How To Deal With The Smell Of Flowering Marijuana Plants

One giveaway that you are growing marijuana indoors or outdoors is the aroma produced by flowering tops, especially the indica varieties with their signature “skunky” odor. Many people, of course, won’t recognize the smell or associate it with marijuana, but some will. The covering used in the urban garden for outside growing (mentioned on this page) will contain some of the smell, but you still have to lift the cover up to water the plants, so it’s best to do that in the afternoon, when breezes are stronger and will dissipate the odor rapidly. You can also use cedar shavings, not bark, for mulch in your entire garden. Cedar can somewhat disguise the smell of flowering tops, but not entirely. If you are worried about the odor of your outdoor plants, ask your seed supplier for less-smelly varieties, especially the smaller indica-sativa hybrids.

Generally speaking, indica varieties are smaller and more compact, thus easier to conceal than the nonskunky sativas, which tend to grow very large. But many indicas have the skunky aroma, so you have a bit of a quandary here. More information about choosing varieties is covered on my website.

If some of your marijuana plants become really smelly as the flowering tops mature, some may have to be sacrificed by harvesting them earlier than desired. All growers or farmers of any kind of plant occasionally have to make such decisions—it’s simply a part of agriculture.

If you are growing marijuana indoors and a dinner guest asks if you have a pet skunk, you know you have a serious problem. Are you venting your grow room properly? Probably not. You can also buy devices to reduce indoor odors, such as deodorizers, ozone and ion generators, and activated charcoal filters, but your venting system should be your first line of defense. All of this is discussed in more detail on my website, but you should have odors in mind before you begin, because they are definitely a security issue.