How You Can Develop Cannabis To Do What You Want

[CharlesU Farley]

The topic today is going to be competition and why it's good for cannabis. We used to call cannabis _weed_ back in the '60s for a very good reason, that's what it is. Weeds, by their very definition, are competitive, thrive and in fact, do best when they are in that type of environment.

From the time they are seedlings until final harvest, my cannabis plants are exposed to a maximum amount of light, air circulation, and water/nutrients. Those are the things _everybody_ thinks about and most growers provide their plants with.

But what my plants are also exposed to is intense, unrelenting, _competition_.

As a result of being in this competitive environment, these cannabis plants ended up doing exactly what I wanted them to do:



They compete with each other for positioning to achieve the maximal exposure to sun, airflow, and nutrients. The lower, lateral branches are in such competition, not to be overpowered and put in shade by the upper, larger leaf mass, the cells expand and grow _towards_ the light. The scientific term for this is phototropism.

As a result of this competition, almost all of the plant growth hormones (auxins) are redistributed to every branch off of the main stem, not just the very top of the stem. This hormone redistribution obviously occurs _without_ the need to hack/top the main stem, so the rapid, vegetative growth doesn't grind to a halt with this method.

The end result is you have more branches, with slightly smaller buds, that will be _less_ susceptible to PM/botrytis. There will also be a much larger total bud mass, than if there was just a single, main stem Christmas tree shape to the plants, that is the traditional shape with the standard NL phenotype.

An added bonus, you're not exposing any plant tissue to invasion by mold/fungi by ripping/hacking the protective cells off the plant, when you're cutting it's fucking head off.

Sometimes a little finess and manipulation goes much further than brute force and coercion, and the plants ultimately reward me for my decision.

 

[Dragon's Den]

I just want weed that waters itself. Maybe it's time to learn these fancy electronicals.

Skip the electronics, get Autopots!

 

[Dequilo]

@CharlesU Farley great read thank you for putting it up

nice dog

all the best and grow well

Dequilo

 

[CharlesU Farley]

Finally getting over a good case of COVID but still don't feel like sitting in front of a computer and writing, so this is going to be more photos than text. Nice change of pace, isn't it?

It's time to harvest now. These girls are almost 3 months into flowering and the temp/humidity is increasing pretty dramatically, now that summer is almost here. PM is starting to be an issue so I know botrytis won't be far behind, so it's time to bring 'em down.

Please note there's no netting or support poles. SouthEast Lights can stand on its own, no matter how many or heavy the buds may be. Goes back to my basic philosophy that I wanted my cannabis plants to be Terminator plants that don't need any special treatment, support system, specific fertilizer requirements, etc..

For me, harvest time is always a bit depressing. Trim jail is no problem with me whatsoever, it comes with the territory. But putting 'em down, after putting so much time and effort into 'em, is a time for celebration but also reflection.

Besides I've got clones! They've gone from this:

To this in a little over two weeks:

The next post I'll get into more about using light, competition and air velocity in unison to get cannabis plans to do what you want them to do.

 

[CharlesU Farley]

Cart 'o buds... life is _good_.

With harvest done, the clones have another tent to stretch out a bit, before they go into larger fabric containers:

 

[*GROWHIGH*]

Great read with some great info,....I'm just wondering tho ...do you think there has been a trade-off from the first original generation, has selecting for hardiness ...diminished resin content or potency ... your plant's morphology seem to be very landrace indica ...very leafy ... very stout... different coloured phenos .....has there been a quid pro quo in terms of desirable traits

 

[CharlesU Farley]

Great read with some great info,....I'm just wondering tho ...do you think there has been a trade-off from the first original generation, has selecting for hardiness ...diminished resin content or potency ... your plant's morphology seem to be very landrace indica ...very leafy ... very stout... different coloured phenos .....has there been a quid pro quo in terms of desirable traits

Good question and I've wondered that myself for a long time. I won't say the resin production has gone down but it definitely hasn't gone dramatically up either. I've just never selected for that particular trait, and I often wonder what things would have looked like if I had of concentrated on that specific aspect of the plant.

I'm no different than anybody else, when I see those frosty, resin saturated buds that look like they've been snowed on, there is a little spark of envy there, even for me. But I wonder what the plant had to go through/endure to produce that kind of resin.

Once I was in a situation to produce more than my wife and I could consume, it gave me the freedom to concentrate on plant structure and hardiness. I've always felt if I needed more resin to catch a higher elevation, I'd just vape more.

The different colors really didn't show up until I isolated the Type II/Indica portion of NL and started concentrating on it. I think the biggest desirable trait that I've lost in doing all of this has been the uniformity, consistency and reproducibility of Sensi's original NL.

All my plans definitely don't look the same now like they used to.

 

[*GROWHIGH*]

Good question and I've wondered that myself for a long time. I won't say the resin production has gone down but it definitely hasn't gone dramatically up either. I've just never selected for that particular trait, and I often wonder what things would have looked like if I had of concentrated on that specific aspect of the plant.

I'm no different than anybody else, when I see those frosty, resin saturated buds that look like they've been snowed on, there is a little spark of envy there, even for me. But I wonder what the plant had to go through/endure to produce that kind of resin.

Once I was in a situation to produce more than my wife and I could consume, it gave me the freedom to concentrate on plant structure and hardiness. I've always felt if I needed more resin to catch a higher elevation, I'd just vape more.

The different colors really didn't show up until I isolated the Type II/Indica portion of NL and started concentrating on it. I think the biggest desirable trait that I've lost in doing all of this has been the uniformity, consistency and reproducibility of Sensi's original NL.

All my plans definitely don't look the same now like they used to.

yeahh i can understand that ..or even make some beautiful hash if you really want potency,..i see this as a fascinating experiment ...in a way you're mimicking natural selection by purely selecting plants that do best in your environment,..and i think we are seeing plants revert to how we would expect to find them in the wild .....wolves only became dogs when the natural parameters for survival stopped being applicable....great thread

 

[goingrey]

Nevil was a firm believer in 24/0 lighting and I would have loved to have debated with him over his reasoning.

As part of my ongoing desire to treat the cannabis plant as a living thing and not an object, my lighting schedule is 16 x 8 because I believe all living cells, not just human, have to have some "down time" to regenerate and recoup, to the face the next day.

They will "sleep" even with 24h days (leaves droop) and have that downtime. But I also do 18/6 because it's less electricity used.