ethylene gas
Has anybody heard of this and or tried this “priming the seed technique”
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So I will preface this with I havent read the article yet, but I did research as an undergrad looking at priming secondary metabolite production using airborne plant generated volatiles (which ethylene can be).
This is in fact true. I am more familiar with the response in terms of herbivory, both methyl-jasmonate and methyl-salicylate are forms of plant stress hormones that prime secondary metabolites production. Salicylic acid has also been shown to increase secondary metabolites in Cannabis and is available as a foliar spray I believe. Or its at least incorporated into some formulations.
Ethylene can also be considered a plant stress hormone as we see it showing up in more and more responses. It is also an end of life hormone and triggers senescence and fruit ripening. Without reading that article my one concern would be accidentally overusing the ethylene which could result in early plant death and loss of yield.
Here is a simple foliar spray supplement I formulated and have been using.
I have seen a slight stunting and decrease in biomass after using this, but not significant. But I have been getting some real insane buds that used to just be good. My guess is the increase is partly due to the reduction in biomass (similar to the dilution effect which is real and happens in other plants as well) but also an increase in trichome density. I don’t have any test results on the chemical make up though so its anecdotal on the spray at best
Edited to add: Ethylene is also antagonistic and inhibits ABA which is linked to seed dormancy and water stress and gibberellins which are related to plant growth and elongation. Playing with plant hormones is super fun but you need to be careful as they are strong. The concentrations are along the lines of milimoles which smol
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The article is about Pre priming the plants while germinating. The idea is, you want to expose them to
Etheline gas while germinating and just after sprout In complete darkness. Then remove them from the Etheline gas before introducing light.
Like you said, it’s a end-of-life hormone. I know this gas is released By ripening bananas. Might be an interesting experiment to soak seeds placed in paper towel in a bag with a ripe banana in the dark. Let sprout in cell tray also in dark with ripe banana…
Article claims Etheline gas exposure. During seed germination, we’ll have a lifelong effect on vigor, speed of growth and health of plants Overall including Resistance to stress.
Must be done in dark must remove From etheline gas before light Exposure.
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I certainly have seen plant hormone treatments have long lasting effects and have no reason to believe this is any different. The banana trick works because the ethylene it gives off helps break seed dormancy.
My preferred hormones to mess with are defense related, but that is a personal choice because I have an academic interest in them and experience with them.
Folks who work in nurseries use hormones to control plant growth all the time and there is a good amount of literature out there on different uses.
@MOX great find with that article!!!
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A Cali weed expert told me “methyl Jasmonate enhanced terps but the same terps across all strains” then refused to describe those terps.
So I’ll let the community know in 3 months.
(Since hot shit Cali weed expert can’t hold a conversation that benefits anyone but himself.)
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In high enough concentrations, ethylene can reverse sex. Be wary!
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Looks like ethylene attracts sugars.
So why not just feed the plant sugars.
If I feed sucrose to a Cannabis, the root grabs it and produces invertase to break it down. Or the old trick of boiling with citric acid for faster uptake. Is it cheaper to produce sugar this way or to boost the ethylene pathway? Ethylene is what causes vase flowers to wilt. Right? It doesn’t make them sweeter smelling in a vase. Hard to imagine ethylene is a limiting factor unless methionine is not being produced.
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Its the “same terps” because that response is conserved among species to help protect them from herbivores. And part of the results are skewed because test panels don’t capture all the terpene diversity in Cannabis. Thats because we don’t have a clear picture of terpene diversity and are discovering more constantly. We know major terpenes well, but the minor ones have a lot of mystery.
If you aren’t looking everywhere, then you miss small changes that can have substantial effect. And that’s without getting into flavonoids
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I think it is usually called seed priming or plant priming.
You can do this with Chitosan and other products too.
I have been trying to get folks to use Ethylene more in their grows.
I have not tried it on seeds yet, but I have tried several others, it may be time to give this a shot.
I have known of this for many years, but ethylene is quite complex, it can promote growth as well as senescence/death.
I can weigh in on that.
I don’t know the specific terps but it is the jasmonate terps.
Smells much like the jasmonate does.
You can smell this same smell when you do a large defoliation.
How do I know?
I did a bunch of experiments and they all made the weed smell the same.
There were subtle differences between cultivars but the smell was very very similar.
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I know there are differences in response pathways between MJ and MS, and the two can influence each others activities.
Salicylate is probably better for terpenes because it has more broadscale responses in systemic acquired resistance. SAR is like the plant has all systems go ready to protect and induces secondary metabolite priming.
MJ tends to produce proteins that can be harmful to bacteria or microbes but of a different class and mechanism than SA.
Given that SAR is known to prime to secondary metabolites, if you were to choose one to apply for metabolites, go with SA
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I was thinking the same thing, Ethylene via stuff like ethaphon etc. will feminize males, metals such as silver and cobalt function as ethylene inhibitors, which is what triggers ‘male’ flowers on a female.
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I’m with youI may be mistaken, but I think that ethylene article is relatively new. Not sure how old your copy of the Cervantes book is, but it might be missing some new discoveries.
Plant hormones are insanely complex and every year we are finding new functions for old hormones. As a scientist its super exciting but its also frustrating that they don’t get this information out to growers very efficiently.
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No you’re 100% correct in the assumption. Print doesn’t get updated 
I appreciate the more up to date articles for me to go through though.
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Ethylene is a stress hormone too right? Foggy memory but I seem to recall that plants have no transport mechanism for ethylene other than diffusion through the cell wall?
There are a whole bunch of pgr hormones still being discovered, things like strigolactones and different brassinosteroids etc.
Ethephon applied to a single male branch will produce female flowers, it’s a cool way to verify a male.
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So thats a great question about it being a stress hormone. There was a time i would say absolutely, but as more information comes out I dont think any hormone has a job as simple as responding to stress. This is a lot of new research so I’m not sure how common knowledge it is yet. I have a friend who is doing hormone research so I am just lucky to know someone smarter than me who is doing the work.
Now that we’ve entered the Omics era and our analytical equipment is more sensitive, we are rapidly learning more. Im sure in a few years what I’ve said here will be outdated and there will be all new research
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I am now wondering if a combo of GA (or maybe auxin) and Ethylene may be good for seed sprouting.
When a seed sprout hits a rock in the soill it uses endogenous ethylene to get oround the rock.
Also…
Ethylene inhibits vegetative growth by restricting cell elongation
Ethylene promotes the breakdown of abscisic acid (ABA) and thus relieving ABA’s inhibition of gibberellic acid.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1717649115
Ethylene should inhibit root growth and encourage shoot growth. It should inhibit metabolism and stimulate photosynthesis. It also is known to stimulate the growth of root hairs, a method for increasing the surface area of the root and its absorption of oxygen for local use.
Here is a link to a thread I wrote about stress.
FYI… I did have some help with this.
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This is something I just thought of that I think gets overlooked and is crucial to understanding plants in nature. A lot of the hormones we are interested in are also produced by fungi and bacteria. That is probably an easy source to help with germination. A healthy soil ecosystem should be capable of producing those through microbes and stimulating germination
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That is why @JohnnyPotseed suggests using EWC to germinate
There are hormones in the EWC to help sprout seeds.
Microbes produced PGR’s are the way to go if you can get them to do your bidding
But they do not deliver on-demand hormones like we may wish them to.
I usually have a goal in mind and they may or may not play along.
I personally like to be more purposeful in my methods.
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