A desert climate to boost terpene production

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OutdoorGod

OutdoorGod

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Some years ago i listened to a talk at the emerald cup. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of that talk, as it's on YouTube. Nonetheless, the talk was about cannabis and its' nature as a desert plant. The talk elaborated on the fact that cannabis is accustomed to approximately 10% of perspiration.
I can't remeber if this was pertaining mainly to equitorial genetics, but i suppose afghani genetics could also fit into this category.
After hearing that talk at emerald cup i decided to try really restricting water and humidity in my grows. The results were phenomenal. I noticed stronger aromas and more complex terpene profiles.
I would let my leafs wilt slightly between waterings and i also noticed less waterings meant less humidity during the lights off cycle. Sometimes I would let the fan leafs and even cola leafs droup way down. Then a good 20% watering... Not a full drink as you would normally give a thirsty marijuana plant. Sometimes if my plants were very dry going into the night cycle i would mist water on the fan leafs. Underneath the leafs just a bit. I tried to imitate the dew that would appear in the night under the leafs.
Heavily hybridized strains may not respond well to this technique, i don't know. Perhaps strains less removed from their natural habitat would respond better to desert conditions. One i can think of is Durban Poision.
I wanted to share my experience here. I'm going to be starting to grow again soon after a 3 years hiatus looking forward to it.
I'll be experimenting with creating desert like conditions in my grow tent maybe some rocks and sand in buckets will be needed to absord night humidity levels but i'm looking forward to further testing this technique and posting here with a grow journal.
I'm going to be growing Blue Magoo bx2 and Keats S1 from a seed i found in Broken Coast Keats.
 
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Jack og

Jack og

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Sounds interesting, what media would you be using? We do a good dry out in between watering but that’s to force the plant to increase uptake of nutrients. Desert climate would also mean high uv output lamps, what lights would you run?
Interesting topic and I’m gonna follow this thread.
 
OutdoorGod

OutdoorGod

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Sounds interesting, what media would you be using? We do a good dry out in between watering but that’s to force the plant to increase uptake of nutrients. Desert climate would also mean high uv output lamps, what lights would you run?
Interesting topic and I’m gonna follow this thread.
I've experimented with various soil medias. What I've found that worked best for me was, indoor: basic formulated organic soil mix, with perlite, peat moss. For outdoors, if potted, i'm using the same mix plus added sand and small rocks. Because outdoor can mean unpredicted rain.
Altho i gotta say the media you use should not per say determine the outcome of this technique of water reduction. The only media i would say could not reproduce desert conditions would be hydroponically grown bud.
It may depend largely on the roots' proximity to available nutes... So let's say there's a lot of coco coir in your media, yes there is h2o but are there nutirenients? Roots will grow in search of nutes. So if our grow media is abundant in nutrients the roots can feed in abundance. When water is lacking the roots send out (auxiliary) roots, if you will, to find the water. The plant produces more terpenes bwcause it's in survival( panic mode) it want's to survive until it can find water... For reasons unknown to me... During this search of water, the terpenes develop more complexity. Almost as if their survival is jeopardized by their lack of water, and thus, for some reason, in return they produce more alkaloids, terpenoids. Until they find water. This process of watet deprevation can be curtailed for specific strains.
I've found some strains prefer a swell period of good precipitation, then a few weeks into flower i begin restricting water.
I found for my climate in Ontario, Canada, it was easier to induce these conditions when growing outdoors. Basically it was as simple as not watering my plants. I found the drouping went away during the nights. Even if the plants were sun scorched and droupy by sunset, come 3am and with the dew they would be praying. My potting containers would be light as feather many times...i would mist the foliage and they would be happy until sunrise. This is usually when i would water... Wether i gave a full dri k or not didn't matter. It was the drying out between waterings that really determined the plants vigour. I choose the word vigour because that's what i noticed, visually. I could tell the plants were active, aware, striving. And not, content, filled a d satisfied. Which led me to realize, the correct type of enviroment stress on this plant can potentiate its' medicinal value... So long as we are attentative growers. A plant that has lived a perfect life may serve a need, but a plant which has overcome may very well shake your world.
 
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Jack og

Jack og

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Sounds like a unique method that deserves more lookin into! I’m on the west coast 40ft from the sea so my environment would not work but my grows are inland and I may do a few to check em out
 
OutdoorGod

OutdoorGod

18
3
Sounds interesting, what media would you be using? We do a good dry out in between watering but that’s to force the plant to increase uptake of nutrients. Desert climate would also mean high uv output lamps, what lights would you run?
Interesting topic and I’m gonna follow this thread.
Forgot to mention lights i used were HID. High heat output. I liked it for my plants, the seemed to as well. The heat was relaxing to them lol.
 
OutdoorGod

OutdoorGod

18
3
Sounds like a unique method that deserves more lookin into! I’m on the west coast 40ft from the sea so my environment would not work but my grows are inland and I may do a few to check em out
Thanks, no harm in trying some water deprivation on a few tester plants. Compare clone to clone, one watered generously and the others water restricted to the point of leafs dropping right down...where like 4 to 7 more days without water and it would die. So i let mine droup to the point where the fan leafs were completely limp, stems no longer horizontal. Then you water also get foliage mist on there. Once they perk up again, mist under the fan leafs. Not the cola fan leafs tho. I would wilt them in hot heat usually 3 weeks into flower is when i layed on the drout. Sometimes the media will be very low on mositure but instead of giving full water i give a small sip and a good spray of the fan leafs. I backed off with and gave more water and foliage mist towards harvest time. I mostly grow outdoors but techniques translate to indoor gardens. Outdoor climates vary i'm in eastern Canada with muggy thick humidity in July and unpredictable August's sometimes summers with humidex reaching 90% sometimes for a few days off and on during july. So for me dry plants are a good option during these times as air mositure plays a big for the roots. every summer heat waves of 40+ Celsius sometimes forna week or two. Sometimes we have drouts here as we did in 2009.. We can also heavy presipitation seasons like 2017 when the morell mushrooms grew almost a foot in height and well floods were everywhere.
 
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