Old Wives Tales

[WashougalWonder]

Ok folks, I am so burned on some of the old wives tales. I want folk like Old Mac, Rusty, etc., to dispel the mistruths out there, we are seeing them refuted in posts, let's put it all in one place.

My favorites.

"You gotta hang the plant upside down to cure." This is purely convenience. It is just easier to hang the stems upside down if you choose this way.

"The 12 hours of light make them flower." Not, it is the darkness that makes them flower.

"If a hermie pollenates another plant all offspring will be hermies." NOT. If a hermie pollenated another female you would get female seeds........(Statements assume hermie was from stress as true hermie is very, very rare.

I know Old Mac has a couple pet peeves on this topic, let's hear it!
:thumbsup:

WashougalWonder Reviewed by WashougalWonder on 04-04-2011. Old Wives Tales Ok folks, I am so burned on some of the old wives tales. I want folk like Old Mac, Rusty, etc., to dispel the mistruths out there, we are seeing them refuted in posts, let's put it all in one place. My favorites. "You gotta hang the plant upside down to cure." This is purely convenience. It is just easier to hang the stems upside down if you choose this way. "The 12 hours of light make them flower." Not, it is the darkness that makes them flower. "If a hermie pollenates another Rating: 5

[WashougalWonder]

"RO or Distilled water is the only way to go."

Well maybe if you want to add a bunch of stuff to replace the micronutes. Technically either should not have any minerals at all, just pure water. Plants require those minerals and it is very important to replace them or the plant will suffer very slowly and not give much indication if illness until very, very sick. I use tap water pH'd to 6-6.5 and I don't worry about chlorine or chloramines.

[Purple Daddy]

Interesting stuff, used to hear hanging the plants upside down was so the "thc can flow from the stem/stalks to the flowers" and have seen guys get pretty pissed off when you tell them thats not true trying to defend their method.

I used to hear trimming sun leaves helped the plant branch out, a buddy of mine did this a long time ago and pretty much killed his plants.

How about indoor is MUCH better then outdoor buds or that "outdoor buds are garbage". I literally was told this two days ago!

I find that miracle grow works quite well, not sure what all the fuss is about for an all around fertilizer it's effective and cheap.

Never heard about all these different darkness routines although I do wonder if the flowers do indeed grow at night while during the day they release the resins? I could swear I've read that Chrysanthemums(sp?) flowers grow at night.

I've had some bad luck in the past, my buddy is like "how hard can it be, put it in the ground and water it, it's not that difficult..." I wholeheartedly disagree as it takes some practice and work. Under ideal circumstances it probably isn't so difficult but many of us face challenges with space, indoor/outdoor, discretion can be a problem etc.

How about the climate in the midwest only produces male plants? My stepdad used to say this.

[VapedG13]

Flush the plant 3 to 7 days before harvest to remove the nitrogen and other nasty stuff from the plant. Actually, you are flushing the soil so the plant has less stuff to uptake, which means less stuff to burn-off in the curing jar. To flush the plant itself, you'd need special fittings and a special garden hose. (likely a low-volume drip line would do) :jointsmile:


You are forcing it to use stored energy just to survive, and you are assuming there is no price to pay. This isn't a stress-free technique, as that energy must be replaced to resume 'normal' growth. You are asking the plant to go from 100 mph (daily light for it's energy) to 0 mph. (a dead-stop, but she'll still use her stores to survive) Then you accelerate her back to 100 mph, even though she's running on empty. Strains with weaker genetics could easily have a problem with flipping back-n-forth like that.


Other people have "noticed" that Miracle Grow is crap, or they've "noticed" that organic is better than natural or they've "noticed" that you need 20 different products to bring a plant to harvest.
But eventually you'll "notice"...if you keep parroting other's, that are wrong about their snake-oils or their bitchen techniques, you'll keep perpetutating wives tales and misinformation. That's what this thread is all about.

And factually, you won't be getting more yield or any more trichomes in any of this. Although the plant goes through growth spurts, hopefully your extended darkness doesn't affect it's next spurt. But you just might cause stress and form nanners, stunt normal growth, slow the flowering process by depleting her energies to survive. This is not a technique worth fretting over, but I've heard from others somewhere...if you leave 'em alone they'll be fine.

No bro I've grown this way for the last year.... been a grower for 20yrs....I have been forced to give my flowering plants 2 days of darkness or 16 extra days of darkness in a 8 week flowering cycle...every 2 weeks they get 2 days of darnkness while I'm gone

I travel alot.....It doesnt cause the plants to finish early or later...it doesnt produce more or less weight wise ...it doesnt give the plants more trichs or less.

hasnt effected either way good or bad......I have sour diesel, chem4, pre 98 bubba, lemon skunk ,og kush. white widow, lemon larry and exodus cheese

[WashougalWonder]

Can we keep the thread closer to topic please, move informational stuff to your own threads please.

[StickyBuds1987]

Thanks for the updated information. This should help sort out where people want to go with the maturity of their plants prior to harvest. I have never gone more than 50% brown or amber trichs but I will try going to different stages when harvesting this fall with clones of the same plant grown in similar conditions and will report my findings. So far I have had really good luck once I started waiting until I saw at least 5% amber so it will be interesting to see if going 20%, 50% or 80% will make a significant difference. Do you know if going longer will affect the flavinoids in a negative way.

I saw a post by someone discussing storage who said they just stored their weed in jars in a cool dark area. They claimed their weed just kept getting better. For me I find the strength is still the same but a lot of the taste seems to be lost. Any OWTs on storage people should know about. Being vegetable matter I think freezing is the best. I say leave it a little moister than usual so it will not be brittle when thawed.

ah yes do that and let us know how it comes out and for flavor i cnat help you there.

ah the stuff about putting your buds in sealed airtight jars is called curing what this does is is eliimnate the moisture from the buds and gets rid of the the bad tasteing stuff and the amonia smell it also activates some stuff in the thc i think but im not a pro so im not really sure they also say that it improves the flavor and makes it less harsh.

[rudy2010]

Thanks for the updated information. This should help sort out where people want to go with the maturity of their plants prior to harvest. I have never gone more than 50% brown or amber trichs but I will try going to different stages when harvesting this fall with clones of the same plant grown in similar conditions and will report my findings. So far I have had really good luck once I started waiting until I saw at least 5% amber so it will be interesting to see if going 20%, 50% or 80% will make a significant difference. Do you know if going longer will affect the flavinoids in a negative way.

I saw a post by someone discussing storage who said they just stored their weed in jars in a cool dark area. They claimed their weed just kept getting better. For me I find the strength is still the same but a lot of the taste seems to be lost. Any OWTs on storage people should know about. Being vegetable matter I think freezing is the best. I say leave it a little moister than usual so it will not be brittle when thawed.

[StickyBuds1987]

Thanks for the replies seventhchild and rusty. For the most part you confirmed my basic premise. I do lack some knowledge about what others are looking for when they smoke weed but the information I presented is based on my personal experience not supposition or inuendo.

My intention is only to point out that weed is not fully mature when the trichomes are cloudy (this is the OWT part) and both seventhchild and rusty actually seem to agree. I appreciate you pointing out that there are some folks who don't really want weed at this level of maturity for a number of reasons. That is just fine for them of course. In my experience I have noticed that weed harvested prematurely was weak and had an off putting taste to me which is why I posted this information. You have been able to find strains of weed that taste fine when harvested at this early stage of development and are tuned to help with your particular ailments. That is not what my post was about and I am not arguing that point.

I have no intention of disparaging anyone who smokes weed of any strength for any reason.

For me I use weed for pain thus I want the strongest weed so I can smoke the smallest amount possible and still feel relief. I want others out there suffering from pain to have this information available. Other than the folks on this forum I don't really know anyone growing weed who wants anything but the strongest and best tasting weed possible. I stand informed on this point and thank you for it.

This brings up another uncomfirmed piece of info I read (another OWT?). Some folks say you need to see 50% brown or amber trichs before you harvest. I can't find that particular post at this time but I think they were saying the weed would be stonier but would loose a lot of its flavor. I read this post some time ago and don't remember the exact details. Anyone know if this is another OWT. I heard some folks say that when the trichs go that long the plant is just dying and you are losing quality.

Not a pro by anymeans but i think that i can hep you, the color of the trics just affects the high you get for instince if the tircs on your buds are 80% cloudy and 20% anber well then the high would be more of a head high and not so much of a couch lock something good for people who have to work and stuff but still need there meds. Now if you switched the percentage around to 80% amber 20% cloudy than well you would have something that would help you with pain or thats good to smoke before bed and stuff, so the rule of thumb is more cloudy trics means more of a head high and more anber trics means more of a body high couchlock type feeling good for pain.

So man its really all depends on what you or the person likes, wants or needs if they need it for pain than you would harvest it with more amber trics and so on but as far flover and stuff i cant help you there maybe one of the pro's can help with that and let us know if im correct haha.

[rudy2010]

Thanks for the replies seventhchild and rusty. For the most part you confirmed my basic premise. I do lack some knowledge about what others are looking for when they smoke weed but the information I presented is based on my personal experience not supposition or inuendo.

My intention is only to point out that weed is not fully mature when the trichomes are cloudy (this is the OWT part) and both seventhchild and rusty actually seem to agree. I appreciate you pointing out that there are some folks who don't really want weed at this level of maturity for a number of reasons. That is just fine for them of course. In my experience I have noticed that weed harvested prematurely was weak and had an off putting taste to me which is why I posted this information. You have been able to find strains of weed that taste fine when harvested at this early stage of development and are tuned to help with your particular ailments. That is not what my post was about and I am not arguing that point.

I have no intention of disparaging anyone who smokes weed of any strength for any reason.

For me I use weed for pain thus I want the strongest weed so I can smoke the smallest amount possible and still feel relief. I want others out there suffering from pain to have this information available. Other than the folks on this forum I don't really know anyone growing weed who wants anything but the strongest and best tasting weed possible. I stand informed on this point and thank you for it.

This brings up another uncomfirmed piece of info I read (another OWT?). Some folks say you need to see 50% brown or amber trichs before you harvest. I can't find that particular post at this time but I think they were saying the weed would be stonier but would loose a lot of its flavor. I read this post some time ago and don't remember the exact details. Anyone know if this is another OWT. I heard some folks say that when the trichs go that long the plant is just dying and you are losing quality.

[Rusty Trichome]

ok so here is an OWT that has not been mentioned " if your plant only has 5 fingered leaves on it than its going to be male"
is this true?

Nope. Not true at all.

and that males produce enough thc to get you high or make hash with?

Yes, but you risk pollinating your ladies, which will cost you dearly in yield. The only time you'll want a male to mature, is when you're going to collect his pollen for making seeds.