What causes trichomes to have different “texture” strain to strain?

[macsnax]

Still a topic I think about, so happy to have it brought back up.. some of my finding since last discussed: oddly, it seems that “Cookie” strains have a higher likelihood of having the slick, oily trichome texture I had mentioned.. my Sunshine Daydream, mother’s Milk x 88HP, orange velvet underground, deep line alchemy 7 & 10 all have fairly typical trichomes, but my Ethos cookies and my blueberry bubba cookies are exhibiting the Oily and slick trichome texture.
Generally, the strains with an oily texture are VERY easy to establish the nice terpy smell again after the dry, while with the more traditionally sticky strains, curing is often imperative to regain the desired smells post-harvest.
The sandier trichome heads are almost certainly quite a bit smaller in size but in my experience; well made dry sift or bubble hash with this type of trichome produces a very very nice hash.

On a semi-related note; has anyone ever had a strain that visibly, should have been FIRE, but the high just wasn’t there? Several years back, I grew the strain Exotic Colors... one of the nicest looking Strains I’ve STILL grown... beautiful chunky buds with hints of green peppered in deep reds and purples with more visible “frost” than I had seen on most of my plants up to that point. They all smelled wonderful, stayed nice and happy and healthy, and I was CERTAIN my patients were gonna be thrilled!!! Well, bout a week after the breeders recommendation is when I generally start looking at trichomes under magnification, so I take a peak at the forest of beautiful trichomes, and it was almost all stalk with basically NO trichome heads.. was the weirdest thing... so so so many long stalks with just tiny tiny heads that apparently contained very little cannabinoids as it was the first and only strain my patients actually returned their donations lol. Would have been strange enough if it was a single plant, but it was 6 females that all had nearly no thc in the gland head. Anyhow, just an odd story I figured I’d share.

The heads is where most of the good stuff is, that is pretty strange

 

[Tangerine_]

some of my finding since last discussed: oddly, it seems that “Cookie” strains have a higher likelihood of having the slick, oily trichome texture I had mentioned.. my Sunshine Daydream, mother’s Milk x 88HP, orange velvet underground, deep line alchemy 7 & 10 all have fairly typical trichomes, but my Ethos cookies and my blueberry bubba cookies are exhibiting the Oily and slick trichome texture.
Generally, the strains with an oily texture are VERY easy to establish the nice terpy smell again after the dry, while with the more traditionally sticky strains, curing is often imperative to regain the desired smells post-harvest.
The sandier trichome heads are almost certainly quite a bit smaller in size but in my experience; well made dry sift or bubble hash with this type of trichome produces a very very nice hash.

That mirrors my experience as well. Death Star, MotorBreath15, and Chems in general, tend to be very greasy and slick. My SSDD, 88g13hp, LVTK are gritty and sandy. And then there are those that fall in-between like Wedding Cake.

A few of these strains I've grown multiple times and am very familiar with so its def. not related to grower error or light spectrum.

On a semi-related note; has anyone ever had a strain that visibly, should have been FIRE, but the high just wasn’t there?

Yes. Some of the stuff I grew from In House appear to be covered in layers of frost but under a scope you can see long stalks and tiny heads. They were some of the most photogenic plants I've every grown but they were a huge let down. Bland and lacking in potency. In House does have some great crosses but the ones I selected just didnt live up to the hype.

Doing extractions is really what brought me to research this topic further. The texture tends to be very strain specific regardless of extraction method, BHO, rosin, bubble, etc.

Good topic

 

[SnidleyBluntash]

Molecules. And different melting points. Boiling points. Vaporization points. Viscosity. Tells about when a substance would be a solid or liquid. So I say different strains have different molecules in the tric Heads.

Or it is the water content in the heads that make them more wet.

I agree, I have a plant that is sticky. And another that is slimy. If you touch it it is oily, very different.

 

[macsnax]

That mirrors my experience as well. Death Star, MotorBreath15, and Chems in general, tend to be very greasy and slick. My SSDD, 88g13hp, LVTK are gritty and sandy. And then there are those that fall in-between like Wedding Cake.

A few of these strains I've grown multiple times and am very familiar with so its def. not related to grower error or light spectrum.

Yes. Some of the stuff I grew from In House appear to be covered in layers of frost but under a scope you can see long stalks and tiny heads. They were some of the most photogenic plants I've every grown but they were a huge let down. Bland and lacking in potency. In House does have some great crosses but the ones I selected just didnt live up to the hype.

Doing extractions is really what brought me to research this topic further. The texture tends to be very strain specific regardless of extraction method, BHO, rosin, bubble, etc.

Good topic

I stumbled on a lil trick for super sticky shatter, think chem sticky. You can put it under heat at around 80-90f and the structure changes to a more wax like substance. It's the same chemical reaction as turning bho into sugar wax or diamond mining, just not taken as far. I figured this out by leaving a couple grams of chem 91 in my wife's car for about a week

 

[macsnax]

Molecules. And different melting points. Boiling points. Vaporization points. Viscosity. Tells about when a substance would be a solid or liquid. So I say different strains have different molecules in the tric Heads.

Or it is the water content in the heads that make them more wet.

I agree, I have a plant that is sticky. And another that is slimy. If you touch it it is oily, very different.

Different strains have different compounds, different cannabinoids and terps that all react different under certain conditions. There's also fats, waxes, and lipids all wrapped into those little heads. Truly an amazing plant to be so complex

 

[FlyHigh589]

Yeah the small gland heads are very frustrating. Though in contrast, I’ve had some strains that have absolutely MASSIVE trichome heads and are just filled to the brim with goodness as evident from the massive flows of rosin and great solvent based extraction percentages. I wish I could remember the strain it was, but I had a particular phenotype at one point that the trichome heads were stupid big. I could easily see clear to cloudy to amber transition with my naked eye.

Today, me and my pops clipped and trimmed up 8 oz of Ethos Cookies and a bit under 6 oz of my Sunshine Daydream (fairly sativa dominant pheno with very strong musty/cleaning product smell) The Cookies had much more “oily” textured trichome and I’m assuming because of that, I almost never had to clean my scissors, while my SSDD is a much “tackier” sticky strain which led to loads of scissor hash. Kinda neat!

Also, I don’t believe diamond mining utilizes increased temps to crystallize the thc-a separately from its other cannabinoids and terpenes; I think it’s pressure as opposed to vacuum during the extraction that does it. I believe you are referring to “auto-buddering” which heat definitely speeds up.

 

[RolloOrollo]

Would have been strange enough if it was a single plant, but it was 6 females that all had nearly no thc in the gland head.


I wonder if maybe there might have been a light leak of some sort? Or perhaps an issue with the light timer?

 

[macsnax]

Yeah the small gland heads are very frustrating. Though in contrast, I’ve had some strains that have absolutely MASSIVE trichome heads and are just filled to the brim with goodness as evident from the massive flows of rosin and great solvent based extraction percentages. I wish I could remember the strain it was, but I had a particular phenotype at one point that the trichome heads were stupid big. I could easily see clear to cloudy to amber transition with my naked eye.

Today, me and my pops clipped and trimmed up 8 oz of Ethos Cookies and a bit under 6 oz of my Sunshine Daydream (fairly sativa dominant pheno with very strong musty/cleaning product smell) The Cookies had much more “oily” textured trichome and I’m assuming because of that, I almost never had to clean my scissors, while my SSDD is a much “tackier” sticky strain which led to loads of scissor hash. Kinda neat!

Also, I don’t believe diamond mining utilizes increased temps to crystallize the thc-a separately from its other cannabinoids and terpenes; I think it’s pressure as opposed to vacuum during the extraction that does it. I believe you are referring to “auto-buddering” which heat definitely speeds up.

No diamond mining is as simple as putting a jar on a heat mat and waiting a couple weeks for the terps to separate and thca to crystalize. It is interesting seeing the difference in trichomes from strain to strain though.

 

[macsnax]

Not a light issue, that's all genetic

 

[Tangerine_]

No diamond mining is as simple as putting a jar on a heat mat and waiting a couple weeks for the terps to separate and thca to crystalize. It is interesting seeing the difference in trichomes from strain to strain though.

I've tried this a couple of times but I "seed it" with an existing diamond to speed the process a little.

 

[macsnax]

I've tried this a couple of times but I "seed it" with an existing diamond to speed the process a little.

You just blew my mind...... did not know you could do that. Is it like a building block for the crystal to start forming on? Way cool, nice hack

 

[Tangerine_]

You just blew my mind...... did not know you could do that. Is it like a building block for the crystal to start forming on? Way cool, nice hack

Yep. I cant remember where I found the info. It might've been youtube or article but it definitely works. It kinda reminded me of those crystal experiments from grade school...ya know with a pencil and string over a jar.

 

[macsnax]

Yep. I cant remember where I found the info. It might've been youtube or article but it definitely works. It kinda reminded me of those crystal experiments from grade school...ya know with a pencil and string over a jar.

Way cool, I think I'll be blasting sometime in the next month, I'm gonna give this a go.

 

[cosmos2002]

Olá pessoal, sou português pela 3ª vez, cultivador de poucas plantas, mas leio muito sobre, por isso aprendemos muito a observar o desenvolvimento da planta. Tenho um lote guardado do ano passado que é meio arenoso e compacto, quase como o haxixe esverdeado do Marrocos que é o mais usado aqui, meio barato e de boa qualidade. Eu entendi muito bem o que aconteceu, não deixei secar direito após a colheita, tanto que depois de um ano, fica em uma jarra de pedreiro, cada vez mais compacta e um pouco úmida. A qualidade é boa, como é uma variedade três vezes rica em eu. Algumas pessoas dizem que a erva deve derramar um pouco, o que é o caso, porque estava um pouco úmido antes da cura. Se eu não abrir o pote por um tempo, começa a cheirar a amónia. Depois de decarpado, sinto pedra, duro ... eu gosto. Mas quase certo que apressei o tempo de seca.
Cheers to all, is the first time I write anything on this subject, but I’m reading the others’s experience for 2 years now. Thank you all of you, we have the same passion.

 

[luuuch]

we harvest 8x/mo., bout 1k plants..
A variety of strains. med facility. I asked my boss bout this the other day re: our hash plant, and a CBD strain we run.
he said it was due to the terp profile.
and the importance of pheno hunting.
although I'm sure genetics play a huge role, it sure sucks when "hash plant" leaves no glove hash..

 

[potpimp]

Trichs come in at least three different types, and I believe they all give different types of "high". I also believe that's where all the great diversity comes from and why it's so hard to get the exact same thing, even from two clones from the same mother. The more I learn about this amazing plant the more I love it - if that were possible.

 

[Rookieoftheyr]

Still a topic I think about, so happy to have it brought back up.. some of my finding since last discussed: oddly, it seems that “Cookie” strains have a higher likelihood of having the slick, oily trichome texture I had mentioned.. my Sunshine Daydream, mother’s Milk x 88HP, orange velvet underground, deep line alchemy 7 & 10 all have fairly typical trichomes, but my Ethos cookies and my blueberry bubba cookies are exhibiting the Oily and slick trichome texture.
Generally, the strains with an oily texture are VERY easy to establish the nice terpy smell again after the dry, while with the more traditionally sticky strains, curing is often imperative to regain the desired smells post-harvest.
The sandier trichome heads are almost certainly quite a bit smaller in size but in my experience; well made dry sift or bubble hash with this type of trichome produces a very very nice hash.

On a semi-related note; has anyone ever had a strain that visibly, should have been FIRE, but the high just wasn’t there? Several years back, I grew the strain Exotic Colors... one of the nicest looking Strains I’ve STILL grown... beautiful chunky buds with hints of green peppered in deep reds and purples with more visible “frost” than I had seen on most of my plants up to that point. They all smelled wonderful, stayed nice and happy and healthy, and I was CERTAIN my patients were gonna be thrilled!!! Well, bout a week after the breeders recommendation is when I generally start looking at trichomes under magnification, so I take a peak at the forest of beautiful trichomes, and it was almost all stalk with basically NO trichome heads.. was the weirdest thing... so so so many long stalks with just tiny tiny heads that apparently contained very little cannabinoids as it was the first and only strain my patients actually returned their donations lol. Would have been strange enough if it was a single plant, but it was 6 females that all had nearly no thc in the gland head. Anyhow, just an odd story I figured I’d share.

Now I’m curious as to trichome structure in thc and cbd plants. Is this the difference ? Off to the depths of the internet I go

 

[oldfogey420]

Resurrecting an old thread here...

I've grown out Blue Dream seeds by Blimburn a few times and it is hands down the oiliest plant I've ever handled. The triches are small and not as plentiful as other strains in the garden, and she is greasy to the touch unlike all the others that are sticky instead. She's always tasty and potent, so I don't think it really has any bearing on the final product, at least not in a negative way.

Around 15-20 years back I grew out several different strains from Nirvana and they all had enormous trichomes. Not sure if it was how i was growing back then or their genetics, but they were absolutely huge and very clearly visible to the naked eye.

 

[TommyTerps]

I experienced this recently with the gp x jealousy strain. 4 different brands and they all had different trichome feels.

The best out of the bunch was a mid-shelf brand and it had a very greasy, oily, slightly sticky feel. Was very smelly and tasty and ok bag appeal

The other 3 were top shelf brands.
One had weird sandy feel, no flavor, great bag appeal and ok smell.
2 of them was sticky but the initial smell quickly dissipated into just a plain weed smell(?) mixed with faint hints of what is used to be. The taste didn’t shine thru on the pulls, great bag appeal tho.

interesting topic. The greasy oily phenotype is really really nice and the Sandy one is dungeon tier. And the general sticky tacky glue type is right in the middle.