I knew old growers who used to push thumb tacks in the stalks to stress them out. Hell, I've even done it a time or two. But I also knew a grower who watered with ice water because he thought it made them flower better. Lots of folks have lots of funny ideas.I personally had the idea of Epigenetic breeding before I even knew what Epigenetics was, and when I learned what Epigenetics was, it completely proved my theory; and my theory was also based on evidence. What gave me the idea for stress breeding was Bouncing Bear Botanicals. They had San Pedro Cactus in like 2006 or something that was labeled "SS" which stood for "Super Stressed". And since the age of 14 I had started reading everything I possibly could about Alkaloids, so when I found out that their theory behind "SS" was that alkaloids were a defense mechanism, and many plants had been shown to have alkaloids appear in larger amounts when introduced to slicing, stabbing, burning, and other forms of "Super Stress". Their's were Cacti that had been grown in harsh conditions, and stabbed and slashed. And the possibility was that that would have caused it to have more Mescaline.
Now THC is not exactly an Alkaloid, and no one knows if Stressing it will bring more out (so let's find out). But UVB does bring out THCv, to protect from the UV rays. So there probably are ways to bring out more THC. And who cares if it brings out more in that particular generation, you can get the next Generation to be stronger, with higher THC content because of the stress of the parents. Epigenetics proves this.
And when I was doing this here, it's not like 100% of the people on this website were against me, just as an example I remember an old grower who said he had heard about people who used to hammer a nail into the stalk of their plant to make it produce more THC. And then someone else told me that they had known an old grower who would take his plants just before flower, and tie a cinder block to the top and stretch it out, then the branches would grow upwards like 3-6 plants, kind of like SCROG.
It's not like a don't know what I am talking about or doing, most of these people here are just trolls.
I knew old growers who used to push thumb tacks in the stalks to stress them out. Hell, I've even done it a time or two. But I also knew a grower who watered with ice water because he thought it made them flower better. Lots of folks have lots of funny ideas.
My original BP plant was lost for a few months. When I found it it was not even knee high from lack of sun. I put her out in the sun and let it finish flowering. Only got about a half ounce, but it was the best smoke I grew in 2015, hand down. Was the stress the reason? Who knows.
There was a guy on here one time named Larry, who liked to garden. He joked about breeding the perfect bush strain. One that would thrive on neglect. Living through hot, cold, wet and dry. He grew an old North Florida strain crossed in 1988. He lost a lot of plants in what he called his Darwin Dope patches. So in theory, I guess you could say he was doing selective breeding. But I think he was just lazy as fuck and didn't check on his shit very often.If I were actually doing it right now all kinds of good stuff like this would come up.
Everyone just likes to grab individual pictures of plants with no context, and they just say "Look how horrible they look".
I'll eventually start doing more tests, I am just focusing on growing some buds and trim for hash making and breeding right now. So I am doing that first, then I will get back into the Epigenetic testing once I finish this.
And I actually did do this in this grow, but you know how most people breed plants by looking for "Vigor" and Vigor is usually a good sign that it is a good breeding plant? I actually will not water plants and let a bunch die; kind of a "only the strong survive" type test, and then only grow the ones that survive, because the other ones die. With the seedlings I started off with 1-7 seeds from each strain, and I now have 1 plant from each of those strains, because I let all the others die from underwatering, or being taken over by the other ones by being blocked from the light when their siblings got too big, or from the other ones taking over their Jiffy pack with their roots. So I don't just look for Vigor, I look for Survivors.
Because my goal originally was this:
I had come from Texas with 3,000 bagseeds or so from some bright green, Texas brick weed that was not bad except for that some energy had gone to making all the seeds. And I was using my Epigentic theory (before I knew about Epigenetics) in order to breed a "Ditch Weed strain" meaning that it was meant to be Johnny Appleseed-ed, and they would have good genetics for people to pull out of ditches, and people would not be mad to get pollen from a good Ditchweed. Basically just trying to make a strain that could survive anything, and Make America Hemp-Covered Again.
Now I am basically doing the same thing, but with better genetics. I am going to be giving out seeds and clones, and mixing various landrace strains, and finding the plants that are survivors and have the best flavors and smells and THCv content. It's just that right now I am not as focused on the survivors, I am just breeding the plants for now, and will be focusing more on the survivor aspect in later grows, once I have a good strain. But I will always find the best plants by letting a few die.
Fin
Consider this,.....
Have you ever considered the fact that the last one standing of the plants you neglect may in fact be the weakest and not the strongest?
Healthy plants transpire more than weaker plants, which means the will use water and food resources at a greater rate than weak plants. Once used up, they will wilt and die. Weaker plants may use those same resources at a slower rate, thus surviving longer on the same set of inputs.
In the Navy we had a class of guys who I called Yoos2be's. One guy used to be a race car driver, another used to be a scuba diver, etc, etc. But this looks like a classic case of a Going2be. A case study should reveal all the Going To Be symptoms.
Knowing what you are breeding is good. I grow in the bush, and my labels are buried, so I did a couple of crosses this year that I didn't know what they were until I chopped and dug up the labels.
One was (Triangle Kush Cookies X Nightcap X Sinmint X Shit/Skunk) {also known as Poly Shunk 1} X (Skunk X Shit/Skunk) {aka Skunk Shunk}. The other was (Afghani X Shit/Skunk) X (Powernap X Sinmint Cookies X Gorille de Raisin)
I have a few more crosses still going that I won't know for sure what they are until I harvest.