Trichome ripeness studies?

Looking for any actual real science addressing potency/ripeness and color of trichomes, I can't seem to find anything. Is this all bro-science or are there actually studies around trichome color and potency? Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance,

pegboy said:

Looking for any actual real science addressing potency/ripeness and color of trichomes, I can't seem to find anything. Is this all bro-science or are there actually studies around trichome color and potency? Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance,

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There are some, I just spent an hour reading an article I thought would answer your question, but all it really said was that amber had less thc than cloudy, but no numbers. Most of the others I’ve found were pseudo scientific, somewhat helpful, lots of charts, but not sure how they came up with them, I’m not sure they’d pass “peer review”.

Phytoplankton said:

There are some, I just spent an hour reading an article I thought would answer your question, but all it really said was that amber had less thc than cloudy, but no numbers. Most of the others I’ve found were pseudo scientific, somewhat helpful, lots of charts, but not sure how they came up with them, I’m not sure they’d pass “peer review”.

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Thanks!! Yea not much out there.

Some years ago I saw a grower on here post test results taken weekly starting in mid flower. I can’t find the thread right now. Basically the results he got showed that with that specific strain it reached peak THC a couple weeks before the plant was fully ripe. But it didn’t drop of much from that peak for weeks. These changes don’t happen over night it takes time for plants to ripen and even more time for anything to actually degrade.

It’s definitely been proven that allowing plants to reach proper ripeness provides the best overall effects. The terpenes, flavonoids and esters have all reached their best potential at that point and they combine with the cannabinoids for maximum quality.

Its the basal cells beneath the trichomes that change colour and give it the appearance of a colour change but they are clear always and like you said mate legit studies are few and far between on the subject

It probably varies between plants also, some may be better cloudy than amber and vice versa. Another advantage to growing the same plant over and over is finding the sweet spot over time. I always say the smoke test is the only test that matters.

Trichome maturity varies from person to person some harvest when all clear just turning cloudy others prefer a mostly amber harvest but majority go for mostly milky/cloudy and a few ambers. Trichomes are most potent when cloudy/milky and after that it loses potency and when plants are harvested trichomes continue to mature in the curing process.

SwS said:

Trichome maturity varies from person to person some harvest when all clear just turning cloudy others prefer a mostly amber harvest but majority go for mostly milky/cloudy and a few ambers. Trichomes are most potent when cloudy/milky and after that it loses potency and when plants are harvested trichomes continue to mature in the curing process.

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Unfortunately in that article I found nothing correlating clear, cloudy or amber to cannabinoid content of the trichome. Can you copy me on the part if it gives that correlation assuming I missed it? Thank you

curious2garden said:

Unfortunately in that article I found nothing correlating clear, cloudy or amber to cannabinoid content of the trichome. Can you copy me on the part if it gives that correlation assuming I missed it? Thank you

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There was a sentence or two saying amber was less potent than cloudy, but it had no percentages, graphs or hard data, that I could find.

Phytoplankton said:

There was a sentence or two saying amber was less potent than cloudy, but it had no percentages, graphs or hard data, that I could find.

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Yeah and no footnote so with no cannabinoid discussion it looks like it's not proven yet, just a correlate. I'm really looking forward to the Universities getting their hands on this and answering all of it! Thanks

curious2garden said:

Unfortunately in that article I found nothing correlating clear, cloudy or amber to cannabinoid content of the trichome. Can you copy me on the part if it gives that correlation assuming I missed it? Thank you

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That study was on maturity not potency. How the trichomes mature on cannabis. This study is on potency Thank you

curious2garden said:

Yeah and no footnote so with no cannabinoid discussion it looks like it's not proven yet, just a correlate. I'm really looking forward to the Universities getting their hands on this and answering all of it! Thanks

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The legalization of cannabis is the what is preventing the studies from being done. But some scientists are studying the plant but there is no current in depth research but new cannabinoids are being discovered in cannabis yearly so atleast there is progress although it's slow. Cannabis is a very complex plant and I believe untill it is fully legalized worldwide we will have to take the bits and pieces of studies untill then

SwS said:

That study was on maturity not potency. How the trichomes mature on cannabis. This study is on potency Thank you

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363060899_Characterization_of_Trichome_Phenotypes_to_Assess_Maturation_and_Flower_Development_in_Cannabis_sativa_L_cannabis_by_Automatic_Trichome_Gland_Analysis

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If you looking for numbers I don't think you gonna find something but I will dig in the archives and see if I can't get something close for you

SwS said:

That study was on maturity not potency. How the trichomes mature on cannabis. This study is on potency Thank you

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363060899_Characterization_of_Trichome_Phenotypes_to_Assess_Maturation_and_Flower_Development_in_Cannabis_sativa_L_cannabis_by_Automatic_Trichome_Gland_Analysis

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That article is on machine vision parameters for teaching a machine to visualize level of cannabis maturity. I see no lab tests on cannabinoid content in that article. Maturity is grossly marked by trichome color but you need lab analysis to give you potency of the cannabinoids within those trichomes and the changes as they mature. I could have missed it. I'm smoking some White Papaya and working on my electrical so I admit to reading it quickly.

SwS said:

The legalization of cannabis is the what is preventing the studies from being done. But some scientists are studying the plant but there is no current in depth research but new cannabinoids are being discovered in cannabis yearly so atleast there is progress although it's slow. Cannabis is a very complex plant and I believe untill it is fully legalized worldwide we will have to take the bits and pieces of studies untill then

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Exactly I was hoping they would completely deschedule and move to a wine model. But we appear to be handing it to big pharma but at least at Schedule III they can research it easily. Great study, my son will love it as he started with Machine Vision and loves pot I just sent him more of my Polar Gelato thanks for sharing it

curious2garden said:

That article is on machine vision parameters for teaching a machine to visualize level of cannabis maturity. I see no lab tests on cannabinoid content in that article. Maturity is grossly marked by trichome color but you need lab analysis to give you potency of the cannabinoids within those trichomes and the changes as they mature. I could have missed it. I'm smoking some White Papaya and working on my electrical so I admit to reading it quickly.

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Skip to Point 2.2 Trichome Maturation.
I think scientists only look at quality of cannabinoids because potency numbers will vary from cultivar to cultivar. But the 2 go hand in hand if quality degrades potency degrades aswell since cannabinoids are volatile

curious2garden said:

I could have missed it. I'm smoking some White Papaya and working on my electrical so I admit to reading it quickly.

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Lol nice just don't get shocked

I think

curious2garden said:

Exactly I was hoping they would completely deschedule and move to a wine model. But we appear to be handing it to big pharma but at least at Schedule III they can research it easily. Great study, my son will love it as he started with Machine Vision and loves pot I just sent him more of my Polar Gelato thanks for sharing it

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They should classify it as a plant because that is what it is. It was here before humans .That's nice we need more scientists to study cannabis

SwS said:

Skip to Point 2.2 Trichome Maturation.
I think scientists only look at quality of cannabinoids because potency numbers will vary from cultivar to cultivar. But the 2 go hand in hand if quality degrades potency degrades aswell since cannabinoids are volatile

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I saw that,
"107 Cannabis samples acquired from law
108 enforcement and manually assessed for trichome browning on a linear scale had a lower THCA
109 and increased cannabinolic acid (CBNA) content compared to cannabis samples with clear or
110 milky trichomes [3]. Reduced THC content in senescent trichomes glands was also reported by
111 Mahlberg and Kim [10]. There is currently a lack of prior reports describing trichome gland
112 phenotype in relationship to cannabis flower development in situ in cannabis."

That's another part about the potency issue. Which cannabinoids are we looking at peak potency for? Also synergistic blending of specific cannabinoids and entourage effect are other points. We aren't just looking for THC and CBD there's an entire plethora of chemicals that work together to be greater then the sum of their parts and so if you're looking for sleep vs pain relief at what point in time does that correlate to a trichome color if it does? There's so much more to learn it's almost overwhelming.

Cannabis is very complex. Anyway that was a really great rabbit hole to dive down this morning and kept me from being too shocked LOL thank you!!