During my current grow I’ve placed my lights a little too close causing mild stress burn. This happened twice. The first time was on tiny seedlings and the second time was on small plants. Interestingly, the closer a ‘part’ of a plant is the more likely it seems to trigger trichome production.
I’m using cheap household LED bulbs and I doubt they emit much UV light so this seems to be caused by ‘visible’ light. The plants are not getting too hot.
First two photos show seedlings growing trichomes. I raised the lights and trichome production stopped.
This first pick below shows my crappy lights. The red arrow is pointing to one leaf tip. This one leaf tip grew too close to a light and is growing hairs/trichomes. These are only on one plant and only on that one leaf tip. The last pic shows that leaf tip.
I should mention that I trim lower leaves as plants grow and bury them deeper each time I transplant to larger grow bags. Most of these have had four sets of nodes snipped so they’re not at all bushy. I stop this process when plants are moved to their largest bags.
The trichomes you want will be those on flower. Trichomes on leaves are all but useless. They are fun to look at, but that’s about as far as it goes unless you have the patience to process a large amount of leaves for very little good stuff.
Not to kick a fella while he’s down, but you brought it up. You could get a decent veg LED for less than you’ve spent on your rats nest there. Those --on the one hand-- just look like hairs. On the other hand, it almost looks like the stoma have white rings around them. Have you looked at those under magnification? More questions than answers at this point really.
Honestly. What’s the temps and rh in the tent. Almost appears as the start of a mold issue with how all the hairs look like hairs not bulbous trics. I could be wrong but def looks like possibly start of an issue. I’m gonna watch and follow so I know if my eyes seeing this right. Usually trics start off like that but have a round tip to it not pointy like a hair
Oh and usually blasting light to a plant can and will cause .ore trics to pop up. It’s kinda like a suntan lotion for the leaves. More light more trics to cover and protect the leaf from the hot light
Most plants, not just cannabis, develop fine hairs for protection and various other reasons. That’s normal and nothing to worry about. Cannabis also develop trichomes for protection.
Also, you could save yourself a ton of headache getting one or two quality LED lights. That is a lot of extra wires running in your grow space and when rh goes up at lights out, condensation can build up just like dew.
Q: Are you just testing things?
A: Yes and my plants grow like crazy in response to the trimming.
Q: Do you normally keep cutting off nodes and burying deeper for root growth?
A: Yes and my plants still love me. It seems to enhance root growth and upper growth. My guess is the plants go into ‘emergency recovery’ mode.
Q: You sure those are trichrome?
A: The little white circles are tiny trichomes. The last image shows hairs but if I leave the light too close to that leaf I’m pretty sure trichomes will develop. I believe this from historical empirical observation.
Right but my inquisitive mind has me wondering if keeping plants in ‘perpetual’ protection mode will promote more trichome production by harvest time. This method is in contrast to ‘last minute’ use of UV light. I wonder if this may indicate that ‘visible’ light is (or can be) responsible for increased trichome production vs the widely practiced last minute application of UV?
Kev: You could get a decent veg LED for less than you’ve spent on your rats nest there.
Me: I bought those lights many years ago just as grow LED lights were still being sorted out. I have 315w CMH but I need to tie into 220v to use them. That’s next on my list to accomplish so these babies will enjoy high quality lights.
Kev: Those --on the one hand-- just look like hairs.
Me: Yes, the last image shows hairs, not trichomes. I’m pretty sure if I leave that leaf too close to a light source it will develop tiny trichomes. I’ve seen it happen more than once.
Kev: …t almost looks like the stoma have white rings around them. Have you looked at those under magnification?
Me: The ‘rings’ are a result of the camera lens being overcorrected for spherical aberration. They’re not on or around the stoma. Sorry for the confusion. I haven’t yet looked closer than the imaging posted thus far.
Mark: …blasting light to a plant can and will cause .ore trics to pop up. More light more trics to cover and protect the leaf from the hot light
Me: Right and my queries are; 1. Is trichome production turbocharged by ‘visible’ light or ‘UV’ light?, 2. Is UV light more ‘effective’ at inducing trichome production or maybe it affects the ‘properties’ of them differently?
I’m aware that UV is purported to be the correct (or only??) trichome enhancing wavelengths.
Border: Most plants, not just cannabis, develop fine hairs for protection and various other reasons.
Me: Thank you. Yes and I’m finding very early trichome protection production from bright light that I think has little or no UV wavelengths present. So… does it truly ‘require’ UV to trigger protection mode or does bright visible light work just as well?
Border: …you could save yourself a ton of headache getting one or two quality LED lights. That is a lot of extra wires running in your grow space
Me: Absolutely correct. I have 315w CMH lights but need to tie into 220v to use them. That will be done in two or three weeks.
Border: …when rh goes up at lights out, condensation can build up just like dew.
Me: These plants are in open air, no tent. RH is always under 50%. I have been finding water accumulation between touching leaves so I move them every several hours to allow them to dry.
I’m going to crack out some trichome info - all it means is a “hairlike growth” and the “hairs” on the leaves and the flat “bubbles” are also trichomes.
My LSD plants have made trichomes of different types all over themselves, from the very beginning. My orchids have trichomes on the flowers.
But the ones we’re concerned with are the psychoactives ones that grow on the buds and sugar leaves, the “stalked” ones that look like flattop mushrooms when young, and balloons on sticks when they are mature.
So this plant would grow these with good light or bad, it’s just part of its genetic makeup.
Fiz: But the ones [trichomes] we’re concerned with are the psychoactives ones that grow on the buds and sugar leaves…
Me: Absolutely. My observations have me wondering though; Does keeping plants in ‘perpetual’ protection mode result in more and/or better trichome production at harvest time? Too, is ‘UV’ light truly necessary or in some way(s) better than bright ‘visible’ light at accomplishing the best end results?
That’s an excellent question - UV light is of course a component of natural sunlight, so I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that’s a yes. I decided a week or so ago to get a little (switchable) UV/IR bar to supplement my full spectrum, which actually lacks UV.
The only way to answer the second part would be to set up an experiment, you’d have to run it with clones to be sure the plants were genetically identical. Let one grow out on a “normal” timetable, and keep the second in prolonged veg.
It would be interesting, but beyond the scope of what I can do at this point.
(I’m a former science teacher - love experiments!)
I don’t have the patience to perform an appropriate scientific study… and I’m too lazy. These days I’d muck it up anyway.
I’m just going to be cognizant of variances of conditions and outcomes to slowly/haphazardly accumulate possibility/probability data to apply to future grows.
