Yes, you read it correctly, the flavored cannabis project. Sure, it’s a controversial subject and no, this will not appeal to everyone. But I invite you to read along and if you are interested further please contribute.
CAUTION: This is not for new growers or someone depending on a harvest for their meds. This is geared for growers who have full jars on the shelf or those iwiling to experiment with part of their harvest or with a few clones on the side. Hopefully we get some takers.
To the skeptics I say - no I don’t expect this to be mainstream, for me it’s more of a novelty since I love the flavor of freshies or well cured bud as much as anyone here. I’m not interested in making a name, nor do I think this has the potential to earn money. I’m doing this to explore the possibilities and to learn. It’s all about Flavoring Cannabis and Can The Flavor of a Growing Cannabis Plant Be Manipulated? sorry for the caps there!
If all you have to contribute is negativity then please hit the back button now. Apologies in advance for use of the word weed, I’m not going to type cannabis every spanking time
We know that flavor can be added after a crop has been harvested, it’s done with staples like cereals or tobacco every day. The flavor of cannabis can be enhanced with additives during the cure by using lemon peels, mint, banana skins, rosemary or a plethora of ingredients. But little is known about flavor being added while the plant is growing. In this journal the hope is to explore both options.
Flavoring after the harvest
Manipulating the flavor of a cannabis plant while its growing
With regard to menthol cigarettes, to the best of my understanding - mint plants are processed to extract oils which are converted to crystalline form by a supplier. The supplier ships menthol crystals to the tobacco manufacturer where they are rendered back into a liquid. The liquid is mixed with other ingredients (mostly glycerin & perhaps sweetener like corn syrup) sprayed on the cured tobacco, then rolled into cigarettes and packaged for sale.
That is a snapshot of flavor being added after the crop has been harvested. What piques my interest is flavor being introduced while the crop is growing. Your interest may vary from mine. I maintain that a growing plant can be enhanced by ingredients to manipulate the smell and taste by using 3 routes - by soil additives, by environmental exposure thru air or by additives in the feed water solution. That’s it soil, air or water. For you hydro folks - sure be my guest and try it with coco, dwc or whatever. Some additives may work well in hydro while others may crash and burn. But to keep it simple for taste testing purposes it’s best to stick with only one flavor at a time.
The back story.... During my first and second grows I harvested a Pakistan Valley plant and had it curing in jars. My second plant was a clone taken from the first Paki Valley plant. On the second plant I had an outbreak of fungus gnats and as a temporary measure I tried cinnamon as a pest deterrent. I began misting with water and crop dusting the soil with ground cinnamon. The gnats hated it but it didn’t deter them well so I kept after it for weeks. At that time I was too cash strapped for better IPM gear.
Fast forward to right before harvest. The scent of the growing bud was exactly like the first Paki Valley mother plant with the addition of a really clean, almost antiseptic like scent of cinnamon. Apologies if my palate descriptions leave something to be desired. But the growing bud carried the cinnamon scent in a delicate manner. After the chop I could no longer detect cinnamon but later after the cure I could absolutely detect cinnamon notes while hoovering open jars but the scent was unmistakable every time I exhaled the smoke. The first plant was harvested without use of cinnamon, nor did it have any scent notes I could detect that came close to cinnamon.
We know weed plants are an accumulator, among other things it’s used to clean up haz-mat sites. Terpenes deliver flavor based on the genetic profile of a particular phenotype of a given strain. So in a sense terpenes are merely carriers that express the encoded scent directions they are handed. After my cinnamon bud mistake... err discovery it seems reasonable that terpenes can be manipulated to express different scents.
If you search 420 Magazine for Ona gel there are a numerous reports of growers that have used Ona gel to mask the scent of their grow from neighbors or law enforcement. Turns out a few of those growers reported their finished bud carried the scent and taste of the Ona gel. Now truly Ona gel is a great product but ona gel flavored buds makes me want to hurl. No offense intended to Ona Gel, again it’s great for the purpose it was intended.
First let me assure you this - if you try this via soil, your weed will not smell exactly like vanilla extract or clove you added. Whatever you add will be faint, very subtle. In my experience weed will embrace that added scent but put its own spin on it. Let’s face it - most of us don’t want to override wonderful natural flavors any way, maybe just steer it a little bit in a certain direction. Pretty sure foodie type people will dig this.
Go easy on your plants, most of the flavors you select will be naturally derived and should be fairly well tolerated by the plant. However it’s possible that plants don’t adapt well to a crap-ton of turmeric being added to the soil when it filters down to the root zone. One of 420 Mag’s current
sponsors SNS uses rosemeric acid in there IPM solutions, rosemeric acid is derived from rosemary plant. So yes naturally derived ingredients in low doses are fairly well tolerated by this crop.
Now to the techie growers out there.... so if your soil is enhanced with garlic and microbes are munching garlic every day and the plant is growing fine - don’t you think those microbes are going to pass the garlic on to every part of the plant? Ever tasted real moo cow milk after she wondered into the wild onions? Yup been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Affirmative you get wild onion flavored milk if you’ve never owned a milk cow.
CAUTION 2 Use some freaking common sense here. Don’t come bitching that your weed is ruined if you cured it in a tent with an open pan of 5 gallons diesel fuel coz you like gas flavors. If you grow a plant right beside a 4 acre hog waste lagoon then let’s assume either you love the smell of hog shit in your produce or if you do this but can’t figure out why it tastes like hog crap then you are automatically disqualified.
So 420 member Dafatboi asked about adding menthol flavor to his weed, here are some ideas we came up with on that
before the chop,
mint crystals in the canopy
mint essential oils in your feed water (prolly get a boost on pest deterrence)
mint as companion plants
mint crystals laying on top of soil - even tho mint crystals are naturally derived I’m not sure how well roots will tolerate direct contact with mint crystals whether finely ground or not. Go easy to see how she responds.
mint foliar spray
after the chop
mint essential oil in your bud washing routine but might help to be added to last rinse bucket
mint crystals attached to plant while it’s hanging to dry
mint crystals cooked down into an extract and that flavor essence sprayed on buds
mint plants along with colas as they dry hang
mint plants or crystals placed in jars
To flavor a growing plant
Cut a series of clones from one host mother so all the clones will be of the exact same phenotype. It’s not an equal comparison if you test a flavor enhanced Jack Herer against a flavor enhanced Grape Ape. Once your clones are stabilized and growing well then begin to experiment.
plant #1 needs to remain untouched as the control plant
plant #2 can be flavored with the spice or flavoring of your choice
plant #3 gets a different flavor than #2 above.
Track which flavor is given to which plant all the way thru growth, harvest, curing and sampling phases. I might suggest that whatever spice or flavor you select needs to be fairly pungent. After the cure try it yourself or better yet have a friend take a blind smell and taste test challenge to see if they can detect the difference or determine what flavor was added.
You can always let them smell of the control plant or give it up and let them smell your spice shaker of clove or whatever and then compare it to the buds.
Part of why I’m dogmatic is several have commented this can’t be done, or that it’s stupid. Yup, I’m stubborn like that, if it doesn’t pan out then I’m down with that too. I’m from the back woods with no formal education, I recognize this is very far from scientific, however all of science stands firm on hypothesis.
This is not my journal - this is for everyone. If you have better ideas, if you are a scientist, if you like to tinker, if you want to run this show- then please jump in. I have no desire to be in control but I’m happy to jump start this.
Here’s what I bet ya, one day down the road someone will do lab testing of clones to compare terpene profiles of flavor enhanced buds versus unflavored bud. There will be a difference - how much and what is possible is anyone’s guess. Lets make some history. One day science will catch up....
You gotta break eggs to make a custard. It’s an experiment - have fun with it.
Cheers,
013
And I know some indiscriminate growers just want to add any amount of weight they can to sell more product.
