Outdoor vs Indoor

Breeder's Lab
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Since the medical cannabis days in California, outdoor herb has been much more respected closer to the Emerald Triangle, where the incredibly high quality is undeniable. On the other hand, in dry Southern California, indoor has been much more respected—and generally considered superior—as much of its outdoor has been inferior and has not been as well-preserved.

As such, there has been somewhat of a debate as to the relative quality of ins vs outs, with many connoisseurs preferring indoor due to the controlled environment. Additionally, given the significant investment in lighting and other environmental factors—to say little of ferts—indoor cultivators tend to aim for the highest grades to recoup their costs, whereas many outdoor growers aim for quantity rather than quality.

Whereas hippie naturalist types like myself have generally (and intuitively) respected sungrown organic, given the wholeness ascribed to natural sunlight and soil, including the bioorganisms facilitating a more complete set of environmental factors. Even so, some people continue to sideline outdoor as inferior, especially given the ticket.

Anyway, this evening I got bored (and curious) so I decided to look into scientific literature on terpenes and cannabinoids, hoping to find something novel. In brief, I rolled the dice and got lucky. In fact, much more lucky than I had anticipated.

This scientific study looked to compare the relative differences between the same genetics grown in these different manners, and uncovered important differences between indoor and outdoor as to cannabinoid and terpene production. Suffice it to say, it really hit the nail on the head.

Knowing that some very intelligent folks (and some real nerds :nerd_face:) frequent OG, I figured a number of members would appreciate me surfacing this study. Some of it is fairly intuitive, but it also shows an interesting divergence in values related to growing practices and commercial interests.

The trends we’ve observed related to commercialization and the debate between outdoor vs indoor (and even organic vs salts) find some substantiation in this study. Importantly, I believe this is important to share with our community to help us all become better masters of the plant we cultivate and care for.

All that said, do you prefer outdoor or indoor?

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A few important points drawn from this study linked above:

  1. Terpene content has been decreasing since the advent of legalization.

  2. Outdoor produces more terpenes and more kinds of terpenes than indoor, whereas indoor produces more THC, and outdoor naturally produces more CBD.

  3. Outdoor also produces a greater diversity and amount of cannabinoids overall.

One additional note drawn from this secondary article is that terpenes have so far been shown not only to enhance but to mimic the effects of THC.

Hope this info is helpful — definitely interested to hear people’s takes on the outdoor vs indoor debate.

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The indoor samples were grown commercially in 2021 from clones of the same genetic stock as the outdoor samples. The indoor samples were grown by grandifloragenetics.com for RV and by cookies.com for the CP samples.

It is not clear why the indoor samples produce more degraded and oxidized cannabinoids.

:rofl: sorry i was totally unable to miss this one

There is also an important conclusion from this study revealing inadequacies in California COA testing to delineate important components of cannabis that are being sold. The lack of testing for many of the important terpenes (e.g., sesquiterpenes), cannabinoids (e.g., THCA derivatives with different length hydrocarbon sidechains), and their degradation products (e.g., CBNA) highlights the deficiency of the California COA testing.

Vey true.

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i found this quote from your link:

Indoor samples have a greater preponderance of oxidized and degraded cannabinoids, and the outdoor samples are able to express more cannabinoids with potentially desirable bioactivity.

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Here in Illinois…

Outdoors = bugs
Indoors = no bugs

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Definitely thinking about switching to indoor growing. It’s becoming a chore growing outdoor then being a bit of fun. I live in a outlaw country and with the increase of people living in the area plus the crappy weather it’s becoming more sensible to swap to growing indoors. I’m not sure about the difference in quality between outdoors to indoors but the stress of growing indoors would be significantly less. Between nosey neighbours and fence Hopper’s it is starting to get to much for me . I only have one cattle Dog :dog2: and she does a great job but that does create interest and there is no lack of people cruising around my area at all times of night. I suppose that it will cost me more in power but at least I can grow in a controlled area. Take it easy :v:

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Yeah man same here in the deep south with critters and extreme heat/humidity destroying plants from June to September so technically could try autos outdoors early but get good results indoors. Btw people I’ve been growing with a few tents and power usage is minimal so consider that.

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Obviously there is no real answer.
People can fuck up grows both inside and outside.

An overcast day generally has more usable light than a 400 watt LED.

I will gladly consume cannabis grown in either environment as long as it was grown properly and cared for.

What about a green house with supplemental light? Is that not the best of both worlds?

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Thats been my thought for quite a few years. Sun grown in a controlled environment. Plus light dep so I can grow those sativas in the north.

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how would a greenhouse do?
kind of best of both worlds, eh?

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Issue with outdoors is that a lot of people think they’re a breeder for having males.

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Not if you planted just females…I supply 15 farmers/ranchers in 8 towns, 3 countys in Illinois with my homemade strains for the past 4yrs. some don’t even smoke and they just give it to me when they harvest. They grow 12ft. tall plants.

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And if no one too close grows, ever since weed became legal seeds been an issue with everyone growing keeping males.

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Yes, the most seeds I found on a 12ft.+ plant is about 7-12, so not really that bad. I grow in town across from a park just 2-3 plants and I keep them under 4ft. tall because I have no fences… everyone in town knows I grow so they don’t even care…btw we, all farmers/ranchers do not grow to sell we give it away to the less fortunate.

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Jealous, everyone i know either had no seeds or filled with seeds.

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Great thread. Grown indoor for 25+ and outdoor the last 5.

Was indoor because of thieves( police or civilian)
Easier and less stressful.

After the last 5 years outside I absolutely see it going back to outdoor cultivation

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Uh, we don’t like California weed.

It has pesticides and growth enhancing chemicals, shit gives me a headache.

California weed is closely related to “Mexican Dirt”, just like Jorge Cervantes describes it.

If you buy weed get it tested, if you grow ganja then you don’t have to worry.

For your Health & Safety I would strongly urge you not to purchase anything from California.

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Cheers!

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Unless you get it sent from a grower in cali🙂

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If you purchase anything from California get it tested.

California uses pesticides and growth enhancing chemicals.

You have been warned, they ARE poisoning you.

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That’s why i stay away from legal stuff and stick to homegrown🙂Sad thing is most people aren’t aware and know better. They say to just go to a dispo because they have good stuff.

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