Increasing Trichome Production

[CannaRed]

Oh yeah!

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

My favorite part of winter is I don't have problems with my fav critical Mass cut getting mold and budrot. Love growing it in winter!

 

[CannaRed]

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?

That's starts its own argument.
Some say to protect plant from uv, some say to keep the plants microclimate humid to save water in dry environments. Others say many different things- to help pollen "stick" (that's stupid)
I like the second one, but if that was the whole story then you would think that tropical plants from high humidity areas would have evolved to not produce resin.

 

[Petrochemical]

Its def a rabbithole at times

 

[exploziv]

Why does it have to be drier? I would say lower temp but perfect VPD is the way to go..

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Why does it have to be drier? I would say lower temp but perfect VPD is the way to go..

Transpiration has to stay high, so a low feed level can be more easily used without overfeeding when transpiration stalls for a bit. When your temps are <70F this means 20%RH to drive transpiration. I'm way off the VPD charts, and the terps and cannabinoids are ridiculous in comparison.

My wife fondly remembers the time we traded cuts with an organic grower (hot/wet flower room) in the area. Not only were they unable to recognize the cut I grew as their tried and true strain, they swore it was grown organic. Blind testing picked my hydro as suuper tasty, unknown genetics. No comparison to their own grown flower of the same cut.

If I am wrong, it is an extremely tasty and potent wrong.

 

[flylowgethigh]

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.

I have the same humidity problem. So how do we control VPD and keep the temps cool enough to not evaporate away the trics?

I want to build a cabinet that I can put next to a window near the tent, so the 6" air and the water hoses can be run from the cabinet to the tent. Air filter on the cabinet door. Neatly put away inside the cabinet: Water reservoir (and it's air bubbler pump), fan and HEPA filter box for the air that gets blown into the tent. Probably back the cabinet up to the window with the AC unit, and cut a hole in the back to fit all sealed snugly for access. Not sure about the dehuey, but it needs to be one that blows the hot air out a tube so it can be sent outside. That tube will go out through the window unit adapter. Dumping the cool water the dehuey makes into the water reservoir, if the water can be trusted, would be a big labor saver. That would require the dehuey to be up high in the cabinet above the AC and filter box.

This assumes I can find a dehuey that has enough oomph and will work inside a cabinet, and has a hot air exhaust duct. and a water outlet hose. Why can't a window unit AC stick it's face in the back of a cabinet with a dehuey inside? Both are recirculating air inside the cabinet, and drying it. Why can't I find a window unit that will do the job on it's own? 20% humidity is a tough order in the Southeast.

New air from the lung room comes through the cabinet door filter, and the vacuum to pull the new air in to the cabinet is from the HEPA filter/fan box blowing into the tent. Maybe make that an 8" fan and adapt the exit to 6". There is a loss from the dehuey exhaust. Why does the dehuey need to exhaust hot air outside if the AC can cool the cabinet air enough? yeah, try to avoid an exhaust.

Cold inside air may require the inside walls to be insulated. The fans all being inside the cabinet would be a lot quieter too. That, and the clean look, adds to the stealth factor. Get it a dedicated wall outlet put in and use a single plug from the cabinet such as a freezer 20A.

And dehuey the lung room? But there is water to be dumped. So much for labor saving.

 

[exploziv]

@flylowgethigh
Ventilation / dehumidification / cooling..

Now, on the main discussion:
I will say it, 15-20% RH seems stupid for living or dead plants. No matter the temp. That's a stressed plant, not a heathy one. You guys dry your plants if you wish, I will just stay low in temp and with proper VPD, which would mean I don't even need to ever go to 20%, cause even 50% RH is too low.
Also, in my opinion, dehumidifying from 40% downwards (especially at low temps) is a bitch and sucks money out of the bank more than it sucks humidity from the air. It's so inefficient and wasteful. I would like to see the hardware and the power bill you guys have if you do that! I would also like to see it done, cause I don't expect a regular consumer grade dehuey or AC to cut it for any meaningful grow surface.

 

[f-e]

I have a portable aircon, maybe 12,000 btu. The cool dry air coming out is around 10c lower than ambient. It blows enough to ruin any hair you might have. It can't get much below 30% though. Most dehu's are getting ineffective at 40% room RH as the temp drop of say 10c, isn't really condensing much.

You couldn't really get below 30% unless reheating the air. However, you want that 70f from 100f so reheating isn't an option.

You could make it work, but it's a very difficult target. You couldn't just plant a box in the room and plug it in.

 

[Growenhaft]

Dies ist eine gestresste Pflanze, keine gesunde.

hier geht es darum, die anzahl der trichome zu erhöhen... stress ist der einzige weg, dies zu tun...
es kommt nur auf eine sache an... der richtige zeitpunkt, um eine gesunde pflanze unter stress zu setzen... die dauer und die art der belastung spielen eine große rolle.

stress, den sie auch bei hoher relativer luftfeuchtigkeit ausüben können... sie wählen einfach eine andere art von stress und intensität.
was in feuchten räumen und bei höheren temperaturen noch sehr zuverlässig funktioniert, ist nicht, den durst der pflanze zu stillen... lassen sie sie ihre blätter zwischen den 6-7 wochen aufhängen ... geben sie nur genug wasser, dass die pflanze überlebt, aber immer noch mit der dürre im medium zu kämpfen hat. die pflanzen verlieren in diesen 7-10 tagen viele blätter... aber die blumen werden vollständig kleben.

was auch immer sie tun werden, um die produktion von harz über das normale maß hinaus zu erhöhen ... es muss die pflanze belasten, um diese reaktion auszulösen... kein stress, keine stärkere harzproduktion.

 

[ZOnaVerde]

An AC that exceeds 10,000 btu consumes approximately 800W + .... 1200W and can be used on a volume of 30m³ +.
In order to maintain the temperature (I assume that most of them have problems during the summer) you have to consume as much as the whole LED kit, ventilation, etc.

During a grow I don't think it all comes down to W (LED)/g when l / g, nutrients/g, soil/g, total consumption should be taken into account: fans, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, irrigation systems, etc / g, no?
During a grow they can bring a minimum consumption of over 150kV per grow and that grow price/g !

A good comparison can be made with electric cars that show you how many kV they consume per km but they don't show you that for a period of 2 weeks you can lose 20% + in standby right? This changes the actual kV consumption / km.

 

[maryjaneismyfre]

Genetics...Diet...Environment/Light/fresh air-Co2...Rootzone oxygen levels..

Also any SAR initiators will also kick out a little extra resin, regalia, chitosan etc.. Silica supplimentation helps, the more light and UV the more resin generally, in my outside low tech areas Im in charge of, we were pushing 2000-3000ppfd diffused light at peak times when buds were setting just from the sun, whereas I'm bleaching tips indoors under 1800 to 2000ppfd of HPS light under reflectors. I got nugs that were averaging 9g dryweight and were solid balls of resin hardness off the charts..though those were things like haze hybrid CBD plants or wedding cake crosses that I was testing out so genetics playing a huge role, my food is dialed and environment during flower was good, plently fresh air moving across the canopy at all times and plenty air exchange.

Even growing out those high resin plants, there will be great variation with the sisters, but one or two will just be uber caked, that is where genetics comes into play.. For example I grew out s1's from a 90's widow recently from OSG genetics in spain, and they were all super frosted in the same lovely environment with great diet, but one or two were stupid frosted, more so that forum cut cookies I grew side by side with all those testers..so all other limitations aside, genetics will always be the major one, and then with diet and environment and SAR initiation, you can improve that. Though with the SAR initiation, timed wrong or dosed wrong at wrong time and you can inhibit bud mass production as well though resin will increase. Running two frosty cuts side by side, one with a more compacted media, and one with a fluffier media, of the same make up, like coir or etc.. so other factors out of the equation, the one with the fluffier more aerated medium will be frostier.

Above pic is a sureshot (Raspberry cookies hybrid) x platinum cookies pre98 bubba bred by @getmo, there were some frostier in the test run, but that would be entirely genetics, this was frosted enough for me..

 

[Growenhaft]

Genetik...Ernährung...Umwelt/Licht/Frischluft-CO2...Sauerstoffgehalt im Wurzelbereich...

entweder Sie oder ich vermisse den Titel der Bedrohung

geht es darum, den Harzgehalt zu erhöhen? Sie können das mit einer schwach harzigen Pflanze machen ... aber ich kann es auch mit Genetik machen, die stark harzig ist. Genetik spielt auch keine Rolle. Es geht darum, den Harzgehalt zu erhöhen, welche Genetik? alles andere was du hier schreibst ist essenziell für die gesundheit und vitalität der pflanze... und damit die grundlage um viel harz produzieren zu können... aber es gibt keine möglichkeit den harzgehalt über das normale maß zu erhöhen.

Je mehr Licht und UV, desto mehr Harz im Allgemeinen

was du hier schreibst ist nichts anderes als "stress durch licht" es gibt viele möglichkeiten zu stressen... aber es gibt einen gewöhnungseffekt... das heißt, wenn der stress dauerhaft (zeitlich) da ist... oder falsch Intensität (Stärke des Stresses) gewählt wird... der gewünschte Effekt tritt nicht ein. die art der beanspruchung ist frei wählbar... aber nicht die zeit und intensität.

 

[exploziv]

An AC that exceeds 10,000 btu consumes approximately 800W + .... 1200W and can be used on a volume of 30m³ +.
In order to maintain the temperature (I assume that most of them have problems during the summer) you have to consume as much as the whole LED kit, ventilation, etc.

During a grow I don't think it all comes down to W (LED)/g when l / g, nutrients/g, soil/g, total consumption should be taken into account: fans, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, irrigation systems, etc / g, no?
During a grow they can bring a minimum consumption of over 150kV per grow and that grow price/g !

A good comparison can be made with electric cars that show you how many kV they consume per km but they don't show you that for a period of 2 weeks you can lose 20% + in standby right? This changes the actual kV consumption / km.

On top of that it can't dehumidify that low, not even for 5-10 sq meters, nevermind 30 of them..
Efficiency of electrical dehumidification really drops to almost nothing at those intervals.
Also not really think u can use a 12000 btu for 30 sq meters of garden. Maybe for 30 sq meters of home. For a grow, I would say 10 sq meters is already pushing it. Not that I would want to spend money to use AC, I try to limit even the dehumidification needs.

 

[Petrochemical]

Transpiration has to stay high, so a low feed level can be more easily used without overfeeding when transpiration stalls for a bit. When your temps are <70F this means 20%RH to drive transpiration. I'm way off the VPD charts, and the terps and cannabinoids are ridiculous in comparison.

My wife fondly remembers the time we traded cuts with an organic grower (hot/wet flower room) in the area. Not only were they unable to recognize the cut I grew as their tried and true strain, they swore it was grown organic. Blind testing picked my hydro as suuper tasty, unknown genetics. No comparison to their own grown flower of the same cut.

If I am wrong, it is an extremely tasty and potent wrong.

I've smoked hundreds of Hydro flowers i've smoked thousands of soil flowers I'm a firm believer in soil now if you've got some Hydro dialed into where you can convince people that they're smoking soil grown Organics that's interesting

 

[Petrochemical]

On top of that it can't dehumidify that low, not even for 5-10 sq meters, nevermind 30 of them..
Efficiency of electrical dehumidification really drops to almost nothing at those intervals.
Also not really think u can use a 12000 btu for 30 sq meters of garden. Maybe for 30 sq meters of home. For a grow, I would say 10 sq meters is already pushing it. Not that I would want to spend money to use AC, I try to limit even the dehumidification needs.

My dad used to pull in all the cold air 4in ducting and inline fans first thing in the morning and keep it in a room circulating it worked well for him he never used AC back in the day it got pretty hot up here this summer

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Ran hydro for nearly 20 years and now I am learning soil and rabbit manure. Cannabis can definately be grown amaazingly well with hydro, but there is a lot of bacterial and enzymatic medicine which is not produced this way. Flavors and high are awesome, but like the food supply these days it has lower medicinal value.

Ultimately, if the plant does not get overfed, hydro or soil makes no difference to the enjoyability. The most difficult part is supplying everything needed without an excess in one element or another.

Loved my hydro.

Edit: 50% RH will never come close in quality to 20-30% RH. IMO. Stressed or not, I VASTLY prefer super low RH flowered cannabis.

 

[Petrochemical]

Ran hydro for nearly 20 years and now I am learning soil and rabbit manure. Cannabis can definately be grown amaazingly well with hydro, but there is a lot of bacterial and enzymatic medicine which is not produced this way. Flavors and high are awesome, but like the food supply these days it has lower medicinal value.

Ultimately, if the plant does not get overfed, hydro or soil makes no difference to the enjoyability. The most difficult part is supplying everything needed without an excess in one element or another.

Loved my hydro.

Yeah see the gentleman that I saw doing Hydro are a far cry from people like you, I don't think they must have been really lazy with their setups is one of the reasons why they ended up with product that was kind of lacking I assume

 

[flylowgethigh]

This discussion is making a huge light go off in my head. I have a new quest - night time VPD.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

This discussion is making a huge light go off in my head. I have a new quest - night time VPD.

Also consider... variations in temp, RH, and pH create different terps from the same materials. So, static environments produce less complex terpene/cannabinoid profiles.

 

[DunHav`nFun]

I started growin dope outside back in the late 70`s down deep in the Hell of the dirty south with native black dirt and sand , and temps soared and stay in the high 90`s and low 100`s pretty much all the way through end of Dec. and into mid Oct. before the seasons broke and foliage started dyin off along with cooler weather around the corner.......

I was also fortunate enough to have partnered up with a long haired hippie genius that got an academic scholarship to a well known university and his major was Botany and Agricultural Sciences . We were dumb about pot but were smart enough to plan out intermittent and delayed plantings every couple weeks all the way into the first week of July to hedge our bets against harvest loss from deer , moles , insects , and most of all hunters once deer season opened up right when harvey`s would begin......now.....

Why am I spewin all this horseshit when this thread`s about increasing trichome coverage on the plants before choptime ?.....Ok guys here it comes.....Our first plants went out the last of March -first of Apr. and would get chopped by the end of Oct . on the full moon round Halloween give or take a few days depending on the moon so we could see to chop and get the fuck out under cover of darkness in a MOST illegal state , and.....

What we noticed on those plants that mainly grew through the scorchin ass heat with little to no rain or moisture other than the deep watering cycles we would give em once a week , was that they were absofuckinlutely covered in resin from tryin to shield themselves from the intense heat AND sunlight blarin down on their ass all the way till choptime , and we noticed the same thing with the next batches as well that would usually finished round Thanksgiving.....but.......

As things cooled off and the next 3 or 4 plantings that had been started the latest had less and less resin , but more and more fall colors due to the night temps killin off the chlorophyll causin more and more anthocyanin to be produced for those darker wine and purple colors to come out that indeed changed and enhanced flavor /....and mind you.....

These were the same plants , rather the best mexican bagseed we had access to cuz back then there WERE no seedbanks to acquire genetics from back in the day , so my hippie genius partner deduced that his books on other class 3 or 4 plants that pot was related to were stating the heavy trichome coverage / sticky ass resin was indeed due to heat AND light protection as well as thwarting leaf munchin bugs and insects from gettin at the flower clusters and doin damage to the reproductive parts...........that said......

I can`t understand you guys sayin trichome coverage and trying to increase said coverage with lower temps and less humidity UNLESS possibly it comes from the genetics involved actually bein derived from dy arrid areas of the world cuz all my knowledge , experience , and first hand knowledge over 12 yrs outside and another 20 + hard yrs of indoor croppin proved the exact opposite of what I was workin with , but again.....

I know there`s many waysta skin a mule with different response to stimuli arrivin at almost the same outcome , so I`m not sure any of these conversations and posts in this thread are really proof positive on ways to actually increase resin production , but I can say this.....

My indoor croppin was ALWAYS based on what I learned outside , so in mid flower I ALWAYS cranked the light AND heat up for resin production that worked well for me , and bein in the south I never was able to get humidity to drop more the 50% durin late bloomage , BUT.....I did drop lights out temps the last few weeks to help with those fall colors and natural plant senescence by jump startin chlorophyl degradation that in turned helped tremously durin the dry and cure process once end of cycle came.....so.....

That`s my tale and I`m sittin on it and my 2 centavos from all those yrs of doin this shit , but again there`s.....many waysta skin a mule.....so again.....Good luck in all endeavors to increase trichome coverage in all your own lil worlds.....

Peace.....DHF......