Trichomes

Are you trying to understand all the convoluted online conversation about cannabis trichomes? What are they? How are they grown? How are they harvested? What’s the best way to consume them?

We gotcha! We’ll help you understand what the trichome buzz in the cannabis community is all about. This post will also help you wrap your mind around the biology of trichomes and their importance to you and to the rest of the cannabis plant.

We’ll make sure you know what you need to about how trichomes are both grown and extracted so you can make well-informed decisions to optimize your cannabis consumption.

We’ll break down the basics of a few traditional trichome consumption methods and also hook you up with a brief intro to dabbing to help you get started dabbling with trichomes!

What Are Trichomes?

Trichomes are totally the grooviest and gooiest part of the cannabis plant. Trichomes are the resin glands of the pot plant that contain THC, CBD, and other active medicinal cannabinoids.

​Trichomes are literally the cream of the cannabis crop. Trichomes are the basis of the smokeless revolution in cannabis consumption that has saved the lives of countless medical marijuana users.
Extracting trichomes from the cannabis plant also preserves terpenes. Terpenes are the pungent oils that give the cannabis plant its distinct tastes and smells.

Like the sweet, fruity taste of Pineapple Twist? That’s the terpenes. Love the skunky smell of Sour Diesel? That’s the terpenes. In fact, terpenes provide a wide range of tastes and smells including the more common citrus, berry, mint, and pine.

Terpenes also create an entourage of health benefits and help fully expose and express the ganja’s unique aromatic and euphoric character. Additionally, and maybe most importantly, certain THC dominant strains of concentrated trichomes can get you really, really high!

This is why trichomes are the basis of the thriving cannasseur celebrity subculture that has come to be known as dabbing.
So what’s going on inside the gooey stuff on the ganja that’s fueling the modern medical marijuana and recreational reefer revolutions? Let’s find out.

 Little Trichome Talk

THC and other medicinal cannabinoids are only found inside the heads of three different types of trichomes:

1. Bulbous
2. Capitate sessile
3. Capitate-stalked

Bulbous trichomes appear on the surface of the entire plant but are so small (10-15 micrometers or microns) that you won’t see them without the aid of a microscope. For reference, the width of a human hair is 40-50 microns.
Capitate sessile trichomes are the next largest group. They are slightly larger than bulbous trichomes and are significantly more abundant. Capitate sessile trichomes start to take on the more familiar head-and-stalk shape.

Capitate-stalked trichomes are the most common of the bunch. They range in size from 50-100 microns, which means they can be seen with the naked eye. Capitate-stalked trichomes are composed of a basal cell (stalk) topped off by a waxy gland head.
Scientists used to believe that essential cannabinoids like THC were created in the calyxes, or green plant tissue, which serve as the womb from which the mushroom-shaped trichome glands grow.

Scientists now observe that the trichomes themselves create the cannabinoids and terpenes. Yes, the trichomes grow from the body of the calyx, but it’s the trichomes themselves that ultimately produce the cannabinoids.
The anatomy of the cannabis bud you typically smoke also contains pistils. These double strands of hair that grow out of the calyx material catch cannabis pollen from male pot plants to facilitate reproduction and flower production.
Trichome is Greek for “growth of hair.” Trichomes serve as the pot plant’s phalanx of little shields responsible for the developing pot plant’s triumphs against fungus and pesky pot-loving insects that would otherwise destroy entire crops of cannabis plants.

Trichomes are also the “sunscreen” of growing marijuana plants. Trichomes protect it from the sun’s ultraviolet rays as well as high wind and low humidity.
Thick layers of sticky, wet trichomes also help protect pot plants from hungry edible-loving animals, such as rabbits and other rodents.

How the Groovey Gooey Stuff Grow

Trichomes have their own cycle of growth within the overall marijuana plant’s life cycle. The theory is that photosynthetic cannabinoid precursors are transported and transformed into THC, CBD, additional cannabinoids, and terpenes in the secretory vesicles of the trichome gland head.

Cannabinoids and terpenes accumulate between the outer cuticle of the trichome as the pot plant grow. The trichome gland head grows thicker and more bulbous as the secretory vesicles produce oil and push it toward the cuticle. The gland head eventually matures and falls off as the budding process nears completion.

If you’re going to harvest your marijuana plant for its full THC or CBD effects, you DON’T want the trichomes to fall off. If that happens, that means that you let the plant grow too long. The majority of the cannabinoids are now gone, you won’t enjoy the psychoactive or medicinal effects, and you’ll have to start growing a new batch of marijuana.

If you’re growing your own plants, keep an eye out for the following signs that your cannabis is nearing maturity.
The gland heads of trichomes are typically clear or slightly amber at the beginning of the plant’s growth cycle. Prior to harvest, when cannabinoid levels reach their maximum, the gland head will turn cloudy or opaque.

But just because your plant is covered in trichomes and the gland heads are bursting with oil, your bud won’t necessarily blast you off to the moon with THC. The trichome resin on your bud could also contain counter psychoactive CBD cannabinoids.
The euphoric potency of the trichomes in cannabinoids is largely determined by the moment in time when the marijuana is harvested.

You can tell the cannabinoids are reaching full maturity when the trichome gland heads go opaque. This is why many growers suggest harvesting the crop when half the trichomes on their plants are opaque in order to get the highest level of THC with the lowest level of CBD cannabinoids (which counteract the euphoric effects of THC).
You could also try growing CBD-rich strains, such as Charlotte’s Web, for a more sober medical stoned feeling.

​The little hairs that grow from inside the calyxes or the pistils are another clue that help you determine when to harvest your cannabis for the specific kind of chemical properties you want it to contain. The color of the pistils changes from bright white to rusty orange or brown at the end of the plant’s flowering phase.
On one end of the spectrum, if you notice a higher ratio of white to red pistols, that means your pot will produce more of a euphoric THC high. On the other end of the spectrum, if you notice a higher ratio of red to white pistols, that means your pot will produce more of a sober, calm CBD stoned feeling.
Squarely in-between those two extremes, cannabis crops harvested in the middle of the flowering cycle, when roughly half the trichome heads are opaque and the pistils aren’t yet brown, should produce a more balanced THC:CBD blend of cannabinoids.

Getting The Groovey Gooey Stuff Off The Ganja! Resin farming, the separation of the trichome resin from the rest of the pot plant into cannabis concentrates, is the underlying essence of modern medical marijuana advances as well as contemporary recreational reefer revolutions.
Concentrates such as oil, shatter, and wax are made by using pressurized butane oil as a solvent to separate trichome resin from the plant. Butane hash oil, or BHO, is the most controversial form of cannabis concentrates due to the fact that it isn’t safe at all for amateurs to do at home.
Professionally made BHO is, however, the most common cannabis concentrate on legal marijuana markets. It’s the most common because it’s the simplest, least labor-intensive method available. But the simplicity belies the dangers that reside there.
First and foremost is the very high chance that the butane will explode—even a small spark is enough to set it off. Add to the combustion risks the fact that toxic butane molecules can remain in solution and eventually end up in your lungs, and you can see why BHO might not be your best option.

High-proof alcohol can be used instead of butane as a homemade solvent to safely and cheaply strip trichome resin from plants.
Soaking plant matter in an alcohol like Everclear is another simple way to produce highly effective THC and CBD tinctures.

The simplest extraction method can take anywhere from 30-60 days to produce a viable tincture. But you can accelerate the process by adding cold or heat to the alcohol (which in itself can be dangerous because of alcohol’s flammability).
This can cut the production time down to two days, or even a matter of hours.

But concentrates aren’t the only way you can enjoy the full effect of the cannabis plant’s trichomes.

With a three-chambered grinder (a must-have item for every stoner’s stash box), you can collect and enjoy the raw, dry, very fine, powdery trichomes known as kief that naturally break away from the rest of your bud into the lower third of your grinder every time you use it.

Be sure to keep and collect lots of kief to enjoy on a special occasion – or whenever your main supply runs out! Kief can be used in a variety of novel ways, from sprinkling it on food, mixing it into drinks, or adding it to your joints or bong bowl.
Kief gives you all the wonderful cannabinoid benefits without taking up a lot of space.


Examine Your Bud Before You Partake
If you have some really great ganja, you might be able to see the trichomes growing there.

You can, and always should, examine the trichome resin on your marijuana with your eyes using a small, inexpensive, pocket-sized magnifying glass (another must for any serious cannaseur’s stash box) before you consume it.

You should get in the habit of scoping out your trichomes every time you score a new supply of marijuana in order to fully appreciate the full beauty of the trichome patterns.
This examination also ensures that you don’t have any bad bud infested with spider mite remains or with Aspergillus mold.
Decarboxylate

As wonderful as trichomes are, they’re of no use to you as a recreational or medicinal additive unless you first decarboxylate them.
We know that’s a big, scary word, but don’t worry. In practice, it’s pretty simple. Decarboxylate basically means to heat up.

Drying your marijuana is an essential step in this process, but there’s more to it than just that. You also need to add a bit more heat than nature can provide on its own.

Any type of artificial heat will do. But when your bud reaches a certain temperature, a bit of magic (i.e., chemistry) happens. The increased temperature causes a carboxyl molecule (COOH) to separate from the rest of the chemicals.
This transforms THCA (that is largely useless) into THC (which is by no means useless).
One way to decarb your weed is to place it in an oven set at 230 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes. This is a great method to prep your ganja if you want to bake it in a pie or add it to your smoothie.

The easiest way to decarb your Mary Jane is to make fire. When you set your joint, blunt, or bong ablaze, you automatically decarboxylate your bud because of fire’s high heat. You completely destroy the marijuana in the process, but that’s not the point. The point is that you’ve changed the solid form of cannabis into a gas that you can inhale.
One of the best ways to decarboxylate your marijuana while preserving the terpenes and the trichomes is to vaporize it.
Tasting Your Trichomes

The whole purpose of various vaporizing devices—which come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and colors—is to heat the pot plant material (decarboxylate) until the cannabinoids in the trichome resin heads melt and sublimate into vapor.
This is thought to be safer than smoking (which requires burning) because the lower temperatures don’t break down and recombine (oxidize) the molecules into new forms.

Once the trichomes have been transformed, this all-but-invisible, trichome-rich vapor can then be inhaled into your lungs, where it will be transferred into your bloodstream and then transported throughout your body.
All this occurs without any combustion, making this the ideal method for anyone who uses cannabis to treat symptoms of asthma…or for anyone who needs to discreetly medicate in public.
Vaporizer pens are all the rage these days and can be used to vaporize trichome resin off the flower or in concentrated form as well.

Hash pipes can be made out of wood, metal, or glass and typically have a smaller bowl and are usually a bit longer than a typical pipe. This difference in size is in order to let the hash smoke cool down a bit more before it hits your lungs.

That said, there’s no single right way to smoke hash. It’s whatever works best for you. You can smoke hash in any normal pipe meant for cannabis use…yes, marijuana (not tobacco) use—just to be clear.
It usually takes a bit more heat to combust concentrated hash than it does for cannabis flowers. Warming up your hash with a lighter before you fully ignite does wonders to activate the cannabinoids in the hash.
You can also crumble or cut up hash pieces and mix it in with your regular flower for an extra kick!

Sprinkling a bit of kief from the bottom of your three-chamber grinder onto some ground up weed before you roll it into a joint is perhaps the simplest, most effective way to enjoy your trichomes. Some folks even dip their joints into kief to get really fancy!

Dabbing cannabis concentrates made from trichomes with a dab rig can provide more powerful, faster-acting relief for a medical patient than rolling a joint for example. Dabbing is also the best way to taste and benefit from the terpenes in the trichomes.
Tying It All Together When it Comes to Trichomes So trichomes are the gooey, sticky resin that you get on your ganja. This sticky resin protects the plants from insects, animals, and the sun while it grows.
You want to try to consume as much of the trichomes as possible since this is where all of the plant’s medicinal and recreational compounds (such as THC, CBD, and terpenes) grow within the heads of the trichome glands.

​You can separate the trichomes from the ganja using butane (but only if you happen to be a certified professional BHO maker), ice water extraction, or a common three-chambered grinder once you see the trichome gland heads start to turn opaque.
Additionally, you can choose to taste your trichomes by vaping, dabbing, taking a tincture, or by simply smoking them—so enjoy!