Ash Color Deductions

Smoker's Lounge
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I have seen lots of talk about the color of the ash and what the color means.

I would love to hear peoples opinions, and especially if anyone is aware of actual trials that show cause and effect.

Cheers,
M

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who knows if it’s true…

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IIMO it’s an old wive’s tale.

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So, first off I have no idea lol but we might be able to look at wood ash for some clues. Magnesium, when combusted, produces a white magnesium oxide which aligns with Foreigner’s link… If it’s green it’s magnesium of course!

Mg in the middle

The temperature of that combustion would also change the chemical composition of the ash, so the “pull” being hotter or cooler should affect things, but not sure to the extent of a color difference in cannabis.

The first stop is the black carbon rich ash. Keep burning that carbon off and all that is left is the metal oxides. A white ash to me is a just a more-completely combusted byproduct. I’m not sure I’m aiming for total ultimate combustion when I feel like I should probably switch to vaping more often!

These folks went so far to say that a cigar should be rolled using leaves from different parts of the plant in different parts of the cigar structure to even out the combustion, and that the even combustion is what allows temperature to fully combust the material leaving behind the white/light color oxides.

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I think when it’s properly cured your joint should burn perfectly like a cigarette/cigar and with no side winding…btw, I don’t do any res. changes or any kind of flushes on my grows either…

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I think it has to do with sugar content but I don’t remember where I read that.

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I don’t know about ash color, but I know that you can analyze ash for content of heavy metals and such, in criminal forensics they can determine the brand of cigarette from ash found at the scene by doing a mass spec and comparing it to samples from different companies.

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https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/white-ash-vs-black-ash-september-2021/#:~:text=Black%20ash%2C%20they%20believe%2C%20signifies,are%20they%20worshiping%20false%20idols%3F

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@CoyoteCody thanks for this! Great article if accurate.

Is anyone aware of corroborating research?

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Good article, now I can forget the ash nonsense.

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To corroborate what exactly? That incomplete combustion leaves organic (carbon) behind and that complete combustion burns that black carbon and leaves behind white color oxides of Magnesium and Calcium? That is somewhat corroborable (new word) by you burning a hunk charcoal and watching it go from black to ~white. There is roughly zero magic to be had in terms of what this all means.