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As a cannabis enthusiast, how do you figure out the perfect combination of fertilizers, grow lights, hydroponics supplements, cultivation techniques, and equipment for your growing journey?
The ultimate approach to determining the best options is through controlled experiments. But what exactly does that mean? A controlled experiment involves altering one specific factor while keeping all other variables constant. By incorporating controlled experiments into your cannabis cultivation process, you gain firsthand insights into the impact of various factors on your plants.
Let’s delve deeper into this concept…
A Comprehensive Test for Lighting in Controlled Cannabis Cultivation
For indoor cannabis growers, the world of controlled experiments offers a golden opportunity. With the ability to manipulate every aspect of their plants’ environment, they are in a prime position to delve into the realm of experimentation.
To understand the concept better, let’s delve into a hypothetical scenario where we compare the harvest yields of two distinct types of grow lights. The ultimate metric we’re interested in is how each grow light influences the final harvest weight.
At the heart of such an experiment lies the need for uniformity in plant genetics. Achieving this requires starting with clones from the same mother plant. This strategy ensures a level of the genetic playing field, a fundamental prerequisite for reliably controlled experiments in the realm of cannabis cultivation.
Using seeds doesn’t guarantee genetic consistency, as even meticulously bred cannabis seeds can give rise to plants with noticeable phenotype variations.
Imagine being a cannabis grower looking to unravel the mysteries of optimal grow lights. Picture this: You’ve decided to dive into the world of controlled experiments to shed light on which grow light truly excels. Let’s break down how this process unfolds.
To begin, our grower takes 24 cuttings from a single mother plant. These cuttings are rooted in identical conditions, receiving equal care and inputs as they establish their roots.
Equipped with two identical grow tents or rooms, our grower sets the stage for a controlled experiment. For the sake of neutrality, we opt for pure hydroponic systems like deep water culture, aeroponics, or rock wool. These systems grant unmatched control over variables like nutrient inputs, root zone pH, water temperature, and water quality, which must remain consistent between both environments.
Careful selection is paramount. Only robust, healthy clones are chosen, with 12 placed in each tent. All aspects – temperature, humidity, aeration, air circulation, water quality, hydroponic nutrients, tent size, and more – remain uniform across both tents.
In this experiment, the hydroponic lighting stands as the sole variable. One tent houses a 600-watt high-intensity discharge (HID) metal halide bulb of premium quality, while the other opts for a 600-watt LED grow light. The pivotal question revolves around whether one light outperforms the other in terms of yield.
To ensure optimal conditions, each light is positioned at the manufacturer’s recommended distance from the plant canopy. The light and dark cycles remain identical across both grow spaces.
As the bloom phase approaches, adjustments come into play. The HID tent switches to a bloom-phase bulb, while the LED tent’s grow light may undergo modifications, such as adjusting the LED array to better suit the bloom phase.
This controlled experiment paves the way to unraveling the truth behind grow lights, offering insights that can revolutionize the art of cannabis cultivation.
Simplifying and Maintaining Neutrality in Controlled Experiments
When it comes to conducting controlled experiments in the realm of cannabis cultivation, meticulous attention to detail and the highest level of variable control are essential. However, this commitment to control might sometimes clash with typical grow room routines and practices.
Consider this scenario: a grower who typically employs topping techniques in their cultivation process decides to run a controlled experiment focused on yield per plant. In such cases, it becomes crucial to execute the topping process uniformly across all clones at the same time and in the same manner.
For instance, if a grower’s standard topping method involves snipping the topmost apical meristem during the third week of the growth phase, this simple approach can be consistently applied to all plants without jeopardizing the integrity of the experiment.
Conversely, if a grower’s topping technique is more intricate, involving multiple head toppings per plant or a series of sequential trims, the experiment’s outcome could be compromised. Such complex topping methods influence the yield per plant and are difficult to execute uniformly across all samples.
Significant topping inherently introduces variables that can unpredictably alter the number of budding sites and the overall maturation rate of the buds. Consequently, this complexity can interfere with the reliability of controlled experiment results.
In essence, the key principle to remember is simplicity. Strive to maintain simplicity in your controlled experiments within the grow operation. This will help ensure accurate results and a clearer understanding of how specific variables impact your cannabis cultivation.
The Power of Simplicity and Statistical Significance in Experiments
Certainly, simplicity plays a crucial role in controlled experiments. Theoretically, you could gather daily data on plant height, water and hydroponics nutrient consumption, bud development, resin gland formation, and numerous other growth factors. This extensive data could then be compared to spot differences caused by the two different grow-light systems.
However, collating and correlating such extensive data can be challenging. In this particular experiment, the most straightforward and reliable measurement is the total harvest weight. To gauge the impact of each grow light on harvest weight, you would harvest all your plants simultaneously, dry and cure them under identical conditions using the same trimming and storage methods, and then weigh the total yield from each grow room using consistent scales.
The results that might emerge from the experiment are as follows:
- Both crops yield the same total harvest weight.
- One harvest yields more weight than the other.
In the realm of controlled experiments, it’s essential to be well-versed in the concepts of the margin of error and statistical significance.
Imagine this scenario: The harvest from your HID tent weighs 1 pound and 2 ounces, while the harvest from the LED grow-light tent weighs 1 pound and 1 ounce.
In this case, the 1-ounce difference might not provide a clear-cut experimental result. It falls within the margin of normal error, and factors like trimming inconsistencies or variations in drying could contribute to such a small difference.
However, consider a different scenario: If the HID grow room produces 1.5 pounds of dried, cured bud, while the LED grow room yields only 1 pound (or vice versa), this would be a statistically significant outcome. Replicating the experiment in another growing season and obtaining similar results would lead to the conclusion that allocating 600 watts of electricity for the HID grow light is more advantageous than for the LED grow light.
Nevertheless, there are additional aspects to consider. Cannabis cultivators are essentially trichome farmers, focusing on THC, CBD, CBN, and terpenoid production. To conduct a comprehensive grow-light controlled experiment, it’s not just about weighing the buds. Analyzing the cannabinoid and terpenoid percentages and ratios would provide more valuable insights into the experiment’s results.
This factor is significant, as certain LED grow lights emit considerable ultraviolet radiation, which can stimulate the growth of more resin glands and larger resin glands. The outcome of your experiment could reveal that the LED crop boasts higher levels of cannabinoids and terpenoids compared to the HID crop. This finding would indicate that the LED crop holds greater value, particularly if your aim is to create cannabis concentrates.
An example from another cannabis grower’s experience sheds light on this matter. In their controlled experiment, they compared Lush Lighting LED with an equivalently-wattage HID grow light. The results indicated that although the LED grow light yielded slightly less in total bud weight, it produced a higher resin weight.
Conducting Controlled Tests with Hydroponic Nutrients
Once you’ve become proficient in conducting controlled experiments, you’ll have the tools to explore various critical variables and find answers to your pressing questions about cannabis cultivation.
As an example, I recently decided to transition my hydroponic nutrient regimen from General Hydroponics to Advanced Nutrients after carrying out a straightforward controlled experiment.
For this experiment, I took 30 identical genetic clones and divided them into two separate grow rooms. These rooms were equipped with matching hydroponic systems, grow lights, temperature controls, and humidity levels. In one of the rooms, I utilized the pricier General Hydroponics base nutrients. Then, during the bloom phase, I incorporated both GH-based nutrients and their highest-priced bloom booster product.
In the alternate grow room, I opted for the use of Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect Connoisseur base nutrients and incorporated their Big Bud bloom booster during the bloom phase.
Once both sets of plants reached maturity, I executed simultaneous harvesting, followed by uniform drying and curing procedures. Subsequently, I weighed the harvested buds from each room. Surprisingly, the total yield from the Advanced Nutrients room exceeded that of the General Hydroponics room by a notable 15 percent. Even more intriguing was the fact that the Advanced Nutrients buds exhibited a higher level of stickiness and possessed a richer taste and aroma. Upon successfully replicating these outcomes in a second grow cycle comparison, I made the decisive choice to bid farewell to General Hydroponics and transition exclusively to Advanced Nutrients.
It’s crucial to emphasize that complications could have arisen if I had employed multiple nutrient products from each brand, introduced intricate topping techniques to alter bud profiles, maintained inconsistent environmental factors or grow lights between the rooms, or neglected to diligently control the pH levels. In such cases, the controlled experiment would have veered into uncontrolled territory, rendering the results unreliable and inconclusive.
In conclusion, let’s quickly recap some key takeaways regarding controlled experiments:
- Maintain consistent cannabis growing conditions, changing only the variable under examination.
- Utilize identical clones derived from a common mother plant when assessing plant performance.
- Avoid testing multiple variables concurrently.
Controlled experiments stand as an essential asset for cannabis growers. Armed with the knowledge of how to effectively implement them, you hold the power to address challenges in cannabis cultivation, identify optimal equipment and cultivation approaches, and conduct comparisons that yield conclusive responses to critical questions in your cultivation journey.
