I've kind of got one foot in both camps.
There's a lot more to growing cannabis than botany. It's both an art and a science, and if you treat it exclusively as a science, you'll never learn the art. The more you know about the science, the better you'll understand how to apply the art, but if the science is all you know then you don't know shit about growing.
I think a lot of us who haven't had the education that Bangaman has had, and who have had to acquire the art over the years, have still learned a lot of the same principles, and apply many of those principles in our grows - but we probably don't understand them as deeply as he does, nor do we have the same comprehensive grasp of how all those principles interrelate and work together. We just know what works, and usually have some basic understanding of why it works, but could not explain it in a book.
But we do it because it works. As he said himself, he's perfectly willing to try some of what he calls "bro science" if he thinks it has a basis in fact, and that's not any different from the way most of us approach it. If something sounds somewhat logical, and credible people say that it has worked for them, many of us will give it a try as well - but I think most of us are smart enough to tell the difference between whether some new technique works or does not work. If it works, we may incorporate it (or adapt some modified version of it), and while we may not fully understand why it works, we still get along fine. We all have certain results in mind that we want to achieve - and if something gets us those results we keep doing it, and if it doesn't, we don't bother. I consistently get well over a gram a watt on indoor grows, and I'm happy with that outcome. I don't need to be able to defend my techniques in a doctoral dissertation; that doesn't interest me.
All that matters to me is that I enjoy what I'm doing, and I do. I grow this plant because I absolutely love it - every aspect of it - and I love the results I get in terms of yield, potency, taste, fragrance, and type of high I get, and also because I hope to breed better medicinal strains for some specific conditions that impact someone I care about. I'm doing what I enjoy doing, the way I enjoy doing it. And that's all that matters to me.
Saying there is no science in art is a fallacious misconception. Science, is art and art is science. Cannot separate the two. It is like saying, trying to separate a woman's beauty and her physical person. The person is beautiful, the beauty is the result of the science (biology).
So from my beauty analogy you see that Bad Art is identical in DNA to Bad Science, (Instead of saying Ugly Woman, you could say ugly Genes).
Lets take the Art of Basketball, or any sport, and Look at the genetics behind every player's particular artistic skill set and you cannot separate the two, the are one and the the same, Science and art.
Take Michael Jackson . . .for example, that birth mark or mold on his penis was meant, oh wait wrong subject..
Now you maybe thinking Art is Dogma, no no, you want Dogma you go to church. The art of growing Satan's Plant (Cannabis) is scientific indeed, no different than Leonardo Davinci's mathematical equations to perfect Mona Lisa or the chapel ceiling, all based on mathematical precision . . . .science.
Now I am going to freak you out if I say Cannabis is what I call Satan's Plant because it has a mathematical precision. And every good gardener will tell you, there is no luck or guessing in a being a green thumb. It is precise. Like every living thing has a golden ratio. Cannabis happens to have a golden ration of 666 using Big Satan's Inches and Feet, and pounds etc, and a golden ratio of 612 using the metric system., The funny thing about that is that 666, and 612 are the Numbers of the Beast, and 666 using the American measuring system the only country that still uses that system is also nick named the Big Satan.
The study of Plant ratios is called Allometry, and if you really want to begin learning about this plant my friends, follow the 666 or to be precise 0.666 if using inches and pounds and 612 if using metric.
What does this mean? This means everything on Cannabis will have a ratio of 0.666, the closer you are to that ration, in everything you do with this plant, the closer you are to perfection and maximized yields.
No seriously, do not take my word for it, go measure your plant, if the ration of branch from node to node is not 0.666 you plant is really sick or something os off. Measure the battom branch and the one right above it, you should see 0.666 2/3 ratio.
HAHA! You gonna thank me for this one HHHHAAAAAA MWAHHHHHHHHAAAAA loughs SATAN!
Now, perfect cure zone is 0.666 humidity left in the plant that means that the
Perfet dry weight is ater you lose 0.666 of 75% of of the wet trimmed weight because plants are 25% pure dry weight if charred, and 75% water, you take out .666% of the 75% water and that is your perfect mummified bud with all the right moisture left in it and all the stuff has broken down to perfection for the perfect hoppy earthy, flavor of good cannabis, for a dank sticky almost discolored bud that makes your mouth water because you can taste it in your mouth from just smelling it, it is so dank!
And the .666 ratio goes on and on and on. When in doubt with this plant, check your ratios.
Now, my friends, when you have built an internal road map of this plant to the point where your brain processes all the science behind in by one glance at your plant, that is when the science becomes an art because you do this unconsciously. I can glance at a cannabis plant and almost tell you with 99% certitude is something is off. One glance over my plants and I wander towards one of them without thinking or knowing what I am doing but I am in auto mat mode because the science is built into my reasoning.
The science behind the midget is that his geometrical measurements are off, GOOD LORD. But, please be advised, just because your allometric measurements are off does not mean your plant is sick, in fact you can use the knowledge to maximize yield, for instance, root zone ratio is 0.6666 and therefore if your root zone ratio is 6, (Above ground length to root lenth) guess what, your plant is not sick but a supperfreak, like Randy Moss and his arm span (and that magic catch)
So by knowing your ratios you can enhance your yield, we like women with big asses and boobs, well Jennifer Lopez has a piss poor Allometric ratio but good Lord, I divorce my wife for 5 minutes inside that rectum, or to see that face looking up at me.
You think I am Kidding? Chop a full grown plant in half and stick int in flower and see what you get for size bud, because you had a kitchen (root zone) of 3 cooks for every 1 Soldier, and by cutting the plant (abopve ground) in half you have now 3 cooks for every 1 soldier. Your soldier gonna be fight juicy and healthier. IN fact drastic cutting like this makes plants that are 6 times more robust and resistant to pests because that root zone ratio boosts everything else as the plant now feeds supper more. Do this in Hydry and Bowaka!
Not knowing the science makes you do and accept dumb stuff like the religious fools accept DOGMA! Like fools around here saying plants need dark and shittty advice like that, or that 18/6 and fast growth or some other Bro Science stpidity.
Without darkness a so-called female marijuana plant can live indefinitely in the correct environment.
