Increasing Trichome Production

[cancareent]

I would like to hear some of your tips and tricks and maybe some pictures. Would also like to know anything I can add to feeding or room to increase trichome production. I just dont feel like end product is as frosty as I would like it to be. Thank you.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

I work backwards from most by growing less flower under the same number of trichomes. Nearly 20 years ago it was by accident, and now I do it on purpose.

Veg longer, then flower at 69F and 15-20%RH

Light feed till physical flower bulking quits, then taper off till harvest.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

 

[Roms]

1 - Genetics
2 - Light spectrum (White and UV prior) (CMH or DEL)
3 - High thermal amplitude day/night

High altitude for outdoor to sum up!

 

[Creeperpark]

Flowering at 69F and 15-20%RH is the super-secret! However, for some of us, it can be somewhat difficult to produce and maintain these conditions. My daily RH is between 50% to 98% depending on which way the wind is blowing on that day. In Wintertime, it is easy to keep in the low 30 % range but during the warm season, It runs from high 50s to 70s.

 

[Creeperpark]

Trichomes are used by the plant to protect and preserve the calyx as long as it can while waiting for pollen.. When a plant produces pistils its basically produces sexually stimulated hormones that are highly stimulated. As the pistil ages, there is desperation experienced by the plant from not getting pollen. The plant is horny as hell and wants and needs sex badly. I guess a good example would be a 40-year-old that could never get sex. Out of desperation, the plant will try to preserve the empty calyx as long as possible with trichomes. As time passes and the plants don’t get pollen over time, out of desperation they fool themselves and pretend they have seed by swelling fat after the pistil withered. When the calyx swells without pollen it tries to protect the empty seed pod out of desperation. All of this is time-related and with changes from the photoperiod and light intensity from the environment as Winter gets near. The whole resin thing is caused by this hormonal phenomenon in a last-ditch effort to reproduce. In the very last phase of the plant's life, the Cannabinoids turn into poison that may harm anything that is a threat to its weakest state. . THC! The buds have to “SET FAT” empty seed bracks, for a while, and If I pick the weed before this process then will not get as much as I could during the last phase of Cannabinoid THC!

 

[Lester Beans]

Keep the room 72 or

under and humidity 30% or under lights on and 65 lights off.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

I was thinking today about what it would take to maintain 69F/20%RH in an area with 100F+/100%RH for a 1000w grow. What level of equipment and lung room+ CO2?? Crazy dehuey going, right??

 

[Lester Beans]

When I using 1k's in summer I used several of the largest inline fans and sealed hoods to get the bulk of the heat out of the house. Then a window banger with a lung room that also exhausted outside.

LED's have basically eliminated 3/4 of that equipment. I need to have a yard sale lol

 

[CannaRed]

May is when the humidity really picks up here in Virginia. I bought a new dehuey today. It would be extremely hard for me to get that low. I think 40 would probably be lowest for this time of year.

 

[Creeperpark]

Genetics, nutrients, water, temp, humidity, pruning, lighting, and photoperiod all play a role in trichome production. I think the more healthy the plant is the more capable it will be with trichome production.

Can you have potent trichomes production in a grow with periods of 60 to 70% humidity? Yes, very much so, and if you look at the genetics like Acapulco Gold, Panama Red, Thai, Vietnamese, and a few others from the tropic regions closer to the equator you see the opposite is true. These regions stay at 70RH and above most of the time.

The calyx is designed to protect the plant's reproductive organs in between the sepals and provide the flower with a base of stability. The catalyst for all of the plant growth starts in the calyx and ends with the calyx. The whole function of the calyx is to protect the pre-seed from any threats. As the plant makes seeds or dies without seed, it makes oil-filled trichomes to repel any intruders. In 30%RH the oil-filled trichomes are used by the plant as a sunscreen to keep the calyx from drying out. Sometimes just giving a female an extra 10 or 15 days of flowering can help produce more resin.

 

[Growenhaft]

Ich denke, je gesünder die Pflanze ist, desto leistungsfähiger wird sie mit der Trichomenproduktion sein.

die pflanze ist gesund und es geht ihr gut, es fehlt an nichts... es wird eine normale trichomenbildung haben.
sie können eine übermäßige trichomenproduktion erreichen, indem sie die pflanze massiv belasten.
Sei es durch Trockenheit, Hitze oder Kälte... durch Lichtentzug oder gar die Absenkung des pH-Wertes unter 5... oder durch die gezielte Verletzung der Pflanze... verbrennt Stammspalten etc. Entscheidend ist, das richtige Zeitfenster zu finden. Bei den meisten Sorten liegt dies zwischen der 6. und 8. Blütewoche.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

The major downside to high humidity is requiring high heat to keep transpiration rates high. Above 70F the most fragile terpenes begin vaporizing off, making them unavailable for polymerization or being further processed into cannabinoids. (edit: With low temps, the transpiration is maintained by the plant attempting to stay hydrated in the low RH, thus keeping transpiration just as high)

Another goal is to keep terp and cannabinoid production low enough not to burst cells. Your trichs should be full and fat at harvest time, not withered and dessicated looking. Filling too fast can rupture a trichome and expose the resins to evaporation and oxidation, speeding up the decomposition process before harvest. Think over-amber trichs at the 'normal' harvest window for the plant, and a sleepier effect.

 

[Creeperpark]

Ich wusste nicht, dass ein Absenken des pH-Werts auf 5 die Trichomproduktion ankurbeln würde. Danke für den Tipp.

 

[Creeperpark]

During the rainy season, "now" my humidity rises and stays high. I have to watch my water intake very closely or the plants will stall. I have no choice because it's not worth hooking up a dehumidifier for only 2 plants. Here are some shots of high humidity buds shots of today

.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Oof!!

Then again, it was my lack of being able to control the environment which led to the density zone. Super hot, super dry, and all I could do at the time was cool the air so my grows were super dry and very cool.

I mean... what do you ultimately want?? Plant or trichomes?? Hot wet makes a LOT of plant. Cool and dry makes up to one third of the harvest of hot and wet sometimes... yet cool and dry 'lasts' nearly 3 times as long per gram in your bowl...

So choose... but choose wisely...

 

[Three Berries]

I had a grow last year that I got really heavy stickiness all over even on the trunk. I tapered off the lights over about three weeks and then at the end gave them two days total darkness.

I tried to duplicate this this spring but with three days of darkness, but not sticky at all.

Only difference was coincidence or the temps as one was in late summer other winter. Summer temps in the 70fs and winter in low 60fs.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Oh yeah!

Look aound and you will find many examples of this. Cooler, drier winter grows do better.

 

[Petrochemical]

1 - Genetics
2 - Light spectrum (White and UV prior) (CMH or DEL)
3 - High thermal amplitude day/night

High altitude for outdoor to sum up!

What he said ^^^^^^

 

[Petrochemical]

Glandular trichomes are the plants way of protecting itself. Protecting itself from what? might be an angle there you could run down as well right?