Growing myths debunked (open discussion)

Discussion in 'Advanced Cultivation' started by Chief Smokingbud, Feb 16, 2006.

  1. Chief Smokingbud

    Chief Smokingbud Hash Engineer

    In my many years of growing i've seen alot of myths surface, many are quite ludicrous with no scientific facts, others are not quite so cut and dry. This is just an open discussion of common growing myths that you might like to debate/discuss on.

    One of my favorites is: My fan leaves are shading my buds, is this a problem? Common answer you can either cut them off or tuck them so they are not shading.
    Lets discuss the purpose of a fan leaf. By design they are large and wide to allow a large surface area to capture light. Their sole purpose is to capture light energy which will be transferred into complex sugars which the plant uses as fuel for growth and photosynthesis. Basically a large solar panel.
    With that being said, wouldn't you want to allow as many fan leaves as possible be exposed to the light? Just an observation, i've had alot of shaded buds that turn fat and are just as big as other buds with direct light. I'm still undecided weather it's best to allow shading or not. Comments? other topics welcome.:D
     
  2. Chief Smokingbud

    Chief Smokingbud Hash Engineer

    30 views and no replies...geez
     
  3. Randy High

    Randy High Organic Alumni

    Been waiting


    Lets see my fav is birth control pills.


    Produces more females
     
  4. 420solo

    420solo Cured Fat Sticky Bud

    My favorite is can you add orange kool aid to the soil and get orange bud? :D


    Great topic, lets not forget fan leaves also have stomata on there bottom side. This is why you do not light the bottom of your plant. These stomata take in the air and use it with the light to transform sugars into energy. Soooo...when you do tuck a leaf out of the way you are clogging these stomata and, keeping the tops t from the ligh tdefeating the entire purpose of this leaf, might as well cut it off. I think the large fan leaf is more bennificial then the small bud leaves on the bud. I would leaf it. yuck yuck yuck
     
  5. tiocfaidharla

    tiocfaidharla New Sprout

    I have always been a fan of the horiffic grow guides that cirrculate full of slightly incorrect information.....and out right lies.


    http://nepenthes.lycaeum.org/Plants/Cannabis/potgrow-1.html


    is a personal fav. of mine.


    if you havent the patience to read it here is one of its many gems:


    "Both the male and the female plant produce THC resin, although the male is not as strong as the female. In a good crop, the male will still be plenty smokable and should not be thrown away under any circumstances"
     
  6. wawona

    wawona The Trichome Connoisseur

    I believe that too 420. After having circumstances where the small bud leaves were removed and the fan leaves left behind and vice versa I find that the buds grow bigger with only the fan leaves as compared to leaving only the "bud leaves"


    I also like the myth that you can feed your plants by urinating directly on them. Any grass or plant material that I have ever directly urinated on turned yellow and died.
     
  7. SMARMY

    SMARMY Cuban Bee

    I like the myth about hanging the plants upside down after harvesting so THC oozez out of bud. I've been hearing this for years. but never from anyone who has actually grown pot.they do swear by it though.
     
  8. Randy High

    Randy High Organic Alumni

    Yeah that is an old one for me as well.


    Like the THC is in the roots....


    At one time tho .... funny
     
  9. Useless

    Useless Diogenes Reincarnate

    Hmmm...


    OK, I think the buds that are exposed to light produce bigger. To me, "selective pruning" is the way to go. I mean let's be real folks, the branches in the corners with little or no direct light produce tiny, arid buds. The buds exposed to light get big. It's a fact. Now I certainly am NOT advocating trimming all your fan leaves, but if a leaf is blocking the light from the rest of the plant, either tuck it or cut it. The key is being able to determine which leaves to pull and how many to still be beneficial and not harmful. It would be easy to over do it and stunt the growth of the buds.


    As for myths - I like the menstrual fluid during flowering myth. I know/knew a girl who did that. She swore up and down it produced larger buds of a better quality.
     
  10. Chief Smokingbud

    Chief Smokingbud Hash Engineer

    Wow, i see this thread is rolling.Where do i start? I can confirm nor deny whether leaving the fan leaves exposed rather than buds is better. I am doing an experiment....so we'll compare at harvest time :eek:


    Yeah birth control pills, menstral fluid, Kool aid, we all know is bunk. The only thing i can see menstral fluid doing is nitrogen.....and that's all i'm care to go with that.


    Yeah i agree there is alot of misinformation in the form of grow guides. I can say without a doubt that i don't waste the time with males. The small amount of anything you can get out of them isn't worth the time...inmho.


    Hanging plants upside down to express the remaining thc is a classic joke :D
     
  11. halfbreed420

    halfbreed420 Begun Flowering

    It's my first grow but...


    "You can tell sex by size of the plant."


    Someone kept telling my caretaker that the largest 2 of our plants were "definitely male". Of course they both turned out to have big juicy buds hanging all over and not a single nad in sight.
     
  12. Green Goblin

    Green Goblin Cannabis Connoisseur

    the legendary miracle grow.
     
  13. foaf

    foaf Germinated

    If you use CO2, you need to keep your room temps in the mid 90's


    Ive read all around, up and down, tomatoe growing boards and books, and its just not true.


    Plants might tolerate mid 90's with or without CO2, but they prefer more moderate temps.


    If you repeat something often enought it becomes truth. Since CO2 users cant vent all the time they often run higher temps, so this myth is readily accepted.
     
  14. 420solo

    420solo Cured Fat Sticky Bud

    How about leave the lights off in the room at the end for a couple of days.


    Miracle Grow can grow nice buds.
     
  15. HappyJay

    HappyJay Red Eyed Jedi

    I heard a couple good "miracle" ideas.


    * Driving nails through the stem or trunk help them produce more resin.


    * Placing them in a garden with other "flavour" type plants will force th MJ plant to 'adopt' the others smell or flavour.


    * Placing in a garden with other males will turn a plant male.


    * Plants with seeds are male that should be ripped out.


    * Clearing all fan leaves off when the plants boomin (mid veg), will make it grow better as there isnt as much shade.


    * Put the plant through hot and cold heat stressess during flower creates the buds to form a thick, protective ressin coating.


    *The old pull entire plant and dunk roots into straight boiling sugar water before hanging will force all the thc out of the roots and branches into the buds.


    Well, all I can think of off the top of the head, and including the ones others have mentioned, we might start to scratch the surface of the B/S pile of, "my mate recons??", lists.


    NB. I dont exactly like Miracle Grow myself either but have seen some nice nugs and a 20 plus foot 7 pound plant grown with it.
     
  16. wawona

    wawona The Trichome Connoisseur

    Now I am not 100% on this, but I think the rule of thumb is that if your temps are continuously in the 90's you will need to add CO2. I think that's right. maybe we should wait for the misti one to reply. he's used CO2 injection quite a bit.
     
  17. foaf

    foaf Germinated

    Tomatoe growers use co2 all the time, and they go to lengths to keep their temps moderate, like 80. All the big KBS growers use co2, they spend thousands on ac units to cool their closed system to 75 or 80. Id be glad to see any real study, the only studies on temperature Ive seen are pretty old ones that suggest that the best thc concentrations come with moderate temps like 75 - 85, no co2 included in the studies. I use co2 and Id be grateful if it was better at 95, then I could turn the AC down in the summer.

    schedulelite.jpg

    /monthly_2006_02/schedulelite.jpg.37269eb67ce854e0e18b5b5cbf2d5552.jpg
     
  18. Useless

    Useless Diogenes Reincarnate

    foaf, you're right on the money. They do best with temps of around 85F with CO2. Wa. is right in that they can handle increased temps of 90-95, but the best result comes from around 85F lights on 75F lights off when running CO2.


    Man the A/C bill can add up to some $$ in summer time eh?


    Closed loop all the way with CO2. A/C units get expensive running the big watts. Need 3K-5K BTU/1000 watts.
     
  19. Chief Smokingbud

    Chief Smokingbud Hash Engineer

    The way i always understood it was maximum co2 absorption is the 80-90* range with 85* being the perfect medium.


    Here's one ya'll may not have heard is if you "keep" a male in your house (not exactly in the grow) you will have an increase in females because plants can sense a male near by and there is no need for others as one can pollinate hundreds of plants. I wouldn't say that myth is out in left field because it does make some sense. Now whether it's true or not we would have to see.


    uh oh i just had a brainstorm..........the 420 myth busters, the TV show. That would be cool :D


    HappyJay, the myth about driving a nail through the stalk. I'm sure it wouldn't increase resin production but it "could" increase yield as that might be in line with super cropping which i'm a believer of.
     
  20. Chief Smokingbud

    Chief Smokingbud Hash Engineer

    Damn Foaf not only does your grow look space age but also automated? I just looked at your pic. I've wanted to get into using the computer to automate and monitor but the initial investment was more than i wanted to spend.
     

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