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Outdoor plants much less fragrant than indoor counterparts

So I found a really nice keeper mom from a pack of HSO green crack last year. Absolutely killer smell and resin coverage and structure, she's got it all. I threw a couple clones outside in the spring to see how she does outside, and everything seemed perfect except for one thing: the smell.

Indoors, during veg, she has a beautiful fuelly\skunky\citrusy smell to her when you rub the stems. Outdoors, during veg, she was explosively vigorous and grew fantastically, but the stems had virtually no smell of any kind.

Indoors, during flower, she would start to stink up the tent by day 20. Outdoors, during flower, she has a faint generic fruity smell and that's about it. But everything else is spot on: Gigantic flower clusters covered in resin, they're even better structurally than the indoor version, but there's just no damn smell.

So what is going on here??? Indoors I grow in hempies using maxibloom for the whole grow. Outdoors I grow in soil, but I still water with the same maxibloom for the whole grow. It's almost as if the explosive vegetative growth from being out in the sun saps away all the oils that give her that beautiful smell.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is it just a strain thing?
 

Junk

Member
Temps will affect the smell greatly. Outside seldom stays 75 for the whole run. And meds grown in 75* will usually be much smellier than in 85*.

Also, the outdoors lets the smell escape so it's less noticeable. But high temps are bad for stink and outdoors it's usually unavoidable.
 

mushroombrew

Active member
Veteran
Different environments affect phenotype. Plants can look like a different strain in differing media etc.

Temp, humidity, ventilation every aspect of environment has to remain constant to get consistent results.

Thats the reason strains are often sold as indoor or outdoor.

If you selectively breed in soil. And then put that plant in hydro. It will change.

Same Pheno, same environment and same age. Left to right.

Soil, Perlite/RW croutons, DWC

 

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
It's rare but I've noticed strains that smell and finish quite different indoors vs outdoors. Usually I'd pick outdoor as the best as far as cannabis fragrance and terpenes. But once in a while there's a strain that doesn't have it outdoors. I've seen blueberry like that, awesome floral fragrant smells indoors and much weaker metallic rank smell outside.
Maybe try an organic fertilizer outside? There is a noticeable difference between the high yield powerful chemical fertilizers vs organics. Use your usual veg fertilizer then switch to something organic for flowering. Or use something simple and cheap for veg like chicken or horse manure. Bat guano's a good one. I use a mix of different kinds. May not get the explosive growth you get with the maxibloom but it usually makes a big difference in fragrance.
Or use the maxibloom but stop fertilizing early and go with straight water for the last 4 weeks. It'll cut down on yield but I've seen great results in flavor and smell.
 

Easy7

Active member
Veteran
The answer is rain and dew. Water takes out the water soluble terps. Greenhouse buds should have more terps as well as indoor. Just like how bubble bags hash has less smell and flavour. Water soluble terps carried out by h2o.
 
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