Yeah, I don’t really get that either. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t buy that drying/curing fridge thing. Seemed like BS to me. Plus, the site also said that the fridge thing worked best if ambient temps were 60-73 degrees F. Uh, okay, well if the room it’s in is cold as shit, what do I need the fridge for? Seems like I could just hang the plants somewhere where it was between 60-73 degrees and save myself $1500. Sometimes I don’t think anybody proofreads the garbage they write…
Absolutely. Same with me. I always open my tent as soon as the lights turn on (I set an alarm on my phone and everything!) and I always get hit in the face by the smell of weed growing. But when I go to check it out in the morning, after I’ve slept all night, I can’t smell the plants at all.
I think there’s no marketing behind these statements, as long as they’re just giving advice on what you can make in your own grow. I admit there’s not much science behind that, but you may understand that it has been (and still is in many places) an illegal plant so there are not many studies and serious investigation published about this subject until recently.
I understand your point of view. For me, it is just a hobby and experimenting with all those tips and see which one works and which not is fun. One profit for being in this community is to read other’s experiences and try them on your own, I am going to try this one and will be able to find out if it’s worth or not, nothing much to lose …
I prefer this approach better than trying to just believe and trust only the theories that have a solid empirical and scientific support behind them: it is just a weed …
This means its likely a thermoelectric “fridge” and uses thermoelectric cooling and not refrigerant and coils. Can get some cheap chinese fridge’s like this for less than $40. I use one for my seeds since its in my basement (~65F all year) and I don’t need it below freezing, can maintain ~40F perpetually.
An observation I’ve made over the passed couple of years growing out my Space Monkey x Blues seeds, is that they do completely different when run indoors than how they do outside grown either under full sun with no shade net, outside with shade net and in greenhouse.
The cooler more controlled indoor environment brings out the most amazing terp profiles where the other conditions outdoor seems to be more bland and boring. I’ve literally grown out hundreds of them and just figured our summer heat just isn’t for them and the terpenes cant survive the heat.
Cuts that have killed it indoors just don’t do the same outside either here in summer.
This is just one strain that has really stood out in differences between growing environment.
Cheers
I’m finding the same thing. I just finished some SSDD outside that didn’t pop as well as the indoors. I flowered 3 inside and cloned them and ran them outside. Inside is more nuanced and complex… I need shade cloth to experiment with it to see if it will improve the terps.
Agree, although I don’t know exactly why I do it other than I read it on the internet. My plants stink much more later in the day than when the lights first come on, but that’s because the exhaust fan and filter are on almost nonstop when the temps are low to minimize humidity. Or maybe it’s terps evaporating? Perhaps it’s just plants giving off stink on purpose or in response to photosynthesizing?
Heck, maybe there’s things we don’t even realize, like highly volatile hormones and other compounds being exuded as the plants try and attract a few last pollinators to maximize procreation. Or other complex interactions happening between the plant and animal kingdoms that have only recently been realized. And it probably varies plant to plant, and terroir to terroir. Ain’t nature great?!?
Good call! You guys sure you’re not going noseblind in response to the constant smell after lights come on? Just curious.
I totally agree about it being a hobby and that these are interesting things. I’m glad you spoke up. All points of view are welcome.
My question is: what validated hypotheses do we have in the scientific literature related to the weed business claims of specific weed terps being volatile at WAAAAAAAAY below their boiling points? I think the only theories are being floated by these marketing companies, but I don’t see much testing of hypotheses.
Also, and this speaks to the broader point of anecdotal experience on weed forums, I love reading people’s grow threads and review of strains, but I really don’t think home grows are able to control variables well enough to make causal connections between claims and proof. Without a lot of objective measurements, controls and methodological rigor, I think it’s hard to prove something like this at home. The sheer variability of our subjective experiences, even from day to day, makes it pretty tough.
But, by all means, if people are super into trying out different methods, I’d love to hear people’s experiences and stories. That’s just not enough to convince me that I should buy products and add complexity to my routine. I’m all about keeping the grow, harvest, and storage as simple as possible.
It’s like the ideas behind seed storage. There are tons of published scientific papers and USDA white papers talking about hemp seed storage where viability has been tested with various methods of storage and, as all of the doomsday seed suppliers methods show, the lower you can consistently keep your temps and humidity, the longer you maintain viability.
But if I listened to only weed forum and cannabis seed retailers’ anecdotes, I would have jars of seeds sitting in a closet losing 10-25% viability every year, instead of airtight containers in the fridge in a crisper drawer that stays 37F +/- 0.8F with multiple silicate desiccants in each, maintaining a ~1% viability loss rate per year (estimated). You know what I’m saying?
I hear you man, and that type of anecdotal experience is great because you’re noticing trends over time and doing what works best for you. That’s the sign of a good grower!
On the flip side, you listen to all the Humboldt and Mendo Cali breeders and outdoor growers talk, and they all prefer the terps from outdoor full sun organic grown weed. They all say it’s way better than indoor or greenhouse grown. And it gets hot as shit up in those hills every summer and fall!
What’s a nube like me to do with those conflicting reports?
It’s entirely possible that terpenes are being boiled off under the lights as the tent heats up and the day goes on. Smell is a result of the physical evaporation of aromatic hydrocarbons, which might concentrate more at night under cooler temperatures and darkness, and then evaporated from the lights beaming on them and the rise of your tent temps.
That would be my conjecture anyway. It seems reasonable. The boiling point of most terpenes isn’t too much higher than water.
I tend to agree with them for the most part as I am huge advocate of outdoor growing and generally where I choose what’s being kept around … if it’s a killer outdoor it means it’s going to absolutely smash indoors. Funny enough it’s the Space Monkey x Blues that has stood out with this issue for me. A friend of mine ran shit load of them last season and again it just did not compare to indoor. It’s really had me looking into that cross more trying to figure it out. Eg… I can run 100 seeds of it outside and all just seem bleh like I wouldn’t keep a single one … then run 20 seeds indoors and find it hard to pick a winner cos they all smash it.
I love reading people’s experiences and taking in the knowledge they drop so I can better understand the inner workings of the plants…
Such great info in this thread man!!
Haha! I’m positive. I’ve definitely considered the possibility, but I don’t think it’s likely, just because I’m going into the room in the morning, after the lights have been running for nearly ten hours and I’ve been on the other side of the house, in bed sleeping, after my nightly shower. If I had been hanging out in the grow area for a few hours, went into the kitchen and then went back in the room and was like,”Man, I don’t smell the weeeeeed…” I dunno. I’d be pretty dumb haha.
Me, too. I know I read it somewhere, probably multiple places actually, that in the morning (or right after lights on, whenever that is) is the best time to harvest. There were reasons stated, all anecdotal I’m sure, but I can’t remember what the reasons were exactly.
I just assume that the companies that are making these claims have done studies. But who knows? It does seem like it’d be relatively easy to determine whether or not certain terpenes “evaporate” or whatever when dried/stored in warmer conditions. I wonder, though, if the people who make these claims are doing controlled studies (or any studies at all, for that matter) or if they’re just going,”Hey, man, this weed was stored in a closet with temps at 75 degrees and the myrcene levels are low! Must mean that warm temperatures cause myrcene to evaporate!”
I will say that I’ve noticed that ever since we moved into our new house, 3.5 years ago, my weed doesn’t smell as strong as it used to after drying and curing. I’m using the same soil, same everything as I always have. The only difference is here in the new house, I have to leave the tent door open during lights on. I’ve never even thought about that until just now. It still tastes good and it still gets me high as shit, so I don’t really care. But I used to roll joints on one side of the house and my girl’d be on the other side of the house at our old place and she’d yell from the bedroom or wherever,”That weed stinks!”
Must mean my terps are evaporating because the tent door’s open during lights on! Shit!
But wouldn’t the tent need to get insanely hot for that to happen? I mean, if the temps are in the mid-70s/80s, that doesn’t seem nearly hot enough for terpenes to “boil off.”
I dunno. Honestly, it really doesn’t matter all that much to me. But it is interesting and intriguing.
Water evaporates at room temperature. Just because it’s not boiling doesn’t mean it’s not evaporating. If you can smell it, at least something is evaporating.
That’s also why you keep your bud in sealed jars. A sealed jar keeps terpenes from evaporating just like it can keep water from evaporating. Lick the cap of a cure jar sometime and tell me what you taste. It’s terpenes!
Or maybe it’s terps evaporating? Perhaps it’s just plants giving off stink on purpose or in response to photosynthesizing?
I think the evaporation explanation sounds plausible, my other offhand guess would be that it has something to do with photoperiod. When the lights turn off, I get a strong, green, “planty” smell. But when the lights turn on, it smells like flowers.
On the flip side, you listen to all the Humboldt and Mendo Cali breeders and outdoor growers talk, and they all prefer the terps from outdoor full sun organic grown weed. They all say it’s way better than indoor or greenhouse grown. And it gets hot as shit up in those hills every summer and fall!
The usual explanation I heard from growers about the high quality of emerald triangle outdoor was that it was a result of the unique, cool, consistently foggy microclimate.
My experiences jive with this, my best quality outdoor was grown in San Francisco and Pacifica. Even though I am a much better grower now, the outdoor bud I grew in the foggy bay area was much more flavorful and aromatic than anything I can produce outdoors here.
In my experience back in the 90s and early 2000’s the emerald triangle and lost coast from humboldt to mendocino usually stayed cool and foggy, between 50 and 70 any given day regardless of season.
I’d be willing to bet it’s a lot hotter now, just like the foggy microclimate and coastal weather of san francisco has been destroyed by constant heat inversions pulling hot dry inland air out to the ocean.
It’s completely impossible, I would argue. I see GG4 all the time at 30%+ in the clubs now. Just half a decade ago, GG4 at 24-26% was a very high quality, top shelf, indoor product. In 6 years, they’ve brought a clone only strain from 24-26% to 30-32% using only improvements in growing methods? 6 years ago wasn’t the stone age. Also, interestingly, all of the 30%+ GG4 I am buying is of much worse quality than it was 6 years ago. It in no way feels like a more quality, better grown, more potent product in any metric. It feels considerably worse generally, to be honest.
Santa came a day early! My Pura Vida 1 re-vegged in under 30 days. I think this pheno is the most LA Pure Kush leaning out of the bunch I ran. It’s terps are different than the others too. The others are developing marshmallow funk in cure, this one smells more cleaner/funky.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays everybody! Hope you and yours are doing great.
Here it was sunny and 60, so we went for a hike, opened presents, and video chatted with family, then feasted on made from scratch carne adovada, pinto beans with red chile, and spanish rice with a couple delicious La Cumbre Elevated IPAs. Finished off the meal with frosted sugar cookies and a couple vape bowls of some well-cured bodhi OGKB x Strawberry Milk testers. A good time was had by all before passing out hard.
This Pura Vida F1 rerun is getting close to the finish line. Today’s day 57F and I took a few pics.
PV1 - she’s a brick house, out of the four she has the most stacked central cola, a Christmas tree shape, and a toasty marshmallow and citrus smell.
PV2 - my favorite so far, she stretched the most but has by far the nicest, frostiest buds with the biggest calyx swell and looks like an easy trim. Mouthwatering marshmallow and chewy caramel smells, with a hint of bergamot in the background:
PV7 - this one really surprised me. She’s the one with the leaf variegation and she looks most like an Appy leaner to me with her gorgeous bud shape. Gotdang she’s pretty in person! Also has a different look to her frost than all the others. Her smell of clementines always catches me off guard:
Looking REALLY fucking good! These are the hard times, when we start getting impatient… haha. I’m getting super-eager to chop my plants, got between ten days and three weeks, depending on the strain. One of my Starkillers is unacceptably floppy, even staked and tied branches have been snapping off. Ordinarily, I’d be really irritated (and I am a little irritated) but with this particular grow, I’m like,”Cool, some early bud to smoke…”
Your Christmas meal sounds real good, too. I didn’t do any cooking this year, just because we had way more leftovers than two people could ever eat. Seemed like a waste to cook another huge meal that’d leave us with leftovers we’d never get through. Plus, my birthday was yesterday and the older I get, the less I feel like celebrating haha!!
That clementine-smelling PV sounds interesting, hopefully that carries through on the flavor. I love clementines. They all look great, though, making me kick myself that I didn’t sign up for the seed run.
And it probably varies plant to plant, and terroir to terroir. Ain’t nature great?!?
All points of view are welcome.
That’s just not enough to convince me that I should buy products and add complexity to my routine. I’m all about keeping the grow, harvest, and storage as simple as possible.
Hope you and yours are doing great. 
