Do particular strains prefer synthetic or organic feeding?

:speech_balloon:
Have you noticed certain strains performing better/worse with synthetics vs. organics?

:evergreen_tree:

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Great question. I wonder if those real heavy feeders prefer the nutes… hmmm I bet we have a member here smart enough to answer

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My perspective come from growing organic in soil and growing synthetic in coco.

I think that some strains are much easier to grow in organic soil, particularly picky strains like landrace sativas. However, heavy feeding strains and strains that can tolerate heavy nutrients I find easier to grow using salts.

Also coco seems to produce more rapid growth, resists compaction better and holds more air than peat. So I’m not sure how much of my experience is colored by that. I’ve wanted to try making coco-peat-perlite blends with organic, but I’m gonna give hydro a go for a while.

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In my opinion, no.

Hydroponic nutrients are the same exact elements plants need, just in a more efficient and easily utilized form. Organics is just absorption of elements less efficiently, with extra steps and intermediary processes.

There’s a LOT of woo woo and misleading information out there, but that’s the plain truth above.

If you like the whole pageantry and rigmarole of organics, you’ll grow fine plants, but they’ll yield less.

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Imo all plants will do better in an organic soil. Why? Because the plant is able to uptake what it needs versus a human trying to guess what it needs. Mother nature has been doing this a lot longer than we have. If you have big feeder strains, you give them more organic food. It’s really that simple. No pageantry or rigmarole required.

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Thank you for asking this question. Following to hear more

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So this has been something like my recent experience-ament :sweat_smile: But I am thankful for all the replies & curious about the subject still.

Could this be related to the divide between arid Kush Mountains terrain and jungly, soggy Ganges/etc.? E.g. higher pH & minerals, low-rainfall vs. plentiful organic acids, higher rainfall, less salty? …with hybrids being variably in between?

:man_shrugging:

:evergreen_tree:

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I would say yes. The same plant grown in different conditions, can produce different taits. It’s called phenotypic expression. :wink:

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For the purpose of simplifying my question, I meant more like performance…say for a distinct clone/cut. As I understand phenotypes to be distinct traits amongst specimens, rather than epigenetic or environmentally triggered inheritence?

Sorry @Sebring got a minute? :blush:

:evergreen_tree: :baby:

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Phenotype is used incorrectly in our community. What they mean to say is genotype. Genotype is expression of traits due to genetics, phenotype is the expression of traits due to the environment.

So it stands to reason some genotypes will have a phenotypic expression that favors either synthetic of organic environments. :nerd_face:

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You mf’s are smart…:v:t5:

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If you can grow it organically with bat shit, liquefied fish, and seaweed, you can grow it more efficiently with salt nutrients. It really doesn’t matter.

You will get smaller yielding plants, but organics is intuitive for some people, and what they’re comfortable with. People like it for whatever reason, I personally don’t see the point.

But long story short, you aren’t going to get a plant that just won’t do well in hydroponics or a plant that just won’t do well in organics.

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Whether they perform better or not ? Not real sure would make to a good test I suppose. However there would be too many variables to put much faith in the results.

I can tell you this, organic soil grown plants are the best I’ve tasted. Anytime I get great smoke from a friend I always ask and they always say soil. That’s not to say I haven’t had great hydro but organic soil takes the cake for me.

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I’ve noticed that with my clones. The ones in the hlg tent look different that hps tent. And not always better in one tent vs the other. Some strains do better in my led environment and some in the hps

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I defer to your experience but what spawned my posting the question was a small Blue Shark CBD I’ve had seemed to claw dramatically & burn easily with DynaGro but responded to Nectar For The Gods like I’d stopped strangling it & let her breathe. :confused: (in about 90% perlite)

It’s by no means a real science experiment :blush: , just something I noticed & wanted to hear the general opinion. :+1:

:evergreen_tree:

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I won’t step into what method makes healthier plants. That never seems to lead anywhere productive.

IME and opinion the overall quality of the flowers seems to turn out different. Maybe it is strain dependent or perhaps terpene profile dependent. Lots of variables to consider.

New York City sour diesel is one that I have much first hand experience with. The old guy that passed the cut said that chem ferts will further the expression of the diesel funk she is known for. In 20 years of growing her it would seem that he was correct. Organic sour d seems to have a much sweeter profile than sour d grown in rock wool with chems.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

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Because of the nutrient conversion and uptake process of organics, it has a sort of self-limiting way of feeding. Plants can change the rhizobiome using exudates – a sort of feedback mechanism to help the plant control it’s growth environment.

When I commented that finicky plants like pure sativas “prefer” organics, it’s really because it’s quite difficult to give some plants what they want using salts. Synthetic growers rarely (if ever) mix different nutes for every single plant they’re growing.

It’s not that it’s impossible to grow a landrace sativa in salts, but in my experience, it can be exceptionally difficult, because they have a much lower tolerance for nutrients. You have to control their nutrients within a much narrower window, compared to organics where they have some ability to moderate their environment themselves.

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The point is taste usually.
Like others have said, every person who tries my organic bud wants more.
Craft cannabis trumps mass produced automated all day IMO.
Theres a reason it sells for more at dispos and stores.

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I have not found that to be the case. If you check my thread, that monster Mexican landrace plant was grown with the same nutrients I gave the shorter flowering broadleafs. Looked the same.

I will say they don’t need as much N at end of flower. Well, they like it just fine they just like finishing less.

If they are showing nutrient stress, you can give them less fertilizer. You can’t take the bat shit out of the soil.

All plants want is 13-14 elements, they don’t care how they get them.

I do not find organic to be an improvement in any way over soilless with hydroponic nutrients. Taste, smell, yield, high, resistance, vigor, etc.

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People growing organically also want to know what is going into their body. I really don’t want to smoke chemicals. I know that is a whole other debate.

I read a study that tested results for the exact same strains and they determined that organically grown plants have a more diverse terp profile.

The levels of some of the terp were higher in the chemically grown plants, but the organically grown plants had terps in them that the chemically grown ones did not.

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