In search of better aromas from the GH Lucas formula

I Have been using the standard Lucas formula with General Hydroponic nutes successfully for years . Well, almost successfully.

I have grown a variety of strains (Blackberry, Blue Dream, Skywalker og, Green Crack, UK Cheese, Atomic OG, and some others I'm sure I forgot as most of these have ran multiple times.) The problem is they have all smelled pretty similar to each other when cured. They will taste good and they have all fucked me up. But I am in search of the total package and the smell is a must.


They all have great distinctive smells during flowering but that is not carried on to the final cured bud. I remember reading a thread some time ago with people having the same experience and almost all of them were using the Lucas formula in DWCs.

Now my question is, what additives would you recommend to enhance the GH Lucas formula? Should I just start researching other nutient lines?


**Extra bonus points for those who have experience with GH and the Lucas formula in a DWC**

Try growing organically in soil.

Try adding Floralicous Plus, its one of the few additives I like.

By the way, I grow DWC and use General Hydroponics nutes but I use the Huel Perkins formula.

If you don't have aromatic meds, then I'd point to one of three things. Either you aren't growing these plants correctly, you're not curing properly, or it's just not in your genetics.

I personally think the 'Lucas Formula' severally overfeeds so before you run out to buy more plant food, try a round with 5 micro and 10 bloom. If you're still not getting the aroma you want, it's your genetics or your cure.

It's the GH "thumbprint" I've written about on more than one occasion. I had the same experience.

Try AN or Canna.

One poster mentioned curing. So how do you dry and cure? Also another mentioned GH and suggested AN. I agree. Yes GH can grow the stuff but AN is a much better formula for the money (I use the Sensi series formulas and my plants rock).

I wish you put more info on your set up.Genetic wise speaking do you select a mother and flower clones?I find a more mature plant in flower helps in flavor a little bit.I have two phenos of the same strain that when curedheno A) though awesome smelling in flower blends in the hybrid smells in cure.Pheno B) Retains and enhances during cure the desired flowering smell.Pheno A is more potent and yields more than B,while B tastes the best,and that why she is kept.

I meet the experience you called for,and here is my advise.If not allready done pheno hunt moms and flower out the clones looking for a tasty mom after the proper cure.Research jar curing,and redo if done allready just in case you missed something.
I use GH Liquid Kool Bloom in my Lucas,and feel that helps.I have been thinking of previously mentioned Floralicious plus,and or Kool Bloom powder but I am fine for now.Mentioned earlier was overferting.I agree people do not adjust the strength of there nutes to match the power of there lights,and plants phase.I am still dialing in,and experimenting,but I am impressed so far with a 5 day flush for more white ash smoother bud.

Try growing some heavy duty fruity(they don't call it that for no reason)

lordjin said:

It's the GH "thumbprint" I've written about on more than one occasion. I had the same experience.

Try AN or Canna.

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GH has grown the weed with the most powerful aroma I've ever smelled in my life, and ive smelled hundreds or samples from hundreds of strains. Nothing wrong with GH.

Huel Perkins said:

GH has grown the weed with the most powerful aroma I've ever smelled in my life, and ive smelled hundreds or samples from hundreds of strains. Nothing wrong with GH.

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I use SuperNatural but I agree, any nutrient as long as the NPK is sufficient should produce the weed you are looking for. I would say either you're not feeding them correctly in stages or your cure needs to be better.

About a year a go I started hanging the branches just cut from plant, with no trimming to slow down the dry and this helped more then anything for smell and taste.

Huel Perkins said:

GH has grown the weed with the most powerful aroma I've ever smelled in my life, and ive smelled hundreds or samples from hundreds of strains. Nothing wrong with GH.

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Yep, same here. Plant aroma does not come from fertilizer brand or additives. It comes from genetics and cure.

BigBuddahCheese said:

I use SuperNatural but I agree, any nutrient as long as the NPK is sufficient should produce the weed you are looking for. I would say either you're not feeding them correctly in stages or your cure needs to be better.

About a year a go I started hanging the branches just cut from plant, with no trimming to slow down the dry and this helped more then anything for smell and taste.

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This is how I cure my stash, and you are right it really preserves and enhances the aroma. Pull the shade leaves off and hang in a cool corner room in my basement. Let them dry for a couple months. I pluck buds off as needed.

GreenThumbSucker said:

Yep, same here. Plant aroma does not come from fertilizer brand or additives. It comes from genetics and cure.

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Medium and nutrients can have an impact on the overall characteristics of certain kinds of cannabis. You ever grow elite cut only OG Kush with GH?

Add Liquid Karma. You can foliar feed with it or mix it in. Or a see weed extract with fulvic acid and B vitamins. You are missing your amino acid which are the building blocks for aroma.
Sidd

lordjin said:

Medium and nutrients can have an impact on the overall characteristics of certain kinds of cannabis. You ever grow elite cut only OG Kush with GH?

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All hydroponic fertilizers are made from the same group of base chemicals. The plant doesn't care
what combination of base chemicals are used, as used as long as the formula is complete. BRAND is irrelevant.

GreenThumbSucker said:

All hydroponic fertilizers are made from the same group of base chemicals. The plant doesn't care
what combination of base chemicals are used, as used as long as the formula is complete. BRAND is irrelevant.

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Got a question on this. Obviously brand itself doesn't matter, but I could see the source making a difference. IE urea vs ammoniacal nitrate. If plants respond differently to different sources in the form of growth and structure, I see no reason it couldn't also affect aroma, color, and flavor. I can't find anything to back this up so I could be totally off my rocker here, but to me it makes sense logically. Thoughts?

And just to be clear, Im not saying thats the case here, as the formulas between many big name fertilizers are nearly the same anyway. Different ratios and concentrations, sure, but still similar enough to probably not make much difference IMO. Definitely not as much difference as other variables do (genetics, environment, cure)

GreenThumbSucker said:

All hydroponic fertilizers are made from the same group of base chemicals. The plant doesn't care
what combination of base chemicals are used, as used as long as the formula is complete. BRAND is irrelevant.

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That's whats up!

Medium,nutrients environment can all effect aroma and taste of end product.........you want some stinky tasty buds try an organic soil mix if that is not an option try different sweetners/carbs......also very important to not overfeed...only up your ppms (by 100-200ppms) when your plants show signs of slight deficiencies........

mike91sr said:

Got a question on this. Obviously brand itself doesn't matter, but I could see the source making a difference. IE urea vs ammoniacal nitrate. If plants respond differently to different sources in the form of growth and structure, I see no reason it couldn't also affect aroma, color, and flavor. I can't find anything to back this up so I could be totally off my rocker here, but to me it makes sense logically. Thoughts?

And just to be clear, Im not saying thats the case here, as the formulas between many big name fertilizers are nearly the same anyway. Different ratios and concentrations, sure, but still similar enough to probably not make much difference IMO. Definitely not as much difference as other variables do (genetics, environment, cure)

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Fertilizers sold for hydroponics contain everything the plant needs to be healthy, already in the form that the plant uses. Fertilizers that use urea are not made for hydroponics.

Aroma is genetic.

Whether or not it SHOULD be used in hydroponics is a debate for another day as I dont want to start a AN war here. But hydroponic nutrient lines do use urea. In any case, it was just an example and is mostly irrelevant.

Found a couple papers talking about it. They agree aroma is mostly genetic, but that external changes can alter or limit it. I'm not trying to say you can get a haze to smell like blueberry no matter what you feed it, just that genetic potential can only be reached through precisely the right combination of things, one of them being nutrition. If we can agree that a healthy plant will smell/taste better than a plant that isn't healthy(and therefore can't focus on terpenoid/cannabinoid production as much as basic survival), then we agree that nutrition can have an effect on it as well, since that's a major contributor to overall health and reaching genetic potential. Not necessarily that the source itself has an effect, just that nutrition as a whole does. I can't find anything getting into specifics of one compound vs another, so the generalizations will have to do.


"Perception of fruit and vegetable flavor is a composite of sensory responses in the nose and mouth toaroma and taste. A diverse array of fruit and vegetable constituents including acids, sugars, volatiles and many other compounds individually elicit sensory responses that are recognized in total as flavor. Accumulation of these compounds during development as well as dynamic changes during ripening and/or senescence are determined in large part by the genetics of each species as well as developmental stage at harvest. However, other factors that influence development prior to harvest subsequently impact flavor. For horticultural crops, environment, cultural practices, agrichemicals and nutrition are some of the factors impacting flavor through effects on plant development."

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925521498000878


Descriptive profiling by 18 judges compared the flavor (tomato aroma, vegetative aroma, tomato taste, sour taste and sweet taste), texture (firmness-by-mouth, juiciness-by-mouth), visual attributes (perceived size, external redness of the whole fruit, internal redness of the core and outer wall) and hand softness of the ‘table-ripe’ fruit, in duplicate. Analyses of variance demonstrated significant differences among tomato treatments. Tomatoes grown with high EC were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) more flavorful, redder, smaller, firmer (by mouth) and softer (by touch). In general, high EC treatments positively impacted the sensory quality of greenhouse tomatoes; however, these changes were concomitant with a reduction in fruit size.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925521411002948