There is a discussion, I guess you would say, going on in my house. Every since I started doing the hydro. No one had interest in the house, just doubts. When my out of town adventure was going on, is when all the interests started, I guess. I won’t get into the last harvest, but I will say it was great.
Now… Purple haze is the latest. Now I have never heard of this, and honestly that doesn’t mean a darn thing, but I am being told that I need to form the buds. SO, why would I need to gently squeeze the buds? Wouldn’t that take off the good resin and stuff that is needed?
I feel like I have been standing with a dumb look scratching my head, second guessing my existence lately.
No fingers on buds until ya chop them is my suggestion and then I use gloves when handling. Messing with buds as the are getting bigger will destroy the trichomes.
As @Bentstick suggests, don’t touch or handle the buds. Whoever told you to “form” the buds is wrong! The bud/colas will form (or not) without any mechanical assistance.
This cola formed without any help from me. Just light and nutrients.
SOOO, I am not crazy in thinking that you don’t form buds. I was about to go play patty cake in the corner. THANK YOU ALL!
If I hear back in my day when I was growing one more time. ( there isn’t much of an age difference and it’s not like he grew in the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s, it was the 90’s )
But I have been challenged to a grow off now. His way and my way. I don’t know why or what really prompted it other than sharing the knowledge that I have learned from you all when I have been asked why I am doing something a certain way.
I think they may mean let the buds form. Like, you can kiiiiind of manipulate how the bud grows, but that’s more of like super tight defoliation and trimming, not really doing anything to the actual buds.
Buds have been forming in the wild for thousands of years without anyone having to squeeze them. Do people really think that the commercial growers are going up and down their huge fields, hand-squeezing every bud? Sounds like “Bro-Science” to me.
Anyone who says that should be invited to do their own grow, with their own stuff, time, and effort, and then show or compare the results with control plants that haven’t been handled that way. I do squeeze, gently, the tops of a bud or two on each plant just to get the smell on my fingers. Just like you would check a lavender plant or a rosemary or really just about any herb. But to squeeze the pot buds to help them form? Big nope from me.
That is what I was thinking. I had never heard of it and hadn’t read anything like that. All I got was " I was told that you need to form the buds by squeezing them."
I did not take that advice. It just didn’t seem logical to me.
It is worth noting that if your fingers are sticky after touching the buds, you have destroyed some trichomes. It may or may not be many trichomes, but some at any rate.
Personally, I avoid touching the buds as much as is practical until harvest. Then I only touch them as much as needed to effect the harvest and I wear nitrile gloves while harvesting and trimming.
I forgot to mention that during my first grow or two I was touching my buds almost every day. I liked the smell, and I loved that I was growing “sticky buds”.
When I learned (from the master growers on this site) that I was reducing the potency (very slightly but reduced nonetheless) each time I touched a bud, I stopped doing it.
That is definitely a good way to remember not to touch them. I am definitely guilty of touching to see if they are sticky and to check the smell. But I do try to keep my hands off.
Welcome to the corner. I am getting ready to get this grow off started. I am looking at seeds now.
Can grow in hydro and/or soil. I do know that I have to get a water chiller and make a reservoir. (should have just got a pump) All that lifting gets rough after so long.
All I got was " I was told that you need to form the buds by squeezing them."
Yep, I was told my my buddy’s 3rd cousin on my fathers side 5th marriage by his brother in laws ex-girlfriends sister who was a Master Gardner for the White House who had previously worked for Albert Einstein…
First, I am ok, I was able to get the gummy down when “Yep,..” I may have almost died.
Literally choked on a gummy.
That was hilarious. I had to send because I was unsure of my fate at that moment. I am still wheezing. (and still wheezing)
Glad you are okay, I would hate to be responsible for anything bad happening to a fellow Growmie! Hope the gummy helped relieve the anxiety. I did use that phrase (or pretty close to it) when somebody at my old work tried to tell me something about my field of specialty that I had 40 years experience in.
The conversation started something like “well, I know that it’s probably the way that you used to do it, but I got a buddy (who doesn’t even work in my field) who says that he read/heard XXXX is better and he’s a really smart guy…”. Unfortunately, he said it in front of about 10 people who knew a little about my specialty in the medical field. They all had different sub-specialties than me, but they knew enough to know that I was a nationally recognized SME in my field. When I pulled that line on him, everyone else burst out laughing and the guy ended up having to walk away. If he would have walked up and participated in the conversation, instead of walking up and try to show that he was an expert in everything, he might have learned something a bit more other than what a good dose of humiliation tastes like in public.
When my out of town adventure was going on, is when all the interests started, I guess. I won’t get into the last harvest, but I will say it was great.
)
