Zappdoggy

@Ultraviolet, Some nice scientific thinking there. I recently came across the method of turning all lights off for 72 hours in a BuildaSoil video. I was unsure about its effectiveness but then I found it in another video and started to contemplate its use. But the blue light is a good idea and I can understand how it works. The UV addition I had already heard of and prepared for by having a bunch of UV LED's already. I am using a small amount of 400nm UV right now in early bud and plan to add some strong 370nm UV for that last couple of weeks. Temperature is where I will have some problems keeping it down to below 67. I will probably have to rig my A/C to blow directly into the tent, I have a hard time keeping the temp in the tent below 27 with the lights on. I also have the problem that my tent is in my bedroom so I can not get the temp down that low. I think the 400nm UV helped trigger the plants cause they started preflower within 2 days after trigger. The blue definitely slows down the stretch. My Fruity stretched 2 inches in one day and then added the blue and it has grown only a half inch in 3 days. Once the stretch period is done I will cut back from 20 watts to 10 watts of blue until the finish. Do you think 30 watts of blue will be enough for that 72 hour period in a 4x2 tent? I plan to add more eventually. I am using 3 watt LED's but am thinking of blue tape around the walls like I did with the 620nm red. You mentioned 8 hours of blue, do you think 12 hours of blue would be too much? Right now I am using 10 watts each of 460nm blue, 530nm green, 660nm far red, 720nm IR along with 450 watts of white full spectrum and adding an extra 10 watts of blue for the stretch. Adding 445nm Royal Blue is in the plans as well as the 370nm UV by next crop. At this stage I want to have more of the full spectrum than the plants need. It is only speculation since I have no way to measure each colour but I think it is pretty close to the spectrum of the natural sun. Thanks Ex_Alchemist. You have confirmed a few ideas and added a few more new ones. For those that notice the 3 watt LEDs and my stating that I am using 10 watts, I am using 5 x 3 watt LED's of each colour throttled down to about 2 watts each in order to keep temps down and extend the life of the LED's.

@Zappdoggy,This week we will be removing all red light/warm white, I'm going to oversaturate with the blue wavelength this will send flavinoid/terpene production into overdrive, reflecting the blues in the sky of winter. The plant is hardwired to prepare for the worst, in nature if she was still not pollinated she would increase terpene production in hopes of attracting animals/insects/pollen, she is getting desperate. Naturally, the plant only stores so much, but by dropping the RH% the plant closes its stomata, extreme drought stress will send the plant in a death spiral not only producing a last burst of thc. Without the ability to perspire the plant will store all the flavinoids/terpenes. 3 days of pure blue(replacing all flowering lighting), dropping temp after day 2 of blue and keep it below 67, terpenes can start to degrade above 67. All drying will be done as cold as possible, curing will be done refrigerated. After 3 days (8)hours/day of blue they will slide right into 72 hours of complete darkness, harvest should be ready after that. Immediately upon harrvest Atomic decay chains, no matter how you shake it, cold slows things down, this includes metabolic rates, rate of cell decay, just like it slows bacteria growth on food/organic biomass. I want to preserve at allllllllllllllllllll costs every last atom of flavor and smell, keeping them below 67 is essential, I am in no hurry with cure/dry. Last harvest I done some personal testing with various dry/cure methods, also I have been reading up on the biological process involved since, the cured buds that spent their life in very cold refrigerator by far the most desirable results, so preserved and smooth, smoked directly from chilled adds a nice touch too. Like smoking a fine perfume, minus the hacking ofc, really takes it to next level in terms of smell/flavor. Plants with more direct UV showed much more purple across all 3 plants. The data shows that the number of terpenes in dried Cannabis flowers increase with a “No Red” light treatment for the final three days of production. Based upon these findings, we feel confident in recommending a spectrum control program that eliminates red light output from growspace for the final 72 hours of the Cannabis flowering cycle.

@Ultraviolet, My last few crops were prone to the stretch really bad which caused some freaking out. I turned on 20 watts of Blue LED 2 days ago and there is no more stretch. It works much better than expected. Once the stretch season is over I may cut back to 10 watts or I could add 10 more watts. I'm curious about the terpenes improvement. For me the high is only secondary, I go more for the flavours. Was that Blue LED tape I saw in one of your pics? I'm using red LED tape along the walls about bud height. I may consider some blue tape simply cause I like adding the light from the sides, the lights don't take up any room inside the tent. For the Red tape I'm using type 2835 @ 240 LED per meter or 60 watts per 5 meter. My innovation comes from a very limited pension so I make do with what I got.

@Thundrfuk, I trimmed off a few tiny lower branches from Fruity with barely popcorn buds so decided to dry and speed cure. There might be a doobie worth but I just want to get a sense of the flavour. My version of a speed cure is let it dry to 50-60% RH then in a ziplock over something warm until the fresh hay smell cures. I wouldn't do it with a whole harvest but it does allow a sample of the finished flavours. Should be puffable in a day or two. I will let you know how it tastes.

@Thundrfuk, Holy mommy poop. You are right, That is the same colour scheme as yours. I am not getting any colours like that, mine have only turned yellow. It must be a slightly different phenotype plus I did stress the hell out of mine a couple of times. Nice info find.

@Zappdoggy,I would totally agree! Tried everywhere basically before and after QCS, looking back never had a problem with those strains. I even really cheaped out once and tried a local breeder and again really bad genetics, tried government strains and many breeders across sea's. QCS is priced well and has ppl working hard to provide us with quality.