Trichomes, THC and UVB light.....

Inneedofbuds said:

Your plant IS actually forming a thicker skin because of the UV.
With added UV light, an increased level of essential oils yields a more powerful scent and flavour. The essential oils also aid in the absorption of UV light , thus a sunscreen for plants. Plants in the wild produce their own kind of “sunscreen,” called flavonoids. Flavonoids screen out some of the more dangerous UVB-type radiation.

more can be found in my post here:
https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/43324-why-uv-important-plants.html

I still find it amazing, and very awesome, that you have grown a plant under pure UV, but can we see some pics please?

Click to expand...

Yes, of course. I'll have to do it a little later. I have some updated pic's from two days ago on my camera still... but I topped the female yesterday so I'd rather take some new ones.

Inneedofbuds said:

Your plant IS actually forming a thicker skin because of the UV.
With added UV light, an increased level of essential oils yields a more powerful scent and flavour. The essential oils also aid in the absorption of UV light , thus a sunscreen for plants. Plants in the wild produce their own kind of “sunscreen,” called flavonoids. Flavonoids screen out some of the more dangerous UVB-type radiation.

Click to expand...

I find this very interesting. As my plants were growing they developed what I call a translucent sheen. This sheen actually served to reflect light.

I'm no scientist, despite buying a microscope I could not see anything special about this sheen aside from the fact that it was shiney. In other words normal cannabis leaves have this stuff too, only in less abundance. On all cannabis leaves there are shiny parts, but on the UV plants they just seemed to have more of these cells.

I wasn't sure if I was just seeing damage, or the plants natural defence mechanism working in overdrive. My mind leans heavily toward the latter.


What has me thinking, is that if cannabis can adapt so quickly to the environment and develop a sunscreen, if we could somehow take those properties and develop them into a cream... we would see the first ever sun screen that actually works.

That may sound crazy to some of you, but like I said... I am no scientist...

hey Skunk....interesting developments eh?! I am excited about this current thinking....just out of curiousity....what part of current sunscreening are you refering to that does not work? I thought the various SPF rsatings were quite effective? sorry...maybe I'm missing something?

skunkushybrid said:

..... if we could somehow take those properties and develop them into a cream... we would see the first ever sun screen that actually works.

Click to expand...

tahoe58 said:

hey Skunk....interesting developments eh?! I am excited about this current thinking....just out of curiousity....what part of current sunscreening are you refering to that does not work? I thought the various SPF rsatings were quite effective? sorry...maybe I'm missing something?

Click to expand...

They also told us, a few years ago, that factor 2 was ok for heavily tanned skin.

When the shit hit the fan, and suncream companies had to backpeddle... I remember a report (in memory) saying that none of the factors were effective, or as to apply too little protection to actually be called effective.

Then a contradicting report came out saying that only the highest factors were effective.

Either way, these plants have survived an extremely harsh environment, and there was some definite sheen produced to protect them. Whatever these plants did, it has enabled them to survive a harsher UV climate than can be found anywhere on this planet.

Maybe I'm imagining the implications, or overextending... but implications there must be.

oic....sorry....didn't totally understand what you had meant....thanks so much for the clarification. Yea...I guess thats the case with so many products these days....the latest here was the plastic in water bottle...that all the health and fitness people use.....I have a good friend who is an ecotoxicologist...water quality specialist....and he has been reeading reports about that compound that comex out of plastics....and with todays detection limits....they CANNOT measure an amount of this stuff that is safe in water? WTF!

like you said the reality is the plants are adapting in the way they are...and what are the implications....time to think...and puff...and think some more,...and puff some more....

Ok... i wanted to upload a couple more but i couldn't access them to edit them for some reason...

The tallest plant is the female, the shorter the male. What is also interesting with these two is that they grew very much true to form for much of the veg period. It is only in the last week, or at the 3rd-4th node that things reversed.

The male started tightening up the nodes, whereas the female started to elongate them. This happened to such an extent that I believed I may be witnessing some type of sex reversal...

...but no, the plants have stayed true to original form and have matured into the sexes I had them at almost from day 1.

btw, it is exactly 28 days veg' today, so these (this rather) pic's were taken at 26 days veg'.

hey man...thanks....is some ways...the leaves (some) do almost look hardened? tougher, stiffer, more robust? thanks again....cool pic...cool experiment!

Here's a pic from today, you can see that the female has been topped for a clone.

cool....so you've started the clone as well then? thanks again for the update!

Yes, I topped her yesterday. these damned indicas are a nightmare for clones.

Even the NL i'm growing are the same. Very few side branches. A couple of the NL have started to show sex too, so I'm just waiting for them all to show before I start flowering them.

I've taken a couple of clones from the NL too. With the NL there are 2 very distinct phenotypes. One of the phenotypes is very short with stunted leaves, and they are almost furry to the touch. It looks like i may have 1 of each of this phenotype (a male and female), so they may make a nice breeding pair. The other 4 NL are much taller with longer (but still broad) leaf blades. the larger phenotype has shown sex quicker.

Sorry to go off track... not running a journal anymore so i get little chance to talk about what I'm up to.

the first two pic are those of the plants veged under cfl and flowering for 1 week under MV lamps pics 3 and 4 are thoughs of a plant veged under clf's and flowering under HPS for 28 days and the last pic is a plant veging under MV for 21 days from clone but had that one under cfl till it was about 7" tall and had good root system

off topic but desided to try areoponics took one clone and set it up will see how it goes will take a pic in a little while

Be sure to update us on the crop. I was doing research on L.E.D. lights that have some interesting facts pertaining to maximum plants growth and light consumption

hmm idk from what ive seen of one grower useing LED's i wasnt imprest at all

why does it seem the bigger the plant the longer it takes to grow ? might just be me

not sure I am getting this but.....because its bigger? things bigger take more time? the plant growth rate has physical and physiological limitations, the bigger the plant the long it take to grow? sorry, if I am missing your point.

PKNL said:

why does it seem the bigger the plant the longer it takes to grow ? might just be me

Click to expand...

no im just saying from my perseptions that when a plant gets bigger you dont notice it growing as quick as when there small

PKNL said:

no im just saying from my perseptions that when a plant gets bigger you dont notice it growing as quick as when there small

Click to expand...

I find this to not be true. When I enter the flowering stage, and my plants hit that growth spurt, this is when I notice the growth more then anytime. I am adjusting the lights almost daily, and they are drinking a ton of water.

Hey guys. I have found the topic of UV to really spark my interest and after visiting my local grow store today i came aways shocked. The employees were raving about a new UV-B bulb on the market. They say that when it is used for the last 2 weeks of the grow, the buds produce a ton more crystals and oil, making for some amazing looking buds at the possible cost of some yield. Heres a link to the bulb makers. Check out the chart at the very bottom. I cant find the exact bulb here, but i saw it in the store today. cheers. http://www.lifelighttec.com/f/LLI_Fall07RetailPricingWeb_B1.pdf

i meant in the veg stage i notice big changes in the flowering stage everytime the light cycle kicks on and i can go and have a look see , but like in the veg stage when there 3 feet tall i myself dont notice such excelerated groth example ( when there 6 " tall you notice each leaf open and expand / when there big theres mass areas of growth so you have more to remeber how it was the night befor) hope this clarified for you all