The Evolution of the Trichome

hahahahaha....yea that a really good point....I certainly do not want to mislead them and have that happen. thanks for the clairfication.

natmoon said:

What you posted was good info tahoe and something that i did not know but i reckon that some people that are new to growing if they had the cash may then try to simulate the sun with that 16 bulb setup in a confined area when i reckon that 16 bulbs would be good for a 16 square metre area lol

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natmoon said:

I used to have a friend who rented a garage for 10 pounds a week from the council lol

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He rented a council garage to grow weed in? Surely not... did he actually make it through to harvest?

A lock-up on an industrial estate, maybe worth considering... but a council garage brings up too many problems. They are in council estate areas, someone somewhere will see something. The garge would get burgled... without a doubt.

Also, the police helicopter is bound to pick up heat sources at night...

If you don't want the attention... go for a lock-up on an industrial estate.

find a unused bombshelter or bunker. in canada the successful candidate to grow medicinal marijuana used an old mine....deep under ground....I can't remember if that is still operational though....I believe they have overall air quality issies....but that only money...that can be managed. good luck folks! be careful ....i want you all to be around to enjoy this new found revelation!

skunkushybrid said:

He rented a council garage to grow weed in? Surely not... did he actually make it through to harvest?

A lock-up on an industrial estate, maybe worth considering... but a council garage brings up too many problems. They are in council estate areas, someone somewhere will see something. The garge would get burgled... without a doubt.

Also, the police helicopter is bound to pick up heat sources at night...

If you don't want the attention... go for a lock-up on an industrial estate.

Click to expand...

skunkushybrid said:

He rented a council garage to grow weed in? Surely not... did he actually make it through to harvest?

A lock-up on an industrial estate, maybe worth considering... but a council garage brings up too many problems. They are in council estate areas, someone somewhere will see something. The garge would get burgled... without a doubt.

Also, the police helicopter is bound to pick up heat sources at night...

If you don't want the attention... go for a lock-up on an industrial estate.

Click to expand...

This was 15 years ago,the garages were just behind his council house,all fluro tubes,garage doors were sealed around the edges.
No helicopters then and we lived in area that was quiet and fairly peaceful not like a city at all.
He grew shit loads of okish weed in there for years.
Your dream of having enough space to use 16 bulbs reminded of that garage.

He never got caught as far as i know as he no longer lives around here and no one ever burgled him but nowadays yes i reckon you'd get ripped of or busted within weeks.

Yeah, everything was much easier 15 years ago... people lived almost peacefully compared to the fear of today.

On a lighter note... I just got my seeds... and invested in some sensi seeds white label too. The first pic' is of the NL i'll be growing on my next grow.

The sensi seeds white label are: Afghan Kush (in like of AK47), Master Kush, Sensi Star, Super Skunk, White Widow.

Yum Yum.

sweet....thats gonna be great....I am itching to get onto more as well.....but I have commited to making sure I keep my concentration on this first one. gd luck with all that!

skunkushybrid said:

Yeah, everything was much easier 15 years ago... people lived almost peacefully compared to the fear of today.

On a lighter note... I just got my seeds... and invested in some sensi seeds white label too. The first pic' is of the NL i'll be growing on my next grow.

The sensi seeds white label are: Afghan Kush (in like of AK47), Master Kush, Sensi Star, Super Skunk, White Widow.

Yum Yum.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the white label are sensi seeds version of versace urban wear.

the source for the TRUE conniseur!...hahahahahahaI want to learn to be a conniseur as well.......

skunkushybrid said:

Yeah, the white label are sensi seeds version of versace urban wear.

Click to expand...

So there are no cannabinoids in the actual plant? I have read before that there are...

This has made me think... I either missed this post last time or was too stoned to fully grasp the implications of it.

This is excellent... there must be cannabinoids in the plant. I'm not saying THC, or even CBD... but certainly there must be THCV and CBN, this makes sense... and it's these chemicals that are pushed through into the trichomes. These chemicals could well be the precursors for THC and CBD. It's THCV (smell) and CBN (mild sedative) that are pushed into the trich's, and these are then changed by the sunlight.

THCV is a plants natural chemical for giving off smell... yet males smell more than females while they are still in veg', or very young into flower, anyone ever noticed that?

hey skunk...thats an interesting thought, unfortunately my breadth of experience does not cover that....I will certainly keep that in mind though! cheers!

hay nat and skunk r frends again cool

Thanks for the link Tahoe, I am sittin in on this thread, I can't believe I was off the back on this one! Good stuff! I don't don't know if Nat and Skunk were ever friends...just different peas in the same pod, or just stuck together by the sticky....

very interesting post

I read thru to about page 11 and haven't seen it mentioned here; although i have elsewhere. The capitate glands are obviously highest in efficiency at capturing uvb. Not all plants have high thc levels.

Stickiness in plants' glandular production is associated with insect and small mammal repellent. mice would love to eat those seeds as would birds and insects.
Contact causing a stickiness can be death to an insect, and a lot of discomfort to a bird; or, any other small animal. Notably the resin is NOT water soluble; which indicates it's meant to stay there; and be more or less permanent to anything it touches.

That makes one of the primary functions almost certainly predator repellent.

Another aspect of glands: not all having thc; could be a locally reinforced genetic reaction to browsing animals. Several plants have intoxicants in their resins/sap.
There's only one reason to actively put an intoxicant into something surrounding a seed bract: deter the animal eating the seeds, from completing a thorough chewing up, cracking - and destruction of the seeds themselves. Animals/birds that adapt to the stickiness problem: very large birds, or larger browsing mammals: which become intoxicated by ingestion of thc are less likely to chew thoroughly; more likely to swallow mouthfulls of incompletely chewed up bract; also less likely to consume as massive quantities as they otherwise might be able. THC gets dogs, people cats, high, that ii know of; and i'll bet, it intoxicates other mammals too; probably birds as well.

A deer or other browsing creature coming up to a stand of hemp; might be more likely to browse in a less thorough fashion if intoxicated; thereby not being able to systematically strip any particular plant completely clean of flowers. It also would be more likely to chew less; and swallow more whole seeds: thereby spreading those seeds.

The manufacture of the thc is more than likely part of the resinous repellent program; the resin itself having such strongly binding qualities designed to stick to any small creature first: insects have their mobility denied; maybe even the ability to open the jaw; small creatures stop to groom the sticky stuff off, or avoid the bracts altogether: lessening predation time; the intoxicant therein can disorient anything that braves the stickiness; contributing to less systematic destruction of individual seeds ingested, thereby less complete genetic pool eradication; less thorough chewing - swallowing whole seeds to be dropped & replanted thru dung - survival and indeed genetic expansion response.

Most deterrent processes are ingeniously simple in their mechanical interaction with their environment; the chemistry i'm not so interested in commenting on, because there hasn't been enough time in high grade laboratories to examine all the aspects of resin function. It's probably quite varied, involving the manufacture and reception of hormonal triggers as well as the various intoxicants sometimes found in hemp.

Just thoughts.

I don't know of any animals or insects that do not get high off THC... maybe spidermites and thrips... but even they will only hit the thc parts of the leaves last.

There is a big argument to support that the stickiness of the trich's is likewise an animal attractant.

Plants need animal intervention. The more animal intervention is encouraged the more the plant will thrive.

Thanks very much for your long and thoughtful post. You obviously have some good understanding. I appreciate the thoughts you have put forward in this discussion. Cannabinoid production has been directly linked to stress, hence the potential link with uvb radiation. The paper, Pate (1994) Chemical Ecology of Cannabis, is a very thorough review of the then current understanding by covering a variety of stress topics from dessication, temperature, nutrients, predation, competition, bacteria/fungi, and uv radiation.

In my view, the conclusion of most significance is "UV-B selection pressures seem responsible for the distribution of THC-rich Cannabis varieties in areas of high ambient radiation, and may have influenced the evolution of an alternate biogenetic pathway from CBG to THC in some of these strains."

However, Pate also cautions that a clear distinction between stress induced THC production and hastened production of glandular structures is made in future research.

I have as yet found no other such research but continue to seek it out.

thank you for your continued support....this is most interesting....tough to leave it alone really....

tonight's learning are:

Glandular Trichomes of Artemisia campestris (ssp. Maritima): Ontogeny and Histochemistry of the Secretory Product
L. Ascensao, M. S. S. Pais Botanical Gazette, Vol. 148, No. 2 (Jun., 1987), pp. 221-227:

The number of glandular trichomes is established early during leaf differentiation; thus, gland density decreases with leaf development. Oleoresin production begins as soon as the glandular trichomes are fully developed.

Artemisia is a member of the family Compositae whose charateristics include glandular and non-glandular trichomes. Cannabis is also a member of this family.

CHARLES S. COCKELL a1 p1 and JOHN KNOWLAND a2
a1 Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institute of Washington, 290 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305-1297, U.S.A.
a2 Department of Biochemistry, South Parks Road, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QU, U.K.
Ultraviolet radiation screening compounds Biological Reviews (1999), 74: 311-345 Cambridge University Press

Amongst the diversity of methods used by organisms to reduce damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) radiation, the synthesis of UV-screening compounds is almost ubiquitous. UV-screening compounds provide a passive method for the reduction of UV-induced damage and they are widely distributed across the microbial, plant and animal kingdoms. They share some common chemical features. It is likely that on early earth strong selection pressures existed for the evolution of UV-screening compounds. Many of these compounds probably had other physiological roles, later being selected for the efficacy of UV screening. The diversity in physiological functions is one of the complications in studying UV-screening compounds and determining the true ecological importance of their UV-screening role.

Hey Tahoe, I appreciate all this information you are bringing to the table. I like the 'early earth' reference in your last post. To discover the truth we must travel back in time to the very start of cannabis history.

It's true that we cannot know... but I remember growing up where people believed man had lived alongside the dinosaurs... So people just guess all the time.

Even now with global warming it is all guesswork. Scientists have not got a clue what's happening. In fact more sun is being reflected off Earth than ever before.

Guesswork, but educated guesswork is the premise for any reasoning behind any future experimentation.

hey man...thanks....I am really enjoying this research (aside from but interestingly similar to my daily work).

I thought overnight about the one statement established early during leaf differentiation; thus, gland density decreases with leaf development.

It has been long held that the number of human fat cell is set at birth (a genetic trait) and that either they are used or not used.....and the same is believe about brain cell development....so.....is it reasonable to say that the precursors to trichome cells are genetically set and are either encouraged in their function or not - this would mean that the introduction of uvb light in the VERY early stages would be critical to activate their "use" in developing the protective mechanisms? just like if you don't give a fat cell the chance to be activated or a brain cell to be activated (and in the case of the brain this has been founded to be hugely important is activation during the 2-5 yr old period i.e., early childhood), the longer term implications are their utility is compromised?