Increasing Potency, GROWTH, Yield and Trichomes
This is something all growers obviously are interested in. Now the methods,and facts I'm going to list I know will be scrutinized and criticised by some, and discredited by others, which is completely fine with me.
Some of these methods come across as pretty controversial, but they all have been researched and tested by people I know, or have talked to, or I have tried personally myself.
with that said lets get to the good stuff.
Basics
1) Plant health- It's obvious,but important to state having a healthy plant will produce more trichomes. I try not to throw any plants into flowering unless there all healthy and mature. Plants will not reach there full potential if they are sick or immature. So try to resolve all health issues prior to flipping to 12/12.
I also have experimented with and use a very slight addition of VEG nutes, during the Flowering Cycle. The extra N- Nitrogen, makes a great difference.
2) Cool room- having your temps lower in flowering will have your girls producing more resin or trichs.
3) Genetics-Obviously you want the best strain AND Got to be Indica!
Now the spooky advise:
How to increase Trichomes, Production, Yield
1) Very low humidity in BLOOMING- I think most people know that dryer conditions are more condusive to resin production. From my experience and from talking to other people that grow, its good to have extremely low humidity, or as low as you can get it, DURING FLOWERING, NOT IN VEG.
Try to shoot for 15% humidifity in flowering, if possible, keeping it nice and dry.
HAVE extreme temps, within range, like 80s in day, mid 60s in night.
NO MISTING
2) UVB lighting- there has been a lot of research and tests that indicate that exposing BUDS to UVB lighting in flowering increases trichome production. Naturally in parts of the world with high levels of UVB like Afghanastan or Kush Valley or Thailand have high levels of UVB in their atmosphere. Its believed the leaves makes a "Sun screen" to protect from the uvb, and that sun screen people say are trichomes. Adding UVB lighting in flowering DOES increase trichome production if done correctly.
*** UVB lighting is dangerous, it can cause skin cancer,and can turn you blind. You cant see the light it omits, but if your under it for 10-20 min you will get a sunburn. As long as the UVB is on in your grow area, you don't walk in while its on. As long as you do this everything is fine. I recommend you do from 6-8 hours in flowering starting around 2nd-3rd week of flowering. Start 1 hour a day and gradually increase to 6-8 hours, starting in the middle of its 12 hour cycle. Keep the UVB at least 2 feet away from your canopy. Get the reptile lights,they are cheap, they come in .5 and .10 uvb .10 is better obviously and they make special lamps to hold them, if you want a reflector for it. Make sure to rig the uvb to a seperate timer,to go on 6 hour into the light period. Please use caution with this, and dont allow the uvb to shine on you over a minute or two.
3) Intentional Stress- When your approaching the end of your flowering cycle, you start to stress the plant out.
Hey, they are about to die anyway. When plants THINK they are dying , the only thing they know how to do is grow or try to reproduce. If you start to stress them it is believed by many that the plant will try to get stickier in order to be able to catch more pollen from a flowering male.
4) ADD EXTRA COLD AIR
5)ADD A DARKNESS PERIOD
When you do this, there are some things to keep in mind.
**Never do this for more then 14 days before your harvest. The key here is to stress them out just enough, to not give them time to turn hermaphrodite on you. You have to estimate when you think you might have 14 days left, start and harvest no more then 14 days after. Kick the plant pots everyday, shake the plant a little everyday, and give it a few minutes of HIGH FAN Air, like a wind storm.
Take little thumb tacks, drive them into every branch on the plant right below the last node. Do not break anything, or drive big nails into them, just use small thumb tacks. Just a tack into every lower branch will do the trick. You're not damaging them, your just annoying them to get a reaction.
TWISTING- hold one part of the large stem between a thumb and finger, and one inch higher, hold one part of the large stem between a thumb and finger, and TWIST it, to damage it.
Take your fingernail and scrap a piece of skin (bark) off, the size of a penny on the larger stems.
- I know a lot of people like to do 24 to 48 hours of darkness prior to harvest but you can try 2 days of darkness before u chop, or even mess with the light schedule a little, using less light. I know this seems crazy but it works. Just do it the LAST week before harvest.
This is something all growers obviously are interested in. Now the methods,and facts I'm going to list I know will be scrutinized and criticised by some, and discredited by others, which is completely fine with me.
Some of these methods come across as pretty controversial, but they all have been researched and tested by people I know, or have talked to, or I have tried personally myself.
with that said lets get to the good stuff.
Basics
1) Plant health- It's obvious,but important to state having a healthy plant will produce more trichomes. I try not to throw any plants into flowering unless there all healthy and mature. Plants will not reach there full potential if they are sick or immature. So try to resolve all health issues prior to flipping to 12/12.
I also have experimented with and use a very slight addition of VEG nutes, during the Flowering Cycle. The extra N- Nitrogen, makes a great difference.
2) Cool room- having your temps lower in flowering will have your girls producing more resin or trichs.
3) Genetics-Obviously you want the best strain AND Got to be Indica!
Now the spooky advise:
How to increase Trichomes, Production, Yield
1) Very low humidity in BLOOMING- I think most people know that dryer conditions are more condusive to resin production. From my experience and from talking to other people that grow, its good to have extremely low humidity, or as low as you can get it, DURING FLOWERING, NOT IN VEG.
Try to shoot for 15% humidifity in flowering, if possible, keeping it nice and dry.
HAVE extreme temps, within range, like 80s in day, mid 60s in night.
NO MISTING
2) UVB lighting- there has been a lot of research and tests that indicate that exposing BUDS to UVB lighting in flowering increases trichome production. Naturally in parts of the world with high levels of UVB like Afghanastan or Kush Valley or Thailand have high levels of UVB in their atmosphere. Its believed the leaves makes a "Sun screen" to protect from the uvb, and that sun screen people say are trichomes. Adding UVB lighting in flowering DOES increase trichome production if done correctly.
*** UVB lighting is dangerous, it can cause skin cancer,and can turn you blind. You cant see the light it omits, but if your under it for 10-20 min you will get a sunburn. As long as the UVB is on in your grow area, you don't walk in while its on. As long as you do this everything is fine. I recommend you do from 6-8 hours in flowering starting around 2nd-3rd week of flowering. Start 1 hour a day and gradually increase to 6-8 hours, starting in the middle of its 12 hour cycle. Keep the UVB at least 2 feet away from your canopy. Get the reptile lights,they are cheap, they come in .5 and .10 uvb .10 is better obviously and they make special lamps to hold them, if you want a reflector for it. Make sure to rig the uvb to a seperate timer,to go on 6 hour into the light period. Please use caution with this, and dont allow the uvb to shine on you over a minute or two.
3) Intentional Stress- When your approaching the end of your flowering cycle, you start to stress the plant out.
Hey, they are about to die anyway. When plants THINK they are dying , the only thing they know how to do is grow or try to reproduce. If you start to stress them it is believed by many that the plant will try to get stickier in order to be able to catch more pollen from a flowering male.
4) ADD EXTRA COLD AIR
5)ADD A DARKNESS PERIOD
When you do this, there are some things to keep in mind.
**Never do this for more then 14 days before your harvest. The key here is to stress them out just enough, to not give them time to turn hermaphrodite on you. You have to estimate when you think you might have 14 days left, start and harvest no more then 14 days after. Kick the plant pots everyday, shake the plant a little everyday, and give it a few minutes of HIGH FAN Air, like a wind storm.
Take little thumb tacks, drive them into every branch on the plant right below the last node. Do not break anything, or drive big nails into them, just use small thumb tacks. Just a tack into every lower branch will do the trick. You're not damaging them, your just annoying them to get a reaction.
TWISTING- hold one part of the large stem between a thumb and finger, and one inch higher, hold one part of the large stem between a thumb and finger, and TWIST it, to damage it.
Take your fingernail and scrap a piece of skin (bark) off, the size of a penny on the larger stems.
- I know a lot of people like to do 24 to 48 hours of darkness prior to harvest but you can try 2 days of darkness before u chop, or even mess with the light schedule a little, using less light. I know this seems crazy but it works. Just do it the LAST week before harvest.
