Fade in Flower

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Stoney Bear94

Active Member
Hey All, have a question that I haven’t found a good answer to yet.

Why would cannabis fade in organic soil?

I found that my plants did fade naturally a bit in my soil - I didn’t flush or anything - but I don’t understand why. The nutrients are still available in the soil. Is there a biological reason the plant would choose to not eat if nutrients are available?

Is it because as the plant matures, it just starts dying and stops consuming nutrients?


Any inputs appreciated.

:weed:
 
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Stoney Bear94

Active Member
There should be PK available in the soil though, as I haven’t flushed and am starting to maintain a living soil. I see pictures of peoples “natural” organic fades but lack understanding of what causes a fade in organic soil
 
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Stoney Bear94

Active Member
So in a living soil since we aren’t feeding the roots we feed the soil, the plant will stop up taking certain nutrients on its own as its death arrives. In a synthetic system, roots are force fed nutrients taking plant out of control, and forcing a flush to replicate plants natural end of life processes.
Is the the right thought process?
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
Stoney Bear94 said:
So in a living soil since we aren’t feeding the roots we feed the soil, the plant will stop up taking certain nutrients on its own as its death arrives. In a synthetic system, roots are force fed nutrients taking plant out of control, and forcing a flush to replicate plants natural end of life processes.
Is the the right thought process?
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Sounds like the basics yeah.
 
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Northwood

Well-Known Member
waterproof808 said:
senescence. Cannabis is an annual.
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Exactly. Cannabis plants that are starved to death through deficiencies while actively growing isn't "fade". Chlorosis may look like fade to some folks, but those lovely fall colours are due to your plant shutting down its production of chlorophyll once it finishes growing. Once the existing chlorophyll begins to break down, the carotenoids and anthocyanins start to show through. Keep in mind a lot of this is strain dependent, and changing temperatures are a factor.

If you take your growing lovely green plant and starve it when you think the flowers are big enough for an early kill, those flowers might have grown bigger. Annual plants like Cannabis only senescence once they've finished growing at which time their job is considered done.
 
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Stoney Bear94

Active Member
It’s amazing how I’ve researched flushing pro and cons for hours on the internet - and this sort of thought process/rationalization never even comes up. All this “flush or not to flush” talk never even gets to the “root” lol of the issue. Makes so much sense
 
Boru420

Boru420

Well-Known Member
i cut down and dried a plant 7 days ago, it dried well but needs cured and me being me tried a joint just for scientific purposes. while it smells lovely it tastes a bit woody/strange, had to explain, will this improve as the cure goes on. grown in total organic but not flush, water in last week.
 
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Stoney Bear94

Active Member
Boru420 said:
i cut down and dried a plant 7 days ago, it dried well but needs cured and me being me tried a joint just for scientific purposes. while it smells lovely it tastes a bit woody/strange, had to explain, will this improve as the cure goes on. grown in total organic but not flush, water in last week.
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Yep there’s still a lot of chlorophyll most likely in the buds that give it that nasty taste - where I bet it burns black and not grey. It will need ~2 week cure to not taste like ass. I use bovida 62s for curing, and hydrometers in the jars to measure the RH. Ideally it should be 62 RH
 
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Stoney Bear94

Active Member
Northwood said:
Exactly. Cannabis plants that are starved to death through deficiencies while actively growing isn't "fade". Chlorosis may look like fade to some folks, but those lovely fall colours are due to your plant shutting down its production of chlorophyll once it finishes growing. Once the existing chlorophyll begins to break down, the carotenoids and anthocyanins start to show through. Keep in mind a lot of this is strain dependent, and changing temperatures are a factor.

If you take your growing lovely green plant and starve it when you think the flowers are big enough for an early kill, those flowers might have grown bigger. Annual plants like Cannabis only senescence once they've finished growing at which time their job is considered done.
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One Q around this - since most of us are cutting as the trichomes get to the nice part amber/part cloudy trichomes phase - how does that align with the plants natural end of life?

Should we really care about the fade? If the nugs are at peak ripeness, that may or may not align with the plants natural timeline of death I’m assuming, inducing pretty fade.

is there a benefit to aligning the harvest with natural end of life? Are there ways to encourage this scenario by pulling lights away end of flower etc. to slow down the ripening in order to align the 2 dates?

Thanks fellow weed nerds
 
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Northwood

Well-Known Member
Stoney Bear94 said:
One Q around this - since most of us are cutting as the trichomes get to the nice part amber/part cloudy trichomes phase - how does that align with the plants natural end of life?

Should we really care about the fade? If the nugs are at peak ripeness, that may or may not align with the plants natural timeline of death I’m assuming, inducing pretty fade.

is there a benefit to aligning the harvest with natural end of life? Are there ways to encourage this scenario by pulling lights away end of flower etc. to slow down the ripening in order to align the 2 dates?

Thanks fellow weed nerds
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This is a great question, and honestly I don't know except to say that the only time I even bother checking my trichomes is when those last sugar leaves on the end of the colas are fully matured and stretched out, and there's just a few new white pistils still springing up here and there, with all the others red/brown. Usually by that time depending on strain the plant on the hole looks "ratty" with yellowing beginning, or you get those nice fade colours. I think that's largely strain and environment dependent.

But then again, I've had sativas that looked like they could flower for a damn year foxtailing if I let them. I don't think there are any hard and fast rules about this, and we need to be flexible. Mostly I harvest based on the trichomes even it I get beautiful but too-early colors. And the same the some sativas that will stay green no matter what you do, flush or no flush. TBH I don't think fade affects quality in any way, but a beautiful purple interveinal pattern with light red edges does make a beautiful photo to paste on reddit or something. lol
 
JoeBlow5823

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
Northwood said:
This is a great question, and honestly I don't know except to say that the only time I even bother checking my trichomes is when those last sugar leaves on the end of the colas are fully matured and stretched out, and there's just a few new white pistils still springing up here and there, with all the others red/brown. Usually by that time depending on strain the plant on the hole looks "ratty" with yellowing beginning, or you get those nice fade colours. I think that's largely strain and environment dependent.

But then again, I've had sativas that looked like they could flower for a damn year foxtailing if I let them. I don't think there are any hard and fast rules about this, and we need to be flexible. Mostly I harvest based on the trichomes even it I get beautiful but too-early colors. And the same the some sativas that will stay green no matter what you do, flush or no flush. TBH I don't think fade affects quality in any way, but a beautiful purple interveinal pattern with light red edges does make a beautiful photo to paste on reddit or something. lol
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Yeah, once you know good bud, you just know in your gut when to cut.
 
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