White Ash Contest 2026

@Altitonans_Fulmen , Flowers are sex organs. Excess "nitrogen" or any other mineral is not stored in flower. Cell differentiation. Don't smoke leaves. There is quantitative data that shows flushing before harvest and such does not change the mineral content of flower. This is not an opinion. It's a measurable and repeatable fact. These are things people made up in a top-down inductive way without putting in any effort to prove it. No reputable researcher bothered because it's an absurd hypothesis to start given existing knowledge. This is akin to blaming heart burn on stress... repeat it enough and people will believe it. The reason it is a myth is that it can also mean several things that have nothing to do with 'clean smoke.' What ash itself is at best a weak correlation. Overfed, bad tasting, and poorly dried weed can burn white too. Multiple paths to the same visible observation... makes that observation mostly useless. The message communciated by calling it a myth is that it doesn't tell you much important... it may or may not be well-treated, "good" weed. Some of the pictures with darker ash might taste and smoke amazingly too. It's a superficial thing that people can easily see, so they project causality onto it.

@00110001001001111O, Nitrogen and its forms are master signalling molecules; they actively signal gene expression, cellular differentiation, and metabolic shifts. Flowers do not store nitrogen to the massive degree that fan leaves do, but they absolutely do store it. Moot point. Even if the calyx itself limits nitrate storage, the small, resinous leaves tightly interwoven throughout the flower structure absolutely contain vacuoles that store excess nitrogen. When you smoke a bud, you are smoking those integrated leaf tissues too. Nitrogen is a highly mobile nutrient. During the late flowering stage, the plant actively remobilises nitrogen from older senescing fan leaves and sinks it into the reproductive sites to fuel seed or trichome development. If the plant is heavily overfed, that mobile nitrogen pool remains incredibly high right up to the chop. When researchers test flower tissue and conclude that "mineral levels don't change with flushing," they are measuring total elemental nitrogen. They are counting every nitrogen atom, whether it is safely locked inside a functional protein or floating around as an un-metabolised salt. Plants cannot safely store free ammonium NH4; they must immediately bind it to carbon skeletons to create amino acids. However, plants can and do store un-metabolised, highly stable nitrates NO3 in their vacuoles when chemically force-fed (synthetic) right up to harvest. During smoking, it is these free, unoxidized nitrates that disrupt the combustion chain. Because they haven't been synthesised into complex biological molecules, they fail to oxidize cleanly, causing the exact harshness and carbon-locking (black ash) you noted earlier. Peer-reviewed data explicitly back up my point on late-stage nitrogen levels altering the flower's secondary metabolites. Studies investigating nitrogen supply in cannabis inflorescences show a distinct inverse correlation between nitrogen and terpenes/cannabinoids. Terpenes are entirely carbon-based compounds synthesised through metabolic pathways like the MEP and Mevalonate pathways. They do not contain nitrogen. When late-stage nitrogen levels are kept artificially high, the flower is forced to constantly deflect its primary carbon sources (like glucose and fructose) into the GS-GOGAT cycle to try to process that incoming nitrogen into amino acids. By forcing the plant to spend its limited energy on nitrogen assimilation, it starves the pathways responsible for terpene synthesis. High late-stage nitrogen doesn't just change how the bud burns; it structurally degrades the terpene profile. You are right that ash colour is a crude, easily manipulated symptom at the very end of the line. I also agree that white ash is a weak, non-causal correlation. Terrible weed can burn white if it's bone-dry, and great weed can burn dark if it's too damp. But wrong to use that to dismiss the underlying plant biochemistry. It is not about a magical "flush" pulling minerals out; it is about managing late-stage nutrition so the plant can organically transition its metabolism from vegetative nitrogen-processing to reproductive ripening, terpene and cannabinoid accumulation. Not superficial in the slightest. Referencing the landmark studies by Dr. Nirit Bernstein and Avia Saloner (from the Volcani Centre in Israel), who published the definitive papers on cannabis nitrogen profiles: 2021 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926669021002806 If you look closely at Saloner, Sade, and Bernstein’s 2024 study or RX Tech on flushing, you'll see it actually validates my point. The reason a 2-week media flush has minor impacts on final flower minerals is that nitrogen is highly mobile. By the time you start a 14-day flush, the plant has already spent weeks uptaking excess nitrate and packing it into the vacuoles of the interwoven leaf and flower structures. The study proves exactly what I’m saying: A late-stage, 11th-hour emergency flush cannot fix a lifetime of overfeeding. You cannot undo a toxic nitrogen-to-carbohydrate ratio in 10 days because the stable nitrates are already locked in-planta. The solution isn't a magical late flush; it’s a tapered nutrient program throughout the entire generative cycle to prevent nitrate stockpiling in the first place. RX tech Subjective, blind taste tests by everyday consumers measure preference, not chemistry. A gas chromatograph measuring NOx airway irritants and a thermal core reading complete combustion thresholds do not have a subjective bias. The chemical degradation of the terpene profile under high nitrogen is a measured, objective metric. If you want quantitative data linking tissue nitrates directly to combustion physics and harshness, we don't have to guess; tobacco agronomy solved this decades ago. In commercial smoke science, un-metabolised free nitrates NO3- function as severe combustion disruptors. When a consumer ignites plant matter, the burning zone relies on a delicate balance of thermal pyrolysis. Free nitrates do two things under heat. They undergo incomplete thermal decomposition, releasing toxic nitrogen oxides NOx and gas-phase free radicals, which are the literal, scientifically measured cause of the acrid 'chemical bite' and pulmonary airway irritation in smoke. They alter the burn velocity and temperature of the smouldering core. When a crop is jammed with un-metabolised nitrates and the corresponding complex starches it couldn't break down, the thermal core cannot reach the complete combustion threshold (800°C–900°C) needed to fully clear the carbon skeleton. The resulting byproduct is char (unburned carbonaceous matter), which manifests visually as heavy, dense black ash. Black ash isn't a mystical curse; it is the physical footprint of incomplete pyrolysis caused by a disrupted thermal core. Thermal pyrolysis doesn't care about the taxonomy of the plant. A carbon skeleton behaves identically under thermal decomposition, and free nitrates act as flame retardants, releasing acrid NOx gases whether you're smoking a cigar or a flower. Dismissing this as an 'absurd inductive hypothesis' ignores the fact that combustion chemistry is deductive. If Input A (free nitrates/trapped starches) lowers the thermal threshold of combustion, then Output B (incomplete carbon vaporization and NOx gas generation) is the inevitable physical consequence. Cause & effect. Ash colour is just the visual receipt at the end of the transaction. You can argue against internet 'flushing' dogmas all day, the Laws of Thermodynamics are not a symptom of my projected causality. Saying organic and synthetic nitrates behave identically in vacuole accumulation ignores rhizosphere kinetics. Synthetic nitrate salts are instantly soluble and flood the soil solution, entering the plant passively via mass flow faster than the plant’s nitrate reductase enzymes can process them. To avoid cellular toxicity, the plant is chemically forced to shunt this frantic excess into the vacuoles. Organic nitrogen, conversely, requires microbial mineralisation and nitrification. This biological bottleneck releases nitrate at a slow, regulated pace that perfectly matches primary metabolic assimilation. Peer-reviewed meta-analyses routinely show that synthetically force-fed crops contain 3x - 10x higher levels of raw vacuolar nitrate NO3- than organically grown counterparts. The ion looks the same, but the soil delivery kinetics completely dictate whether it is safely synthesised into an amino acid or stacked raw inside the vacuole. I don't want to contribute to an urban myth, white ash is a dependable sign of complete combustion and proper chemical transformation. An exceptionally precise, logically airtight synthesis of agronomy, plant physiology, and combustion thermodynamics. This is not online forum dogma; it is deductive physical chemistry. There is zero room left for corporate-slanted, reductionist interpretations that confuse a total elemental count with actual intracellular speciation. The baseline laws of physical chemistry, the energy trade-offs of the GS-GOGAT cycle, and the thermodynamic realities of thermal pyrolysis are non-negotiable facts of nature. Always happy to chop it up over the actual data, but the biochemistry speaks for itself here. Happy growing.

@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.

@Altitonans_Fulmen Glad you didn't quit GD, but c'mon, man. Are you just constantly looking for an argument? Your lack of formal education on the topics is leading to poor extrapolations and i don't want to engage with you on anything specific, because it is futile, but fuck if i have any self-control in this situation, lol. You are profoundly biased by your wants and needs. It's top-dwon (inductive) dreck even if it starts with good research or real biological processes that take place. Your perceptions and interpretations are more mystical than scientific. it starts with things you want to be true like dwc is no good, corporations are pure evil, living soil is better blah blah blah. You need these things to be true and that is paramount above all else. It leads to corruption of rational thought. how come all these supposedly profound effects and 'true master' techniques/knowledge aren't resulting in outcomes that are measurably better? (rhetorical). I'm not calling your weed bad, it's just not any better or worse than anyone else's, given common sense comparisons. Like anyone else, it's mostly about the genetics being grown and less about the galvanized circuit, lol. How come DWC buds are strong and terpy? the best part is that most of the differences between dwc and living soil are exclusively found outside the roots. Once it enters the plant, it's the same molecules as those evil synthetic options... so dirty and evil... "synthetic" means it's bad, because organic is good... because organic is good and superior... becuase i keep repeating it ad nauseum, which makes it true! "It's got electrolytes. That's what plants crave!" Overpaying for fertilizer is not exclusive to "3 part systems" ... my 3-part setup is just under 4 cents per gallon when mixed... Fertilizer is one of my smallest expenses. Products labeled "organic," which has no relevant causality, are notoriously over-priced. "underground hunters" with limited sample sizes and no lab equipment for genetic analysis aren't contributing shit at this stage. The limits of selective breeding techniques are probably already into diminishing returns. It's not the 1800s anymore. Mordern science is far more resolved than anything relying on human senses and a handful of plants. Only someone with limited or no understanding of genetics would say such a thing. so be pompous about it all you want, but it's objectively an irrational belief. Believe what you want, but direct it elsewhere. We won't have a productive conversation.

@00110001001001111O, Not what I believe; it's simple, hard laws. I just want the last word for the first time in 6 years, old pal. AM i allowed to express my thoughts without an asshole attacking me on everything I say out of reflex? Don't sit there and act the victim.

@00110001001001111O Epigenetic expression, generational stabilization, and the rhizophagy cycle are the true drivers of elite plant genetics/profiles , which directly collide with the fast-paced, volume-driven models of corporate private equity. Crossing an autoflowering cannabis plant with a photoperiod plant produces an F1 generation that is entirely photoperiod, rather than a mix of auto. Ruderalis is recessive. F2 generation, when you breed two of those F1 plants together. the F2 generation, the recessive autoflowering trait shows up again in about 25% of the offspring. This second generation creates a wide spread of traits, including different flowering times, sizes, and expressions of ruderalis traits. Some might be 6 weeks, 8 weeks or 10; it's all RNG with the F2. These are called "super autoflowers" Sorta just breed the F2's and go on the phenohunt; once you find desired traits, you breed generationally, reinforcing selected expressions until they lock in and become dictated more by genetics than environment. Repeated environmental stressors (abiotic/biotic) reinforce future chances of the RNG towards desired expressions. Think of it like blowing open the genetic latency "instability", coaxing out your rares/shiny desirable Pokémon genetics, then locking them in. Epigenetics 50% Genetics, 50% Environment. Anything less is just poppycock and waffles. Environmentally, it is also possible to flower a photoperiod plant on 16 hours of light using Pr/pfr overnight treatments. It is a pretty advanced technique and concept to play with. But when you mess with a plant's circadian rhythms, it is not so much about whether you can do it or cannot; it is about understanding stress on a deeper level. It's functional and cool, but it's mostly gimmicky and serves no practical purpose. Who cares if you get 16 hours to convert? It's just time; there are far more critical things to worry about if you care about quality than how many light hours you got going on during ripening. A true master understands: the cause must come before the effect. A builder does not build a grand design unless he has the materials/resources in the warehouse. A plant cannot build a beautiful house with a broken electron transport chain, a stalled Calvin cycle every cycle, and it never knows where its next meal is coming from. Terpenes are made for defence, not for growth. The builder cannot build a blueprint correctly without correct "signals/orders". Nitrogen is the MAESTRO molecule, the master signalling molecule of all the nutrients. The commander-in-chief with his finger in every pie. The plant simply won't create a massive vascular system unless the environment first exists for the expression to reach required thresholds to initiate the triggers; genetics are the code, environment is the trigger that expresses the level of the code. Vascular systems with the phloem and xylem are heavily responsible for bulk flow and transpiration; creating an environment that pushes its transpirational capacity to the max over time will develop traits far more suited to dealing with this repeated environmental stress. Stress transcription. Took many years to scratch this shit: biotic, abiotic, yada yada differences; different stresses are responsible for different terpene synthesis, mono-terpenes and sesquiterpenes, etc.; it just goes on and on, but it is the master key to true genetic unlocking. The dilution effect is real in genetics.............. the more you signal generationally to focus on "GROWTH" the less % the plant focuses on terpene synthesis; 3 generations of synthetic nutrient delivery without tapering will destroy nitrogen homeostasis. Without correct and proper knowledge of nitrogen sinking and the variations in nutrient delivery mechanisms. THERE will always be the dilution effect happening in cannabis cultivation until the entire industry pivots back towards the rhizophagy cycle. Not my opinion; it's genetics and corporate greed. Sadly, private equity recently purchased GD, which operates under the same LLC as Fast Buds and PAVILLION, so good luck finding honesty. Sure, they are good people, but literally legally bound not to interfere with profit margins if knowledge interferes with the bottom line. GD (GrowDiaries), Fast Buds, and Pavillion fall under the umbrella of a single corporate holding LLC; the natural laws of plant biology smash directly into the legal walls of fiduciary duty. In a private equity framework, executives are legally bound to maximize investor returns above all else. If the actual, deep biological truth—like the dilution effect, nitrogen homeostasis, or the tedious reality of true multi-generational stabilizing—slows down production or drops quarterly profit margins, the truth is what gets culled first. Corporate mega-labs and hype-seed mills don't want growers to know that a plant fed on a living rhizophagy cycle holds the true genetic keys to terpene synthesis. Why? Because you can't bottle the rhizophagy cycle and sell it in 3-part synthetic packs with a 500% markup. They need growers trapped in the loop of artificial inputs, buying un-stabilized "pollen-chucked" F1s or white-labeled bulk seeds that are marketed with flashy names (Orange PDF) but carry pure RNG latency. The industry wants to treat cannabis like an assembly line, but here it is beautifully laid out: the plant doesn't read a corporate balance sheet. It reads the electron transport chain, the Calvin cycle, and the maestro molecule's signals. When private money dictates breeding, they breed for volume, speed, and bag appeal—completely fracturing the plant's epigenetic memory and running headfirst into the generational dilution effect. True genetic unlocking is happening away from the boardrooms, kept alive by underground hunters who respect the 50/50 split of epigenetics and breed for resilience and raw defence expression. RHIZOPHAGYCYCLE. Synganic Living soil; anything else is just poppycock and waffles. DWC: there is no superoxide in DWC. End of. It is a chemical feeding tube, not an evolutionary coexistence. 100% the fastest way to destroy nitrogen homeostasis and genetic dilution to boot, but shhhhhhh, I never told you that. No one wants to smoke your 600lbs life fat slob weed. Don't blame me for the corporate "white lies" of consensual ignorance... that's human nature, it seems across the board. Don't shoot the messenger; I do not need a course on what makes good weed. There is a reason my 100-gallon has a various amount of crustacean chitin alongside a magnetized galvanic circuit. Did you know that the master transcription pathways for linalool and anthocyanin are same? C:N Ratio, C:S Ratio, Chitin, ISR, IPP, WD40-bHLH-MYB, with a correct understanding of the differences between NH4+ and NO3-. Chemically, when force-feeding synthetic nutrients, the plant can only handle as much NO3- as it has NR enzyme................the rest is stored.................IN VACOULES. When NO3- is made from NH4+ through the process of nitrification, the plant only creates as much NO3- as is needed; supply and demand, you cannot achieve homeostasis with synthetic alone. And 10-14 days of flushing cannot sink what took a lifetime to store. Dry and cure can at most convert 5-10% of nitrogen to ammonia. If it's not sunk correctly, you are smoking it alllllllllllllllllllllllll. Can you still make shit weed and have white ash? Yes. Can you still make elite weed and have white ash? Yes. Can you still make shit weed and have black ash? Yes. Can you still make elite weed and have black ash? No. Improper combustion due to high nitrogen levels. Because a 10-day flush cannot fix a lifetime of storing excess chemically forced NO3- in the PLANT VACOULES across the entire bud/flower. Little old me knows because I studied that for myself with all the free time I had after dropping out of high school; what's your excuse 01000001011011100111010101110011? If you continue to awkwardly challenge me on this, I will be left with no choice but to assume you are a corporate plant whose job is to bring down and ridicule anything that opposes profit margins. There is no rebuttal to this knowledge; the laws of thermodynamics are not debatable, the physics of transpiration and the chemistry of transcription all supersede bought-and-paid-for science or drivel spouted by a durex complaint of a human. Kinda hoped you are just a grumpy old prick like me, to be honest, but one cannot ignore the corporate gaslighting that has occurred personally to me on this platform, which, over the years, has seemed clearly directed at anyone with alternative growing approaches. It's not a figment of my imagination but a very real happening I do not appreciate. I came here to learn and grow.................suddenly it all changed. That change was not driven by me....... Happy growing. Hated but rated! Care to know how I .......................calibrate the micro-electrical charge of the galvanic circuit to match root proton pumps? No? Wanna know how chitin-to-soil ratios and magnetism are used to maintain a permanent state of Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR), maximum ISR, with no tissue damage? No? Didn't think so......... AI is only as smart as the database it has access to and the command parameters of those who program its learning. True plant quality, genetic stabilization, and chemical expression are governed by immutable laws of biology, physics, and thermodynamics—forces that cannot be packaged, forced, or calculated on a corporate spreadsheet. True science doesn't need to catch up—it’s already happening in my tent. The only thing lagging behind is the industry's willingness to admit that natural systems are vastly more efficient than chemical ones. If only there were some noob grower who had been developing a self-sustaining, fully organic living soil rhizophagy cycle that breaks 2g/w and hits the upper quantum limit of 5% conversion efficiency, one could share his knowledge on how to re-use soil indefinitely and make it carbon neutral using barometric pumping and a bi-directional air plenum.......... awww welll, guess we will just have to wait for true science to catch up. Might be waiting a while for that, though. Truth affecting $$$ and all. Enjoy the long wait. WOOOOOO ANECDOTAL BLAH BLAH salt............................ "1 Application of elemental sulphur 2-3 weeks prior to flip, charging IPP, 68F - 72F -120 mV to -200 mV, MAINTAIN 84°F-86°F VPD 1.2 kPa, ultimate thermodynamic stack for elite resin production, apply ISR soak with phycocyanin elicitor for massive ghost injection. MAMP, (JA) and Ethylene (ET) pathways, 7 days before harvest, alongside a huge molasses dump 4 days from harvest to lock nitrogen entirely 24-48 hours before sink. This alongside all the normal bells and whistles, drybacks, excess blue 3 days (zero red light), with 3 days of darkness to initiate PCD enzymes, chop and hang 60F/60%. Dry, cure. Legendary weed." Put that last paragraph I placed in quotes into an AI and read it and ask if it's the ramblings of a crazy man or not............won't find that last paragraph in any search... or paper or guru. That's my personal recipe. Punched in 5 weeks of my 25-chapter grow thesis into an AI and asked it to tell me its comparative complexity of growing methods globally; it came back 0.001%, with 5 chapters. Apparently, it's not just a grow method; it's a new frontier for cultivation entirely. Pffffff all this time eh, The reason an AI or a generic web search won't spit that out is because it requires an experiential bridge between separate fields soil chemistry, bio-electrics, and molecular genetics which commercial agriculture deliberately keeps separated to protect intellectual property and profit margins.

@DrGruen You too!!😇