Stem rub: Fool's gold?

thenotsoesoteric

American Ninja
I see a lot of folks on forums talking getting berry fruity smells from veg plants. Now I don't doubt them all but im curious as to experience with stem rubbers, ?.

Now I've had several plants have citrus smells in both veg/flower but as for berry/apple/mixed fruit type terps not so much.

Fruitiest plants I've grown blueberry, top 44, critical jack herer, twinkle tarts and all the others had either standard weed smell or a green pepper smell on stem rub.

The citrus smelling stem rub plants I've had they all had orange or orange creme flavor. The oran Jones cut i had last year had no citrus stem rub but the best tasty orange flavor out of the bunch.

So for me bud rub > stem rub. Bud rub is lying bitch sometimes too though ? ?

What yall experience with outcomes from plants with good stem rub smells?
 

jpockets420

CHOOSE YOUR TITLE
My experience is the same as yours . I get the same 2-3 smells with stem rubs during veg. I absolutely love orange flavor and have been searching for that good orange taste and have some up empty. I bet I get it from the orangeberry smoothie that i scored during that giveaway yesterday. Is that your cross?
 

Skunky Dunk Farms

Cannabinoid Receptor
Lol, it's like 3 guys can smell on a gals neck and get a differant reaction/response.
We're animals and our scents and taste sensations are primal so it's a personal experiance.
I believe that's the draw to cannabis, our sensual desires being welled up.
Of course this is just my opinion lol.
 

GthaEnigma

Canna-Arborist
I personally can pick out smells on first leaves. Usually fruity or floral, the fuels and funkier stuff start showing in the eight to ten node range. It is not always present but i find that in most cases the plants i can smell early are the same ones that are loud when finished too. I also get a sense of the resin characteristics, ie greasy, sticky.
 

Rhacodactylus

In Bloom
From my experience detecting the different notes with rubbing stems can be a bit tricky. I get more scents with leaves/petioles when I do the first defoliation late in veg or when flipping the girls, but as you said it’s usually the citrus/Orange scents that can be easily identified.

From everything that I’ve grown there were a very few pheno’s that you could really be identified by their smell, even early in veg; the Black Cherry Pie F5 I’m running at the moment carries that cherry/peachy scent all the way through, but again it’s the only one I can think of right now.
 

Rosinallday

7th Day Seeds
I've had some of the dankest flower from plants that had a distinct stemrub. I've seen Nate from Humboldt Seed Co. walk around in his fields of weed and the main thing they are doing is stemrubbing to find their pheno's for breeding. When I made seeds 3 years ago I had an Alien Apple Warp male from Alien Genetics that had the most sour stemrub I've ever come accross and the dla5 male had a dank stemrub as well. The mac pheno's of some of the mac crosses have a distinct orange/lemon stemrub as well. I'm pretty sure it's a thing and have seen definite proof.
 

thenotsoesoteric

American Ninja
That critical jack herer you speak of is that from delicious seeds if so man that shit is fire I grew it out probably 10 years ago as a freebie from attitude
Yes sir, right around 2010-2011. I didnt keep a clone because it was a freebie and I expected the peppery jack terps. It had a gross green pepper smell on stem rub so I figured fuck it. But that son of bitch, well daughter of a bitch, turned out tasting like mixed berry candy and had a stellar anti depressant type stone.
 

Meatman

? Master of Meat ?
Yes sir, right around 2010-2011. I didnt keep a clone because it was a freebie and I expected the peppery jack terps. It had a gross green pepper smell on stem rub so I figured fuck it. But that son of bitch, well daughter of a bitch, turned out tasting like mixed berry candy and had a stellar anti depressant type stone.
Ya I had that freebie and the Black Russian and they actually both turned out super nice the only freebies I’ve probably ever grown lol
 

thenotsoesoteric

American Ninja
I personally have been disappointed more by good smells on stem rubs not equating to keeper quality. Almost every time I find a plant with a good smell on stem rub it never ends up being the keeper I thought it would.

Im sure its just my experience and my own experiences are far from par for the course. Id have to live a million lifetimes to shoot par, lol.
 

Frimpong

🔥Freak Genetics🔥
I personally have been disappointed more by good smells on stem rubs not equating to keeper quality. Almost every time I find a plant with a good smell on stem rub it never ends up being the keeper I thought it would.

Im sure its just my experience and my own experiences are far from par for the course. Id have to live a million lifetimes to shoot par, lol.
I see a lot of folks on forums talking getting berry fruity smells from veg plants. Now I don't doubt them all but im curious as to experience with stem rubbers, ?.

Now I've had several plants have citrus smells in both veg/flower but as for berry/apple/mixed fruit type terps not so much.

Fruitiest plants I've grown blueberry, top 44, critical jack herer, twinkle tarts and all the others had either standard weed smell or a green pepper smell on stem rub.

The citrus smelling stem rub plants I've had they all had orange or orange creme flavor. The oran Jones cut i had last year had no citrus stem rub but the best tasty orange flavor out of the bunch.

So for me bud rub > stem rub. Bud rub is lying bitch sometimes too though ? ?

What yall experience with outcomes from plants with good stem rub smells?
I usually don't get much smell in veg but when I do 9/10 it means nada , it's almost more of an an identifier now for me . But I will say this , terps will never hurt ya, my flapjacks reeks in veg and is super terpy
 

THT

In Bloom
First let me just say that I love this forum.

Stem rubs for me can be important or insignificant depending, for example, once you get really familiar with a certain strain or expression you may be able to identify an expression based on stem smells. Stem rub smells can translate directly to the flower (they normally do not in my experience), but it can also mean jack squat in terms of the terps that come from trichs, and even those terps can evolve and change over the life of the plant. Generally I don't rely on stem rubs but I do try to put each into the memory bank to some degree.
 

JL2G

Jesse Loves 2 Grow
Staff member
Moderator
Q-36 Space Modulator
In my experience a strong smelling stem rub often transmits to a loud plant throughout the grow and harvest. True not always like someone above stated, but often enough I'll usually take clones to be safe just in case. Lol
More often than not on a stem rub I get a generic skunkish weed smell, often with some sharp citrus, or burnt rubber for certain strains, and seems to have no co relation to the end product taste/smell. But sometimes. Lol
I have had stem rub help differentiate a plants expression when pheno hunting through a pack. It and looking at other visual cues, and or breeder tips of what to look for.
Now those plants that funk up way early in veg without even touching them, those are what i really look for. I've typically had the best luck with having the most dope pheno's from those kind of plants. You know, the ones that smell like they're in flower already from seedling/teenager stage, and not even close to sexing, yet they funk up the whole room.
 

Gentlemancorpse

Cannabis Chaotician
Staff member
Moderator
I find that terps change so much during flower that stem rub isn't a very reliable indicator of terps from the finished bud BUT I find it a really helpful tool for identifying pheno types. Like if I know a particular pheno I like has a certain stem rub it can be easier to find that pheno again in the future from the same stock or in the progeny. Or if it's a run I've never smelled before I can assume it's going to show different traits than the ones I've already grown. For example, what has me so intrigued about one of my FVK F2s is her stem rub is completely unlike either the Hippy Slayer or the GMO, so I'm expecting something unique
 

Psychobilly

🧀Muenster
I find that terps change so much during flower that stem rub isn't a very reliable indicator of terps from the finished bud BUT I find it a really helpful tool for identifying pheno types. Like if I know a particular pheno I like has a certain stem rub it can be easier to find that pheno again in the future from the same stock or in the progeny. Or if it's a run I've never smelled before I can assume it's going to show different traits than the ones I've already grown. For example, what has me so intrigued about one of my FVK F2s is her stem rub is completely unlike either the Hippy Slayer or the GMO, so I'm expecting something unique

OK I'm still learning about the Phenotypes thing, so I may sound pretty stupid in a minute here:

Are Phenotypes the reason some "strains" are clone only? Also, I used to use Leafly when they had the top 3 dominant Terpenes in a given strain to guess at other strains I might like, and I'm curious if that info was at all reliable; Is it possible to say what a given strain's most dominant Terpenes are? Do Terpenes in a given plant change often ?
 

MtRainDog

In Bloom
OK I'm still learning about the Phenotypes thing, so I may sound pretty stupid in a minute here:

Are Phenotypes the reason some "strains" are clone only? Also, I used to use Leafly when they had the top 3 dominant Terpenes in a given strain to guess at other strains I might like, and I'm curious if that info was at all reliable; Is it possible to say what a given strain's most dominant Terpenes are? Do Terpenes in a given plant change often ?
A “clone only” would be a specific phenotype of a strain. It still came from seed, but the clone only was a special, outstanding phenotype that was found within that seed stock.

Leafly is not a reliable source of info imo.
 
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