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What is your biggest question about growing cannabis?

My biggest question is a bit of a though one. I wanna know the DNA make up of each cell that suports the color transfermation of the different colors. Long story short how to make buds turn blue purple pink orange ect... there has to be a chemicle compound in the celluar lever that recates to diffent chemicles to turn the buds color. I know there's chemicles out there like purplemaxx that turn parts of ur buds purple I have used it but I wanna know what chemicles make what colors in the buds and why they produce that color.
 
those things are in the realm of genetics, just like with people, you wont get black kids from Caucasian parents, but if one of them is black it may pass on the genes, same with plants, you would need to breed with a purple of pink plant to find the offspring that got those traits. im no expert and im sure nebula will explain better but i wanted to share what i understand
 
@NebulaHaze,
I'm 4 weeks in to 12/12 I have LST my plant flat (8-12" high 24-32" wide) and the middle is bushy and thick with young bud sites..
Do all the young bud sites in the middle / lower part
of the plant act as suckered to the colas, will I likely have a big yield of smaller buds and smaller colas? Sould I clean
them up now? I had planned on stopping all major pruning and LST on Sunday.
 
GreenArmadillo said:
Is there some form of reference schedule or table or guide as to what levels of ppms or EC are optimal for each stage of growth? Preferably week-by-week. And also recommending/estimating both the EC/ppms going in to the plant and the EC/ppms going out of the plant.
I'm asking as a soil grower, but others might prefer knowing specifically for hydroponics.

It seems the topics of plant nutes and feeding is a lot more complex than most of us beginners understand, and it's not simply a matter of mixing nutes and adding them in every week. It's a delicate matter i've been led to believe.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I feel like it really is a matter of mixing nutrients every week according to your nutrient schedule, then just watching how the plants react. If you're using good nutrients, then generally any adjustment is just a matter of increasing or decreasing the dose (adding more or less water overall) as opposed to any other sort of fine tuning.

The PPM is a good way to sort of keep an eye on the overall "strength" of the nutrients in your water, and to compare against yourself over time, but it's not comparing apples to apples with other growers.

Here's all the things that can affect PPM numbers:
  • Each plant is different, and some want more nutrients than others.
  • It's better to react to the plant than to a number. If it seems like the plant is getting pale all over and especially near the bottom, then it's a good sign it needs higher levels of nutrients overall. If you see tip burn and/or dark green leaves it means you've hit the max the plant can use. It's better to listen to what the plant wants than aim for a specific number.
  • PH is much more important than PPM.The biggest contributor to nutrient deficiencies is the pH being too high or too low. At the incorrect pH, your nutrients take on a different chemical form that's difficult for plant roots to absorb. As long as you're using a decent cannabis nutrient system, paying attention to pH is FAR more important than paying attention to PPM when it comes to preventing nutrient deficiencies.
  • Each nutrient system has different optimal PPM levels, and some are "stronger" and easier to burn your plants with. Chemical (mineral-based) nutrients in particular burn a lot more easily than organic nutrients. Imagine if water just had a bunch of inert dirt in it, it could have 2000 PPM and would have almost no nutrients in it, but 400 PPM of chemical nutrients could be enough to burn and kill your plant (since it's so easy to absorb the plant would take it all up at once).
  • Different mediums hold onto nutrients differently. Heavy soil holds onto nutrients very well and need overall lower levels of nutrients, while nutrients drain away easily in light soils.
  • Every person's starting water is different. Your water could start with basically 0 PPM (Reverse Osmosis water) or 300 PPM (like my terrible tap water), which affects how the plant absorbs nutrients and what the final PPM should be.
  • Environment plays a big role in nutrient uptake. For example, plants need lower PPMs when it's hot or dry and they're drinking a lot
  • Different TDS meters measure PPM differently. To make things even more confusing, different types of TDS meters measure PPMs differently, and won't match with each other. You could measure the same water with two different meters, and get two different results. They'll be consistent against themselves, but not against each other.
So it's really hard to come to a "correct" PPM that applies to every grower! Instead of comparing PPM numbers against other growers, I feel like the PPM is most useful as a tool to help understand what's happening with your plants over time. I feel like it can be especially helpful in hydroponics to track the nutrient levels of your reservoir over time, but I never measured PPM when I was growing in a container.
 
Measuring PPMs in Hydro

This is how I do PPMS in hydro if anyone is interested :)
  • Mix nutrients according to schedule at half strength and adjust the pH (most nutrient companies give way too high levels of nutrients for a plant like cannabis, but their ratios are good)
  • Check the PPM and then give the water to the plant.
  • Pay attention to the plant to determine if PPM needs to be adjusted. At that point I can use the PPM measurement as a reference to see how the plant responds.
    • If plant is getting overall pale or lime green over time, I know it needs increased PPMs
    • If plant is getting tip burn on the leaves, or the leaves are getting dark green, I know it needs lower PPMs
  • Maintain PPM of the reservoir. If the PPMs of the reservoir are dropping as the plant drinks, it means I should be topping off with nutrient water to replenish the nutrients to keep it at the "correct" PPM. If the PPMs are climbing as the plant drinks, I know I should only top off with plain water to lower the PPMs.
  • Next time I mix up nutrients, I'll make it stronger or weaker as needed. So maybe the plant got nutrient burn when I gave it nutrients at half strength. I'll mix my next set of nutrients at 40% strength according to the schedule. Then I'll measure the PPMs and that will be my new "base" number to compare to. I've found that optimal PPM numbers change over the plant's life, but I don't worry about that. At least for me, every time it's about measuring the nutrients out according to the schedule, then seeing what the PPM is. Not the other way around of trying to aim for a specific PPM.
Example: So say I mix up my General Hydroponics Flora trio nutrients at half strength. I add Hydroguard and Cal-Mag. I adjust the pH. When I measure the PPM it comes out as 600 PPM. So that's my "starting" PPM. I pour it into my plant's reservoir. Over the next few days I notice that the plant appears to be getting more pale. When I measure the PPM of the reservoir I see that the PPMs are dropping. In that case, I'll top off the tank with full strength nutrient water until I get the PPM to, say 650 PPM, and then see how the plant responds. If it starts gaining back color but doesn't get nutrient burn, I know I've hit a sweet spot.

With GH nutrients, you can mix up nutrient water up to two weeks ahead of time. So I'll usually mix up a jug of full-strength nutrients (stronger than what I would normally give the plant) and another jug of pH'ed plain water. I use these to top off the plant, so I can use them to raise or lower the PPM as needed. However, when PPMs get used up, the plant isn't taking everything equally. It's taking more of some nutrients than others. So over time the nutrient ratios get messed up even if the PPM measurement is staying the same.

I've found that in the vegetative stage, you can go weeks without a full reservoir change if you follow that method of topping off. However, I've found that in the flowering stage you really have to completely change the reservoir once every week or two even if you're topping off that way to keep the ratios just right. Cannabis plants seem to be a lot more finicky about nutrients and pH in the flowering stage.

Each time I mix water, I forget about the PPM from before because that was from a different part of the plant's life. So from the above example, I know that half-strength nutrients was too weak. I'll measure the next set of nutrients (from the schedule for this week of the plant's life) at 3/4 strength. Say I measure the PPM and it's 670 PPM. Now that's my new "base" number and I compare my new observations from that until the next reservoir change. You'll notice that at different points in the schedule, your PPMs will be different after nutrients are measured out.

In Summary:

Basically I let the nutrient company determine the ratios, and the plants determine the strength. The PPMs are just a way to help measure the "strength" as experienced by the plant.
 
tyler_ hobbyist said:
My biggest question is a bit of a though one. I wanna know the DNA make up of each cell that suports the color transfermation of the different colors. Long story short how to make buds turn blue purple pink orange ect... there has to be a chemicle compound in the celluar lever that recates to diffent chemicles to turn the buds color. I know there's chemicles out there like purplemaxx that turn parts of ur buds purple I have used it but I wanna know what chemicles make what colors in the buds and why they produce that color.
Click to expand...

To add to what 9fingerleafs said, we know of a few things that helps bring out colors (like warm days & cool nights), but as of yet the main way growers get plants to turn colors is to grow specific strains that have been bred to grow colorful buds. I actually recently wrote an article about how to grow pink or purple buds if you're interested :)

A dense purple cannabis nug - you can't produce marijuana like this unless you start with the right genetics
 
Mr.furley Could you post a picture of your plant in a new forum post and mention me in it so I can take a look? You can mention someone by writing their name with an @ in front. So if you type NebulaHaze in the post it will automatically notify me when you post :)
 
Great question, BuddMarsh! I am just a small time grower and I wonder how much is enough??!! It does seems to go off the deep end quickly...
 
I do understand u need genetics but correct me if I'm wrong but don't all weed plants have Anthocyanins and different pigments in there plant cells to some degree? Thats why I think it must be possible somehow through chemical reaction to change colors of the plants. I'm very interested in this topic thank you for your answers:)
 
Thank-you so much for taking the time to answer my question. This is a great thread you started for the forum.
 
I'm willing to experiment I have multiple plants of the same strain if you guys name the product I'll run a test and also offer some guidance
 
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Very nice article nebula :) I really enjoyed it. Besides genetics and tempature there must be more ways to get different colors out of ur buds. Theoretically u have a strain ths geneticly supose to turn a certain colors how can u inhance that besides tempature? I know purple maxx the nutrient starts to turn stocks and stems purple so far my candy cane photos started turning purple after useing that product and I dnt thinks 3 candy cane plants are a pheno and I dnt beleave candy cane has any purple genes in it. After trying this product it got me very courious about all the other colors out there that might be able to be brought out by a chemicle reaction. I dnt know how well puprle maxx works for buds yet but I'm gunna give it a try the 1st pic with the stock and nute burnt leaves that was my fault.
 

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Sean, that is so sweet of you to offer. I grow organic and on the cheap (rainwater, making soil from composting and "super soil" using pond muck) have always wonder if I was missing out on something by not using commercially made boosters.
 
That's interesting! I agree with you there may be some technique or chemical to turn the actual buds into different colors, but I've never heard of anything (yet) that seems to work that way.
 
Thank you @NebulaHaze......I too am afraid of blowing myself up lol:).....I'm gonna look into bubble bags and dry ice method😀😀😀😀😀😀
 
Marijuana is the natural discussion piece that just won't leave. Responses to it run a wild range: It's the malevolent weed or a wellspring of future state charge income and entrepreneurial resourcefulness. Or, on the other hand it's the main way left to flexibility from agony for a few people, and columnists ought to expound on it with a similar reality that they accord pulse medication.
 
as someone who tries really hard to grow tomatos that taste like tomatos, i can say that the same is true of them as is true of apples and their organic counterparts.
 
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