White Ash Contest 2026

@DrGruen You too!!😇

@Altitonans_Fulmen I didn't dsimiss biology. I dismissed that white ash as an accurate way to discern quality of buds smoked. The point is that it cannot be trusted to mean anything specifically because it can be caused by any number of reasons not related to quality of the buds. There is a fundamental lack of resolution and consistency. That objectively makes it a horrible way to assess quality. --- The rest isn't worth responding to other than to say i don't believe you've taken any formal, college-level biology or chemistry, That free version of a research paper you linked is missing relevant information to form any useful conclusions. The only thing you know for certain from the free version is that treating a plant like shit and overdosing it with insane levels of nitrogen will reduce THCA concentration by 63%. Might as well pour kerosene on it if feeding at 320 mg*L^-1. BWahaha.

@00110001001001111O, The 'referee pivot' is classic. When the biochemistry and thermodynamics get too heavy, you call a foul on the tone, demand my academic transcripts, and retreat to your one safe hill, that ash color is a low-resolution indicator. I’ve already agreed that ash color is a crude trailing metric. We don't need to keep re-litigating that. But hiding behind an ad hominem dismissal about college biology doesn’t make the science disappear. You cherry-picked the extreme 320 mg*L^-1 N ceiling from Bernstein's abstract to make a joke, while completely ignoring the actual data across the rest of the gradient. Bernstein and Saloner’s research clearly shows that elevated late-stage nitrogen actively suppresses secondary metabolites. Do you deny that forcing a plant to constantly process raw, un-metabolized nitrates forces a primary carbon trade-off away from terpenes and cannabinoids? Do you deny that highly soluble synthetic nitrate salts bypass the biological bottleneck of organic mineralization, allowing plants to passively flood their vacuoles with unoxidized NO3-? You can't separate the final burn from the living metabolism. Unmetabolized nitrates and trapped carbohydrates are scientifically proven combustion disruptors. When ignited, they undergo incomplete thermal decomposition, lowering the core temperature and leaving behind char (black ash) and acrid NOx gas. You claim multiple paths lead to white ash, which is true. But the path of a cleanly matured, tapered-nutrient plant that completely vaporizes its carbon skeleton isn't 'made up.' It’s organic chemistry and thermodynamics. If you want to dispute the actual GS-GOGAT cycle trade-offs or tobacco smoke science, I’m all ears. Otherwise, the credential-checking is just a weak shield. Not my fault you haven't done your homework. Don't shoot the messenger. I come in peace!

@Altitonans_Fulmen , Didn't demand anything... elevated late-stage nitrogen levels wasn't even relevant.. not going down these rabbit holes. The only relevant thing was that white ash is not an accurate way to assess quality... still true. you didn't even read what i said if that's your response to the 320ppm comment. your retort is unhinged. white ash is a bad way to assess quality of smoke... don't need to make it more complicated than that. nothing else matter other than the inconsistency and inaccuracy of the method.