Found in plants from coriander to hops, humulene is known for its distinct spicy and earthy aroma. This terpene also shows up in several classic strains like Sour Diesel and White Widow and is the driving force behind their distinct flavours. If you’ve ever wanted to grow a true classic, check out our list of the best humulene strains.
What is humulene?
Humulene is a terpene that was first found in the oils of the hops plant. As a member of the Cannabaceae family, hops are a close relative of cannabis and humulene gives both plants a distinctive bitter, earthy taste.
What does humulene smell like?
Humulene can give weed plants a distinct hoppy scent that reminds one of their favourite beer.
Humulene can also deliver subtle hints of wood, spices, and herbs. When humulene is found in weed, it’s most commonly found in sativas.
Other plants that contain humulene include basil, coriander, cloves, and black pepper. The somewhat bitter, crisp taste and smell of humulene is partially responsible for the complex flavours and aromas of these plants, as well as certain strains of weed.
What are the best humulene strains?
What’s “best” is always a matter of opinion. With that said, here are our top picks for strains with humulene.
1. Girl Scout Cookies
Often abbreviated to just GSC, Girl Scout Cookies is one of the most well-known strains with a high level of humulene. This strain offers a spicy sweet smell and a taste that reminds one of pine forests and anise. As a 60% indica hybrid, this strain provides a chatty, euphoric, and powerful high that makes it a great choice for a social gathering or a walk in the woods.
This strain is a hybrid of OG Kush and Durban Poison—two of the oldest and most well-known strains out there. This lineage makes Girl Scout Cookies most suitable for a sunny, drier environment but its tough and hearty nature means that it can be grown just about anywhere—with enough space. These plants can easily grow to over 2 metres tall outdoors. But, since it’s an indica-heavy hybrid, indoor growers can manage to keep it as short as a metre.
Gil Scout Cookies plants typically need about 60-70 days to flower, putting them on the slightly slower end of the spectrum. However, they use that time to grow fat heavy buds on multiple tall sturdy branches. Outdoors, you can expect up to 625 grams per plant and a up to 22% THC.
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2. Gorilla Haze
A sativa-dominant hybrid, Gorilla Haze is a cross of the Cannabis Cup-winning Gorilla Glue and Amnesia. This gives the strain a powerful happy and almost psychedelic high with just enough indica to balance things out. This is also a fairly low-odour strain that makes it ideal for indoor or guerilla growing. But even without a powerful smell, the taste is still strong and has hints of lemon, coffee, and pine.
This strain produces truly massive plants that can easily reach 2.5 metres outdoors and up to 160 cm indoors. The plant is tall and slender and typically triples in size during flowering—so if you’re trying this inside, flower it well before you think you need to. Over the next 65-80 days, the plant will produce large, heavy buds that are incredibly sticky with resin (hence the name) and can grow up to 600 grams per plant and around 19% THC.
Due to its slender branches and heavy buds, Gorilla Haze can be difficult for novice growers. The branches often require additional support to keep them from breaking, and further, trimming a plant this resinous is no small task. For those looking for a truly rewarding challenge, though, this strain is perfect.
3. Sour Diesel
One of the most popular strains anywhere, Sour Diesel is a sativa made from crossing Chemdawg and Super Skunk. This gives it an incredibly energizing high and an incredibly powerful smell from which the strain gets its name.
As a sativa, this strain grows tall and lanky and can easily grow to heights over 2 metres if left outdoors where it can produce up to 600 grams per plant. Its size and growth pattern, though make this a less-than-desirable plant for many indoor growers.
While this strain has only low levels of humulene (it’s actually highest in myrcene), the earthy citrusy flavour comes out in full force.
3.2 NYC Diesel
If you’re growing with limited vertical space and you want the same diesel, fruity, pungent flavours, then our NYC Diesel is the choice for you. By combining Sour Diesel with an Afghani/Hawaiian hybrid, we’ve created a faster-flowering plant that can be kept as short as 115 cm indoors.
If you want to really push these plants to the limit, though, they can and will flourish outdoors as well. This strain can grow to more than 2 metres tall and can produce up to 650 grams per plant.
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4. Headband
One of the most well-known US strains, Headband traces its roots back to Humboldt, California. It’s a cross of OG Kush and Sour Diesel, which means it gives both an energizing cerebral high while also allowing you to relax your body. Perfect for a day in the park or just binging Netflix.
With a flowering period of 60-70 days, this is an average-speed plant that tends to start off short and bushy before exploding upwards during flowering. This strain can be deceptive and you need to flower it sooner than you think if vertical space is an issue. However, the strain’s lanky growth and high stretch make it extremely suitable for Scrog growing.
5. Gelato #51
An almost perfect blend, Gelato #51 is a 45% sativa hybrid first grown in San Francisco, CA and made from crossing Sunset Sherbet and Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies. This strain tends to grow fairly tall while maintaining the trademark indica bushiness and can produce up to 550 grams per plant. While that may be a bit less than others on this list, it flowers much faster, needing as little as 55 days to finish.
The name of the strain comes from its trademark flavor that combines berries, ice cream, and lavender with an earthy piney taste (thanks to the humulene). Users will find themselves feeling relaxed, calm, and creative without losing alertness.
The #51 part of the name is a reference to Area 51 because the effects of this strain are out of this world. With the potential to reach 27% THC, it might be good to start with a single scoop.
6. Double Tangie Banana
As a cross between Tangie and not one, but two Banana Sherberts, Double Tangie Banana has an unsurprisingly fruity taste and aroma. A 60% indica hybrid, this strain tends to be extremely compact, short, and stocky with an average outdoor height of only about 120 cm. Indoors, it’s easy to keep these under a metre making them a great choice for smaller setups.
Despite their small stature, these plants can still produce impressive yields that can rival much taller strains. Indoors, expect to get about 500 grams per square metre and up to 600 grams per plant outside. These buds are dense, heavy, often covered in resin, and can contain around 17% THC.
These plants are also some of the fastest-flowering genetic out there. These can be ready in as little as 50 days making them an amazing choice for growers who value speed and discretion.
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7. White Widow
Perhaps the most well-known strain on Earth, White Widow has been around since the 1990s and has cemented its status as a true legend. The perfect 50/50 hybrid, this strain really does have it all; an energetic cerebral buzz that will get you laughing a socializing without any anxiety or restlessness. The humulene in this strain gives it an earthy, flowery smell and a more pungent piney smell.
Indoors, these plants can be kept to less than a metre tall and can produce up to 525 grams per square metre. Their strong branches tend to be stalkier than many sativa hybrids allowing them to support dense and heavy buds that can contain up to 21% THC making it one of the best choices for SOG growing.
The fact that this plant is ideal for nearly any grow setup has made it a worldwide favourite; today, it appears in nearly every dispensary, coffee shop, and seed bank out there. Indoors or outdoors, these plants are easy to grow and make an ideal choice for beginners and pros alike.
As the plant flowers, the buds will be a very pale green and covered in white trichomes. These crystals will likely even spread to nearby fan leaves and mean that the plant is doing exactly as intended.
If you’re interested in trying any of these, head over to our seed shop and pick up a pack today. How many of these have you tried? Did we miss your favourite humulene strain? Let us know!
