@herojuana.tom please give me a review of GPT’s summary, I’ll give it feedback.
2 Likes
Sadly I would need to agree, this general belief about there being some hard and fast rules regarding ambering trichomes and plant ripeness is pretty pretty ingrained in the general community. 
I hear the same thing from some mushroom growers too… “If you pick them before the caps open they are stronger” 
5 Likes
@herojuana.tom I’d tend to think there are some hard and fast rules, but in the case of the general community here, the community is not generally knowledgeable of the concept of simultaneous equations (multiple equations, multiple unknowns). Not to “diss” anyone particular person out there but it’s a bit like they are describing the nature of a 3D object by discussing it’s shadow made by the sun. “Well, it’s round, and it seems to get larger and smaller, and when it’s smaller the edges get blurrier.” They’re right about the shadow, but totally not fathoming the sphere at all. No depth 
3 Likes
I concur. Analogously, people stick with classical physics because they were taught it in high school and may not understand quantum mechanics nor general relativity as spoken by someone with a more advanced or specialized degree. And to clarify, when I generalized about the community I was using the canonical and referring to the community as a global whole and not focusing on nor calling out any one of the thousands of sites nor disparate blogs specifically.
2 Likes
I truly appreciate everyone participating in this thread as it’s something i’m very curious about.
I’m not a hash maker. I grow for flower, and I"ve learned a lot from reading notes from the hashishans becaue they’re harvesting for trichomes (hence the Frenchy Cannoli articles cited above). Another hash maker that takes A LOT of extremely nice pictures (trichome microscopy pics), is @shwale on IG and at https://shwale.com/ (I’m not promoting these ppl, just using them as references, btw). Shwale goes to great lengths to work with and develop “hash plants” which he distinguishes due to their stalked capitate structure = big heads with delicate stalks doth make easier/better hash.
Anyway, by contrast, the more stronger stalks are probably better for flower in that the trichomes don’t break off as easily which makes them stay intact when they get moved around.
The aroma approach to harvesting is one I’ve always been interested in, too.
Anyway, enough gushing and rambling… here’s some papers I’ve read in the past:
OSCannabisglandulartrichomesaltermorphologyandmetabolitecontentduringowermaturation-210310-210846.pdf (2.4 MB) 7124dcf44b62078d462965135c708b20.pdf (3.3 MB)
gorelick2017.pdf (343.5 KB)
… looking forward to the chat GPT synopsis on those papers 
6 Likes
I’ll read this myself tomorrow, for now:
And,
I asked it to give me the jist of the discussion portion of the study:
5 Likes
… for a time I combed through as many scientific papers I could find on stalked capitate trichomes, secondary metabolites and their acid synthase, and ideal times to harvest… the last one is most illusive. This surprised me as it would seem to be the most important.
For a time I grew for a dispo and they just harvested on 9 week cycles, no matter what. I would bring to work my loupe on trim days to see the trichome maturity… clear to some cloudy on some strains, more amber on others. They tested decent on potency either way, but I always wondered how to determine the most optimal harvest time
5 Likes
Here’s another thing about the trichome development. The cap starts out small and inflates over time until t reaches a maximum size that seems to vary a bit in the end. So the thing is that while it’s getting larger, there must be a substance filling the cap up as it gets larger. Things like THCa and whatnot. Then the trichome starts to curl over.
3 Likes
I’ve heard good and , maybe inexperienced viewpoints. Done correctly, to the creators taste, can be amazing. I think its much like any concentrate. All about the dose that does it for you.
2 Likes
Here’s the thing nobody mentioned is that the hash yield is directly linked to the number of trichomes on each individual calyx. You can determine if the yield is going to be terrible by looking at a single calyx. BTW the SEM(microscope) images above in the studies won’t yield much hash at all, probably 10 grams per kilo.
5 Likes
Well now, you said it @JoeCrowe! That makes sense in the end, it’l be a function of trichome number x trichome gland size, and I’m guessing that the average trichome gland size is rather constant and so you’ve reduced it to a function of # of trichome glands per calyx.
I’ve come across your guidance on hash yield before and honestly your microscope shots really inspired me to have a look myself! I’m not a hash guy (yet) but I did get myself a set of bags for bubble hash recently and might give it a go.
5 Likes
I always recommend using green buds, because that’s how you make live extracts!
5 Likes
And quality/cannabinoid content may be able to be determined by the size of the trichome head.
Do you agree this is a fair statement? @JoeCrowe
3 Likes
Hi there buds
Can someone recommend me a good microscope?
Not so expensive and had a clear image
1 Like
Oooo my thesis on that…
Based on a few observations it almost seems like trichome development is responsible for the quantity instead of quality or content. Here’s why. As the trichome goes through it’s life cycle, the cap starts out really small and grows larger over time. That means there is more volume of things inside it.
Personally… when I cut a plant down at the half way mark and made hash, the quality was the same. The hash yield was low.
1 Like
Post #76 has Adam Savage going through the microscope’s features and drawbacks. I just picked it up and am having a blast with it.
Workflow for best pictures so far is:
- Capture a video at 1920x1080, 60hz, not the highest resolution possible because the advertised resolution is faked using interpolation.
- Play video through a player that leverages Nvidia’s new Super Resolution plugin (e.g. VLC Ventinari)
- Extract hundreds of frames of the video and save to disc.
- Use software to align and stack the images. I use ImageJ developed by the National Institutes of Health, but I actually use Fiji which is a fork of ImageJ with prepackaged plugins.
- Fiji Downloads
7 Likes
Love it bud.
Good advice @LD50
Closing at amazon in five
2 Likes
Now that is very interesting.
Thank you for sharing that bit of info.
So we can assume that a good amount THC has formed inside of the trichome even at the halfway mark.
Thanks again!
4 Likes
Here’s something different.
Brother’s Grimm Alani Skunk x Gluey
-Alani Skunk x Gluey - Feminized Seeds and Cannabis Seeds Seed Bank | Brothers Grimm
This is a lower leaf the size of a pinky nail at week 4 of flower.
-Imgur: The magic of the Internet
4 Likes