For growing peppers, like Jalapenos, the “wisdom of the crowds” say that if you stress a plant, it increases the heat of the pepper. Cooks, who hate the unpredictability of Jalapenos, say that if you pick the peppers with stress marks on the skin, those will be hotter.
Anyone tried this with our flowers?..does a “stressed” plant produce stronger resins/buds? And by stresses, I’m referring to letting a plant go dry for a spell…with peppers, some people do this repeatedly.
Could just be an old wive’s tale, personally I have NO idea
What i know in my growing career answer is YES.
This is qoute from Sensi seeds
" Cannabis plants produce trichomes as a defensive response to various attacks and stresses. The natural function of the trichome glands is essentially to protect the plant and its developing seeds from extreme conditions such as UV rays, cold weather,and diseases.
Growers can use this to their advantage. By causing light stress during flowering, they can get the plants to produce more trichomes and, thus, more cannabinoids and terpenes."
A lot of people stress plants towards the end of flower to promote trichome production.
Stem splitting is another common practice.
Some people believe in it, some don’t.
I have never messed with it.
There really aren’t tons of studies involving cannabis…but it is absolutely true for peppers. Stress increases dihydrocapsaicin more than capsaicin itself but it definitely makes peppers hotter. And often those peppers that go through stress experience a swelling and contracting phenomenon that makes the skin crack…so those cracked peppers have undergone more stress and are usually hotter, but each species tends to respond differently to stress based on its genetics and morphology. I’d have to assume things are similar in cannabis but again, it hasn’t really been studied.
It’s hard to say though if stress may increase cannabinoid content or just dry out trichomes to the point of damage.
I have also split a stem straight down the middle. Partially because the buds were big and partially because I have ham hands. No discernible difference from her sister.
Good to know. I think there’s way too many variables in most cases to do an accurate test. Hard to hold everything else constant and vary just one thing.
This is the closest you could get, I think.
The whole crop steering thing is based around stressing your plants at different phases of growth. For instance, during the stretch period, drought stress them to reduce stretch and encourage bud set.
You pretty much need to be in coco or rockwool to do this though. Does it work? Who knows, but greenhouse veggie growers have been doing it for years.
I’d agree with most of the basic answers as yes it does. That being said I’m sure you will end up wi the periods of stress during the grow cycle naturally and would recommend doing your best to keep the plants healthy and happy. Unless you room is dialed with a troll master chances are that you even have a less that perfect environment. Il tie of my rant with I like doing hard dry downs every now and then just before they want to wilt and they are praying like crazy
My plants are all outside.
5 are in containers, 5 are in the round.
Everything gets watered daily.
Sometimes the containers get skipped, and they’ll wilt just a tad
