Creating more tricomes

[Tom Hill]

Tom, I see what you said, so genetics will always dictate thc per cent.

So more trichs just distributes the thc to more sites, no increase is base potency.

Is there anything the grower can do to increase trich development/potency on any given plant.

Terps can be manipulated, and perception of effect is then apparent.

But.

Genetically speaking, there is no way that increasing trichs will increase potency.

THC may be over-rated - there, I said it lol. We currently have a bunch of nerd kids who have never smoked an epic Thai therefore have no baseline, crunching numbers on THC in the lab. What has that brought us in reality? Squat. If fact drug type cannabis is more boring today than ever in history imo.

As to small heads look no further than NL or any of these other infectious inputs into our germplasm to dazzle the masses. It's all bunk man. I gunna talk about it all more soon.

 

[Redrum92]

^I agree with you up until the "modern weed is boring" part. "Modern weed" encompasses 100x as many varieties as the 60s-early 80s, many of them being recently rediscovered/reworked Thais or landraces. Sure, some are lame, but not nearly all. Also, is it possible 30 years of tolerance and being 50 instead of 15 maybe changes the experience? I used to trip balls off of absolutely shwizzity schwag when I was 15. I had the best weed experinces of my life on schwag, but that doesn't mean I want all weed to be like the snicklefritz I had in high-school

That being said I wasn't smoking weed in the 60s-80s, so I can't really know, but I don't necessarily think you can compare highs from 40 years ago to yesterday. Rose colored glasses and youth and all that

 

[ramse]

I had posted a research on water stress.
you can find it in this thread:
https://www.icmag.com/threads/interesting-study-on-cloning.358485/

 

[Dropped Cat]

THC may be over-rated - there, I said it lol. We currently have a bunch of nerd kids who have never smoked an epic Thai therefore have no baseline, crunching numbers on THC in the lab. What has that brought us in reality? Squat. If fact drug type cannabis is more boring today than ever in history imo.

As to small heads look no further than NL or any of these other infectious inputs into our germplasm to dazzle the masses. It's all bunk man. I gunna talk about it all more soon.

I agree THC per cent is over rated, I have low THC cultivars that have blown away regular smokers.

A couple tokes from my stash cuts trough the chem dogs and GG stuff.

I know because I have stash of them both and no one asks for a second helping.

20-26 percent THC, but so one dimensional.

Tom, tell us about your moderate THC plants you enjoy, I have flowered
thai haze and zamaldelica.

Recently been flowering hybrids with stellar results, have a couple breeding lines
working that include nycd, thai haze and sensi star, among others.

Please talk about it soon, we all listening.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Just about any time my wife and I smoke other than ours... we end up being socially acceptable until we can step out and properly medicate. lolol

'Cept when we're out for a long while. Ouch! lol

 

[Ca++]

It's looking a lot like trichomes are water loss prevention. So deep dry-outs might be a key. It seems even as cuttings, water problems have led to more resin production later on. Many have expected they offer shade, and worked towards associated goals. No proof has come forward though, and it should of by now. Another trichome goal might be reducing air movement. Again, to reduce water loss.

I have been looking at RH differently. Finding the perfect 60% everywhere wasn't perfect. If we look at a swathe of cannabis plants in the wild, RH might be 60% around the buds, but that's not what we see within the plants or above them. It's more of a localised figure. Local to the canopy. This has led me to increase RH within. Slowing air through them to achieve the goal. The results have been positive so far. I wonder it this is what the plant wants. The leaf surface must be higher RH than we measure, as the damp coming off is held around by these comb like figures. Even in grow we have a type the eye does quite see. So if we go belting them with air, it looks to be doing no good.

I think moisture at the root is a driving force, and as we have not studied for this, it's perhaps why we are still looking. It's a relationship that ties the HID LED debate to a different common outcome. Just maybe it's the missing link.

That study where they got more by mistreating the cuts, only happened in one of two runs. It's on the fence. It is something though. However it could fall either side, as the professors success rate was 71% anyway. They were not qualified to be doing growing studies. On paper perhaps, but 71% is rubbish.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Increasing humidity (I grow at around 20%RH), IME, is the wrong direction. Studies point out cannabis grows best at 68F, and raising humidity slows transpiration. When transpiration is slow the nute level must be higher for proper nutrition, and so changes in transpiration can easily cause overloading. The higher the nute concentration, the finer the line between perfect nutrition and overfeeding.

Oh yeah... it also makes for much less trichome dense flowers, because of the higher support structure growth rates.

 

[Redrum92]

Increasing humidity (I grow at around 20%RH), IME, is the wrong direction. Studies point out cannabis grows best at 68F, and raising humidity slows transpiration. When transpiration is slow the nute level must be higher for proper nutrition, and so changes in transpiration can easily cause overloading. The higher the nute concentration, the finer the line between perfect nutrition and overfeeding.

Oh yeah... it also makes for much less trichome dense flowers, because of the higher support structure growth rates.

What do you think about air movement? I feel like that plays a major role. Just by my intuition/experience, it feels like 50%RH with 0 air movement does not equal 50%RH with a fan directly on the plant, in terms of transpiration

I feel like there is a balance between air movement and air humidity, e.g. the higher the humidity the more movement there should be.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

I use 3 COMPLETE air exchanges per minute, which is about a standard 6" fan in a 4x4x5 tent sized area. Filtered intakes swirl the air around the plants in a circle and then up through the canopy. No above canopy fans.

Less air flow gives me lower terps for some reason, while also increasing mold issues and slowing transpiration rates. Personally not interested in changing this.

 

[therevverend]

View media item 18703232
At this stage in the summer many plants have some degree of trichome coverage on the stalks and branches but this one's a little extreme. Hasn't begun to flower and it's producing rows of capitate stalked trichomes on it's stalk and branches. It's much more impressive to the naked eye, they sparkle like diamonds. The photo at least catches some of the sparklers, kinda' weird the camera turns some of them blue. I find the pattern interesting, one row spikey cactus hairs, then two rows trichomes, then a row of spikes, two rows trichomes..

People have many ideas about why plants produce trichomes but nobody knows why it started. In this case it looks like predator defense, I doubt ants or slugs want to crawl through that, but the reason for this sort of craziness is human intervention. The same way we've bred apples to be sweeter. The original cannabis plant in nature probably produced trichomes and cannabinoids to keep the bugs and birds out until the seed ripened and fell from it's calyx. Originally cannabis plants shed their seed onto the ground.

This kind of discussion comes up regularly, people want a cheat to trick nature into making their plants frostier. I don't use any tricks. The humidity here is not low, the elevation is near sea level, lots of pollution to block out UV light. I achieve frosty plants through organic gardening without pesticides and selective breeding. It's very simple, anyone can do it.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Should you grow that same cut in low RH, low temps you will definitely see a big difference in trichome density.

20 years I've been watching this subject be discussed, and for 20 years the ones who try it do not go back to high humidity. Who wants lower trichome density and lower terps???

 

[Creeperpark]

You don't create more trichomes, you select (breed) giant heads

The breed you select from is what I'm talking about. Over many generations, the heavy resin plants have had to deal with harsh conditions. That's what makes the difference but it can take many many generations.