Wow, I could not disagree more on that point waywardson. I do agree with you that understanding the science behind what we are doing, and being objective and logical is extremely important. I try to be as scientific as possible with my growing so I understand the "why" and "how" behind everything that I am doing. I take a lot of notes, gather a lot of data, conduct many experiments, and spend a lot of time reading agriculture text book and studies to further my goals and understanding in regards to growing. Being able to verify and repeat your results is a key element in being a good grower no doubt, but if you focus ONLY on the science you are seriously missing the bigger picture. Creativity, ingenuity, being able to think outside the box and beyond the pure science are all very important. In my opinion the best growers and breeders are ALWAYS the ones who have an artistic touch because they tend to be more open minded and creative and more capable of lateral thinking. Far to often scientists become extremely narrow minded and are essentially "blinded by science."
Logic and science can help you grow bigger and better plants more efficiently and to maximize those aspect of your grow, but the more subjective and artistic elements of flavor, aroma, and appearance are equally important. Who cares if you are growing plants to their "upmost potential" from a scientific point of view if the bud doesn't smoke good? If you bud smokes like shit, or you are not satisfying your patients or customers then what's the point? You could be hitting 3 gpw and have some crazy super-efficient room built, but if the bud tastes and looks generic, you are not going to impress anyone, especially someone like me that places a high values on uniqueness and originality. The bottom line is the consumer doesn't give a shit about how scientific your grow is or how logical you are, they care about the quality and how good it looks and how good it smokes.
How do you go about quantifying something as subjective as flavor? Can you come up with a scientific formula for "good taste and smell"? How about statistics on what "looks good"? Can you chart originality on a graph? Of course you can't - because science no longer applies to these variables. Even potency is very subjective as everyone has a unique brain chemistry and reacts differently to different strains. Potency tests help get you a general idea, but you still only see a piece of the bigger pictures, since there are so many more variables and chemicals in play other than just straight THC content.
Just look at the beer industry for an example of this. Companies like Coors and Anheuser-Busch may have millions of dollars of research behind them, and employ very advanced, scientific methods to brew their beer, but their quality is shit. Everything the make is pure crap, completely lacking in flavor, originality and soul; about the only thing their beer is good for is target practice. Smaller breweries like Anderson Valley and North Coast do not have an army of scientists at their disposal like Coors and Anheuser-Busch do, but they have creativity, ingenuity and an artistic touch. Because of this the quality of their product is far superior to ANYTHING that Coors or Anheuser-Busch has every produced or will ever produce. The same is true in the cannabis industry.
In my experience (and this comment is not aimed at you waywardson or you True Grit so please do not take offense) the growers who focus JUST on things like the science, and yield, and efficiency grow very poor quality buds most of the time. People like that often simply lack the connoisseur touch and the ability to see beyond pure numbers and statistics. If you do not care about what the consumer or medical patients you grow for thinks or wants and do not care about how your buds smokes then you are a total failure as a grower. Even the great breeders like DJ Short and Luther Burbank speak of their breeding as an art and a craft rather than as a science. If all everyone did, especially when growing, was go by just the established science, can you imagine how boring everything would be? There would be little innovation, little change, no uniqueness, and no originality. All we would have would be just plain, boring, unoriginal and soul-less run of the mill crap from now until eternity.
Anyway just my two cents. I'll stop side tracking this thread now.
