Feeding Sulfur to increase terpenes?

[ftwendy]

How on earth am I spreading all this bad rep? I apologize - somehow I can't figure out how to give rep????? Strange, confusing, embarrassing. Apologies all..... I'll stop trying to give rep to avoid any future confusion.

Dworth - what are your thoughts on adding epsom or another cal mag supp to plain water during flush? How about sweet grape to plain water? I was under the impression that a flush needed to be a flush, and should only be plain ph'd water, but I've found results to the contrary. Maybe this is what you're referring to and I'm noticing, too?

cheers, ftw

 

[ftwendy]

Also, re: Mh finish, agreed. I will try on 1 of 4 lights this round...compare results, and report here. I notice a huge difference in plants exposed to my supplemental cool t5's hung throughout my hps lit flower. Been thinking about this for a while, just wasn't sure when to make the switch. Grazie hombre. Ftw

 

[dankworth]

ftwendy-
I am not sure of the utility of using a calmag product during flush. It would probably have a lot to do with the medium used. I like a 2 week flush myself. I like to use pH'd RO water. I think it may have been desertsquirrel that pointed out that flushing with RO can be done at any pH, though.
Seamaiden I think uses molasses for some of her flush. I don't remember exact figures.
Texas kid (I think it was him) was talking about using Gatorade for the flush. He said his patients greatly preferred meds flushed with Gatorade. You may want to look into that. I use a product called Banana Manna for weeks 7&8 of a 9 week plant. It provides a superior product compared to not using it. But I would like to find out what is in it, so I do not have to spend money like a sucker.
For coco, I feel that enzymes (pond protector from Carefree enzymes, 15 ml/100 gal) and drip clean really help me with flushing and quality.
The most epic medicine I ever had was directly under that expensive hortilux MH lamp that duplicates sunshine. I cannot duplicate those results under a blend of hps(digilux) and MH(broke-ass internet brand).
Check out the info on silica regarding flushing in the nutrient category. I think I need to run silica all the way through feeding. I cut it out a litttle earlier last time, I do not think it made meds better for me.
But I did notice that as I took down the room(half hps, half MH), and had to dim hps lights to not overlight the specimens left, that the meds got frostier. As the ratio of MH to hps increased, there was an immediate correlation to the increase in frostiness. Really wants me to make me finish the room in the last two weeks with all metal halide. If I could afford it I would have all horti blue-ass MH for the finishing lights. But they cost like $1000 for 6 online. Digilux MH lamps have a similar spectral output, all colors fairly balanced against another with the exception of big peaks in the red and blue.
And I need to get into supplementing with UVB. Jalisco Kid has some good stuff to say about that.
Hope this helps

 

[ftwendy]

Help it has... thanks DW, I'll process this.

 

[ttystikk]

Hey guys- I noticed the subject veered off sulfur towards lighting to increase quality, and I wanted to mention a really good thread on lighting elsewhere on the Farm;



Reading this and other threads has shown that people experimenting with an increase in their UV/blue spectrum in flower are meeting with some intriguing results.

For example, the Gavita plasma light has a really impressive spectrum, although it's a bit weak in the orange/red end. Paired with HPS, however, it seems to really be kicking up the plants' output and quality.

For those who don't want to spend ridiculous Hortilux money on bulbs can go to SunPulse, where they advertise bulbs with all sorts of temperature ranges, including some they claim output in the 10K range, pretty blue/violet. They recommend these specifically for end of flower stage use.

 

[ftwendy]

Wow. So much good information - tough to prioritize which improvement I want to make. Hmmmmmm. You guys have the wheels turning on my end. Cheers, Ftw

 

[greenops]

I signed up to this forum because of this thread. While this thread is about how to increase terpenes, I'm trying to find out why my buds lack terpenes! I think we are basically looking for the same answer.

I'm getting frustrated. Since I started growing earlier this year, I've spent a lot of money and most of my free time in research... which I don't regret!

I converted a cabinet into a grow closet, using 250w HPS and grew out 3 AK48s and 1 Skunk#1. At the same time I had two more AK48s that didn't have space in the cab moved outside on my balcony.

Late in the flowering period of the indoor batch, I've noticed that the buds did not develope any smell. I thought it was ok and the smell would come out during a proper cure.

While curing, the 2 outdoor AK48s were swelling up on my balcony. Contrary to the indoor batch, this outdoor did stink. I could easily smell the dank when I stood right next to the plants! I used the same pre ferted soils (Plagron Grow Mix), same nute line (Plagron).

At that time the indoor has been curing for about 2 months and the smell was completely gone! I blamed it on letting the branches hang for too long (I waited til most stems snap) before starting the cure in jars.

When I chopped the outdoor, the buds still smelled nicely. After the dry the smell has disappeared.. and I blame that on the buds drying too fast due to high temps.

I continued with a 2nd indoor grow in the same cab. I made sure to chose a stinky strain (Amnesia Lemon) and I was planning to hang the whole plant this time to avoid the buds drying too fast.

So now I'm in week 8, ready to chop, and same as with my first indoor.. the smell has not developed!

All my indoor buds look much better than my neglected outdoor grow... but I have no clue why the indoor lacks the smell, while the outdoor was dank (before the chop).

Sulfur, Mg, Cal etc has been mentioned. But I used the same fertilizer and soil for all grows. The only difference is the light, which has been mentioned also...
But i dont see why my light would screw things up, its not high intensity. Its in an air cooled hood, the temps are in good range, the distance is just right...

Id really appreciate if somebody can help me out on this one! Thanks!!!!!!

 

[dankworth]

Outdoors has uv. Indoor hps doesn't really. Plus the balanced spectrum of sunlight seems to really deliver the terpene production vs. hps. Look into uv-b supplementation. Cats are saying you only need like 15 mins/day of uv to make the plants frost the heck up in response. I have not tried this myself yet.

 

[GanjaGardener]

For flowering, I light exclusively w/ 600's w/ relatively tight spacing- a tighter grid than what adjust-a-wings recommends, anyways. I started replacing my 400W MHs w/ 600 MHs in the veg room earlier this year and have since replaced swapped them in for HPSs in the flower room at a 3HPS:1MH ratio. Consider this as no more than anecdotal, ATM- the strains I'm currently harvesting are new 2 me- regardless, the terps do seem to be more enhanced and active. Once again, there are too many factors involved to confirm that the MHs are solely responsible for enhanced terp production, if responsible at all, but I'm not swapping out MHs and going back to all HPS's any time soon.

 

[greenops]

Yes HPS is no sunlight... but does lack of uv really affect the smell? A lot of growers use the bulb i'm using and they dont have this problem.

 

[dankworth]

Is your lamp too close? What are your ambient temps? What is your canopy temperature? I have seen where a lamp that was too close to the colas caused a decrease in aroma and flavor in my opinion. Maybe poop from some animal could help, some kind of guano or something, since you are in soil. I don't know a whole lot about working with soil.

 

[dankworth]

Thanks Velvet Elvis for your input. You make a lot of very good points. Being a bigger hippie(focusing on organics, soil, etc.) I am convinced leads to the best medicine possible.
Plant count limitations lead to bigger specimens. Soil is notorious for being the slowest vegging medium, increasing total cycle time. And if you have optimized your environment and nutrition for a given cultivar, reducing total cycle time is the next step for increasing the ratio of results vs. time.
Some people can't afford the choice of soil as a medium financially I guess is what I'm trying to say.

 

[GanjaGardener]

I'd need to know the veg time and examine the root mass, structure and apical development at flip time as well as get a look at the plant 2 weeks into flower to make any comparisons- soil-coco-H2O substrates or otherwise. I know that the general consensus has it that hydro moves the plant through veg faster- I've seen up to a week sooner cited and I'm not here to dispute the general consensus... but I'm not so sure about the true value of the gain.
Mass matters but what kind of mass are we talking about? I'm liking the structure and apical development that I'm getting w/ a coir/rice hull based custom soil mix and organic nute program that I'm working. If the micros gets a good, strong kick start from the get go and the soil is really cooking during veg, the plant's will make some remarkable strides during pre-early flower. With most of the indica/sativa strains that I run, a 3x expansion in height/breadth is standard. Maybe people are getting the same result w/ a hydro/H2O grow- I don't know.
In any case, I like to grow micros in soil/soiless and let them go to work. Lower nute expense- my guess is a 35%-50% savings, and I only need to use neem and/or spinosad for an aggregate of 2 maybe 3 weeks/ year. ie there's virtually no bug or pathogen probs in my grow room. I haven't seen a bug in any of my rooms for over 4 mos.

 

[Capulator]

I have never seen a plant grow faster than RDWC. Not a week difference. More like a full month.

 

[ttystikk]

I have never seen a plant grow faster than RDWC. Not a week difference. More like a full month.

Word. On the other hand, doesn't RDWC seem to make the flower cycle last longer? Not that this is a bad thing, since it leads to more yield as well...

 

[ttystikk]

VelvetElvis, you say you'd keep some dirt grown product around for personal stash- tell me what you find is different/better about soil grown vs. hydro? This isn't a trick question, you're far from the first to voice this opinion, and everyone seems to have their own reasons why.

 

[ttystikk]

Your 'ramblings' make a lot of sense to me, and I think it has as much to do with the personal tastes of the consumer as anything else. I've given hydro to one patient and been told it's 'tasteless', and to another it was 'well flushed!'

 

[dankworth]

In my mind taste can be distinguished by "depth". Like when you get crappy strawberries from the store, and it has just that one flat not-very-good strawberry taste. Like 1 flavor presented. But the dank strawberries combine like a dozen or more flavors centered around strawberry. And as you chew the different flavors take turns presenting themselves to your palate.
When I had medicine that was the most flavorful and rewarding, it was also the most medically effective. I have been on a quest to duplicate these results ever since I got them. Made my meds straight up transcendental.
It seems like awesome flavor and aroma goes hand in hand with enhanced terpene production and therefore increased potency/medical effectiveness.
I want to nail down what organic additives can promote this effect.
Merry Christmas! Hope you all get to produce the best meds ever this coming year.

 

[GanjaGardener]

This is a great thread, Merry Christmas! and thank you to *everyone* for the interesting and thoughtful posts. I'll get back w/ some thoughts and ideas that y'all have inspired when I get a chance to break away from festivities later on.

 

[greenops]

Is your lamp too close? What are your ambient temps? What is your canopy temperature? I have seen where a lamp that was too close to the colas caused a decrease in aroma and flavor in my opinion. Maybe poop from some animal could help, some kind of guano or something, since you are in soil. I don't know a whole lot about working with soil.

Distance of the light to the canopy was maybe 10 inches to a feet. I increased it now a to about 18 inches.
I thought I could keep it as close as possible, as long as it wouldnt get too hot.
I have the hygrometer in the middle directly under the light and temps are around 80-82F.