Woah man this stuff is pretty strong! It tastes great, what strain is it? Is it Indica or Sativa? These are all questions we've heard and probably asked, but what is not as often asked or thought about is how was this stuff grown or what was this stuff grown from? Because not all weed is grown equal!! There are so many variables when it comes to growing and they all matter a great deal and as a consumer its very easy to walk into a dispensary over and over again and never be educated by the bud tenders, and walk out with what you think is great stuff but in reality you are missing out on a whole new world of higher class smoke.
It all starts with the soil/medium! You can either grow from a form of soil or soiless media whether it be soil, coco or perlite the newest trend that is all the rage in automation or a straight . The other way you can grow is hydroponically where the roots never touch dirt. Hydroponic grows can grow plants very large and fast, but don't quite get the same terpene levels as media grown plants. When growing in a media like Coco there are no nutrients present so the grower has to add all of them. They often use products that have a strict feeding schedule and are not often made from organic materials and if not flushed will be left in the Cannabis. Which is why it's supposed to be standard practice to flush all the nutrients out of the plants by feeding them only water for at least 2 weeks. The most natural way of growing is by using living soil beds that require no additional nutrients other than the ones already present in the soil. They can do this by creating an ecosystem within the dirt itself giving the plant everything it needs! When you grow with living soil you undeniably get the most terpene rich buds which were grown without harsh salts. The best part is by creating this ecosystem you can help keep pests away and don't have to use pesticides! The reason this isn't standard practice is it's much easier and more profitable to automate your grow using nutrients and keep up scaling. Not thinking about all the waste or the patient's overall experience.
Have you ever got an 8th of a special strain from one shop and then went to another and they were both grown good but they had different effects and taste profiles? What happened is you stumbled upon two different phenotypes of the same strain. Sometimes shops only buy clones from others and don't source their own. So they will have only phenos commonly available. The people who actually pheno hunt their own are going to have exclusive phenos that may have more of the traits that make you enjoy the strain in the first place. Always support people who actively go on large pheno hunts as these are the people trying to advance the genetics in the industry and not just cash in on the trendy ones.
The next thing is the lights. There are many different types of lights but the biggest difference is obviously going to be outdoor vs indoor. You have full outdoor grown which is not grown under a cover and is exposed to all the elements. Then you have greenhouse or "light dep" weed which is grown with a cover. The light dep part stands for light deprivation which is the key part in growing cannabis. It's when in nature the nights turn longer than day and the plant automatically switches to its flowering mode. Growers control this by switching the lights to 12 on and 12 off, and outdoor growers control this by adding a tarp or other things to deprave the plants of all light. Tricking the plants into going in their flowering mode, this is how you can have multiple harvests in a year and how you can grow longer flowering plants in less than ideal climates. There are very low tech basic greenhouses and then there are state of the art ones which include climate control and automatic light dep systems. The sun is so powerful it creates a more diverse terpene experience than grow lights but it also has some downfalls. You will not have as tightly structured buds and the risk of mold and pests is increased exponentially.
The different types of indoor lights have a lot less of an effect for consumers as indoor vs outdoor. There is no real exact science on this yet but growers have done their own experiments on lights and from what the photo evidence reveals there is slightly more trichrome coverage on the nugs but less density from HPS vs LED. The big difference when it comes to lights is how it affects growers, LEDs use less energy but put off less heat which can be good or bad. While HPS and HIDS use more energy they also give the plant canopy needed heat and energy.
So now what about harvest time? Is there a difference between indoor or outdoor? Well harvest time depends on each cultivar or strain, there are even slight differences on different pheno's within the same strain. The way growers can tell when a plant is ready to be cut is by checking the trichrome with a very powerful magnifying tool or a very high quality image which they then zoom into. The harvest time affects the user's experience a great deal and is the actual reason why most people think of weed as being a "in da couch" or a sativa that keeps you up. A plant cut early gives users a more speedy head high, while a plant given time to fully mature will leave you with a full body relaxing high that is much more long lasting and powerful. Growers who are trying to maximize profits will often cut their plants prematurely and if they make dabs out of it will often be very pale, this pale color can of course also be caused by CRC. This is why some growers can grow a strain you like but you end up having a completely different experience with it, then when you have had it from someone else. This is a very important thing to know when trying to be an educated consumer.
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