Thanks for the great thread k0ijn, read the whole thing. I am a first time poster and noob working on my first grow. Well I actually started in 1973 and took a few decades off, so I am still a noob. What I was curious about was whether the trichomes can significantly change color during curing (it has been mentioned in the thread that they can continue to turn amber after harvest)
You're welcome
It depends on how you handle the weed.
If you have control over the variables and carry out a proper dry & cure you won't see a significant change, but you will see some change (again, depending on the variables).
The variables which can highly affect the outcome are; light, humidity, aging & temperature (heat really).
If you store/cure your weed in an improper way then you can see a huge change in the potency, high and general appeal of your weed (even ruin it (mold for example)).
So it all really comes down to how much you take care of the harvest.
But the degradation and maturing of the trichomes will always be ongoing.
If you let the weed store for long enough in the right conditions you could stay the degradation of the THC.
On the other hand, if you do it wrong you could speed up the degradation and possibly even ruin the weed.
I harvested a hermie after about 6+ weeks of 12/12 that seeded my entire garden. When I harvested the hermie I noticed that the trichomes were clear wherever I checked. I dried for a week then put into the jars with a hygrometer. I burped regularly and watched the humidity, without really checking the trichomes after being put into jars. After a month and a half cure I scoped things out (same microscope) and the trichomes were almost all cloudy white. I had considered throwing away the "clear buds" at harvest after a smoke test. Later I tried the properly cured smoke and it was pretty good. Not killer by any means, and not as good as the bag that supplied the seeds, but still good (I have bought worse in a bag). It appeared to be an indica dominant indica/sativa cross.
That is quite normal, since the regular maturation of the trichomes will continue to go on even after you harvest the weed.
But since it was harvested early the calyxes had probably not matured enough, the weed was likely stringy and airy but of course it could bring some effect if you smoke it.
At least you got something out of it but I doubt it was the full potential of the plant.
I am a noob on first grow, so I can't rule out "sampling error" (looking at different parts than I did when I harvested), but I did do a rather thorough spot check and I honestly didn't see cloudy white trics anywhere on the plant at harvest. Now I can't find more than a few clear trichomes.
From what I have read on the forum a lot of people say that the cure not only improves taste but makes it stronger (I thought cannabis was decarboxylated when smoked too). This is hardly scientific, but from my experience that seems to be true. When I put the stuff into jars, it was "very weak" with clear trichomes, to the point of being almost worthless. Now after the cure the cannabis is much stronger.
Curing doesn't affect potency (other than it's a controlled environment which allows for a slow decarboxylation) but it can improve immensely on flavour and odour.
The potency is determined by the amount of cloudy trichomes and thus the amount of THC-A/THC present in the plant @ harvest.
Curing is just a good way of controlling hydration and decarboxylation of the dried weed.
It allows for the release of certain substances in the plant material as well (mainly Chlorophyll) which improves flavour and odour.
Being a noob it is safe to say that I stressed the living crap out of everything in the garden, which helps explain the hermie. Now I have hundreds of seeds on the non-hermie plants, all from hermie pollen. I let all the seeds mature since fully developed seeds are easier to extract from buds. This is a medical grow, so I actually prefer the couchlock (and also take Marinol - nowhere near as effective as cannabis, but pure THC without other cannabinoids). Thanks for the clarification on amber trics not being the source of my desired couchlock!
You mentioned above that "Clear trichomes contain mainly precursor cannabinoids (acids) and has a near 0% potency level.", and on the first post of the thread the image shows decarboxylation from THCA to THC and CBDA to CBD. So the question I am asking is whether it was the loss of the -cooh group during cure that resulted in the evident change from clear to cloudy trics? I was seriously thinking about throwing out the clear buds (not even QWISO), until I tested after the cure. Glad I was patient enough to try a formal cure on clear buds.
That sounds like quite a seed infestation, do you have segregated areas to grow?
It's very helpful to remove hermied plants to enclosed areas quickly so they don't affect the rest of the bunch.
That's quite a good question but I cannot say I have scientifically backed information to answer that fully.
The reason is that we don't fully know what exactly the specific substances in the trichomes are at certain points in time.
We know that clear trichomes contain precursor acids, most likely with a majority of Olivetolic acid & Cannabigerolic acid.
The amount of THCA, CBDA, CBGA etc which is present in these trichomes is likely very low and whether they all are present and in what quantities is not fully known.
I don't personally think the loss of the carbon group is the reason it changes colour, but I guess there are a multitude of possible factors which could either produce this or catalyze the effect.
It's a hard question to answer because we don't really know all we could know about the individual trichomes, their stages and what exactly their properties are in each stage.
I wish a proper study would be done on this, but due to the illegal nature of the substances it's not likely to happen yet.
People are very busy studying particular substances like THC and CBD but no the intricate processes which control the aging and maturation of trichomes.
Am I reading too much into the comments about "Clear trichomes contain mainly precursor cannabinoids (acids) and has a near 0% potency level.", and that perhaps there is something else going on besides the decarboxylation from the precursor acids to the active components (THC, CBD, etc.) that might explain the transition from clear to cloudy trichomes?
Sorry for the lengthy first post and noob question, but I am just trying to understand why my "clear buds" went from pure garbage at harvest to reasonable smoke a couple of months after a proper cure.
I think you are, the processes which affect and control the maturation and aging are not very well researched.
The only indicators we have are the colours really, the specific subject has never been researched properly other than by a few people.
I got the information from an excellent book I've referenced in the first post but the study did not go much into detail.
I wish the particular transitions and processes could be researched in depth, and it will likely happen one day, who knows when though.
That's quite alright, I hope I answered the questions well enough
