"I also see that there are quite a few clear heads and most of the amber heads appear to be smaller or damaged. I'm looking at a 50 day harvest schedule for the 2 units, all trichome dependent, of course. I am totally new to this so if anyone has a better read/interpretation of these trichome pictures, please say so. "

Aloha Appolonia.
(Patron saint of dentists)


I may have an explaination of what you are seeing.

The resin glands start clear and the plant makes new ones at a steady rate
The clear ones are hardly affected by the UVb.
Goes right through them.

As the plants mature, the first blush begins to ripen and cloud-up.
A cloudy cap IS affected by UVb in direct proportion to it's opacity.
A cloudy cap can darken, then shrivel, then fall off, in a single 8 hour exposure to UV.!

It's a continuous process.
Timing outdoor harvest can be tricky depending on lattitude and cloud cover.
You want to try to catch the last big burst of coudy trichs before they fry.

It's an ill wind, that gathers no moss...

So, I deprive my girls of UV during veg. and flower.

The buds continue to produce resin glands and the caps ripen and cloud without shrivel or drop offs.

They really pile up under LEDs.
[attachment=o232154]
[attachment=o232153]
Almost every trich is still capped too!

Then, I hit them with measured amounts of UVb and "tan" them to a turn.
1 hour exposure is noticeable in it's effect.
[attachment=o232155]
And 4 hours, near the equator, makes for some couchlock-tanglefoot.
[attachment=o232152]
[attachment=o232151]

I have no lab-rats but the wife and I.

So, testing has been a problem.:stoned:
One hit, and we lose the pipe.

Should we find it and dare a second hit we lose track of what we were supposed to be testing for.:stoned::stoned::stoned:
It's a major cause of dangling participles.:jointsmile:
And don't get me started on what it's done to my chess game.

I may be wrong, but so far, it's not so much if, you use UVb as it is when, and for how long you use it.

Hermie's doing a test on fresh cut LED grown buds to see if they need to be alive for the toasting.

I'm betting that uniform exposure to UV will be more difficult, but that exposure WILL let you tailor the character of the "side effects".
Time and curing will tell.

Does this get ya thinkin?


Weezard