

I did check trichs on the buds, just dont have pics. They were milky and some amber.

Thanks!
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Not sure what you mean about denied feed, can you clarify?
Plain RO water PHed for the last 1.5 weeks.
Thats all. I really never stop feeding them. Perhaps there was enough residual, I can't say for sure but I do know that in my testing flushing has diminished the intensity of terpene production when compared to fed plants.

Here is a list of things that can cause a lack of terpenes in your dried flower.

Genetics
Harvesting Early
High temperatures during drying
High temperatures during ripening
Feed
Ozone

UV spectrum can enhance terpene production but I have grown some mega terpy flower under LED that was lacking UV.

What strain are you growing? What should it smell like?

If you have a combination of the first three things on the list above then you are really screwed lol.
 

Wattzzup

Well-Known Member
During ripening products like Potassium Sulfate, Potassium Chloride can make good things happen while stuff like MKP monopotassium phosphate will ruin a crops terpene production and flavor. Avoid many commercial PK boosters for this reason.
That’s what I was going to ask what about P/K 13/14 and stuff like that?

Also Lucas formula has pretty equal parts or close to 13/14 as well.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
If you are gonna run lucas I suggest changing it up at the end, lucas will do ok in mid flower but later in flower I would consider getting the P:K ratio more in favor of the K.

So here is an 8:16 - Gallon Lucas

lucas-8-16.PNG

Just for comparison, here is an 8:8:8 feed (M:G:B)

Feed 8-8-8.PNG

One should even reduce the micro to drop the N a little to compensate for the Grow
5:8:8 M:G:B

Feed-5-8-8.PNG
Those are just to show how you can tweak things a little with the 3 part. One could also use dry salts to supplement specific elements. I hope this gives you some ideas. Always good to run numbers and play with options using the excel spreadsheet calculator. You can find it in this thread just grab the newest version in here: https://www.rollitup.org/t/understanding-and-calculating-nutrient-ppm.995409/
 

Wattzzup

Well-Known Member
If you are gonna run lucas I suggest changing it up at the end, lucas will do ok in mid flower but later in flower I would consider getting the P:K ratio more in favor of the K.

So here is an 8:16 - Gallon Lucas

View attachment 4591518

Just for comparison, here is an 8:8:8 feed (M:G:B)

View attachment 4591524

One should even reduce the micro to drop the N a little to compensate for the Grow
5:8:8 M:G:B

View attachment 4591530
Those are just to show how you can tweak things a little with the 3 part. One could also use dry salts to supplement specific elements. I hope this gives you some ideas. Always good to run numbers and play with options using the excel spreadsheet calculator. You can find it in this thread just grab the newest version in here: https://www.rollitup.org/t/understanding-and-calculating-nutrient-ppm.995409/
So you like the 3 part in flower instead of Lucas? Good to know. When you have 8,8,8 I’m assuming that’s ml per gallon. So 1:1:1 ratio of the 3 part in flower. Am I understanding that correctly?
 

Harvest76

Well-Known Member
Thats all. I really never stop feeding them. Perhaps there was enough residual, I can't say for sure but I do know that in my testing flushing has diminished the intensity of terpene production when compared to fed plants.

Here is a list of things that can cause a lack of terpenes in your dried flower.

Genetics
Harvesting Early
High temperatures during drying
High temperatures during ripening
Feed
Ozone

UV spectrum can enhance terpene production but I have grown some mega terpy flower under LED that was lacking UV.

What strain are you growing? What should it smell like?

If you have a combination of the first three things on the list above then you are really screwed lol.
I had no Terp problems during grow. The smell was pretty powerful. I have 3 strains: Lemon Bubble, grandaddy confidential, and Green Poison. None of those problems you listed were an issue. I've always had good control of the environment during all stages of growth. Idk, maybe it's not as bad as I imagine it is. When I touch the buds, I can definitely smell the terps on my hands, but the air has a scent of hay. Maybe that's normal.
 

Harvest76

Well-Known Member
patience my friend patience
Lol. Thanks. I just went down and checked it out. Smell is starting to subside daily and when I squeeze a bud the terps explode on my fingers. Its probably just the smell drying plant matter makes and I'm paranoid. It's been almost 25 years since my last grow and I just don't remember a lot of the nuances of the process.
 
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