Cheers Dutch, both sativas are still throwing out white pistils, they should keep going for a few weeks after the MS. I am just hoping the weather stays supportive!Certified sticky! Still some white pistils on the Malawi hey? She may be the last to chop?
Here's the link to the draughting thread.
I did an accidental drought many years ago. This grow with the Mango Sherbert I am trying to recreate a droughting.
Thanks Azi.
Thanks Hazmat!
Cheers Emeraldo. My only previous droughting was purely accidental, the plant in a small ceramic pot that heated up hot every sunny day with the plant wilting badly, and was repeated every not sunny day for all of summer. The resulting bud was really really sticky, we all talk about sticky, but this was beyond any sticky that I have since grown. And it's effect was noticeably potent, really appreciably potent, it was that noticeable! That was a dozen or more years ago, and only 2 years ago did I attempt to replicate it, but I stopped when I got a mite outbreak so never fully carried it out. However, I was intrigued that the potency seemed to be greater than last years crop which I didn't drought and instead nurtured so they looked all pristine and nice to the end. This year with the Mango Sherbert I saw my chance to carry out a droughting experiment on her, which is good because I grew a Mango Sherbert last year and now I should be able to make a comparison of whether by droughting it has raised the potency of not. Today is the 20th day of her droughting.
The original droughting that was detailed in Dr Caplan's thesis, was to perform a 10 day droughting period towards the end of flowering, his was from week 7 but more sativa heavy plants it may be later, this was considered enough for the plant to trigger a droughting response that would increase the cannabinoids and thereby increase the potency.
One thing that was pointed out to me from @DV8, was that plants under stress can get overwhelmed by infections when wounds are present especially when they get wet. I think that makes a lot of sense, and for that reason I have left on the lower drying leaves that the plant has 'sacrificed' on the plant. Ordinarily, I would remove them to give a 'nice pretty look', but I realised that even though a leaf is dead, the plant has already sealed off the dead tissue, it doesn't make sense to me to then make a bunch of fresh wounds by removing dead leaves, as I am doing this for potency, not prettiness! Because I am already putting enough stress on the plant so I have accordingly left the dead leaves one to avoid the risk of the plant becoming overwhelmed.
It is interesting that your Mexican Sativa's appearance (to me) doesn't look so much different from normal. And I feel that when I look closely at my 3 plants, of which only one is being currently droughted that I don't really see much difference either, I took a bunch of trichome closeups yesterday and I can't really say that it looked to have any more trichomes that the 2 non droughted plants. However, I feel that there is more happening with potency than merely trichomes. My feeling is that the bud and sugar leaf tissues themselves generate and store more cannabinoids than only the trichomes. I really don't know to have any sort of authority on it, only that my accidentally droughted plant was the best one I have ever grown. My Mango Sherbert grow is my attempt this year to replicate that accident!
I agree. If after harvest you find increased potency, it could be because of changes in the tissues (other than trichomes) such as bud, sugar leaves, calyxes, etc. Hard to know. As @DV8 just mentioned, small scale growers like us can experiment to try and replicate your "accident" of 12 years ago, but we lack a disciplined scientific approach.
In Caplan's study on this, he carried out a controlled grow whereby he could test against non droughted plants, he had to do this to make it scientifically acceptable as a thesis. But for me, it is more simple, just drought the plant in late flowering, give her a small rescue watering, and then continue repeating this cycle until harvest. If I was tent growing, I would most likely only do this over the plant's last 10 days of flowering, but because I am growing outdoors and I have no control over rainfall, I need to begin a bit earlier to cater for potential periods of rain, to allow myself enough 'drought time' to create a sufficient response in the plant. As it was, so far in 20 days there has only been 1 day of a little rain and it was not much, not enough to interrupt her droughting!
My original accidental droughting was something I didn't even recognise as being beneficial while the plant was growing. In fact, I did my best to water her every day, often twice a day, except for a period of 5 days when we went away and on my return I found her almost dead. But despite my best attempts, she would badly wilt every hot sunny day. And as I have mentioned before, the stone tiles of the balcony I have measured at over 50C or 122F on hot days! And at that time I only grew the one plant, so there were not multiple plants whose canopies could shade the tiles, so the stone tiles were heated up all around her and would have radiated a lot of heat back at her.
Yes that is the real test, actually trying the bud. Dr Caplan of course had to be scientific, so his results were simply reduced to the percentages of the main cannabinoids compared to the control plants. But as we know or suspect, that there is an 'entourage effect' that makes those percentages alone insufficient to explain the effect of a plant's buds. But in a fantastic but limited way they indicate a response by the plant to drought conditions which happen to effect potency.
I'd guess that is exactly what happened, the Mexican Sativa responded to inadvertent drought stimulus and became more potent. Funny, they don't visually scream it out so there's more to it than trichomes. That sounds really nice though.
Haha, I'll be surprised if she's not somehow special too. A propos seeds, don't you think this drought stress will cause her to self-pollinate? I see you know and remember which branches were pollinated with Mulanje. But seeds located in other parts of the plant would possibly be pure MS. Glad you'll get some Mulanje x Mango Sherbet in any event!
Ahoy E,
Stunger my brother,
Ahoy M, and thanks.Ahoy E,
At Maritimer's I have been in a chronic battle with crippling pain. There are no comfortable positions to stand, sit, or lay. I am a recovering opiate addict as well as a recovering alcoholic and cannot take anything for pain that actually helps. Except our cannameds. But like any drug the more we take, the more it will take in time.
Eventually my need for medication has driven me to almost complete concentrate consumption as one joint is a wasted effort. In the time it takes to smoke a joint I can have several dabs so it becomes a no brainer. The levels of tolerance continue to rise, and more concentrate is consumed.
Alas and to your point, without the meds I am in so much pain I can't focus, but with the meds I am so high I have a hard time focusing. But what would I rather have?
I am glad, and a bit jealous that there are folks out there who are not in the same boat. It would now be a welcome feeling to want to just catch a nice lite buzz. But for the folks like me who cannot even sleep without terrible pain waking me all night, I am always droughting for maximum couch lock results.
Stay sober
