The Smell of Cannabis... Farming

[Ben]

Every once in a while I check the website of the local rag where I used to live just to breathe a sigh of relief that I don't have to put up with the nonsense there anymore.

Cannabis farming has been an ongoing debate there ever since legalization. They were one of the first progressive counties to jump on it, and most residents, who are 80% far left, were very happy about it. That all changed once legal cannabis was actually implemented. There has been the shady character and crime aspect, but that has been absolutely overshadowed by the stench of the crop.

In many ways I find this ironic in that it's almost the opposite of what you usually see with farming. For example, building a subdivision right next to a dairy farm that has been in place for 50 years, then demanding the dairy farm shut down. Here, we have homes that have been there for 50 years and a new, smelly farming operation cropping up next door. Or more precisely, often a farming operation that has switched crops. The big cash crops in many of these greenhouses before legal pot was flowers. That's quite a difference in "odor output".

It will be interesting to see how this is addressed here and elsewhere in the country. It appears technology will allow odor control, but at an initial cost of around $150K, with $15K/mo operating costs. I think that will probably kill off a lot of small growers if it becomes mandatory, and possibly make pot a "big tobacco" type of corporate crop. Or else individual growers will have to look for land in the boonies.

Anyway, interesting unintended consequences.

https://www.independent.com/2019/06/05/santa-barbara-county-in-an-uproar-over-cannabis-odors/

[lee n. field]

What's the odor like?

I always liked the smell of burning weed, back in my college days.  Never partook, but thought the smell was interesting.

[Hawkmoon]

I had no idea that cannabis plants gave off offensive odors.

[MechAg94]

You will never find out what the smell is like reading that article.  Seems like a big miss there.  Lots of verbiage/gossip with nothing about the actual odor. 

Is it the actual plant that smells, the fertilizer, or the way they prepare the harvested plant for sale?  

[BobR]

What's the odor like?

I always liked the smell of burning weed, back in my college days.  Never partook, but thought the smell was interesting.

It isn't known as "skunkweed" for nothing. We have a grow place pretty close to the highway we use to go to the AFB, with the right conditions it is pretty overwhelming. The first few times I smelled it I thought that someone had run over a skunk because I didn't know about the grow operation. Burning weed reminds me more of a cleansing ceremony with "sweetgrass" that we used to have in the IHS hospital I worked at.

bob

[Ben]

It isn't known as "skunkweed" for nothing.

Exactly. I've been back since this started, and the smell in volume is disgusting. I don't know that it's exactly like skunk (though "skunk" is a terminology the loadies all use). Maybe like wet skunk. Definitely skunky. It's quite distinctive, with some varieties at least (I'm not an expert) smelling skunky when smoked as well. When I lived there, I had a downstairs neighbor that smoked both cigarettes and pot 24/7 on his deck, and the pot was skunk.  I could rarely open my sliding door, and I had to keep two air cleaners running 24/7.

I can see why all the vintners (it's a high dollar wine area) are complaining. A lot of the tasting rooms are outdoors/semi-outdoors because of the weather, and if a weed farmer moves in next door, that could definitely kill some business.

[MechAg94]

I guess that is part of what I am curious about since you mention burning it.  Is it the processing/drying that smells or the plants themselves?

[BobR]

I guess that is part of what I am curious about since you mention burning it.  Is it the processing/drying that smells or the plants themselves?

It is the smell of the plant itself, as it grows it smells a bit but once the buds start appearing the smell gets much worse. It is kind of like a skunky sewer smell. The reason cops can often detect it is because of the odor the buds give off. I have been behind vehicles on the road and noticed the smell entering my car from what I assume is the pot in the car ahead of me. It is very noticeable once you know what it is.

bob

[Larry Ashcraft]

I guess that is part of what I am curious about since you mention burning it.  Is it the processing/drying that smells or the plants themselves?

It's the plants themselves.  We have a five acre grow about five miles east of us.  A friend of mine lives a couple miles east of the grow, and he says the smell is overwhelming when the wind is out of the west (which is most of the time).

OTOH, we have over 100 acres of hemp just west of us, maybe 500 yards.  I've never noticed any smell.

Related: two years ago we were looking for an upright freezer for the garage.  We were hoping to save some money by getting a scratch-n-dent from Lowe's.  The salesman told us they had just got 12 uprights on return, that were almost brand new.  He went out to check on them and came back and said forget it, they were bought by a pot farm and used for a few weeks, then returned.  They couldn't get the smell out and were going to have to scrap the freezers.

[Fly320s]

I know the smell because every time I go to San Francisco or San Diego I smell it all day long.  I hate the smell.  It smells like sweaty, bitter, burning trash to me.  Yes, it has the sulfur odor that skunks have, but skunks smell better to me.

[230RN]

Maybe it was sweaty, bitter, burning trash.

I had no idea the plants smelled.

Nor had I heard the term "loadies" before.

I guess I'm pretty lucky.  Around here if something smells skunk-like, it's a skunk.

Close windows, wait a half hour for the prevailing 5mph breeze to move it along (and for the skunk's victim to mosey on) and open the windows again for a test.

Usually just a faint livable-with remainder.

Shore is educational being on APS.

Terry

[Ron]

The smell is a problem for indoor growers once they have more than a couple/few plants.

Some pot is so stinky a cop who has pulled you over can smell the unsmoked dope in the baggie in your pocket.

It’s very distinctive.

[AZRedhawk44]

It is called "weed" for a reason.

My favorite people in the whole MJ argument are the ones that go around Johnny-Appleseeding the plant, so it is a random encounter like a blackberry stand or a patch of dandelions.  Demonetize it, at least to one order of magnitude, and you eliminate the crime aspect, the Agri-Corp/Drug-Corp angle, and the malum prohibitum victimless crime inprisonment aspect.

I've got roses in my backyard.  They're not as nice as roses you get at the flower shop, and you pay a premium for nice roses at the flower shop.  But it ain't that bad, excepting Valentine's Day.

Pot should be the same.

[freakazoid]

Is the smell different between the plant itself and when it is being smoked? When I get a whiff of the smell of it from someone smoking at a concert or whatever I've always thought it was a pleasant smell.

[Larry Ashcraft]

Is the smell different between the plant itself and when it is being smoked? When I get a whiff of the smell of it from someone smoking at a concert or whatever I've always thought it was a pleasant smell.

Absolutely different.  (I'm in Colorado farm country, we've gotten a whole new education on pot.)  I was a college student in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  I always enjoyed the smell of marijuana smoke.  Even smoked it a few times.

Times have changed.

[Jamisjockey]

Visited my brother when he was in NC and he of course had an indoor greenhouse with like a dozen plants.
The smell is noticeable even from that size grow.  So much so that he didn't have cable TV installed because he didn't want the cable guy smelling it. 
A lot of utility companies have gone to wifi meter reading, which he said keeps property-visits to a minimum. 
Now that he's back in CO, he doesn't care who knows he's growing though.

[castle key]

Is the smell different between the plant itself and when it is being smoked? When I get a whiff of the smell of it from someone smoking at a concert or whatever I've always thought it was a pleasant smell.

The smell is quite different. I rather like the smell of burning MJ but raw is gross.

Interestingly, different strains have different smells. Some is sweet and mossy and some smells like cat urine. I don't know how that translates to effect.

[HankB]

I grew up in a home with two smokers and hated the smell of tobacco from my earliest memories.

Pot smoke to me is worse - smells like a brush fire with burning weeds. (Burning weed - duh.  )

Can't say I've ever smelled the growing pot plants, but if something like that moved in next to me, I'd be a might upset.

Actually, I'm mildly surprised that commercial pot farming is growing that way - considering taxes and markup, I'd think that most casual pot smokers (not the completely brain-addled dopers) would tend to grow their own in quantities sufficient for personal use in places where they legalized the drug.

[charby]

2 years ago I visited a indoor grow operation in Portland, OR. Yes, it is some very stinky stuff, but if you move to the country, you need to accept that you are moving into agriculture's backyard so STFU or move back to town.

[Ben]

2 years ago I visited a indoor grow operation in Portland, OR. Yes, it is some very stinky stuff, but if you move to the country, you need to accept that you are moving into agriculture's backyard so STFU or move back to town.

The greenhouses in the OP are what you would consider "in town". AFAIK, the better quality pot is grown in greenhouses, so that adds an aspect to the discussion because greenhouses can easily be within city limits. You expect a smelly dairy farm in the country. It's another thing to have the orchid greenhouses adjacent to your subdivision (that was there first) switch to skunk.

This also adds to the "leftist" part of the discussion. The local governments would absolutely forbid say, a tobacco greenhouse. They are so pro-pot simply because it's a lib talking point, that they enthusiastically started granting grow licenses left and right just to show their progressive creds. Now they are seeing some unintended consequences, including from all the residents that were pro-legalization.

[makattak]

It is called "weed" for a reason.

My favorite people in the whole MJ argument are the ones that go around Johnny-Appleseeding the plant, so it is a random encounter like a blackberry stand or a patch of dandelions.  Demonetize it, at least to one order of magnitude, and you eliminate the crime aspect, the Agri-Corp/Drug-Corp angle, and the malum prohibitum victimless crime inprisonment aspect.

I've got roses in my backyard.  They're not as nice as roses you get at the flower shop, and you pay a premium for nice roses at the flower shop.  But it ain't that bad, excepting Valentine's Day.

Pot should be the same.

Pot is native to the area I was born and raised. I honestly had no idea it stinks, though.

Uncultivated marijuana may be different from ones bred for potency.

[charby]

The greenhouses in the OP are what you would consider "in town". AFAIK, the better quality pot is grown in greenhouses, so that adds an aspect to the discussion because greenhouses can easily be within city limits. You expect a smelly dairy farm in the country. It's another thing to have the orchid greenhouses adjacent to your subdivision (that was there first) switch to skunk.

This also adds to the "leftist" part of the discussion. The local governments would absolutely forbid say, a tobacco greenhouse. They are so pro-pot simply because it's a lib talking point, that they enthusiastically started granting grow licenses left and right just to show their progressive creds. Now they are seeing some unintended consequences, including from all the residents that were pro-legalization.

Article says they are outside the city limits.

[Ben]

Article says they are outside the city limits.

Santa Barbara city limits, but they're scattered throughout Carpinteria, as can easily be seen on the google earths. Outside city limits there doesn't mean outside the city. I lived "outside city limits" there until my last 5 years, when I was incorporated into Goleta. I was a mile from the Costco and other big box stores and shopping centers, which were also "outside city limits".

[Firethorn]

It will be interesting to see how this is addressed here and elsewhere in the country. It appears technology will allow odor control, but at an initial cost of around $150K, with $15K/mo operating costs. I think that will probably kill off a lot of small growers if it becomes mandatory, and possibly make pot a "big tobacco" type of corporate crop. Or else individual growers will have to look for land in the boonies.

I might buy $150k install costs, but not $15k/month ongoing expense.  That is probably a worst case overkill system.

Hank, many people just don't have the room, skills, or seeds for the good stuff.

Ben, I don't smoke weed or tobacco, but from my internet studies on the issue, the best 'bud' comes from unfertilized female flowers.  Given the fertilization ability of marijuana plants, the only practical way to prevent fertilization is to grow indoors with some fairly serious controls about removing all male plants(they're not hermaphrodites like a lot of plants).

Which leads to why commercial grow ops are so successful.  Despite all the taxes and such, growing ditch weed might be easy, but growing the best dank is actually somewhat hard.  And much easier per plant at greenhouse sizes.

[charby]

Santa Barbara city limits, but they're scattered throughout Carpinteria, as can easily be seen on the google earths. Outside city limits there doesn't mean outside the city. I lived "outside city limits" there until my last 5 years, when I was incorporated into Goleta. I was a mile from the Costco and other big box stores and shopping centers, which were also "outside city limits".

Outside city limits here means who is controlling the zoning. Yes, we have county (non city limit) areas that resemble what you would find in a city/town area.