Guys and gals, I'd like to start off with a slight introduction to the medicinal benefits of droughting our 420 plants. This will be an open forum discussion for all things droughting related. I'm currently in the process of completing my notes and developing a thesis, if you will, on this stress technique, but with so much ground to cover and with so many questions sure to arise, it's important we get going.
Let me get your attention with these numbers and then see how many of you will be able to turn your heads in the other direction-I'd imagine nobody will....
The Substantial Effects on Cannabinoid Yield in Drought Versus That Of Control:
THC 50% higher yield
THCA 43% higher yield
CBD 67% higher yield
CBDA 47% higher yield
Drought treatment elicited a 12% and 13% increase in THCA and CBDA concentration, respectively.
Yield of flower in control was:
178+/- @ 9.4 grams per meter squared
Yield of flower in drought was:
232+/- @ 18.5 grams per meter squared
Do I have your attention yet?
Before dropping in this comment I made on another feed today, thanks again
@ppm Charlie for adding me onto that conversation, I would like to note that I had a prior misconception to growing..
I thought at all times I needed to have the most beautiful plant ever. I never looked into what actually gives our cannabis it's medicinal properties nor did I ever set out to embark on a journey to find out what added stressors would elevate those properties.
By some red string effect, I fell upon 420,
@Maritimer and his original thread where I stumbled across this technique. Since integrating it loosely into my last few harvests and both SEEING and FEELING the results, I have not looked back. Moreover, I wanted to learn everything I could and not only that, but spread this knowledge to every grower I could. I hope that you all can in time learn this methadology and put it to use to help us finally end this war on pain, both physically and mentally.
Droughting has the end goal of increasing valuable metabolites such as THC and cannabinoids. Drought response has been observed in many plant species; in cannabis, the drought escape response accelerates flowering in response to drought stress-i.e, the increase of resin production.
The main focus of ABA is to be a promoter of stomatal closure which is synthesized in the roots and mature leaves in response to water stress.
It is important to note the health of your leaves during a drought as ABA is transported from roots to xylem to the leaves before returning back to the roots and the process repeats itself.
Droughting is a delicate balance as a plants plasticity is very important in the transportation and absorption of nutrients and light.
"Leaves are very important to a plant in that they create an avenue where phosynthesis and thermoregulation can occur".
Evolution developed their leaf shape to a myriad of different types to create a means of balancing energy production with the plant's fitness.
The GRN is the Genetic Regulatory Network that is responsible for creating this phenotypic plasticity. It involves a myriad of genes and proteins, including the aforementioned, to regulate its morphology through stress.
*Note: This stress technique is a controlled droughting experiment done for up to 11 days around the 7th week of flower; the length of droughting time is determined only by the LWA (Leaf Wilt Angle) and not the total #of days
