I was reading through a post from a couple of years back from Slain, and was sent down a massive rabbit a hole, which has led to me creating an account and starting a thread. Slain mentioned utilizing MeJA and it peaked my interest, and in the past 6 hours, I have learned more about it than I care to know (effects on cancer cells, application on produce, uses in colognes, etc.)! However, I cannot find any information on the following two points:
Is there a way to derive it naturally? Like triacontanol I derive from Alfalfa meal teas, but have no idea how to do so for MeJA; and
How is it used? I have seen a lot of talk about it being used as a foliar spray, but does anyone use it to root drench?
I grow in soil and only utilize organics. Any and all information is greatly appreciated!
Special shoutout to SLAIN! You presented a new concept which has forced me to learn, thank you!
I had read that Jasmine contained it, but wasn’t sure how rich it was in it. Alfalfa meal I know has a lot of Nitrogen and triacontanol, but don’t know the specifics for Jasmine. Thank you for the response, greatly appreciated!
I believe most Methyl Jasmonate (methyl dihydrojasmonate) is synthetically produced these days. It is a popular compund used for fragrances. See Hedione.
You can purchase this inexpensively particularly since the PPM in use is quite low.
Thing to know is that there are, I believe, four different isomers of jasmonate. One is particularly effective at triggering a plant response, two are somewhat weak, and the fourth is ineffectual. It may not really matter so much, though, since purchased methyl jasmonate will likely contain a mix of the various isomers. The most effectual isomer is somewhat unstable and will convert to a different isomer over time meaning it has a shelf-life. This information was obtained from exploring past research papers on the topic.
I’ve only tried using methyl jasomnate once and my personal results weren’t all that great. It did cause some clear malformation of the plant leaves where sprayed. Although, I could see no noticeable difference regarding tricome coverage.
That being said, I was somewhat haphazard in my application. Someone taking more care with the dosage may observe better results. Don’t overdo it!
Read papers that suggest it helps preserve strawberries and their antioxidants components much better. Also, if it does indeed trigger stress responses, it should help the plant produce more trichomes.
Now this may be subjective… @JoeCrowe has found that trichome desity may be predetermined even in veg.
If that is the case, then maybe MeJA makes the trich’s longer, more pronounced.
When I used it, I had several new things going at once, but pretty sure it made the trich’s grow longer.
It may have made the real short ones grow too, giving the impression of more trich’s.
Using this product will change the smell and taste of your weed.
You will not preserve any terps with this stuff, it acts like a terp replacer.
If you are going to use it, use it early in veg.
It does indeed, but stress comes with a cost, and that cost can be yield.
If you use too much you can end up with nothing but foxtails.
Much like greenspoon.
If that is what you are after, this may be worth your while.
Otherwise, try to use it early in veg.
Great info man!! Greatly appreciated. I am on the verge of flipping the switch, so probably too late to utilize this run and I really don’t want to use anything that will replace terps. Thought it would improve them, not replace them, so great to know!
Think of it like this…
You are spraying perfume on your plants, really it is the same exact shit.
Plus it makes the plant put out its own jasmonate.
Even when the MJ smell wears off, the plant will mimic that smell.
So the terps start to smell like the perfume aka MeJA.
If you have a plant that has no smell and taste MeJA will improve it by adding some of each.
If you had a nice fruity smelling cultivar, most of the fruit will be lost and replaced by MeJA and it will smell pretty strong.
To me it ruins a good smelling strain/cultivar.
Plants use it to signal one another in the case of danger.
When you cut a plants leaves off, it will naturally give off small amounts of MeJA and that will have an effect on other plants in the room too.
See the thread about stress for more info.
