what do the red hairs do?

They turn color during the flowering stage. They start off bright white hairs and then turn brown. Growers tend to pick the flower when the majority of the hairs are no longer white. As for the biological purpose of them... beats me.

 

This

Growers know when to pick them generally by the color of thier hairs. So if you think about it they're actually just nature's alarm system.

As far as adding to the taste of the bowl? This is not true. The hairs have a harsh taste to them and I wouldn't recommend smoking them straight. This has been done many times and the usual result it negative, proving that most of the taste and high comes from the bud itself (duh)

 

helps with apperance lol

 

Only thing that gets you high is the head of the trichome, the read hairs are pistils which you should have learned about in LAMO if you know what that is

 

It's basically the female sexual organ. It traps the pollen in the sticky resin and it works it's way down to fertilize the calyx, where the seed forms.

That's a very crude method. The better way is to use a 30x jeweler's loupe and examine the color of the trichomes. You want them to be milky as much as possible, not clear or amber. Generally most commercial growers go to 20-30% amber so as to get a bigger yield, but I prefer the high when they are mostly milky with just a few ambers.

EDIT: More amber also means more couchlock, less amber means more headiness, in general. This can and is used to control the type of high even when growing all one strain. I pick some quite early, most when it's just right, and some when it's getting really mature for that reason.

 

I imagine leaving the bud maturing on the plant would allow more time for the other cannabinoids to develop (the ones that cause couchlock) resulting in a more indica type buzz.

For this reason I hear a lot of growers mature indica strains till an amber color to add additional knock out power to their buds while sativa strains are picked early for a more heady type one.



I was simply saying that when the hairs match the hairs of a mature bud that you would smoke it's time for picking. This can be used as a basic guide to a grower. The tricome heads are far more important however, turning from a milky to a dark amber color.

It is however, like you said, crude.

 

That is correct; as the plant matures more CBD and CBN as well as other lesser cannabinoids are produced, but also some of the original THC is degrading.

The majority of commercially bought weed is overmature because the grower can get a few more ounces to sell if he or she lets it go longer.

EDIT: It saddens me but I would bet a fat nugget that a large percentage of blades here have never really smoked cannabis that was picked at the perfect time. it's really a shame

 

In this market dealers would much rather go profit over quality. Most of the time.

Topshelfs and other expensive strains are sometimes picked at the peak because, well, they're topshelfs, they are meant to show off the bud and what it can do.



Yeah most weed is overgrown, you can taste it, the harshness, in a lot of bud

 

A lot of times that harshness in commercial weed is from overfeeding/not flushing and from a too-fast curing period.

Properly love, raise, flush, and harvest a girl with good genetics then gently dry for a week then cure for several more weeks and you'll have top shelf stuff

Most of even the potent commercial out there lacks one or more of the above steps.

 

The hairs turn change color the final stages of the flowering process although it depends sometimes depending on the strain or genetics. But they contain no thc.

 

Informative as always OSG.

 

I want to try your bud now, OSG