Has anyone ever thought about adding terpenes to a DWC or soil grow? This coffee can DWC I got drinks up an entire reservoir every 24 hours. I’m wondering if I add a few drops of terpenes daily if I’ll get some results or maybe just add a full tablespoon at once right before harvest. I’ll give this a try next grow and see what happens since I got nothing to lose and terpenes to spare.
Have you tried it? Do you have evidence it won’t work? The only reason I see for it not working would be terpene evaporation in the reservoir. When you cut off a white flower and add ink to the vase the white flower peddles turn color so this is pretty much the same concept.
If this worked you would see strawberry scented bananas and mint flavored watermelon. Not a single farming practice in the world uses terpenes as a nutrient additive, so unless cannabis is some unique plant unlike any other plant on earth then it wont work. I'm sure someone more expert in botany can give you the science behind why but i'm pretty sure you're not the first to think about it and if it was possible it would have been done already. You're welcome to prove me wrong though.
well first things first. i'm not expert in terpenes and i'm not a botanist. without getting into a lot of discussion about terpene synthesis in plants, hydrocarbons, volatility, electrons, and a whole bunch of nuclear discussion about atoms becoming molecules, couldnt we just suffice it to say that if it were possible to engineer a banana to smell like an orange or a blueberry, or to engineer a rose to smell like lilac it would have been discovered ~300 years ago - or longer. and i think i'm safe stating that if it were actually possible to introduce or influence biological terpene synthesis via the pathway of simply introducing another terpene into the mix the stock price of AN would exceed that of Azon. i think that's the simplest explanation. terpene synthesis occurs at the atomic level. i think we'd all be more grateful cultivators and aromachologists if we would just grow a plant in such a fashion as to allow it to be all that it can be - and more. and here's another one. peach flavored iced tea is popular. why not introduce the essence of peach while the tea tree is growing and be done with adding fresh peach slices? it just isnt that simple. that's all i got
Terpenes are quite expensive matter of fact way to expensive to use on ur average produce. Farmers would be using more money trying to grow flavored crops then they would selling them. And on top of that terpenes don’t taste like what there branded so farms would need artificial flavoring not terpenes. I’m going into my second year in horticulture at UC Davis so I have some “botany” experience and I’m not seeing and red flags on why it wouldn’t work. I’m not gonna get into the mad science since you guys will be utterly confused. Simple way to put it is you feed ur cannabis plants fertilizers that contain salts right? And if you don’t flush you taste the harsh salts correct? If you did a large injection of terpenes 24 hours prior to harvest and the plant drinks the entire reservoir there terpenes have gone somewhere. My main question is where though? Stem? Leafs? Hopefully the buds but we’ll find out.
As I said above this comment terpenes are quite expensive. Farmers wouldn’t be using terpenes they’d be targeting the artificial flavor market. There’s already genetic modifications being done of fruits. Cotton candy grapes for example.
This is incorrect. Without going into weather flushing works or not, what people try to get rid of when practicing it is to starve the plant in an attempt to reduce the amount of chlorophyll (which is bitter) in the leaf mass. You dont taste "salts" from nutrients.
As for your assumption that anything present in the water will get uptaken by the plant is also incorrect. Plants can only uptake chelated elements which are water soluble and plant available. AFAIK oils are not water soluble and will most likely end up as residue on the sides of the container and pot.
Ok so the major difference between nutrients being uptaken by the roots or sucked up by the stem is that the xylem can and will suck up molecules it cannot use in the state they are in, as they are too complex, if its been cut and left in water. Terpenes(hydrocarbons mostly) are made inside the plants cells using sugar it makes from photosynthesis and from the nutrients it uptakes through the roots. So when were feeding the plant, it's not actually up-taking bat guano, it uptakes the different nutrients that have been broken down by acids, bacteria, prtozoa...and so on, or in hydroponics pre chelated nutrients (pre-digested). So terpenes added to the roots would just be broken down to there basic elements(carbon, hydrogen...), just like a fermented banana juice (and the terpenes it contains), and then up-taken by the roots, sent up the xylem, turned into what ever the plant needs by photosynthesis, then out the phloem to where it is needed. -I don't think i could be qualified as a botany expert, but i'm definetly a botany student.
BTW if you want to get into the ''MAD'' science im all ears...quite condescending to believe people would get confused...
Not to mention that terpenes are polar....i mean just look at the molecule its obvious...so they will just break down into a solution in water...so by adding say limonene your just adding carbon and hydrogen to your water. That's some ''MAD'' science..basic ''MAD'' chemistry
That’s the only reason I can conclude for it not working. I feel like as the water level drops the roots will get an oil coating instead of absorbing.
ah! genetic modification. isnt that a bit different than adaptation by osmosis? tell ya the truth about it. i once shared the same thoughts you're expressing though my idea was to use an essential oil mixed with fulvic acid and apply as a foliar spray. my innate pragmatism talked my other self out of even trying. and here's why: Terpene, any of a class of hydrocarbons occurring widely in plants and animals and empirically regarded as built up from isoprene, a hydrocarbon consisting of five carbon atoms attached to eight hydrogen atoms (C5H8). i'm not even a good chemistry student but i do understand that breaking up the 5 carbon ring of isoprene to form a new terpene that is not genetically programmed into the plant is quite impossible without dna modification. plant varieties produce terpenes based on genetics and any so-called improvement or enhancing of those terpenes would more likely be influenced by cultivation practices, cultivation style, environmental stresses, and even pest pressure. an orange is an orange. a tangerine is a tangerine. they dont taste the same but if you cross them you get a tangelo which has taste and flavor similar to both and orange and a tangerine but it's unique such that you cant get the same flavor by simply mixing orange juice and tangerine juice together in the same glass. the difference being a tangelo is a unique genetic expression determined at the nuclear level of dna whereas mixing orange and tangerine juice together becomes a mixed fruit drink. adding EO to the plant via osmosis isnt going to create a new terpene and that's what would have to happen - a new terpene would have to be synthesized. or ... you could just try it and let us know how it works out.
I’d rather not spam this thread with an hour long paragraph about how a plant absorb there nutrients because I have hardly have a clue when it comes to cannabis. Each plant structure is very different and cannabis is being bred so fast it’s hard to keep an accurate data base. My professor doesn’t talk about cannabis so that’s why I came to you guys first. It’s not that I’m scared to ask my professor but it just doesn’t seem to professional if I’m in college asking him how to grow weed. But I will for the sake of this thread and my next grow. I’m not trying to pick fights with you guys I’m just trying to gain some more knowledge on terpene production. I know for a fact terpenes can be modified with types of sugars but I didn’t know about terpenes so that’s why I asked.
Alright i can wrap that around my head around that a little more. I’ll go ahead and give it a try for shits a giggles even though I’ve pretty much heard the results for you guys. Out professor mentioned flavor change by sugars via Novel Routes to 1-Deoxy-d-Xylulose 5-Phosphate so maybe that’s the key to flavor changing strains. I’d need an extra long curing process due to the fact that these sugars can be carcinogenic if not flushed properly. Mine as well say fuck and just grow different strains instead of fucking around with a single strain and taking the risk of cancer.
just talk to him about perfumery or botanical oils. terpenes are not unique to cannabis. tell him you want to cultivate a flower that looks like a rose but smells like citrus. it would be the same basic chemistry and is not unique to cannabis.