If you have already made some growing experiences, you may want to improve the taste and smell of your cannabis. Terpenes are responsible for the smell and taste. To improve the smell and taste of your cannabis you have to increase the amount of Terpenes.
Possibilities to improve smell and taste:
1. Stress the plants
Slight deformation of the stems, slight bending and repositioning also known as LST (Low Stress Training).Stronger deformation of the stems, breaking the inner part of the stems without hurting the outer layer.Moderate Removal of Sun leaves - Some strains do not react well to removing healthy sun leaves, so you should start very carefully and remove very few leaves at the beginning.Guarantee very low humidity in the grow room. Some growers use air dehumidifiers to bring the humidity in the last two weeks of the flowering period below 20%.Let the roots experience some dryness. Only for very experienced Growers! If the roots become too dry they can be damaged and your plants can die.Keep your plants in absolute darkness 2-3 days before harvesting.
2. Flushing
Leaf of the nutrients completely in the last 1-2 weeks of the flowering stage. This does not cause more terpenes to form but it prevents the flowers from smelling and tasting like nutrients.
3. Keep the temperature low (below 26°C)
If the temperature is too high, the terpene production is slowed down and some terpenes evaporate into the air. It is particularly important that the flowers are not exposed to high temperatures after week 6-7, since the production of terpenes will increase greatly from this point onwards.
3.1. Reduce the temperature overnight
It is advisable to reduce the temperature in the dark stage during the last two weeks of flowering (10°C colder than in the light stage). This leads to the formation of more terpenes.
4. Never harvest too early
You should never harvest your plants too early. The minimum for non-early harvest strains are 8 whole weeks of flowering. However, many strains require longer flowering stages. If you harvest your plants too early, you lose an enormous potential amount of terpenes, as this increases extremely over the last two weeks.
5. Handle your flowers carefully
You should never touch your flowers. This is, of course, no longer possible at a certain point. If you have to touch them, you should be as careful as possible, since you can destroy terpenes by rough contact with the flowers.
6. Slowly dry
For a good taste and smell it’s important to dry slowly. This should take about 7 days. Curing of the flowers is also very important.
Tip: Never spray odor-intensive sprays like deodorants near the plants. You should never have odor neutralizers near your plants.