terpenes cannabis smell

Find The Perfect Cannabis Strain: Use The Smell Of Terpenes

Any grower worth their salt knows the feeling: standing next to their treasured, flowering plant and wondering how a few green buds can produce such a pungent, powerful, and deliciously characteristic scent. The strong odour of weed is in fact why indoor growers use carbon filters in the ventilation systems, and why outdoor growers sometimes struggle to pick out the aromas of any other flowers they planted in their garden. No matter how deliciously stinky our crops get, though, using the smell produced by cannabis terpenes is a great way to find the perfect cannabis strain for our personal needs and desires. This blog explores the many scents of marijuana, to help growers pick their favourite cannabis by the smell of terpenes alone.

How Terpenes Determine The Smell Of Cannabis

‘Ugh, it smells like weed here…’ If you’ve heard it at some point in your life and hoped eyes wouldn’t turn your way, you’ve experienced the power of terpenes first-hand. Cannabis terpenes produce the smell (and taste) of cannabis and most other plants we know. Even if that powerful scent can sometimes be a disadvantage, terps can actually help us find the types of weed we like best, either because they suit our personal taste, or because they hint at the effects of a given strain, even when growing for medicinal reasons.

Cannabis Smell = Terpenes = Specific Effects

The terpenes that determine the smell of weed are organic compounds that naturally occur in cannabis and, by existing in different combinations, make up each strains’ unique smell. Over one hundred terpenes have been discovered in cannabis so far, and in nature as a whole, a staggering number of different terps determine the myriad scents we experience in a forest, a field of flowers, or the veg department at the grocery store.

The combination of different terps in a given strain is called a terpene profile. Each effect is subtle unique, and that explains how every type of weed produces unique effects. The possibilities are literally endless, but below, we will explore some of the most important cannabis terpenes to explain how their smell predicts your desired cannabis high.

cannabis terpenes smell
Some of the many terpenes determining the smell of cannabis.

Cannabinoids And Terpenes Interact: Smelling The Entourage Effect

The terpenes found in marijuana are also responsible for the specific effects cannabis strains can have on our bodies and minds. Yes, that is correct: the smell of weed determines its effect when smoked or eaten. Most of the main mental and physical aspects of a cannabis high are determined by cannabinoids like the famous compounds THC and CBD. Still, cannabis terpenes produce more than smell alone: they influence how cannabinoids work through the entourage effect.

Skipping the details provided by our terpene blogs, we can state that some terpenes can make the sedative aspects of the high more intense, while others increase our mental alertness, or add to the medicinal potential of a strain in terms of its analgesic, antibacterial, or anti-emetic properties. The trick to finding our personal favourites, then, is knowing how to use our nose. Although scent is notoriously hard to pin down in words, the following descriptions of some main cannabis terpenes and their smell should help any budding connoisseur on their way.

Selecting Cannabis By The Smell Of Terpenes

Although cannabinoids have to be present to provide a high, a strain’s specific terpene profile determines its unique cannabis experience. Terpenes and their smell make the effects of sativa-dominant cannabis more creative and uplifting and those of indica-dominant strains more relaxed and sleep-inducing. It all depends on the specific combination in which these terpenes exist in a certain strain.

Now that we’ve determined that smell equals effect, it should be very easy to guess the effect a strain should provide judging by its aroma. This is precisely why our cannabis seeds catalogue uses handy scent icons to let growers pick the right strains by smell on-screen.

smell cannabis terpenes
The icons tell the smell…

Using these icons and the detailed strain descriptions in our web store, any grower can order cannabis seeds by their desired effects based on terpenes and smell. Here are some of the main categories to get you started.

Uplifting Cannabis Strains

Growers looking for a strain to lift up their spirits, boost creativity, or provide that energy to clean the house are best off choosing a sativa-dominant cannabis strain. This is something most cannabis users already know from experience, but not always realize. So how do sativas smell? There’s no single trick that will let you tell all strains apart, but the following characteristic scents are a good way to start.

limonene sativa terps
Citrus smell comes from limonene, wether it’s in a lemon or Lemon Ice weed

Sativa Cannabis With Limonene Terpenes

Strong uplifting sativa strains are often recognized by a complex citrus aroma, like fresh lemon zest. This is due to a terpene called limonene, which provides a stimulating, activating effect on the mind. Besides cannabis, this terpene is also found in lemongrass, rosemary and peppermint; and can therefore smell like these herbs as well. Still, the limonene in a lemon or a peppermint leaf is exactly the same as the terpenes you’d smell in our Lemon Haze or Lemon Ice, for instance.

Uplifting Cannabis With Pinene Terpenes

Another scent that typically marks uplifting cannabis strains, is pine. Spicy pine-smelling cannabis buds like Super Silver Haze are usually rich in pinene, an energy boosting terpene with a positive effect on memory. On that account, when using your nose to select a strain that’ll lift your spirit, lemon, rosemary, peppermint and pine scents are a good starting point.

pinene terpenes smell cannabis
The smell of pinene…

Relaxing Strains

Anyone out for a calming, sleep-inducing or physically relaxing experience should skip the heavy sativas. Indica-dominant strains are the hot ticket here. So how do indica cannabis terpenes smell? The key to sniffing out your favourite indica seeds is myrcene, one of the most abundant terpenes found in all cannabis strains, found in especially high concentrations in sedative cannabis strains of the indica family. In fact, many experts think that the smell of myrcene terpenes determines whether a cannabis strain classifies as an indica-or sativa-dominant hybrid. Some experts are pretty adamant about this: ‘Any strain with more than 0.5% myrcene is an indica and anything less is a sativa.‘ Growers looking for a whopping myrcene indica strain ought to order Fatkid’s Cake seeds and experience the scent and effect for themselves…

Fatkids cake cannabis seeds
Fatkid’s Cake – how much myrcene can one strain hold..?

You can recognize this relaxing, sedative compound as an earthy, musk-like aroma, characteristic of some of the most famous cannabis strains around the world. Though myrcene can also smell sweet and fruity, it is mostly perceived as a complex, gassy nutmeg-like smell; like you’d find in our Blue Magic, Kosher Tangie Kush or AK-OG Kush for example.

Another terpene often associated with indicas is linalool, recognized by its floral, lavender-aroma. Just to show that the story of terpenes is far more complex (and interesting) than the indica-sativa divide alone, though, you’ll also find linalool in a heavy sativa AG strain like Blue Amnesia Haze.

Trust Your Nose!

Summing up, we have seen how the smell of cannabis helps growers and gourmets find the right terpenes to get the effects they are after. We have also noticed how complex terpene profiles and their entourage effects make it very hard to predict the exact high any one strain produces. It seems there’s nothing else to it but to trust our own noses, then! Surely, however, armed with the terp knowledge from our dedicated blogs, anyone will soon learn to pinpoint the hallmark smell of important terpenes like:

Medical Terpene Effects

Growers looking for specific medicinal qualities in their preferred strains need to use their nose as well. In our medical strains blogs, you’ll learn more about how terpenes can interact with cannabinoids to help control symptoms and conditions like pain, fatigue depression, anxiety, migraine, stress, and more.

Fun Fact: Mangoes Boost Your High!

Let’s close off by a fun terpene fact. You may have heard that eating a mango before you smoke a joint boosts your high. Seems like a pretty wild claim, right? Well, think again! Eating a ripe mango could very well boost the effect of weed. Why, you may ask? Terpenes, of course, that’s why! Mangoes (especially the riper ones) are rich in myrcene. Eating one half an hour before indulging in some good genetics could even be enough to enjoy an indica effect from smoking a sativa-leaning hybrid!

myrcene terpenes cannabis smell
Indica-dominant strains and mangoes have one thing in common: myrcene.

So there you have it: anyone having a hard time deciding which strain to grow cide which strain to grow, why not follow your nose? You now know that all those lovely terpenes let you smell your way to the perfect cannabis strains to match any connoisseur’s needs, tastes, and preferences!

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