Lacking Potency!

[Justin00]

So i finished curing my 2oz from 3 plants from my first ever grow, they were grown in soil with CFLs and looked very healthy right up untill harvest. i harvested one at 8 weeks, one and 8.5 and one at 9 weeks after 12/12. they were bag seed but are much less potent then the weed they came from.

im wondering if this is common when using cfls or if im doing something wrong. also any tips or tricks would be great.

i am 4 weeks into veg of my second grow half soil half hydro. i have 9 plants atm and have bumped up the lighting considerably but still using cfl's.

 

[tafbang]

are you sure they were completely finished? and how many and what kind of cfls did you use? and what nutrients if you used any

 

[Green Shark]

Sounds like it wasnt completly finished the CFL's can considerably slow down the budding stage sometimes adding about a extra week to 2 weeks. But something you can do is cure them in the jars and keep curing them by opening and closing the mason jars or similar jars until they are nice and cure. Then after about a month or so some of the potency should come back around.

 

[tafbang]

do you think curing actually makes the plant more potent?

 

[Green Shark]

I have heard stories of people curing for a year and the smoke knocking them on their ass!

 

[tafbang]

lol, I've heard that also. but if that were the case, the 2700 year old marijuana that was found in an ancient tomb would've been dank as fuck, it was in a jar and in a sack when they found it, and there was no potency but they found the chemicals to clarify that it was actually marijuana and it was pretty dank looking, but guess what. no high, all the thc was degraded. =\

I think people who swear by curing for such a ridiculous amount of time are the types of people in life that like to tell bogus stories all the time. I've dried buds with heat in 30 minutes and got really stoned and couldn't tell any difference between buds that were cured for a month or more from the same plant.


I just read more information on curing actually decreases potency to make for a much better smoke to people. but there are people on both sides of the fence, but I don't think a dead plant is going to get stronger by sitting around. just as long as it's dry and you can burn it, it's good.

 

[Mr.Therapy Man 2]

Some strains take up to one month before they reach thier maximum potency.I grew some Mandala #1 and it was twice as good cureing two months compared to a 3 week cure

 

[Green Shark]

I've never tried it personally so I cant say for sure. That was just my input on his situation thats all. But personally I have cured for 3 weeks and the buds have gotten stronger every week with better taste and overall bud quality. That is fact!

 

[tafbang]

"curing does NOT increase potency - it breaks down the THC-A into the active form. It does break down starches into sugars, making the bud taste sweeter. The chlorophyll is also broken down, which gets rid of that 'herby' homegrown taste most people don't like." got this from a weed scientist on here. glad he agrees

yeah, I respected the fact that you said that it was what you heard. but with or without the taste, I'm pretty sure that as long as your weed is dry the potency will be at it's prime. and curing only helps the taste if that's a problem to a person. but too long of curing will only make things degrade.

 

[Green Shark]

Thanks for the info!

 

[newatit2010]

Just finished my grow with a little over 120watts CFLs per plant,3 plants took 10weeks for the thichomes to turn amber. Turned out good for me didn't think it would cure.lol
good luck next time

 

[Justin00]

thanks for the replies guys, sry i have been away a while.

my guess would be i didn't let them totally finish flowering since i was growing them far under the recommended amount of light and the plants were still very healthy looking when i chopped. i was just wondering if it was they type of light or the time i let them go that would effect it. so even if i was under less light than is recommended they will still have the same potency if left longer (aka until they are done)?

this time around im will be using 12 23 watt clfs, 4 68 watt cfls, and 2 23 watt UVB cfls. to cover a 3x4 area with 10 plants.

 

[tardis]

do you think curing actually makes the plant more potent?

Absolutely. My vortex after one month cure was waaaay more potent than it was after 2 weeks into cure.

 

[tafbang]

Absolutely. My vortex after one month cure was waaaay more potent than it was after 2 weeks into cure.

are you sure it wasn't due to it being more dry?

 

[GemCutter]

"curing does NOT increase potency - it breaks down the THC-A into the active form.

There it is right there, technically not more potent, THC isn't added obviously. But as the bud cures the THC is broken down into a form that gets you higher than if it had not broken down.

 

[Brick Top]

do you think curing actually makes the plant more potent?

When cannabis is harvested there is a sizable percentage of THC that is still in it's non-psychoactive form, that being THCA. It takes time for THCA to fully undergo the decarboxylization process and become fully psychoactive THC and that is a large part of why a long slow curing process is important.

Strains that are pure indica or highly predominantly indica do not benefit a great deal from a cure longer than a month but a pure sativa or a hybrid that is highly predominantly sativa will benefit much more from a longer cure. After a run of Mr. Nice Seeds Neville's Haze I ended up with one small jar that got pushed to the very back of a deep drawer and forgotten about. When I spotted it by then it had cured for about eight months or longer. I began smoking the rest at around two months, going through one jar at a time leaving the others to cure longer. The herb from the small jar that had cured longer was definitely better. The rest was well more than just very, very good, but the last, that from the lost small jar, was absolutely spectacular.

 

[Brick Top]

lol, I've heard that also. but if that were the case, the 2700 year old marijuana that was found in an ancient tomb would've been dank as fuck, it was in a jar and in a sack when they found it, and there was no potency but they found the chemicals to clarify that it was actually marijuana and it was pretty dank looking, but guess what. no high, all the thc was degraded.

That is an extremely fallacious argument to make. Your position of the 2,700 year old pot would be; "dank as fuck" if cured that long is far beyond just being obtuse. Once all the non-psychoactive THCA that would become psychoactive THC had transformed there would be no way to achieve any additional gain in potency. Your position completely ignores the decarboxylization process and attempts to claim that length of curing time and length of curing time alone dictates potency. Once all the THCA that is going to become THC does so, the well is dry, there is no more potency to be achieved. After that there will be a period of time where, if properly sealed and in the best storage conditions, maximum potency will be retained, but eventually the degradation process will begin and in time all potency will be lost.

Plus, 2,700 years is a very long time, a lot longer than six months or a year so your comparison of what was found in some archeological dig of some ancient site to normal curing times is like comparing apples and zebras.

If you vacuum seal cannabis and then store it in a dark area that is between 40-55 degrees F, the marijuana in vacuum sealed plastic will remain potent for up to 5 years. But that is about the max that potency will survive regardless of how well it is packaged or stored. After that it is all downhill from there until you hit the very bottom of the hill and no potency remains.

 

[Brick Top]

I'm pretty sure that as long as your weed is dry the potency will be at it's prime.

You may feel sure about that, but you are incorrect. The decarboxylization process will not only not fully occur during the drying process, but will take, depending on the strain, anywhere from two weeks to a rather long time to be fully completed. It is not a speedy process.

 

[Cheese2011]

bin the cfl get a halide for veg and an hps for flower what the diffrence

 

[Brick Top]

are you sure it wasn't due to it being more dry?

Do you believe that dryness equates to potency? If so explain all the crummy very dry Mexican brickweed that popped up in the late 70's and early 80's? That stuff was drier than a 100-year old woman's cunt and you could smoke an ounce of it and hardly get high.

Dude, in your two grow threads, and in messages you posted in other threads, you have more than proven to anyone and everyone here other that total newbies that you really do not know what you are talking about. So why do you attempt to give advice when you are the one who should be asking for advice?

Your; "sexy" pinkish-red bar of soap on top of your soil to perk up your droopy plants and your; "water food" level of growing expertise will not be of help to anyone here, and if anything it will only hold their learning process back and possibly cause them problems with their crops.