Dr. Indica
Active Member
It sounds like you're relying on forum hype as gospel and that you aren't comfortable with that which goes against the grain. It also sounds like you've never read his books nor checked out his graphical scientific studies. Guess we all have our comfort zones, mine resides within scientific data, not "feel good" stuff.
I have the upmost respect for Mel Frank. Of all the pot growing authors he is truly a master gardener and understands botany like no other. His studies regarding potency were conducted by the University of Mississippi, not some cheesy cannabis hydro vendor with a profit motive. Frank has also shown in studies that males can be more potent than females. Another fact that goes against The Herd and their insatiable need for group "consensus".
Lower buds are not subjected to the stresses that destroy THC - mainly light and heat. You toast the top of your cola and I guarantee you you've done toasted some THC. Again, Mel Frank discusses and graphically shows how negative factors (air, light, heat) over time will degrade THC into less desirable cannaboids.
If you didn't get juicy trichome laden buds, then you didn't handle your garden so you could. My bowl of lower buds shows tight, solid trichome covered buds.
It's not how dense the trichome field is that drives potency, it's the cannaboid profile that counts, another fact that goes against The Herd.
Shots of sugar coated buds are for vendors, photo ops used to sell seeds.
UB
I just don't like his work, I prefer Jorge Cervantes, Ed Rosenthal, and DJ Short. I could also care less about forum consensus.....seen that phrase a lot lately.....it doesn't put buds in my bowl, I know how to grow and what works. Everyone has their own opinions, just like you feel that plants grow faster under 20/4 rather than 24/0. There are plenty of studies to show otherwise and anyone with the ability to run that test themselves will find out 24/0 will win every time. But I'm not trying to argue the point.....I'll just grow more plants in less time and keep my mouth shut. I personally would not be too impressed with any study done at the U. of Miss.....it's Miss....not MIT. I also know for a fact that males can be more potent, matter of fact 99.9% of the time the males look and grow 200x better than the females from the same stock. I was merely saying, I have never seen lower buds be more potent on any plant.....and if they were, the tops must have been subjected to serious stress by a amateur grower. I also know that it's not the amount of trichs that determines potency, another mislead belief....in strains such as WW it looks to be " snow covered " when in fact only a small percentage of what you see is what you want.....in most " white" strains this is usually the case....they are covered in trichs, but not the one's you want. Instead most of them are Cystolith trichomes and they put off insecticidal and miticidal substances to gum up pest mouth parts and they have no THC.
