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Some Background

My undergraduate degree was a B.S. in Botany and I got my Ph.D. in Plant Pathology.  I have been in the plant care industry, at various levels, for over 30 years.  All my professional pursuits have been in organic and/or natural methods whether they were in landscape maintenance, product development, or academia.

The Doctor Is In

Have you got a nagging question that just hasn't had a satisfactory answer?   Or maybe a "what if" just came to mind.  You have nothing to lose, just click on "Submit a Question" link, immediately below, and send a question or two.

Submit a Question

General Organization

The page will be divided into several section, as needed, based on the submissions. The arrangement will be the standard question followed an aswer. Any questions submitted, of a botanical nature, may be added to FAQ list if it is question that many people may have.  Once again, if you like to have the credit for the submission just make a note of that in the email.  We won't put anyones name or other info on any submissions, etc unless it is previously OK'd.   Below are a couple of examples to show hat you can expect.

Cultivation

Q:  Does light influence flowering and how?
A:  Light quality and quantity influence flowering.  This is a very big subject area, but in a nutshell, a shift in light quality that increases the porportion of red light, relative to blue, as well as a reduction in day length will have a positive influence flowering.

Q:  I don't have a spectrophotometer (who does?).  Are there any generalizations that can be made on light types and their spectrum qualities?
A:  I will try to get more info in the cultivation section soon on this.  In general, mercury lamps are red dominant and fluorescent are blue dominant.  Combinations of these, with their respective plant bulbs, can give good results and afford some measure of variation over the grow cycle.

Chemistry and Physiology

Q:  What is meant by "delta-nine THC"?
A:  Molecules can have the exact same atoms, but be put together differently and so they are different molecules.  But because they have the same atomic compostion they are called structural isomers.  "Structural" meaning that their differences are on a structure basis.  Sometimes molecules can have the same atoms AND be assembled the same, but differ only in how they refract polarized light light.  These are stereoisomers.  THC has a phenol structure and a cyclic ring with a double bond.  It is miniscule differences in the location of the double bond and a functional group on the phenol that differentiate between delta-nine and delta-eight THC.  They are stereoisomers.  Delta-nine THC is considered to be the superior of the two, from the human perspective that is.