Growing for CBD vs THC

Is a very good question and I have no idea of an answer

When I grew the CBD Cream & Cheese, that's exactly what I did...same as with every other plant, checked the trichs and chopped on approx 5%

From all the reading ive done its the genetics of the plant that decide the levels of THC and CBD, Dance World CBD is 12% CBD and  12% THC, You would still want to harvest the same way, Too soon and the CBD /THC will not be fully produced too late and it starts to degrade, same as growing for high THC 

Right now I`m treating them the same, but I`m starting to think sooner would have been better. Maybe a 50% clear 50% cloudy.  It would be nice to have an affordable way of taking a small sample and test it as it grows.

Oh boy, do I have a treat for you. Let me introduce you to Beam's Test. I first heard about this through a breeder called Chimera on Twitter, but it's been around for a very long time.

According to Chimera (Ryan Lee), quoted from Twitter:

The needed reagents are: 5% KOH (Potassium hydroxide) in 95% ethanol (5g KOH in 100 ml 95% ethanol) Petroleum ether, naptha, ISO or other organic solvent to extract the cannabinoids from a sample of your choosing. Place 1-2 grams of your sample leaf / flowers in an oven until dry @ 150 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes. Extract in a small glass vessel for 10 minutes in 5-10 ml of your solvent. Filter, extract & remove the leaf material using a coffee filter or similar. COLLECT liquid extract. Take 1 ml of the extract & dry on a white porcelain dish like an egg cup, saucer, plate, or similar. Gently heat the dish to evaporate the liquid phase of the extract. You will have a dish with remnants of resin leftover once the liquid has evaporated. Place 5 drops of your 5% KOH in ethanol solution on your plate, and wait about 10 minutes You will see a distinct violet/purple/pink colour from samples containing CBD which could be Chemotype II or III plants. Type 1 THC only plants (Chemotype I) will not show this colour.

Now, I don't know where you find Potassium Hydroxide, as that stuff is quite dangerous but, if you are able to get some somehow, this seems very handy.

Beam's Test

Potassium Hydroxide is also known as Potash and easily obtainable from Feebay...wouldn't you know...same with lots of dangerous chemicals these days

Classic Internet. That's caustic potash, not the kind that most of us are familiar with though.. and yes it available there. Just be very careful if you use it as it is very corrosive and will burn your skin quite badly, especially at 94% purity that I saw available, and that would be required for the recipe. Good ventilation, gloves, safety glasses, etc. I have quite a bit of first hand experience with it's slightly less caustic cousin Sodium Hydroxide, and that shit will melt a hole in your skin.

Here's a fun Safety Data Sheet if you wanna have a gander...

@templegrower

I have an affinity to caustic/corrosive/highly flammable substances...pure sodium & water is by far one of the best reactions I've caused/witnessed...broke a lab sink in pieces ? 

Yeah, Sodium Hydroxide is cool too...better mixed with hot water though 😉

Now that I know that's available there though, I might actually give that a go... would be cool to have some basic confirmation. I just picked up some Seedsman 'Cookies and Chill', a supposed 2:1 CBD:THC varietal so.. And really, who doesn't love doing some home-grown colorimetry?! I know I do! LoL. ? 

@templegrower

Sweet...I would definitely be interested in watching that...bring on the purple