I receive a lot of email from new growers who are asking me really fundamental questions about how to handle their seeds and how to set up their grow so I figured I would take a few minutes and share with you the steps that I take when I sort through a pack of seeds.
When you receive your seeds store them in the packages that you received them in, inside of a humidity resistant container such as a mason jar and use desiccants to absorb any moisture that may be present. I prefer to use pink and blue color changing desiccants, which are available on Amazon and reusable. They start off blue when they are dry and they turn pink when they pick up moisture indicating that you need to switch them out. You can then reuse them by placing them on tinfoil and heating them up in a small oven at 230°F for one hour and they will again turn blue.
I do not recommend using rice as a desiccant because it can get moldy and mold can and will destroy seeds.
Store the humidity resistant container inside of your refrigerator between 36°F and 39°F and they can last decades.
I do not recommend putting the seeds in a freezer because any moisture within the hull can expand up to 10% and cause the hull to crack and kill the seed. Unless you are properly drying the seeds and storing them for a very long period of time, I recommend against freezing.
I recommend germinating your seeds and starting them off under 18 hours of light and numbering them one through however many you have.
Please read our Germination tips article:
https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/germination-tips
For the sake of this explanation, let's say that you are growing 10 seeds.
Once the seedlings have establish themselves, number the plants 1 through 10 and replant them into a pot of soil using Roots Organic LUSH or the equivalent, which is a complete all-mix medium that does not require additional nutrients for the first couple months.
We recommend Roots Organic LUSH because of the high quality ingredients. You can use anything that works for you, but we have used this soil for years and it never disappoints.
Regardless of the soil you use, you need to spend time learning about the nutritional requirements of plants and make sure that you do not over-fertilize or under-fertilize, or bring your root zone out of the pH zone that it can uptake nutrients.
We pH our water at 6.3 to 6.4 and depending on the quality of your water, you may or may not have to filter it. I usually recommend against filtering water because it is often unnecessary because your plants use a lot of the trace minerals found in tap water.
Do not over water, one of the most common mistakes is to give too much water to your plant. I recommend if you are hand watering to only water one side of the pot each time that you water and allow the water to wick over to the other side of the pot, so that there is always enough oxygen in the root zone for the plant to grow correctly.
Let your seedlings become mother plants, even though they are an unknown sex, treat them all the same way and let them grow under 18 hours of light until they are about 18 inches tall with multiple nodes.
Take a 4 inch cutting from the main stem. I recommend using Hormex #8 rooting powder, the stuff has been around forever and it works great. My grandmother first showed it to me in 1984 when she taught me how to make cuttings, as she was doing it in her garden for years.
Number the cuttings with the same name and numbers as the mother plants and give them between 14 days and 21 days to fully root and harden, by harden I mean that the cutting moves from a fragile stage of just getting roots to an established stage of making a lot of roots and being ready to replant into a pot of soil.
I recommend Oasis Rooting cubes or Grodan cubes as both work great. I prefer Oasis when I am using soil because they biodegrade. When I take cuttings, I make a mild nutrient solution of around 300 to 350 ppm at 5.8 pH and soak the rooting cubes in the solution before using.
During the 14 to 21 days of rooting, the cuttings stay under a humidity dome on a 10 x 20 tray under a clone specific LED light 24 hours a day. I use the same water described above that I soaked the cubes in initially to water the cuttings when they need it.
I have to go back to the general concept of building your cultivation space.
To put it simply, you need four zones.
I recommend having a dedicated room to both drying and curing cannabis that is humidity and temperature controlled with a work bench where you can trim flowers in the humidity controlled room, so that the flowers do not over-dry while trimming them. As I write this article, the temperature in my office is 79°F at 44% humidity which feels great, but would ruin good cannabis after just a few hours after being exposed to it.
There is a company out of Vermont called Cannatrol which is applying the same technology that is used for curing meat and cheese to cannabis harvesting. They created a small “Cool-Cure” mini refrigerator that does all of the work of drying and curing your flowers for you. It is worth checking out their website to better understand why it is important to correctly handle your crop post harvest.
Keep in mind that once the terpenes evaporate off of the flower, they don't come back.
There are a lot of really good LED lights on the market these days, and I have hardly used all of them so I am not an expert on everything that is available, that said, I would highly recommend lights from either SpecGrade LED or FōHSE. I use lights from both manufacturers and I am really happy with everything that I've used from them.
Speaking of humidity, there's a lot of conversation around VPD, which stands for vapor, pressure and deficit, and that basically means that your room is too dry.
Photosynthesis happens by a plant using a combination of nutrients, minerals, light and through transpiration, the plants breathe in CO2 and release O2, but they can only do that when the temperature and humidity are in the proper zone.
When your grow room is too damp or too dry, plants cannot breathe or transpire, so what you want to do is get a humidifier if you live in a dry environment or a dehumidifier if you live in a moist environment or both if you have extreme winter and summer seasons.
Your goal is to maintain your growing area with a temperature of between 65°F and 75°F during the day and night with a relative humidity of around 65 to 70%.
I've been using this chart to stay in the green zone for years and cannabis responds well to it:
Sometimes it is necessary to have both a humidifier and a dehumidifier in order to keep the room in the proper humidity zone. Your goal is to coexist with the environment you are living in, compensate for dryness in the winter and compensate for humidity in the summer.
In the vegetative stage, it is good to have higher humidity, but in the last three or four weeks of the flowering stage, it is better to bring the humidity down if you are growing Northern varieties.
Comparatively, tropical/equatorial varieties love the humidity and is why they have loose spindly flowers that can dissipate the humidity in a tropical region easily without having mold issues.
Now that you understand the zones in which you need for growing cannabis, you will be moving your cuttings from the cloning zone into the flowering zone and there is a new term that you need to become acquainted with and that is “Pre-Grow” or “Veg-time”, which basically is shorthand for vegetative growth.
Vegetative growth or pre-flower growth, happens naturally between May 15 and the summer solstice, as cannabis is an annual plant that grows in spring and flowers in the summer, the same thing is happening in your indoor cultivation space: your mother zone is spring and your flowering zone is summer.
In my over 35 years of teaching others how to grow cannabis, the one subject that seems to have the most confusion to growers is veg time or pre-grow. Which is simply the time between when a cutting grows roots and when it is moved into flowering.
Most indoor cannabis growers give their plants too much pre-grow and grow them too big for the space that they're using.
I had been growing for 10 years before I made it to the Netherlands in November 1994, and the first time that I saw a perfect square meter of cannabis, growing in a sea of green of plants, all the exact same height and of the exact same variety, next to each other like popsicle sticks with leaves reaching for the light. I had the realization at that moment that I had been doing it wrong all along, and that was clearly how it was supposed to be done.
In short, imagine having a 4' x 4' area with 50 little flowering pots, instead of allowing your plants to get big, you move them from cloning into flowering with little to no pre-grow.
Depending on the variety, between when the cutting shows roots and anywhere between 1 to 7 days of vegetative growth, you replant the cuttings into the 50, 1 gallon flowering pots and allow them to start flowering under 12 hours of light.
From that point on, you are counting down the days to your harvest, as most cannabis will finish flowering in anywhere between 56 and 70 days depending on the variety.
A short representation of your first grow schedule can look like this:
Week 1:
Germination and growth in Jiffy pots.
Week 2:
Replanting into a 1 gallon pot with fresh soil.
Weeks 2 through 5:
Growing your seedlings into mother plants.
Week 5:
Take first cutting:
Weeks 5 through 8:
Rooting happens in about 14 to 21 days
I would recommend that you start understanding insect pest management, or IPM as we call it. We spray 2 ounces per gallon every three to five days of Trifecta, which is an essential oil based anti-fungicide and anti-bug solution that works wonderfully. It is organic and very pleasant to work around. I have been using it for over two years and I highly recommend it to everybody.
Integrating IPM into your garden will help keep it clean and help keep the labor down and can save good plants from bad bugs and powdery mildew. I recommend spraying at all stages of growth and cutting off in the final few weeks of flowering. If you have been taking care of your plants, they should be clean and not need any help in the final stages of development.
Week 8 of growing and starting week 1 in flowering:
Replant your rooted cuttings into 1gal flower pots and place them into your flowering room.
Weeks 9 through 11 of growing and weeks 1 through 3 of flowering:
Your plants in flower will show sex in the first 14 to 21 days of flowering and my suggestion is to kill the males.
You should have written names and numbers on tags with all of your cuttings, so that you know specifically which cuttings are from which mother plants. My suggestion after discovering the sex of your plants is to go and eliminate all of the males that you have been keeping as mother plants under 18 hours of light in your mother zone. This will free up space and allow your mothers to have more room to grow.
The main goal is to eliminate all of the inferior plants until you have discovered the best example of any given variety from any given pack of seeds.
Weeks 12 through 18 of growing and weeks 4 through 10 of flowering:
Watching your flowers grow and develop while taking notes and photos through the whole process.
Mother Zone: During the same time, your mother plants will be turning into small bushes and you can start taking cuttings from them and stacking them up, getting ready to replant them into your flower zone as soon as you harvest.
Something I've always reinforced in every lesson that I have taught about cultivating cannabis is that you should not be quick to judge a book by its cover, or more specifically, not to judge a plant by how it grows.
Do not let the growing characteristics, meaning; the yield, speed of flowering, or vigor, be the deciding factor on if that is the best example of any given variety. Allow the flowers to fully finish, harvested and properly dried, before you make decisions on which one you like best.
I have had many instances of the best growing sister in a pack of seeds, not being the best smoking flower. Even though one of the sisters yielded a bigger flower or finished a little faster, she wasn't the one that I wanted to smoke or hold onto because the flowers were not as high of a quality as one of the other plants which did not grow as well.
My method of selection is to allow the entire process to take it's course and to smoke the dried and cured buds and decide which flower I that like best. Olfactory testing is the real test and the only test that matters in my humble opinion. You need to like how it smells and like how it tastes if you're going to be coming back to it time and time again.
The final cannabinoid, terpene and thiol combinations are far more important than the growth characteristics when it comes to what you will consider to be the best example or the best smoke.
My comparison would be to having a high nutritional food which does not taste or smell too good, and even though it tests high in nutritional content, you don't feel like eating it because it does not appeal to the senses.
A lot of the cannabis on the market today has a high THC test, but doesn't smell or taste that good and to me that loses the entire point of the experience. How many of us have been disappointed in store-bought cannabis that has a high THC test number on the label, but doesn't seem to get you that high or feel that satisfying.
OG Kush is a great example of a plant that does not grow that great, doesn't yield that well and takes almost 10 weeks to finish flowering. But all that said, it is world famous and beloved by many who have smoked it. I have had it in my living library collection since November 2004, as it has been and will be one of my favorites forever.
Which brings me to the point of why I am recommending that you start all of your seeds and treat them like mother plants without exposing them to 12 hours of light for sexing, because some of the more northern varieties do not like to be reversed from a flowering environment and they will forever be stunted in growth.
The solution is to keep the seedlings/mother plant under 18 hours of light perpetually, take cuttings, and use the cuttings to both sex and select the best examples from any given pack of seeds. Replenish your mother plants with fresh cuttings and you can keep the plant that you love forever.
Doing it this way, every single pack of seeds that you purchase turns into an investment. After you go through sex and selection and eliminate all of the plants except for your favorite, you can keep that example as a mother plant perpetually for decades.
Weeks 18 - 20 of growing and weeks 1 through 3 of Drying & Curing Flowers:
I recommend having a drying and curing zone already set up so that you can move your harvested plants from the flowering room into your drying room without any issues. (I also recommend keeping a schedule and having your cuttings ready to replant into your harvested flower zone, so that you do not lose even a single day of productivity in your garden.)
I use metal hangers and hang the plant upside down by one of the branches and I allow it to dry in a humidity controlled room at about 60°F to 70°F at a 60% relative humidity.
I do not cut off any of the leaves in this stage because they work as wicks to pull the moisture from the stems and evaporate away through the leaves instead of through the flowers. The result is that the moisture will escape the plant through the leaves instead of through the buds, causing the buds to retain the rich terpenes that are highly volatile and easily evaporated.
The concept is to allow the moisture to evaporate away from the plant slowly without taking with it the volatile terpenes that make up the scent and flavor of the final product.
The initial drying stage takes 7 to 10 days depending on the environment and your ability to control it. The cooler the room is and the better than humidity is controlled, the longer it will take for the moisture to evaporate, but the the buds can be absolutely perfect if you practice patience.
The second stage of drying is to cut the plants into 10 inch to 12 inch pieces and put those pieces into a paper grocery bag or cardboard box and close the box, or if you're using a grocery bag, simply slide another grocery bag over the top so that you have a rectangle box that will breath and allow your flowers to cure. When putting the cut stems into the paper bag, I cut away any of the larger dried leaves and discard them.
Do not to put your flowers into the cardboard box or paper bag too soon because if they are too moist, you can cause mold.
There is a thin layer of oil coating on the plant which you have felt when you touched it and it got all over your hands and arms. Your goal is to allow this oil to harden and cure slowly, so that 90% of the moisture within the flower escapes and leaves about 10%, the oils will harden as this happens and trap the other 10% moisture in the flower.
This is the stage we refer to as curing. Just like paint on wood, the paint has to dry, cure and harden, which can only be done in a cool, dry place. Cannabis flowers are very similar on a microscopic level and the oils on the plant need to dry and cure in a cool, humidity controlled environment. The flowers will be in this second stage of curing inside of the bags for another couple weeks before you're comfortable with putting it in a mason jar for long-term storage.
At this point you should know which of the 10 seeds/plants is your favorite female and you should have eliminated the other 9 plants that were not as good as your favorite.
My suggestion for storing cannabis is to keep it in humidity resistant containers, such as a mason jar, and store it in a dark in a cool place, and occasionally open up the jars to release any built up gases.
A Tip: Take fresh leaves from your garden and place one or two cannabis leaves into your bag of dried buds, as they will transfer a proper humidity level to the dried flowers and the scent, taste, and smoke of the flowers will be richer and more enjoyable.
At this point forward, I would recommend this simple schedule to grow your own cannabis perpetually:
Maintaining your mother plants and cuttings in separate zones, divide your flowering area into two. If you can fit 50 little plants, put 25 in the first day of the month and wait another 30 days and then put the other 25 little plants into the second half of your flower room.
Take cuttings on the 7th of the month and allow them to have 21 days to root and harden before they are transplanted into the flower room on the 1st.
You will now be harvesting half of your flowering zone on the 1st of every month. You will also be replanting the cuttings that you took on the 7th into the flowering room immediately after you harvest and clean the flower zone.
Using this easy schedule, you will be able to harvest most cannabis plants in roughly 60 days of flowering and you can make a lot of cannabis in a little bit of space with a little bit of effort, if you are organized and understand the process.
A Tip: A grower can dial the higher of any variety by simply harvesting at a different time. In my experience of experimenting, I have found that flowers that are harvested early have a lighter and more psychedelic effect, compared to the same flowers harvested later in maturity, which have a more sedative effect.
May 15th is the day that you should move your plants outside in the northern hemisphere.
I get a lot of questions from people asking me when they should put plants outside for their summer season. Unfortunately, putting plants outdoors too early causes them to go into flowering and then get confused and lose their vigor. Waiting to put your plants outdoors on or after May 15th will allow the plants to grow to their full potential.
If you are an outdoor grower, I still recommend keeping your mother plants and cuttings inside, so that you can sex and select them before you are putting your plants outdoors.
The easiest way to grow outdoors is to take selected cuttings that already have some pre-grow and have establish themselves into small plants and repotting them outdoors directly into fresh soil.
The reason that Authentic Genetics does not carry “autoflowering” genetics is because I like to smoke all of the cannabis I grow, and while there are some exceptions and some quality varieties now being represented in the autoflowering category, they have been few and far between. The autoflowering is achieved by breeding together a really high cannabinoid plant and a low cannabinoid hemp plant. Their prodigy will be half really good plant and half really low-cannabinoid industrial hemp plant, but it will automatically go into flower after weeks of growing regardless of the light cycle.
While there are some upsides to this, there are more downsides, such as the fact that you cannot keep an auto flowering genetic as a mother plant because it goes into flowering even if it's a clone, it doesn't matter, it's all based around the age of the plant.
Which is why I prefer to work with regular genetics, which I can keep as mother plants for decades.
All cannabis will automatically start to flower after the summer solstice, so if you are growing mother plants and making cuttings, you can continually put cannabis plants outdoors pretty late into July or August depending on the length of your growing season. This will cause the plant to go directly into flowering and depending on the genetics how much they grow during flowering, you will wind up with smaller plants, but you will still get some nice flowers.
Places in the south west such as Southern California, can put cannabis plants outdoors between June and March and a majority of modern cannabis genetics will finish flowering in 8 to 9 weeks.
Here in California, one of the methods of growing really large plants is to start a cutting in January under lights and allow it to grow under 18 hours of light indoors from January to May into a 6 or 8 foot very established plant before bringing it outside around May 15th and repotting it into a 200 or 300 gallon smart pot. Then building trellis around this plant that will grow to 2 to 3 times its size between May 15 and June, and then produce an enormous amount of flowers, sometimes between five and 10 pounds of good buds. At this point these plants look more like trees then plants and you start to realize how amazing of a plant cannabis really is.
If you do not want to keep mother plants or cuttings indoors, I still recommend starting your seedlings indoors and letting them grow and establish themselves before you replant them outdoors.
If you cannot or do not have the time or space to do sexing indoors, simply plant twice as many seeds as you want plants, so that you can kill and eliminate any males as they reveal themselves. Keep in mind that the more pre-grow you give the plants before you put them outside, the bigger they will grow and the more you will harvest.
When you are flowering outdoors, it is the summer solstice and the days starting to grow shorter that indicate to the plant that it is time to start flowering.
Depending on when the new moon cycle is around the summer solstice, you will either go fast into flowering if it is a new moon and a dark night sky, or if it is a full moon and a bright sky, you will get another couple weeks of vegetative growth before flowering slowly kicks in around the new moon in July.
When growing outdoors, I still recommend spraying Trifecta and keeping an IPM schedule for outdoor plants. Remember to spray after the sun goes down because a lot of plants can be photosensitive.
I also highly recommend spraying with BT (Bacillus Thuringiensis) in the early stages of outdoor growth in order to inhibit caterpillars from ruining your plants. For those of you starting to grow outdoors, caterpillars are a nightmare and if you see them on your plants, it is already too late because what is happening is that they are peeing and pooping all over the stem as they crawl around and their urination and defecation attracts mold.
There's a lot more I could say on the subject of cannabis cultivation, but I am doing my best to make this article as informative, short and easy to understand.
I hope this article helps you better understand the process from seed to soil through harvest.
I have been alerted to the fact that people have been using my identity on Facebook and Instagram to try and take orders for seeds that are ONLY available on this website.
I do not take any seed orders through email or ANY social media messaging.
You can only get these seeds through this website, I do not and will not process orders any other way.
]]>I do not take any seed orders through email or ANY social media messaging.
You can only get these seeds through this website, I do not and will not process orders any other way.
If you have questions, please call us directly: 805-332-0593
Do not send money to anybody who is trying to sell you these Authentic Genetics seeds.
My friend fished payment information from the scammers today over Facebook and multiple friends have reported the profile, but so far Facebook has done absolutely nothing to take it down.
In reality, Skunkman Sam, the breeder of Skunk #1 who favored the sweeter side of the (Afghan x Colombian Gold) x Acapulco Gold hybrid that he made in the mid 70’s and became famous world-wide, did not remove the acrid smelling scent of cannabis from everybody's garden, they did it themselves.
Growers worldwide muted the scent of cannabis on their own because they did not completely understand what they were doing. I would compare it to listening to modern hip-hop or rap with the bass turned off; it just ain't gonna hit right.
The truly guilty party that removed the skunky side of cannabis is the human condition of enjoying the sweet smell of a flower or fruit, over a skunk’s ass or pile of shit.
I would give the example that nobody walks down the street and sticks their nose in poo-poo, but they will stop and smell the flowers.
Olfactory selection is exactly what happened to cannabis over the last 40 years and through selection and breeding, almost everybody who was working with cannabis naturally moved away from the stinky varieties and reproduced the examples that smelled pleasant and tasted good.
It was that simple.
Recently, science has come to the understanding that thiols are what is responsible for the acrid smell of cannabis and hops. Thiols are the reason that some types of micro brewery beer smells skunky in sunlight. Thiols are also the reason why cannabis smells skunky around harvest time.
Thiols develop in the late stage of flowering on cannabis and hops and they are responsible for the acrid/skunky scent.
Thiols are a compound that humans can pick up in parts per trillion, it is usually a scent that tells us to avoid a fruit or vegetable because the sulfur compounds are released by the rotting food and it may make us sick or be poisonous.
I have a theory that the reason a lot of the cannabis in the 80s and early 90s smelled very skunky or acrid is because a majority of the cannabis was recently acquired by the growers who were growing it, and the thiols had not been selected away from the varieties - yet, but the thiols would be bred out over the next few decades.
In cannabis, the scent of cannabis ranges from fruity, spicy and incense-like in tropical/equatorial varieties to acrid and nasty in some Northern varieties from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Hindu Kush mountains.
When those Northern varieties started circulating around cultivators in the late 70s, a majority of them smelled acrid and when bred with the more tropical/equatorial varieties coming from Acapulco, Michoacán, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Southern India and Jamaica, the scents combined and modern hybrids moved away from the nasty to the sweet.
Also, the fact that homegrown bud was being harvested and sold within a short period of time would allow the thiols to still be present. Early kind bud was often moist and sticky and had to be cut up with scissors, which says to an experienced grower that it was harvested within the last two weeks.
Growers back in the 80s and 90s were under the threat of prohibition and because they did not want to over-dry the cannabis and lose the moisture weight, they would sell it as quickly as they could and the fresh buds would still have the pungent scent of stanky thiols combined with a strong terpene concentration.
Science is now showing us that thiols are incredibly volatile and evaporate away within 10 days of harvest and drying depending on the environmental conditions. In a high humidity environment, they would stick around a little longer, but in a very dry environment, they would be gone quickly.
All three of these varieties produce thiols and smell rather acrid under normal growing conditions, but recently, science has shown us that increasing and decreasing the thiol content in plants is possible. There has been a lot of focus on manipulating the thiol content in hops because the beer industries is working to make beer more skunky.
Basically, the science is showing that if you add sulfur to your medium, your plant will be able to both create and express more thiols. So if you want the cannabis you are growing to have a more acrid/skunky scent, try experimenting with adding sulfur to your fertilizer program.
Thiols are a class of organic compounds that in addition to their role in scent production, also have a number of potential medical benefits.
Thiols, also known as mercaptans, are found in a wide range of natural products, including fruits, vegetables, and herbs. In cannabis, thiols are produced by the plant in response to their environment and are believed to have a protective role in the plant's defense against pathogens and other stressors.
One of the most promising medical uses of thiols in cannabis is their potential as an anti-inflammatory agent. Inflammation is a complex process that is involved in a number of different diseases, including arthritis, asthma, and inflammatory bowel disease. Thiols have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties in a number of different studies, and may be a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.
In addition to their anti-inflammatory properties, thiols also have potential as an antioxidant. Antioxidants are compounds that help protect the body from oxidative stress, which can cause damage to cells and contribute to the development of a number of different diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease.
Thiols have been shown to have antioxidant properties in a number of different studies, and may be a promising therapeutic agent for the prevention and treatment of these diseases.
Thiols may also have potential as a neuroprotective agent. Neuroprotection refers to the ability of a compound to protect the nervous system from damage and degeneration, and is of particular interest in the treatment of neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.
Thiols have been shown to have neuroprotective properties in a number of different studies, and may be a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of these diseases.
Finally, thiols may also have potential as a pain-relieving agent. Pain is a complex process that involves a number of different pathways, and is a major symptom of a number of different diseases, including cancer, arthritis, and neuropathic pain. Thiols have been shown to have analgesic properties in a number of different studies, and may be a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of these diseases.
Thiols in cannabis have a number of potential medical uses, including as an anti-inflammatory agent, an antioxidant, a neuroprotective agent, and a pain-relieving agent. While more research is needed to fully understand the therapeutic potential of thiols in cannabis, the existing data suggests that they may be a promising therapeutic agent for a number of different diseases.
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]]>The scent, flavor and high of some of the Purest Indica plants was incredibly close to the OG Kush cutting and although the plants grew entirely differently, as the Purest Indica is extremely leafy and high-yielding compared to low leaf to high bract (not calyx) ratio and low yield of the OG Kush.
Last week I had both the OG Kush and Purest Indica tested for their cannabinoids and terpenes and one of the Purest Indica plants had an almost identical terpene profile of OG Kush.
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You can watch us talk about OG Kush and how Josh received it in this 2015 YouTube video:
Learning how to hold onto exceptional plants through asexual propagation for a long time is something I recommend to every serious cultivator. Once you learn the art of perpetual cultivation, every seed pack that you purchase, or cutting that you receive becomes an investment that you can enjoy for the rest of your life.
This is exceptional because I have been wondering what were the parents of OG Kush for a very long time and I feel that this test has revealed what I was suspecting all along.
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We recommend placing the seeds with desiccants into a humidity resistant container and place them in the refrigerator for storage.
Technically we recommend between 34° and 39°F in a humidity resistant container, such as a glass jar with desiccants inside to mitigate humidity.
Mel Frank has had seeds retain 100% germination after 24 years of proper storage.
All of the seeds in the Todd McCormick collection are regular seeds.
Give us a call or text! (805) 332-0593
NO! This website is the ONLY way to get the seeds!
We are aware of scammers on social media platforms using the identities of Todd McCormick, Mel Frank, and others, trying to get people to buy seeds outside of this website and to make payments via cash app and other means, but that is not us.
We have been having an ongoing problem with Facebook being very slow to take down accounts that have stolen our photographs, content and videos.
Please be smarter than scammers.
THE BASICS
Like almost everything else about growing excellent Cannabis, germinating your seeds successfully is pretty simple. We’ve used this very basic, inexpensive method for many years and have shared it among thousands of growers worldwide who have all had excellent results with no issues.
First make a mix in the ratio of 1/3 3% hydrogen peroxide to 2/3 distilled water.
It’s important to use only distilled water - some of the common chemicals in tap water can stunt, warp or kill your plant even well past seedling stage when you’ve already spent weeks tending it.
Then soak your seeds in the distilled water/hydrogen peroxide mixture overnight. If you’re growing multiple varieties, be sure to soak them separately. (Don’t laugh. It’s happened.)
Next, pour some of the soak water onto really absorbent paper towels, then wring or squeeze them out lightly and lay them flat. We use 2-3 towels layered together to make a nice thick absorbent nest.
I usually let my seeds soak for 24 to 48 hours, monitoring them do the process, and when I see that they are cracking open, I move them into the paper towel.
Then sprinkle the soaked seeds, using a clean spoon or gloved fingers, onto the moist paper towels, not crowding the seeds.
Then fold the moistened towels over the seeds to make a flat little package.
If you’re sprouting more than 12 seeds at a time, make more than one package - don’t crowd them.
Then put the moist towel and seeds flat inside a closed, unzipped storage-size plastic baggie, laying it flat somewhere away from direct light at room temperature.
In two or three days the seeds will sprout - maybe not all at once, but that’s not a problem because within 24 hours of the first seed sprouting all the others will have sprouted too. Keep your inspection peeks short as not to dehydrate the paper towel.
When the seeds each have a 3/4” root and the halves of the shell are beginning to open noticeably, meaning the embryo leaves are swelling inside, they’re ready.
You then want to move each sprouted seed into a Jiffy Cube you’ve prepared by making a small hole using a pencil or chopstick. Again - be sure you used distilled water to hydrate your Jiffy Cubes and of course use it everywhere else during germination.
Replanted into Jiffys:
Using your fingers, pick up the seed very gently by its shell, and avoid touching the sprouting root as you transfer it into the jiffy cube.
Also remember what’s unfolding inside that little shell as you handle it, be super delicate and stay conscious of the life emerging inside.
Now place the sprouting seed root-down in the hole letting it settle in naturally with the top of the seed even with the top of the hole - never push it down.
If it doesn’t nest right in, lift it out and poke the hole a little deeper. The cells at the tip of that little root hold the most miraculous ecosystem of emerging life one can imagine and while they are incredibly tough in nature they are also vulnerable to our mis-handling.
Now all you have to do is let the new sprouts do the thing they do so well.
Within a day or so they will raise up their first leaves.
In a couple of days when they’ve developed their first set of true leaves, not the embryo leaves, it’s time to put them into larger pots with living soil and a mild fertilizer and then let the plants fully establish themselves.
3 Days Later:
10 Days Later:
The same Skunk #1 x Haze seeds are available at:
MORE RESOURCES
Is using distilled water really important for germination?
Using distilled water is probably the most important part of the germination process because well water, tap water, bottled water and even rainwater contain traces of contaminants that can inhibit germination and later vegetative growth and flowering.
High chlorine in tap water, herbicides in well water, phthalates in bottled water, as well as many other kinds of common water contaminants can kill or damage germinating seeds and will definitely affect your plant’s health, yield and flower quality.
Can I remove these contaminants with a garden hose filter?
Yes most of them you can. There are a variety of relatively inexpensive filters that screw onto the end of the garden hose that you use to fill containers and water your plants. Some have replaceable screens, while others use granular activated charcoal.
There are also screw-on systems with carbon block filters that run $20-$30 and are very effective at reducing chlorine and chloramine, and at removing pesticides, heavy metals, and herbicides.
What’s some of the science behind using Hydrogen Peroxide for germination?
Here are two core articles from the PubMed database:
"Different Modes of Hydrogen Peroxide Action During Seed Germination"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4740362/
"Role of H2O2 in pea seed germination"
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Introduction
Cannabis cloning is a crucial technique for growers seeking to replicate specific strains and maintain genetic consistency. Successful cloning requires careful attention to detail and the use of appropriate tools and methods. In this article, we will explore the process of cannabis cloning using Hormex #8 rooting hormone, water with a pH of 5.8 and a nutrient concentration of 350 ppm, Grodan rooting cubes, 10x20 trays, and humidity domes. It is essential to maintain a moist, but not wet, environment for the cubes, ensuring they are not sitting in water. By implementing these techniques, cultivators can achieve optimal results in cannabis cloning.
Maintaining Moisture Levels
One crucial aspect of successful cannabis cloning is maintaining the right moisture levels in the rooting cubes. While it is important to provide moisture to support root growth, it is equally crucial to avoid excess moisture that can lead to rot or fungal issues. Here's how you can achieve the right balance:
Proper Watering Technique: When watering the rooting cubes, ensure that water is evenly distributed throughout the cube. Avoid over-saturating the cubes, as excess water can lead to oxygen deprivation and hinder root development.
Drainage and Airflow: Use well-draining trays or inserts within the 10x20 trays to prevent the cubes from sitting directly in water. This setup allows excess water to drain away, preventing waterlogged conditions. Additionally, ensure adequate airflow around the cubes to prevent the buildup of excess moisture.
Mist or Spray Method: Instead of pouring water directly onto the cubes, consider using a misting or spraying method to provide moisture. This approach helps maintain a controlled level of moisture without over-saturating the cubes.
Humidity Domes and Ventilation
Humidity domes play a crucial role in maintaining the right environment for successful cannabis cloning. Here's how to effectively utilize humidity domes:
Humidity Control: Humidity domes help create a humid microclimate, preventing excessive moisture loss through transpiration. However, it's important to monitor humidity levels and ensure they do not become excessively high, as this can lead to mold or fungal growth. Aim for a humidity level between 70-80% for optimal results.
Ventilation: Proper ventilation is essential to prevent the buildup of stagnant air and excess humidity within the dome. Ventilate the domes periodically by lifting the lid or creating small vents to allow fresh air exchange. This helps prevent issues such as damping off and encourages healthy growth.
Monitoring and Adjusting
Throughout the cloning process, it's crucial to monitor the moisture levels in the rooting cubes and the overall environment. Here are a few key considerations:
Regular Inspection: Check the rooting cubes daily to ensure they remain moist but not overly wet. Adjust watering frequency if necessary to maintain the desired moisture level.
Environmental Factors: Take into account external factors such as temperature and humidity variations. Adjust watering and ventilation accordingly to maintain optimal conditions.
Keep the tray under 24 hours of light and within 10 to 24 days you will see roots all of your cuttings.
Conclusion
Mastering cannabis cloning requires careful attention to moisture levels and providing the right environment for root development. By utilizing Hormex #8 rooting hormone, water with a pH of 5.8 and a nutrient concentration of 350 ppm, Grodan rooting cubes, 10x20 trays, and humidity domes, while ensuring proper moisture control and avoiding excess water, growers can achieve optimal results in cannabis cloning. Remember to monitor and adjust environmental conditions throughout the process to maximize success rates. With patience and diligence, cultivators can achieve consistent and healthy cannabis clones, setting the stage for a successful cultivation journey.
]]>Photo: "Purest Indica" plant from the original 1980's seeds.
Authentic Genetics is dedicated to preserving the legacy and heirloom genetics that have circulated within the community for the last 50 years and beyond.
We have the ultimate distinction of being the only cannabis seed company in the world to have gotten all of these genetics directly from the legendary breeders Skunkman Sam, Mel Frank and Seattle Greg, who first supplied them to the community in the 70s and 80s.
Please see our collection of Legacy and Heirloom varieties.
Original Skunk #1: our Skunk #1 seeds have only been reproduced two times since the 80s and they are the original combination that favors the Afghan and still makes thiols, which cause the acrid/skunky smell. In 1988 Skunkman Sam gave some Skunk seeds to Mel Frank who put them in his refrigerator for the next eight years until 1996 when he reproduce them in his Los Angeles garden. Put those reproductions back into the refrigerator and they stayed there for 23 years until 2019 when he gave some to Todd who grew them and realized that they still smelled acrid. Todd reproduced them in 2020 and those are the seats available on the website today.
Science has now revealed that thiols are responsible for the skunky smell in cannabis and these seeds still make those nasty smelling compounds.
Please see our article on how you can grow skunky smelling cannabis:
How to Grow Skunky Smelling Cannabis
Original Haze: This was truly the unicorn in the forest for us to capture. Haze is legendary and has been since its inception in 1969. Saved by Skunkman Sam and the early 70s, it has been maintained by Skunkman as inbred line for decades.
Todd acquired original Haze in 2012, when he was receiving the Cannabis Culture Award in Amsterdam and Barcelona. Skunkman Sam came to the event and Todd used the opportunity to ask him if he could get the original Haze seeds. Fortunately, Skunkman Sam obliged and in 2018 Sam also gave permission to Todd to reproduce the variety for others.
"Purest Indica" a.k.a. the Steve Murphy Afghan Seeds: This is the backbone of all the Northern Lights hybrids and circulated around the Pacific Northwest as "Hash plant" and various other names. This variety smells acrid and also makes thiols and could easily be called skunk if somebody was naming it by description.
According to Seattle Greg, he was given four seeds in 1979, two of which turned out to be male and the other two turned out to be female, and he bred them together as an F2 (but who knows how many times they were crossed together before 1979). Seattle Greg then passed those seeds around to his friends so that they could hybridize the "Purest Indica" with the plants that were already working with. They returned some of the seeds to Greg, who grew them and numbered them from the closest to Purest Indica being #1, to the most tropical/equatorial being #11.
The Northern Lights #1 through #11 seeds were sent to Holland in 1985, but the “Purest Indica” was specifically not shared because Seattle Greg did not want the people in Holland to be able to make the Northern Lights hybrids without him.
Northern Lights #2: These seeds were the work of Seattle Greg who combined the “Purest Indica” with his Afghan x Afghan, which created one of the most vigorous and absolutely enormous varieties that we have ever grown. It is leafy and this variety smells acrid and also makes thiols and could easily be called skunk if somebody was naming it by description.
Northern Lights #5: These seeds were the work of a gentleman named Herbie who worked at the store where Greg got his grow equipment. He told Greg that he crossed the “Purest Indica” with a “Hawaiian”, but Greg said that he thought it may have been a Northern Mexican variety grown in Hawaii.
]]>The reason we are able to offer a lower price as is because there is no middleman.
Unlike seed banks who purchase questionable seeds from questionable growers with questionable genetics, at Authentic Genetics you're getting the highest quality hand selected seeds that were all grown organically with love by somebody who has had decades of experience growing cannabis.
As someone who grew up dealing with childhood cancer, I started smoking cannabis when I was only nine years old with my mom while I was going through radiation and chemotherapy treatment. I sincerely feel that cannabis saved my life and simultaneously made my life so much easier by increasing my appetite, decreasing my pain and helping me feel just a little bit better about what I was going through.
The healing experience from cannabis was profound and caused me to start cultivating cannabis at the age of 13 back in January of 1984. The simple interaction with nature, and growing my own medicine also caused me to passionately study cannabis and eventually become an activist fighting for its legalization. Once I started growing cannabis I never really stopped, except for when I was incarcerated for cultivating cannabis.
You can read about my journey through the cannabis world and my effort to push legalization here:
My Activism Through the Years…
Back in 1997, I was arrested for growing 4,116 plants at my home in Los Angeles. I was severely punished by the federal government because not only did I dare to grow the forbidden flower, I would not cooperate with the prosecution and because of that, I was forced to self surrender to a five year prison sentence. It was extremely hard to go through, but I will say that five years in prison was worth a lifetime of freedom. I often wonder how many of the police, prosecutors, judges, and jailers, who have ever locked me up for growing cannabis, and there were many of them, are now medically using cannabis themselves. If you are one of them and reading this now, please know that I hold no grudge and I'm glad that you have transitioned to the the side of truth and no longer believe the government propaganda against nature.
This Los Angeles Times article about my 1997 bust captures the moment quite clearly:
LA TIMES: Cancer Patient Ran ‘Pot Palace’
I had the idea of launching Authentic Genetics in 1996 while living and growing in Amsterdam. I saw that the European seed market was growing rapidly and that there needed to be somebody in California who was saving and preserving the classic heirloom genetics from extinction.
Upon returning home from living and growing in Amsterdam for over a year, It was my goal to make seeds available in the American market, but unfortunately I got a bit distracted after getting busted and dealing with prosecution and imprisonment.
Patience pays off and in 2018 the Hemp Farm Bill passed and seeds became legal along with all parts of the plant with less than 0.3% THC. Seeds contain zero cannabinoids and are once again legal everywhere.
As a side-note, I find it highly questionable that the government has the right to prohibit a seed when it is not refined, distilled, or manufactured in anyway whatsoever. In the years to come it will be looked back upon as insanity that we tried to prohibit nature. In the same way that we look back on alcohol prohibition as being stupid, we will look back on cannabis prohibition as being extremely stupid.
In 2018 I was finally able to launch Authentic Genetics. Increasing accessibility of high quality seeds and lowering the prices of the seeds has been my goal since I first imagined starting my own seed company while growing seeds in Amsterdam long long ago.
I grew up in a very low income family and it sickens me to see the high seed prices that other seed companies are charging in the face of legalization. Over the years, I've seen all too many seed companies pushing questionable genetics at ridiculous prices, which is something I will never do.
The corporate cannabis companies that are actively working to hoard public domain genetics while trying to get prohibition era profits in a legal market are part of the problem with legalization in my opinion. What legalization should really be about is the right to home-grow your own cannabis so that you don't have to pay the ridiculous profit margins that these companies imagine for themselves.
Cannabis flowers literally grow on trees and there is no way to justify retail prices of over $50 per 3.5 grams, which translates into over $6,400 a pound for a plant in a legal market. Imagine paying $6,400 a pound for organic broccoli? It is absolutely ridiculous.
The solution is to grow your own, as it's amazing what you can do with an LED light, a bag of Roots Organic LUSH (or any other all-mix) soil and some water.
While I have always supported legalization, I do not want to see the community reliant upon cannabis companies that hold all of the classic genetics and will not sell seeds and will not share cuttings. What we see as public domain genetics that have been floating around the community for 50+ years (the Original Haze was first bred in 1969), they see as potential IP.
Authentic Genetics is my effort to disempower the corporations ability to lay claim to public domain genetics, while working to empower the community with the highest quality seeds available.
I realized long ago that the only way to get the best example of any variety is to go through the highest amount of plants that you can afford and I'm trying to make “pheno-hunting”, or simply “selection” as I call it, more affordable for everybody.
This genetic preservation project has also been my effort to skip over all of the haphazard breeding that has taken place since these exact genetics were first provided to The Holland Seed Bank in 1985.
Unfortunately because of prohibition, much of the breeding being done in the 80s, 90s and up till now, has been focused on heavy yield and fast flowering time, often sacrificing scent, taste and effect. Which is exactly why so much of the cannabis on the legal market is so similar and does not smell like you remember cannabis buds smelling like 30 years ago.
Cannabis has a lot of diversity, but because of the growers preference for speed and yield, it has been bottlenecked by production.
Knowing that the only people who would really know what they handed The Holland Seed Bank in 1985 were the guys who provided the seeds to them, I went back to the original sources.
Authentic Genetics is the only seed bank since 1985 to have received the original sweet Skunk #1 and acrid Skunk #2, Original Haze, Durban Poison, Purest Indica (which never went to Holland), Northern Lights #2 & Northern Lights #5 and more, all directly from Mel Frank, Skunkman Sam and Seattle Greg and we are incredibly grateful for their generosity and support over the years and decades.
I urge everybody to breed with the genetics you are getting from us in order to improve upon the modern varieties and to reimagine new hybrids that are based on the highest quality instead of the quickest flowering time and heaviest yield.
I call some of the varieties that we offer “The Primary Colors of Cannabis”, because just like music has only 12 notes which make up all of the music you've ever heard, there's also a limited amount of varieties of cannabis that are responsible for all of the modern varieties that you've ever smoked.
Back in 1985 The Holland Seed Bank received some extremely famous and well worked varieties from seasoned breeders. Skunk #1, Skunk #2, Durban Poison, Afghan #1, California Orange, Hindu Kush and later two Original Haze males, were provided by Skunkman Sam.
You can read about the origin of Skunk in cannabis in another article I wrote:
Northern Lights hybrids #1 through #11 were provided by Seattle Greg. These genetics would become the backbone of all of the breeding that was done in the late 80s. The history of Northern Lights is extremely fascinating, and you can read about it and another article that I wrote:
The History of Northern Nights
These two groups of plants became much like the 12 notes in music because they were already well developed varieties by the time they made it to The Holland Seed Bank in the mid 80s. The secondary and tertiary colors that were created from these primary colors of cannabis became legendary, crosses, such as Northern Lights #5 x Haze, Skunk #1 x Northern Lights (Big Bud) really I could go on and on. The evolution of the genetics by the Holland seed merchants in the 80’s and 90’s is a fascinating story that I will write in another article.
When you get seeds from Authentic Genetics, you're getting small batch, high quality seeds that were grown with the upmost care for their perfection.
Our seeds go through two different human sorters that look for any imperfections. If you ever have an issue with any of the seeds you get from us not 100% germinating, reach out and we will hook you up with replacements.
We do ask you to please check out our recommendations on seed germinating because it might help you out a lot.
Click here to see how we germinate seeds at Authentic Genetics
Thank you for taking the time to read this and for taking cannabis seriously.
For a long time, I have felt like I work for Cannabis, both promoting it and helping people to better understand the role it plays in their life. Now, with the scientific understanding of the EndoCannabinoid System or ECS, even doctors and scientists are having to face the fact that cannabis is indeed a medicine and that the government has been lying to us throughout the 20th century.
For decades, I felt like I was only able to plant the seed of knowledge about cannabis into the minds of many, but now I can actually put the seeds of cannabis into your hands so that you can experience it yourself.
Please read our Q&A before emailing us because it might answer your questions:
Peace, love and well-being,
Todd
]]>Dr. Raphael Mechoulam was a world-renowned Israeli scientist who made significant contributions to the field of cannabis research. He passed away on March 9th, 2023, at the age of 92. His groundbreaking discoveries and advocacy for the legalization of medical marijuana have left an indelible mark on the scientific community and society as a whole.
Early Life and Education
Raphael Mechoulam was born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1930. In 1949, his family immigrated to Israel, where he began studying chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1958, after which he completed his post-doctoral research at the Rockefeller Institute in New York.
Cannabis Research
Dr. Mechoulam's interest in cannabis research began in the early 1960s when he obtained a sample of hashish from the Israeli police. He became intrigued by the plant's psychoactive effects and began to study its chemical composition. In 1964, he and his team were able to isolate and identify the active ingredient in cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
This discovery was a turning point for cannabis research, as it opened the door for further investigation into the plant's therapeutic potential. Dr. Mechoulam continued to study the plant and its compounds, synthesizing other cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV). He also found that the human body produces its own cannabinoids, which he named anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG).
A Bit of Cannabinoid History
“In 1840, Schlesinger was apparently the first investigator to obtain an active extract from the leaves and flowers of hemp. A few years later, Decourtive described the preparation of an ethanol extract that on evaporation of the solvent gave a dark resin, which he named “cannabin.”” From: Cannabinoids in health and disease - Natalya M. Kogan, MSc
In the early 1940s, a researcher named Roger Adams identified and synthesized cannabidiol, (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN). Then in 1942, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), was extracted by Wollner, Matcheett, Levine and Loewe.
While Raphael Mechoulam is a hero to cannabis research, he often mistakenly credited with the discovery of these compounds, more appropriately he should be credited with elucidating the effects of CBD and THC by isolating them from cannabis which he did in 1963 with CBD, and in 1964 with THC, and then synthesizing both compounds in 1965.
In 1988 the first receptors for THC were found in a rat’s brain. Then in 1990, science confirmed there was an abundance of what we now call the CB1 receptors, which are found mostly in our brain and spinal cord, and then in 1993, we found the CB2 receptors, which are located throughout our bodies, primarily on immune cells.
Once the first cannabinoid receptor was discovered, scientists set out to discover if these CB1 and CB2 receptors were just the targets of phytocannabinoids (cannabinoids made by plants), or if we could be making similar compounds that fit these newly found receptors naturally.
In 1992, scientists found an endogenous compound within us that activated the CB1, and later we learned that it also activates our CB2 receptors, and it was named ”Anandamide”. “Ananda” being the Sanskrit word for bliss, joy or happiness, and “Amide”, which is an organic compound. Scientists describe Anandamide as being the bliss molecule which we all create within us.
These discoveries brought scientists to the realization that we have within us all, a very active and very important, EndoCannabinoid System or E.C.S..
Dr. Mechoulam's research has had a significant impact on the medical community's understanding of cannabis and its potential uses. His work has shown that cannabinoids have anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anti-tumor properties, and may be effective in treating a wide range of medical conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and cancer.
Honors and Awards
Dr. Mechoulam's contributions to the field of cannabis research have been widely recognized. He received numerous honors and awards throughout his career, including the Rothschild Prize in Chemical Sciences and Physical Sciences in 2012, the Israel Prize in Exact Sciences in 2000, and the Heinrich Wieland Prize in 2004.
In addition to his research, Dr. Mechoulam was also an advocate for the legalization of medical marijuana. He spoke out about the need for more research into the plant's medical properties and called for the removal of legal barriers that prevent scientists from studying it.
Legacy
Dr. Raphael Mechoulam's contributions to the field of cannabis research have left a lasting impact on the scientific community and society as a whole. His discoveries and advocacy have played a significant role in the legalization of medical marijuana in many countries around the world. His work will continue to inspire researchers and medical professionals in their efforts to develop new treatments and therapies for a wide range of medical conditions.
In conclusion, Dr. Raphael Mechoulam was a brilliant scientist and advocate who dedicated his life to understanding the medicinal properties of cannabis. His work has had a profound impact on the scientific community and society as a whole, and his legacy will continue to inspire future generations of researchers and medical professionals. He will be deeply missed but his work will never be forgotten.
Please be sure to check out this wonderful documentary about his life and accomplishments:
“The Scientist” is a documentary that traces the story of Dr Mechoulam from his early days......as a child of the Holocaust in Bulgaria, through his immigration to Israel, and his career as the chief investigator into the chemistry and biology of the world’s most misunderstood plant. Dr. Mechoulam ascertained that THC interacts with the largest receptor system in the human body, the endocannabinoid system (ECS).
]]>A common classification of two types of cannabis in which we call plants that produce narrow or broad leaves and assign effects based on it. The fact of the matter is, when the taxonomy was being written in 1753, Carl Linnaeus was essentially aware of only one type of cannabis: the European Hemp variety (Cannabis sativa).
In 1785, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck published a description of a second species of Cannabis, which he named Cannabis indica.
]]>Facts can quickly turn to fiction, especially back before the days of the Internet. With legalization and the stigma slowly being broken, the truth is able to come out of the woodwork and explain on camera (or on paper) what may have been a legend lost in the mists of time.
Books, magazines, and word-of-mouth was really the only verification we had as growers as to what things were called. And if we were told by someone who we trusted, it was gospel and nothing can sway us from it. Until you learn, rather, unlearn something, there can't be any hope of correcting a widely spread lie.
Indica and sativa
A common classification of two types of cannabis in which we call plants that produce narrow or broad leaves and assign effects based on it. The fact of the matter is, when the taxonomy was being written in 1753, Carl Linnaeus was essentially aware of only one type of cannabis: the European Hemp variety (Cannabis sativa).
In 1785, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck published a description of a second species of Cannabis, which he named Cannabis indica.
What we are now learning about the ethnobotany of cannabis is that it is much more than just the two, there is a correct way of describing plant physical characteristics through horticulture taxonomy.
At the time, the names were designated to differentiate how it was being used. Cannabis that was used for industrial purposes, to make paper, ropes, rigging, canvas, clothes, paints and varnishes were given the suffix "sativa", which meant "to sow" or to plant, signifying that it was a useful plant for your garden. Many useful varieties were given the name "sativa", even lettuce, which is technically named: Lactuca sativa.
Cannabis that was coming from India and many other items that originated in India used the term "Indica". But what gets confusing is that there is all types of cannabis growing in India, and leaf morphology does not tell the whole story.
In Northern India along the Hindu Kush mountains, you will find broadleaf drug cannabis and as you travel south to Goa, you will find very narrow leaflet drug plants that are all 100% Indica.
What we have been calling "Sativa" for years, is in fact a Narrow Leaflet Drug-type (NLD), and "Indica" is Broad Leaflet Drug-type (BLD). Drug-type containing the psychoactive THC compounds, whereas Narrow Leaflet Hemp (NLH) and Broad Leaflet Hemp (BLH), do not contain THC.
The only true "sativa", is the European industrial hemp variety that is virtually void of cannabinoids and is grown for its biomass and seeds. Everything else has "Indica" bred into it to give us the cannabinoids we want when we consume it, that goes for CBD as well. CBD rich cultivars are in fact, drug-type plants.
You would be surprised to learn that India had both short, fat-leaved plants and narrow-leaf, taller varieties, due to their location on the Earth. If you go to Northern India, you will find the typical short and bushy fat leaved plants, which is what we normally call Indica. Travel to the Southern tropical peninsula of India, and you would be seeing the narrow-leaved drug varieties, which we would mistakenly call sativa, but they have never been out of that area, and only bred for their medicinal properties, or drug use.
What we really mean by "Indica", is that the plant is Northern and short flowering varieties that have dense nugs to protect from the cold they're used to feeling.
Equatorial or tropical varieties, grow taller, produce spindly buds that allow for air flow to allow moisture to not build up. That's what we falsely call "sativa". This is widely misconstrued and there is no test to say a plant is 75-percent sativa and 25-percent indica. The numbers you are used to seeing are a fallacy.
Leaf structure also does not dictate how the herb will affect you when you smoke it. It's the terpenes that direct how the high affects you, nothing else. Harvest time can dictate effect, just like drying and curing, as it's all about terpene preservation.
Call it what you will now, as the market is misinformed and used to slang. It will take some time getting used to, but this is how we should be referring to our plants from now on.
Refer to Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany by Mark Merlin and Robert C. Clarke for a comprehensive resource of a lifelong study.
Change Strains to Varieties and Cultivars
Another one that has had us for the longest time, was calling cannabis varieties and cultivars "strains". Even worse, "strands". This is still just as far off as calling a cheetah a tiger, simply because they're both cats. We have to take a further look at the words for what we're talking about.
The word "strain" is widely used, but it comes from microbiology and describes a genetic variant or subtype of a bacteria, fungus or virus. Since we are not talking about either of those, our communication about horticulture has to be consistent. "cultivar" is the correct term, as it is defined by the phenotype versus the genotype. "variety", or "cross" are still better terms than "strain", as it's an honest description of what took place, but sometimes less specific. When you sprout twenty seeds of a certain variety, those seedlings are crosses, and then each will be its own cultivar.
Let’s ditch “sativa and indica” like we left behind words like "marijuana" and "reefer". Stop saying "strains" because it's not bacteria we're smoking. It's not hard to learn the correct nomenclature once you know what the words mean.
]]>From the 1950s through the 1960s, cannabis was being increasingly imported into the United States from Asian tropical countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, and this really increased as soldiers started coming back from Vietnam.
All of these varieties were very tropical and originated from near the equator and had very long flowering periods, and most of them would not finish flowering in the United States which is semi-tropical at best.
Afghan varieties of cannabis in particular have been common in the U.S. since the hippies started bringing back seeds from the Hippie Trail that spanned from London to India. As the Hippies sought enlightenment and heightened consciousness through Cannabis, they went through and collected seeds from throughout the high countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, The Hindu Kush Mountains, Nepal and India.
Even when combining diverse genetics from places like Colombia, Mexico (Acapulco & Michoacán), Jamaica, Morocco and other parts of Africa, growers still found difficulty in making tropical plants finish in the Northern latitudes of most of the United States until they started breeding them with Afghan.
In the 1960s & 70s, hippies and serious growers from the US and Europe started seeking out and bringing back seeds from the short broadleaf cannabis variety that has been traditionally used for hashish making, which is the preferred smoke in this part of the world. The shorter flowering time allowed the plant to acclimate to the shorter seasons and colder nights in North America and Europe by creating denser buds that protected the seeds, unlike tropical varieties which have loose and spindly flowers that are able to rapidly displace high humidity as found in the tropics.
These varieties from Afghanistan and Pakistan had a distinctive and unique scent, some people would say that it smelled like a skunk’s spray, others would describe it as urine or even shit. While Afghan varieties were not that pleasant they had a high leaf to bract ratio and they did add a very important element to the breeding that was happening with the tropical plants - it shortened their flowering time to a manageable 8 to 10 weeks and opened up cannabis cultivation for North America and Europe, both indoors and out.
One of the first and most popular hybrids with Afghan genetics is Skunk No.1, which started its life as an Afghan crossed with a Colombian, which indeed smelled just like a North American skunk, and then that plant was crossed with Acapulco Gold. The results were phenomenal and through Skunkman Sam’s selective breeding, he was able to create the first modern cannabis hybrid that was relatively true breeding, that was two-thirds tropical, one-third Afghan and incredibly uniform. By crossing the Afghan/Colombian with Acapulco Gold, he found the right combination and that became not just Skunk, but Skunk No.1.
I once asked Skunkman Sam how he made a true breeding variety and why that was one of his breeding goals. In the testament to his lack of ego, he quickly said that he did not make a true breeding plant, nature did. He just took the time to cross the Afghan/Colombian plant with everything in his collection, and then to test the progeny by breeding them together to see if their
progeny would be as consistent and uniform in high numbers. Because back in the 1970s, people wanted to start with thousands of seeds, and Sam has always joked that he only sold seeds by the kilo.
Back in the 1970s, before clones were a thing, growers grew from seeds and they needed the seeds to be very consistent and uniform when they planted them, which most cannabis was not. Inbreeding varieties often causes more of the recessive traits to divide themselves up among the progeny and while it is good for phenotype selection and selective breeding, it is not a good thing for a uniform crop.
Skunk No.1 corrected that problem with a variety that harvested early and had huge flowers with a low leaf to high bract ratio. The Skunk No.1 buds were easily trimmed and also contained the high myrcene terpene levels that still stand out among all the other varieties that have come along in the 45 years since Skunk No.1 came to be.
Skunk No.1 is an excellent example of the many varieties of cannabis that have utilized Afghan genetics to create a better, more manageable variety made up mostly of tropical genetics.
In 1989, William Wood, a chemist at Humboldt State University (how ironic) discovered that thiols were the key component to the excretion and smell of the North American skunk animal.
Then in 2001, researchers at the University of North Carolina and the University of Gent in Belgium, published research into what makes beer smell skunky. The research showed that beer shares a similar thiol compound to the same one that is produced by skunks. Thiols are a chemical found in humulone, which is a compound found in hops.
From the article in Discover Magazine June 29th, 2012:
Thomas H. Shellhammer explains that when ultraviolet light hits the humulone [terpene], a part of the molecule breaks off and binds with the sulfur in the beer, creating the thiol. “If you walk outside with a nice yellow beer like a pilsner on a summer day, the change is happening almost immediately,” he says.
Shellhammer adds that in Europe and elsewhere, this is known as “light-struck” beer, not "skunky" beer, since skunks are not native to Europe.
"Complicating matters is the fact that humans can smell thiols in parts per trillion," Shellhammer says. "We perceive the other aromatic components of beer at parts per million. A tiny bit of thiol can overwhelm everything else."
Both hops and cannabis naturally produce thiols. They also both produce some of the same terpenes, fragrant chemical compounds, including humulene (which is not chemically related to humulone), caryophyllene and myrcene.
"That’s because hops and cannabis are in the same plant family, Cannabaceae. If you analyze the oils extracted from each plant chemically, they are similar." Shellhammer says, "When we analyze the compounds in hops, sometimes I walk by the lab and it smells like we are analyzing cannabis.”
The evolution away from Afghan skunk happened because most people do not go for a walk or a hike and stick their nose in a pile of shit, they prefer flowers and sweeter scents. As cannabis hybrids moved from mostly Afghan to more tropical, cannabis hybrids went from stinky to sweet, spicy citrusy and dessert like.
Breeders worked to improve the hybridized Afghan flowers crossed with tropical plants by selecting sweeter, more fragrant varieties that had hints of orange, lemon, tropical fruit and incense. They also wanted flowers which were easier to manicure with less leaf and more resin covered bracts and through the 80’s and 90’s, the stink of Afghan was bred out of most all modern cannabis hybrids.
Smokers also preferred higher THC tropical flowers with a sweeter scent and bigger buds compared to lower THC and more leafy Afghan. Crop after crop, Afghan dominant varieties that smelled like a skunk were slowly bred away from, as most breeders and growers of cannabis all moved towards the sweeter, higher THC varieties that we have today.
Unfortunately, after the popularization of Dutch seed companies in the 1980s, a lot of places that had indigenous cannabis such as Jamaica, practically lost all of their uniquely acclimated varieties as they replaced them with modern hybrids in hopes of making more money in quicker time. Nowadays it is damn near impossible to find any true Jamaican cannabis even in Jamaica.
This loss of indigenous cannabis is also true in places like Morocco, where a majority of growers have replaced traditional Moroccan cannabis with fields of modern European cannabis hybrids and those who did not, still had their crops pollinated by their neighbors, so it is really hard to say what is authentic to the region anymore.
Because of the conflicts in Afghanistan, for many years we haven’t had easy access to the genetics that the hippies were bringing back in the early 70s, but I believe they are still there waiting to be discovered once again.
I started growing cannabis in 1984 when I was living in Rhode Island, I scored some seeds from some very skunky buds that I got from my mothers friends and it was supposedly grown in a Vermont greenhouse, but who knows. It did smell like skunk and we referred to it as skunk, but now I think it was probably just a really nice Afghan. However, even though it was the smell of a dead skunk on the side of the road reminded me and my friends of the scent of my garden, we never referred to the “skunk” I grew as “roadkill skunk”, and I did not actually hear that term used until much later when people were trying to describe the cannabis of their youth.
1970’s ~ Pre Skunk #1, much of the stinky acrid smelling cannabis being grown and smoked in North America was referred to by people familiar with the smell as “Skunk”. It was a general term simply used to describe the acrid but rich and oddly pleasant smell of mostly Afghan cannabis. We now know this smell is characteristic of thiol and myrcene-rich varieties.
Conversely in the UK, the same smell characteristic is often referred to as “Cheese”, because of the smell of stinky cheese.
1975 ~ Afghan/Colombian Gold was bred with Acapulco Gold by Skunkman Sam and became Skunk #1
1976 ~ The first seeds of Skunk #1 were sold in Santa Cruz California. Further selections of the Skunk #1 Variety are created with some leaning toward the sweeter more tropical side of the cross, and some more acrid leaning towards the Afghan side of the cross, the more acrid were referred to as Skunk #2.
1976 to 1985 ~ Skunk #1 seeds are sold in California by "Sacred Seeds”.
1985 ~ Skunk #1 seeds are sold to The Holland Seed Bank, S.S.S.C. and many others, catapulting the Amsterdam cannabis seed business scene into high gear.
1987 ~ Skunk #1 appears in The Holland Seed Bank catalog
1986 ~ Skunkman Sam moves to Amsterdam with Skunk #1, Hindu Kush, Original Haze, California Orange, and many others along with Durban Poison and Afghan #1 from Mel Frank.
1986 to 1992 ~ Skunkman Sam continues to refine the variety through selective breeding for higher THC levels and overall plant quality, selecting the sweeter side over time.
1988 ~ Skunkman Sam gives Mel Frank some Skunk #1 seeds, Mel Frank would go on to store these seeds in his refrigerator until 1996 when he replicated them in his backyard in Los Angeles. Those seeds went back into his refrigerator for 23 years until 2019 when he gave them to Todd McCormick who started growing them out and realized that they were still quite acrid and not so sweet. The most acrid plants were selected and crossed together to make the seeds available at this website.
Photo: Successful Skunk #1 seedlings from seeds stored by Mel Frank for 23 years.
Photo: Skunk #1 at day 37 of flowering under LED.
1992 to 1997 ~ Robert C. Clarke joins Skunkman Sam in a scientifically rigorous, well-documented breeding program that would search among tens of thousands of plants for cultivars within the Skunk #1 line for specific characteristics that would serve as a foundation for the new field of Cannabis medicines.
1998 ~ The most exceptional plants discovered in the breeding regime would go on to become the foundation of GW Pharmaceuticals and later become the basis of Sativex, the first internationally-recognized cannabis pharmaceutical.
“Why Does Cannabis Smell Skunky? New Compounds Detected With 2D Gas Chromatography.”
“Inner Workings: Genomics blazes a trail to improved cannabis cultivation”
]]>Original Haze was first bred in 1969 in the Santa Cruz Mountains by a gentleman named "G," He exchanged seeds with Skunkman Sam who then saved the variety and turned the world onto Haze.
]]>Original Haze was first bred in 1969 in the Santa Cruz Mountains by a gentleman named G.
G exchanged seeds with Skunkman Sam who saved the variety and turned the world onto Haze.
I begot the variety directly from Skunkman Sam and they are the original 3 way Colombian Haze that was first bred in 1969 in the Santa Cruz mountains by Sam's neighbor "G". Sam kept them through IBL breeding since the 70's to preserve the variety.
This variety contains no Afghan/Indica, it is unlike most everything in modern day cannabis.
Please note: Original Haze is an amazing variety that is best used for breeding. You will no doubt find some wonderful examples of Haze, but do note that there is a lot of variation in the variety and that is what makes it such a great plant to breed with.
You can read more about Original Haze here:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=82182
You can also read about our ON Haze cross:
https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/on-haze
Some photos of Original Haze in various stages of growth.
'
]]>Northern Lights is easily one of the most popular cannabis varieties in the world. Initially bred in and around Seattle by a small group of growers in the 70’s, it quickly turned into an international phenomenon.
Northern Lights acquired its iconic name after the legendary “Seattle Greg” sent seeds from his personal collection to a new Amsterdam seed company named “The Seed Bank of Holland.” founded by Nevil Schoenmakers.
For a long time the true story about the origin of Northern Lights was never discussed within the growing community because we all knew that we were being hunted down mercilessly in the expanding "war on drugs". When I first got to Amsterdam and began asking around about NL, I could only find out that the guy who sent the seeds to Nevil was named Seattle Greg, but not much else.
Shortly after Nevil passed away I wrote the article; "Legacy of a Legend" for grow magazine remembering Nevil's life and his revolutionary seed bank. Shortly afterwards I noticed a comment under that article from a guy named "Greg" who was giving personal credit to Nevil for spreading the Northern Lights genetics. I immediately messaged Greg and asked if this was the same Greg who first sent the Northern Lights seeds to Nevil in 1984 - and it was!
Greg and I became friends after talking on the phone and coming together over our shared love of cannabis cultivation. “Seattle Greg” as he is often called, is a retired Marine who had volunteered to join the military at 17, served from 1965 to 1969 then returned home to Seattle and began cultivating the cannabis he had started smoking during multiple tours in Vietnam from 1966-67. Upon returning home, Greg studied botany and natural sciences at the University of Washington and today in his 70s, Greg is still actively applying new science and technology to growing cannabis and sharing what he discovers with others.
In a recent (2021) 2+ hour conversation I got to ask Greg for more detail about the history and genetics of this legendary variety.
After returning from Vietnam and starting to grow, Greg discovered a book titled: How To Grow Marijuana Indoors Under Lights by Murphy Stevens (1975).
That book is absolutely one of the most advanced cultivation books to come out of the 1970s and includes information about enhancing growth using CO2, dehumidification, proper ventilation, carefully monitoring the resin production before harvest and also the technique of making cuttings and keeping mother plants. The book even included a catalog in the back of the book that sold hydroponic cultivation equipment from a Seattle shop called “Indoor Sun Sales”.
A passionate student of cannabis, Greg immediately made his way to the local hydroponic shop and befriended the owner and author Steve Murphy. As the years passed and their trust of one another grew, sometime around 1979, Steve gave Greg four seeds of an Afghan variety that he referred to as “Purest Indica” and that became the initial seeds that would go on to become the parents of the Northern Lights variety. Greg said those “Purest Indica/Afghan” seeds were the beginning of Northern Lights.
Northern Lights #2 was created by combining the Purest Indica with other Afghan genetics that Greg had collected from Oregon and California. Greg mentioned that it was his first attempt at making another variety using the Purest Indica and was always one of his favorites. He said that they would smoke the NL#2 and sell the NL#5 because he liked the sedative effects of the pure Afghan.
Photo: NL#2
You can buy Northern Lights #2 seeds here
One of the most refreshing elements of my conversation with Greg was the overall feeling of honesty and sincerity when I spoke to him and how he was not certain about certain genetics because they had no way of knowing the true origin, only what they were told and that he was never really sure the accuracy of what he was told.
Which brings me to Northern Lights #5. Greg told me that a person named Herbie who worked at Steve’s hydroponic shop bred the Purest Indica with a supposedly Hawaiian variety that Greg thinks was really from Northern Mexico, but he reminded me that we can never be too sure about where it really came from.
Photo: NL#5
When I asked him about the numbering system of Northern Lights #1 through #11, he told me that he made that up just before he sent the seeds to Nevil, along with the name “Northern Lites”, telling me that to him it meant that the plants were grown and bred up North under "lites" and that the spelling got changed by Nevil to the "lights" version after it arrived in the Netherlands.
The numbering system was #1 through #11, with #1 being the most Afghan and “Indica” as they called it back then, and as the varieties became more tropical/equatorial, or “sativa” as the numbers went up. Always honest, Greg said he does not remember all of the particular crosses because he did not make all of them. The Northern Lights seeds that Greg sent to Nevil and became famous was a collection of various crosses that Greg collected from his group of friends on the West Coast over the years that they had been breeding and sharing with one another.
Initially the relationship between Greg and Nevil started off smoothly with Greg gifting the first set of NL seeds to Nevil and then selling him the second set of seeds. Unfortunately, some time in 1986, Greg found out that Nevil had gone behind his back to buy so-called NL seeds from a different guy. That action got Nevil cut off from the true source of Northern Lights seeds, but Nevil just started to knock off the varieties he had and breed them with various other plants.
Greg also reported to me that he had not ever sent Northern Lights #1, the “Purest Indica” that he originally got from Steve Murphy to Nevil, and that instead Nevil “did what he wanted to” with the numbers and changed the history to suit his own narrative. Greg told me at some point he did send a NL#5 cutting to Nevil, but the #2 through #11 initially went to Nevil as seed varieties.
Unfortunately through various busts and “Operation Green Merchant” the original varieties of Northern lights seeds were all but lost, but as fate would have it, one of Greg’s relatives passed away and in an old freezer, his family found a collection of some of his old seeds from the early 80s including; Purest Indica, Northern Lights #2 and #5.
Greg sent me some of those old seeds so that I could do some germination testing and give him feedback on the viability of the genetics after all those years in storage and I was extremely surprised to get decent germination rates and some very vigorous plants. As a collector of old books about cannabis cultivation, I have copies of the Murphy Stevens grow books and I was astounded at the similarity of his photographs of “Purest Indica” to the plants I grew from the “Purest Indica” seed from his relative’s freezer given to me by Greg - they look practically identical.
Photo above: "Purest Indica"
Photo: Northern Lights #2
The Northern Lights #2 has an extremely earthy and gassy aroma that reminds me of Chem Dog and Og Kush but a bit more musky, I have no doubt that it is part of the parental genetics of those classic clone-only cultivars.
Photo: NL#5 Leaf
Northern Lights #5 is an amazing combination of genetics that is extremely pleasurable to smoke, with a high that is not as heavy as the #2 and a more tropical scent. As a collector of old genetics it feels like a dream come true to have not only met one of my heroes in the folklore of cannabis cultivation, but to also be able to grow and experience these genetics myself directly from the man who gave them to the world through Nevil.
Greg is now in his 70s and has long ago retired to an island paradise to live out his golden years. If you get the chance to grow some of these authentic Northern Lights genetics, I highly recommend that you do, they are literally what legends are made of.
We’re proud to carry on this line of true Northern Lights varieties, and I hope you’ll join with others who appreciate the opportunity to grow this legendary Cannabis from Authentic Genetics, where we are dedicated to conserving the work of those who helped build our culture.
]]>Todd McCormick is a former cancer patient who started using cannabis in 1979 under his mother's supervision while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. Todd overcame the cancer and went on to become a lifetime advocate for cannabis.
Starting in 1994, Todd worked with Jack Herer as an editor of The Emperor Wears No Clothes and after Jack’s passing, he released the 12th edition of the book with memorials to Jack.
Todd received the first international prescription for medical cannabis in the Netherlands in 1994, opened the San Diego Cannabis Compassion Club in 1995, then lived in Amsterdam for over a year growing and studying cannabis. Upon return to the US, he became one of the first growers arrested for cultivating cannabis after the passage of proposition 215. His first book, How to Grow Medical Marijuana, was released in 1998.
Todd became one of the first people the federal government denied a medical necessity defense and was forced to self-surrender to a 5 year prison sentence starting on January 3rd, 2000.
Read the LA Times article about the 1997 bust here:
Read the NY Times Article about being denied medical necessity defense here:
Los Angeles Drug Case Bars medical Necessity Defense
Upon release from prison in 2004, he went right back to activism and started producing fundraisers at the Playboy Mansion for MPP in 2007, 2008 & 2009, and also in 2009, he produced the THC EXPO, which was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Todd co-produced and is featured in the documentaries, THE UNION: The Business Behind Getting High & THE CULTURE HIGH.
Todd also helped produce the book, PROTESTIVAL: A 20 year retrospective of Seattle Hempfest.
Todd will soon be releasing his next book, From Cancer to Cannabis: The Essential Guide to the EndoCannabinoid System.
In 2012 in Barcelona, Todd received the Cannabis Culture Award alongside Dr. Lester Grinspoon and Sir Richard Branson.
PART 1: A COLLECTION OF PODCASTS ON TODD’S ACTIVISM, CANNABIS MEDICINE, CULTIVATION & HISTORY, AND SOME VERY INTERESTING PEOPLE
Episode 62 Ft Todd McCormick of AG Seed Co. (podcast 2021)
The Pot Cast
https://soundcloud.com/the_pot_cast/episode-62-ft-todd-mccormick-of-ag-seed-co
Content Notes: “Howdy friends and welcome back for another installment of the pot cast! In this episode we are graced by the cannabis historian and creator of AG Seed Co - Todd McCormick! Todd was kind enough to stop by and chat about all things Northern Lights, Skunk, Haze, Sam the Skunkman and SO much more!”
(Listener comment) “Thank you so much for this Heavy!! Keep it up bro this is as good as it gets!”
Episode 62.5 Ft Todd McCormick of AG seed Co. (podcast - 2021)
The Pot Cast
https://soundcloud.com/the_pot_cast/episode-625-ft-todd-mccormick-of-ag-seed-co
Content Notes: “Hello and welcome to the second installment of our conversation with the cannabis historian and creator of AG Seed Co - Todd McCormick!”
(Listener comment: "All the plants - I want all the plants!" Todd M I feel that brother!”
Episode 7: Todd McCormick "Sometimes you get shown the light in the strangest places...." (podcast 2021)
The Silver Ash
Content Notes: Early in his life of public activism Todd worked with Jack Herer as an editor of The Emperor Wears No Clothes and after Jack’s passing, he released the 12th edition of the book with memorials to Jack. Todd received the first international prescription for medical cannabis in the Netherlands in 1994, opened the San Diego Cannabis Compassion Club in 1995, and lived in Amsterdam for over a year growing and studying cannabis.
His own first book, “How to Grow Medical Marijuana”, was published in The Netherlands in 1998. Upon return to the US, he became one of the first growers arrested for cultivating cannabis after the passage of proposition 215.
Todd was one of the first people the federal government denied a medical necessity defense for cultivating medical Cannabis and was forced to self-surrender to a 5 year prison sentence starting on January 3rd, 2000. Upon release from prison in 2004, Todd didn’t miss a beat and returned immediately to grassroots activism, producing fundraisers at the Playboy Mansion for the Marijuana Policy Project in 2007, 2008 & 2009. Also in 2009 he produced the THC EXPO which was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Todd has co-produced and is featured in the groundbreaking documentaries, “THE UNION: The Business Behind Getting High” and “THE CULTURE HIGH”. Todd also helped produce the book, “PROTESTIVAL: A 20 year retrospective of Seattle Hempfest”. Todd is currently researching and writing his next book, “From Cancer to Cannabis: The Essential Guide to the EndoCannabinoid System”.
In 2012 in Barcelona, Todd received the Cannabis Culture Award alongside Dr. Lester Grinspoon and Sir Richard Branson. Todd owns Authentic Genetics and supplies heirloom Cannabis genetics at: www.AGSeedCo.com
Todd McCormick, The Culture High, THE YOUNG JURKS (podcast)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27a7c0
PART 2: A COLLECTION OF YOUTUBE VIDEOS ON TODD’S ACTIVISM, CANNABIS MEDICINE, CULTIVATION & HISTORY, AND SOME VERY INTERESTING PEOPLE
Emerald Cup 2021 Genetics Panel - Ed Rosenthal, Todd McCormick, Meangene from Mendocino, Katie Jeane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l0pDKSdLEQ&list=PLo5437hzonJEz_uzHkj0NzdDrZ_M3ZH31&index=21
Dark Horse Live! E74 with @ToddPMcCormick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlCHpb3raC0
Content Notes: A relaxed trip through the “origin stories” behind Todd’s life journey and discoveries beginning with a childhood of recurrent cancer, painful ‘medicines’, the discovery of Cannabis, and how the medical system fails children with cancer. Then the interview moves quickly into activism, Jack Herer, The Netherlands, Federal Prison, new attitudes, OG Kush, and The Union.
(Viewer comment) One of the best episodes that exist, Todd is an amazing human being, much respect.
Dark Horse Live! E75 with @ToddPMcCormick talking Nevil and The Seed Bank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl79B-hdsgU
Todd McCormick talking about Nevil and The Seed Bank. “It’s a crazy story and Todd wrote the best article on the subject.” This in-depth interview explores and documents the full timeline of Nevil’s life and times, covering the story of his life from teenage addict to global Cannabis legend. Todd ties together every element of the story beginning with Skunkman Sam and how the original seeds of Durban Poison, Afghani #1, Hindu Kush and Skunk #1 came to be the foundation of Nevil’s reputation.
The interview goes way beyond conventional Nevil stories and provides real insight into the genetic origins of today’s Cannabis breeding community, and how contemporary breeders are building on the work of many other pioneers as well.
Content Notes: (Viewer comment) What a great interview with amazing information. I was glued to my phone. I can’t wait for more.
Spitfire - Spitfire Tour Interview - 7/25/1999 - Woodstock 99 East Stage (Official)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-sRYPFVnzU&list=PLo5437hzonJEz_uzHkj0NzdDrZ_M3ZH31&index=2
Todd Media - PodCasts & Videos
ACTIVISM VIDEOS & PODCASTS
Transcript of “Politically Incorrect” May 15,1998
https://www.drugtimes.org/grow-medical-marijuana/transcript-of-politically-incorrect.html
Full transcript of Bill Maher’s interview with Todd McCormick
“Well, as you probably know, tonight, it's pretty much a one-topic show because we have one of the, as I said in the introduction, a leading medical marijuana activist here, that is Todd McCormick. And medical marijuana has been a hot-button issue, not only in this state, but all across this country. It was passed here in something called Proposition 215.”
2002
Bill Maher on Marijuana Legalization:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDLxTG6JM2w
Content Notes: “Bill Maher rips into America's War on Cannabis, taking it personal because his friend Todd McCormick was in a CA prison at the time - serving 4 years for researching a book to help medical marijuana patients grow their own medicine, as a collaborative effort with motivational author Peter McWilliams.(CannabisTV)”
2010 Todd McCormick and Joe Rogan discuss Cannabis facts and myths (podcast))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqcWo3qNLZE
Content Notes: This high-energy episode features Todd and Joe in a passionate and detailed discussion of the “War On Drugs” con game. Todd takes us through centuries of cannabis/hemp history in just minutes, revealing in a remarkable flow of words and ideas how entwined the Cannabis plant has been with global civilizations since time began.
(Viewer comment) This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen!! Ah Joe Rogan is the SHIT! I'll check out Todd McCormick. I like him already!
Joe Rogan #44 Todd McCormick (podcast - Part 1)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4UfTxUtljIE9j492wD7Mht
Content Notes: Todd and Joe drill down on the corporate interests that lie hidden behind Cannabis prohibition and talk more about the amazing history of hemp in all civilizations since ancient China, discussing some key books and little-known historical sources of cool and unusual Cannabis information.
Joe Rogan #44 Todd McCormick (podcast - Part 2)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/28nbdxDHScHN2XFpgGXnDQ
Content Notes: The energy of Part 1 continues with another fun one hour plus conversation ranging into topics like the evolution of the language around Cannabis, getting high in John Lilly’s isolation tank, and the story of how Joe changed from being a self-confessed ‘anti-pot fanatic’ to becoming an outspoken advocate for medical Cannabis and for full legalization.
2012
Cannabis Culture Awards - Press Conference with Award Recipients Ben Dronkers, Richard Branson and Todd McCormick
Part 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QnDZiC_tP8
Content notes: Richard Branson introduces and speaks about Todd (10:25) who then moves into a highly detailed overview and interpretation of the history of hemp, which he then ties back with many original insights into today’s financial and political realities around Cannabis.
Part 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N9j7GT1JWo
Content notes: Todd movingly discusses the ‘racial atrocity of the drug wars in America’ referring to what he saw and experienced during 5 years in Federal prison and before and after that on the streets.
(Viewer comment) good shit, Richard Branson has for a longtime been a supporter of legalized cannabis. If I remember rightly he even registered the patent in the UK for pre-rolled joints some years ago. Keep up the good work guy's! Free The Weed!
2012 Cannabis Culture Awards: Todd McCormick’s Acceptance Speech (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Neu3IqEbpC0
Content Notes: In Todd McCormick’s acceptance talk he provokes applause with the words- “The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge! It's what we all think we know about dope, what we think we know about marihuana, which is getting in our way of learning about what the truth is about this plant.”
Culture High Producer Todd McCormick (video)
MJ360.TV NEWS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK8RnOsvMsk
Content Notes: Todd McCormick speaks with Keeta Simone of The Movie and Music Network about his life as a child cancer patient and his discovery of marijuana as a medicine, how he then became a movie and event producer, a lifelong Cannabis patient, an unstoppable activist, and a respected cultural icon. Todd gives us a chilling but inspiring glimpse into his time in prison and the persecution he underwent at the hands of corrupt and dishonest Federal Government officials during and after incarceration.
2008: THE UNION: The Business Behind Getting High
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Iw5dTe0Gg&list=PLo5437hzonJEz_uzHkj0NzdDrZ_M3ZH31&index=5
1995: The Magic Weed (1995) Marijuana Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo4LKc4RFwc&list=PLo5437hzonJEz_uzHkj0NzdDrZ_M3ZH31&index=5
2010: Hempfest 2010: Todd McCormick - Stand Up For Your Rights
Vivian McPeak, Hempfest Founder & Todd McCormick
Vivian holds up the book: PROTESTIVAL: A 20-Year Retrospective, co-produced by Todd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DgbysMAxLk&list=PLo5437hzonJEz_uzHkj0NzdDrZ_M3ZH31&index=9
Content Notes: “Activist/Former Drug War Prisoner Todd McCormick speaks to the Seattle 2010 Hempfest crowd”. This was at the time when legalization was gaining full momentum in the Northwest, driving toward 2012 legalization. Todd talks about his shared experiences both with legalization in California and as a victim of Cannabis criminalization and lays out the imperative need to change these unjust laws at the state level immediately, regardless of how long federal reform might take.
The Culture High dvd segment on hemp (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiTjK-_j4f8
Content Notes: This is a short, powerful discussion of little-known facts such as the central role that hemp has played in the development of the automotive industry - “Hemp has engaged incredible amounts of human ingenuity”.
(Viewer comment) “This blew my mind woah thank God we have weed pioneers like you”
Talking Cannabis with Todd McCormick
12 July - Sept 2017 video episodes with top growers who are old friends sharing a lot of great insights around their growing knowledge and having high times with each other.
https://www.youtube.com/c/TalkingCannabis/featured
#1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1dUTJBBmVI
Content Notes: featuring Tom Alexander. Sam the Skunk Man, Kenny Morrow, Etienne Fontan, and Richard Rose
#2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRi2jZ_fp50
Content Notes: featuring Mel Frank, Tom Alexander, Sam the Skunk Man, Kenny Morrow, and Etienne Fontan
#3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ouEHWRQ1Y
Content Notes: featuring Mel Frank, Tom Alexander, Sam the Skunk Man, Kenny Morrow, and Richard Rose
#4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PONDD84-Dvk
Content Notes: featuring Sam the Skunk Man, Kenny Morrow, Etienne Fontan, and Richard Rose
#5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVpkTYMcvks
Content Notes: featuring Mel Frank, Tom Alexander, Sam the Skunk Man, Kenny Morrow, Etienne Fontan, and Ryan
#6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZirQEgdY1lY
Content Notes: featuring Tom Alexander, Sam the Skunk Man, Kenny Morrow, Etienne Fontan, and Richard Rose
#7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuYUeOQ74MU
Content Notes: Kenny Morrow and special guest Jeff Lowenfels, author of: Teaming with Microbes, Teaming with Nutrients & Teaming with Fungi
#8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqvPOFWiWCI
Content Notes: featuring Tom Alexander, Sam the Skunk Man, Kenny Morrow, Ryan - Chimera Genetics, Etienne Fontan, and Richard Rose
#9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhO05YCxjc0
Content Notes: Topics: CO2 Extraction and Terpene Preservation (plus) Beneficial Bugs - Are they always beneficial? Featuring: Mel Frank, Tom Alexander, Sam the Skunk Man, Kenny Morrow, Ryan - Chimera Genetics, Etienne Fontan
#10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sykw-QQs2d0
Content Notes: Topics: The Rohrabacher–Farr amendment and what it may mean to the cannabis industry (plus) The history of Sinsemilla Tips and Growing Edge by the publisher Tom Alexander. Featuring: Tom Alexander, Sam the Skunk Man, Kenny Morrow, and Etienne Fontan
#11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CTByybKVcc
Content Notes: Topic: talking with Rick Doblin of www.maps.org; Featuring Tom Alexander, Sam the Skunk Man, Etienne Fontan
This is a living list that will change and be updated
These are personal sketches of some of the people who we personally believe have made important contributions to building and defining the cultural community around Cannabis.
Cannabis culture is now worldwide, and every country has cultural warriors leading the still-incomplete fight for legalization. But this global movement began with a lot of hard work and personal risk on the part of a creative core of largely American and Dutch visionaries, with plenty of brilliant contributions by others as well.
In America the Cannabis movement grew strong in the face of 50 years of calculating, deliberately violent political repression, while in the Netherlands, applying the national cultural value of tolerance, it grew by reaching agreement on the accommodations needed to resolve the opposing views. The Cannabis culture that has emerged from these two national cultures, one fighting against violent repression and the other happily seeking accommodation, was forged by people of courage and vision like those we are celebrating in these sketches.
We roughly organized everyone by their first name - Arjan Roskam is under A, Jerry Garcia is under J, etc.
We urge friends of Authentic Genetics to nominate others who should be included alongside these good friends, Cannabis legends, and personal heroes of ours.
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Aaron McGruder is the creator of “Boondocks”, whose hilarious Cannabis-themed episodes, especially the outrageous “Mr. Medicinal”, are true Cannabis culture icons. The common sense case for older people using and enjoying medical Cannabis has rarely been so effectively presented, and the craziness of the War On Drugs has rarely been made so obvious, so pointedly. Aaron is a cultural and political visionary whose sly wit slices the ordinariness of stupidity and racism to pieces with invisible blades, helping to defeat the hold of the dark side with exquisitely-targeted mockery and laughter.
Alan Dronkers is the oldest son of Cannabis cultural legend Ben Dronkers, and has amplified his family’s accomplishments in Cannabis breeding and genetics through his leadership of the legendary Sensi Seeds, founded by Ben Dronkers in 1985, and through his writing, teaching and entrepreneurship, sharing his passion for the medicinal and spiritual qualities of the plant while innovating commercial and industrial uses for its fiber and oil.
Alice B. Toklas was the life companion of famed American poet Gertrude Stein, and was celebrated in their New York and Parisian literary and art circles for her culinary skills and imagination. After Gertrude Stein’s death, Alice published a cookbook with celebrated French cook and writer Simone Beck containing many of the recipes that they and their friends had enjoyed over the years. Among those recipes was one that became the legendary Alice B Toklas Brownies, which was actually an “Americanized” recipe, created at the insistence of the publishers, for the original hashish fudge. The original hash fudge treat was created by their friend Brion Gysin, a pioneer in performance and kinetic art in America and Europe. Gysin’s inspiration came from his early years in Tangiers with its sophisticated Hashish culture, where he ran a classic 50s beat generation coffeehouse, complete with his home-made hashish delicacies, that was an international crossroads for beat poets, writers, musicians, and artists.
Andrew Weil MD is a highly respected writer, physician, researcher, and teacher. He was the first modern editor of the long-ignored 1894 India Hemp Drugs Commission Report, revealing it to both academia and science and to the emerging Cannabis culture in 1971. For 50 years Andrew has been a groundbreaking researcher, introducing new perspectives on natural medicines across a broad spectrum of physical, emotional and spiritual healing. He is a brilliant speaker and compelling media personality, and his foundation of knowledge is never successfully disputed by opponents of his views on natural medicines and drugs. Andrew was one of the earliest physician/scholars to stand up against the War On Drugs, and has been working as an articulate activist and a persuasive voice of reason in legislative, medical, academic, intellectual, and popular culture circles since the 1970s.
Andrew Sullivan is a sharp-witted political blogger who began “The Daily Dish” in 2000, and has since moved his articulate independent-thinking conservative writing voice progressively to new platforms with ever-widening audiences. Andrew’s passionate, personal and libertarian/conservative advocacy of Cannabis has been widely influential since the 1980s, bringing together communities of interest around Cannabis and HIV/AIDS and articulating their unity. In his book “Cannabis Closet: First Hand Accounts of the Marijuana Mainstream” (2010) he wrote “I’ve always been in favor of legalization of marijuana as an adult. The evidence was overwhelming. Now, that feeling was passive until the AIDS epidemic. I saw friends of mine survive because of medical marijuana. I know people that are alive because of marijuana.”
Anita Roddic is best-known as the founder of The Body Shop, a fashion-forward enterprise based on innovating attractive new eco-friendly body care products. After personally discovering Cannabis while hiking in Israel in the late 1980s, where a friendly American turned her on in an ancient tomb, she began adding hemp seed oil to her body care products, stirring up strident British yellow journalism headlines predicting teens getting stoned on moisturizers and eyeliners. Anita was a courageous and determined entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist throughout her life and, like many pioneers who have passed, the true extent of her insights into the healing properties of hemp seed oil are only now beginning to be appreciated.
Anna Boyce is a California Registered Nurse and medical Cannabis advocate who co-authored and advocated tirelessly for the passage of Prop 215, which in 1996 was the first state-level ballot medical marijuana legalization initiative to pass successfully in defiance of the Federal Cannabis laws.
Arjan Roskam is a creative, prolific Cannabis entrepreneur and communicator, well-known and highly respected for his groundbreaking documentary series “Strain Hunters”, video narratives of expeditions to discover new Landrace Cannabis ‘strains’ around the world. In addition to “Strain Hunters”, Arjan’s legacy chain of “Green House Coffee Shops” and his “Green House Seed Company” businesses and brands are often cited as outstanding examples of a successful, innovative Cannabis business ecosystem in which commerce, science and education blend seamlessly.
Barbara Lee is a compassionate, dedicated California US Representative legislator whose important work for the Cannabis community includes the “Marijuana Justice” Act, which was designed to strip Cannabis from the Federal “Controlled Substances Act”. She is also the creator of the “States' Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act”, the “Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act”, and the “Restraining Excessive Federal Enforcement & Regulations of Cannabis (REFER) Act.” Beyond her support for the Cannabis community she, often courageously, represents the incredibly diverse East Bay community in Congress.
Ben Dronkers is the energetic, creative Dutch entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded Sensi Seeds in 1985, which became the foundation for generations of growers around the world. Ben also created the iconic “Hash, Marijuana & Hemp Museum” a tribute to the cool, the outrageous and the obscure that fits perfectly in the laid-back Amsterdam Cannabis scene.
Bill Maher is a dry, ironic witty comedian whose perceptive commentaries on the foibles and stupidity of undeserved power, wealth and influence appeal to broad audiences across all demographics. With cutting humor backed by wicked insights, Bill has been instrumental in bringing forward public realization of the hypocrisy and illegitimacy of Cannabis criminalization, and has empowered generations of people with the facts and reasoning needed to assert their rights to grow and use Cannabis.
Dr. Johanna Budwig was a mid-20th century German nutrition scientist whose work on Essential Fatty Acids and human health was fanatically suppressed by the financial and political interests behind the exploding post-WWII industrialization of the food industry. While her work is widely recognized in Germany today, it is virtually unknown in the US. However, Dr. Budwig’s research led directly to today’s discoveries of the remarkable health-giving and medicinal properties of Hemp seed oil and the importance of its superior EFA profile. Compared with the Flax seed oil that Dr. Budwig successfully utilized in the early 1950s to cure terminal cancer patients, Hemp seed oil’s superior EFA profile is showing even greater promise in a wide range of medical therapies and healthy nutritional applications.
Cannabis Business Times was an early and influential Cannabis news website and monthly magazine that has evolved into a highly respected go-to print magazine for carefully-vetted information and insights that focus on the business and financial sides of Cannabis culture.
Carolyn Garcia is the legendary “Mountain Girl”, who fans of The Grateful Dead know with great affection as Jerry Garcia’s first wife. Emerging from the early 60’s Stanford organic chemistry labs and rolling into the world of Cannabis and psychedelics aboard the “Great Bus Further” of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, Carolyn met Jerry and they became the heart of the Grateful Dead House on Ashbury - some say they were the houseparents. Subsequently when they moved to the country her family’s organic gardening roots emerged and she wrote “Primo Plant”, one of the most practical and insightful Cannabis gardening books ever written. She has gone on to become one of the most respected voices in the organic growing and natural medicines communities.
Chris Conrad was a designer, editor and writer of high-impact imaginative content for Jack Herer’s bestselling book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes (1990). Chris is an internationally recognized Cannabis activist, speaker, consultant and author. His books include Hemp: Lifeline to the Future (1993), Hemp for Health (1997), Nostradamus and the Attack on New York (2002, revised 2015). He is co-author of The Newbie’s Guide to Cannabis and the Industry (2015) with Jeremy Daw.
Dana Larsen is co-founder of the Vancouver Seed Bank and was the editor of Cannabis Culture Magazine for a decade. He is the politically adept creator of the Overgrow Canada social action project that gave away 10 million Cannabis seeds to growers across Canada from 2016-19. A prolific Cannabis author, he has written books that are pure fun (Hairy Pothead and the Marijuana Stone) and books that are serious (Cannabis in Canada: The Illustrated History).
Debby Goldsberry is an influential medical marijuana activist who co-founded the Berkeley Patients Group medical cannabis collective in 1999, and is the managing director for a group of medical cannabis dispensaries in the Bay area. She is co-founder of the United Cannabis Collective, where patients can access the full range of Cannabis-related health services. Debby is also the author of the “Idiot’s Guide” to starting and running a marijuana business, which calls for a focus on the mission as much as the business, and she is a generous mentor to others in the medical cannabis community.
Dennis Peron was a passionate early advocate for the legalization of marijuana for use by people with medical needs not being met by conventional medicine, a passion fueled by his personal experiences with the dramatic medical benefits of Cannabis for people suffering and dying with HIV/AIDS. Dennis founded the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers’ Club for medical Cannabis patients at the height of Federal authoritarianism, and was a force in the passage of California Prop 215, celebrated as a major victory in the Cannabis revolution.
Donnie Anderson was an activist whose energy and organizational skills underpinned his contributions to justice and equity in the Cannabis business, embodied in the California Minority Alliance which he co-founded. CMA addresses the ongoing gross inequities in what The Guardian newspaper called “a farce of social equity” in California’s post-legalization allocation of licenses and financial support for minority Cannabis entrepreneurs. A force across many communities, Donnie chaired the 2015 NAACP California-Hawaii Cannabis Task Force, was the owner of the Western Caregivers medical Cannabis dispensary, and was a founding board member of the California Growers Association and co-founder of the Southern California Coalition.
DJ Pooh is a legendary American record producer and a celebrated film writer, director, actor, and is equally well-known as a record producer, game writer/producer, and rapper. Pooh DJ’d Todd McCormick’s first Playboy Mansion party in 2007. He is widely celebrated for his creative genius in writing and starring as “Red” in the Black cult classic film “Friday”, a movie that has been called “the most important film ever written about the Hood.” and for his other films “The Wash” and “Three Strikes”. He is a hip-hop legend, the first producer assigned to Def Jam Records back in the 1980s and the producer of a long string of successful classic albums with artists including Snoop Dogg, 2Pac, Ice Cube and LL Cool J.
Ebele Ifedigbo is a California grass-roots, street-level social justice activist whose “Hood Incubator” is a widely-recognized model for successful Cannabis equity programs, using a real-world approach to address the damage left behind in marginalized neighborhoods by the War On Drugs. The Hood project draws on Ebele’s analytical and financial credentials and applies them to the streets of the East Bay, helping people whose lives formerly depended on illegal dealing and growing Cannabis make the difficult adjustment to becoming legal, licensed Cannabis businesspeople
Elvy Musikka was arrested in 1998 in Florida for growing Marijuana in her backyard to treat her advancing glaucoma, and has been called “the classic little old lady in tennis shoes”. She was acquitted of the cultivation charge with the help of NORML, and because of that arrest, Elvy sued the federal government and became the first woman accepted to the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program, in the 1980’s, where the U.S. Government sent her 300 joints a month as a recognized medical treatment for glaucoma. Elvy was forced to rely for her medicine on a “legal” supply of Federal Mississippi medical marijuana that she described as “hemp” and that was so ineffective that it forced her into multiple surgeries over years of pain. In 2022 Elvy is now living in a Cannabis-legal state where her medical needs can be met with effective medical Cannabis, and is continuing her fight for the rights of victims of the still widespread repression of Medical Cannabis.
The Emerald Cup is an annual Cannabis festival/showcase with roots planted deep in the Cannabis Legalization, Sungrown Cannabis, & Organic Farming movements in California. The Emerald Cup holds a special place in the hearts of the West Coast Cannabis community. The brainchild of former outlaw grower and visionary Tim Blake, what began in the early 2000s in the Northern California mountains as a private event among clandestine Cannabis growers enabling them quietly gather to share ideas and compare flowers, has grown into an internationally celebrated festival of music, food, workshops and high-energy contests in everything from flower to edibles to medicines. As Tim proudly says, after nearly two decades of hard work and dedication to building the Emerald Cup - “It's like a Cannabis Lollapalooza”.
Franco Loja was Arjan Roskom’s partner in the Greenhouse Coffeehouse & Seed Company and was a passionate adventurer, grower, and seeker of new Cannabis varieties worldwide. His engaging personality and interesting insights are highlights of the extensive collection of Strain Hunters YouTube videos. Franco died of Malaria in 2017, in pursuit of yet undiscovered Cannabis strains in the Congo.
Freeway Rick Ross is a smart, colorful renegade, born in a little town in East Texas and raised in LA, who made several fortunes in the 1980s as a major West Coast dealer/distributor often working in plain sight of the law. Freeway Rick rolled his enormous profits into a legitimate real estate empire along the 110 Freeway and built a national distribution network, all done with such style and smarts that he was untouchable for years until he trusted the wrong person and was sent to prison for life in 1996. He devoted his time in prison to studying the legal system, looking for the kinds of angles and loopholes that he had found so useful in building his empire. He found that loophole, leading to his successful release after 13 years. Freeway Rick Ross has gone on to become an influential writer, speaker and mentor, admired by many people, and his newest book “21 Keys” details the secrets to leading a successful life not as a criminal, but as someone who knows how to live an unconventional life largely by their own rules.
George van Patten is the pen-name of Jorge Cervantes, a prolific writer and prominent Cannabis community media personality, whose books and videos have enlightened generations of beginning Cannabis growers and aficionados.
Green House Seed Company is one of the most respected names in international Cannabis genetics. Greenhouse is a Dutch seed company started by Arjan Roskam in 1985, around the same time as other Dutch and American Cannabis entrepreneurs were discovering the worldwide need for dependable sources of quality Cannabis genetics.
Grow Magazine is a beautifully designed print magazine full of high-quality photographs, Cannabis growing technology, and helpful articles. Published in the Pacific Northwest, Grow Magazine offers a classic West Coast vibe to its readers.
Henk de Vries is the founder of “The Bulldog”, one of Amsterdam’s first (1975) and still one of its greatest Coffee Shops. He understood the value of education and public opinion and worked creatively for years to reach people with the Cannabis message. He was a central and influential voice in the development of the Netherlands’ policy of tolerance toward Cannabis and ultimately toward all drugs. The Dutch idea of ‘tolerance’ is a unique, strongly-held cultural value that means that one gracefully, or at least not antagonistically, accepts even what one disagrees with, disapproves of, or dislikes in others. To the dismay of his opponents, Henk was a leader in making sure that this deep cultural principle was applied to Dutch drug laws. When applied to drug policies, this embedded respect for tolerance meant that for many years Cannabis was tolerated, although illegal, in the Netherlands while the rest of the world was going crazy with its doomed American-led War On Drugs. The vast majority of visitors to the Netherlands in those days just assumed that Cannabis was legal, but it was not. However, thanks to the work of pioneers like Henk, legality was not an issue - unless you tried to smoke on the trams or outside the zone. For the substantial part of Dutch society that (then) wanted Cannabis illegal, so it was. But it was also tolerated - within limits.
High Times Magazine was founded in 1974 by Tom Forçade, and is said to have been intended as one-time-only takeoff on Playboy, celebrating Marijuana and Sex, but the idea and the magazine took off and High Times quickly became a leading 70s revolutionary advocate for the legalization of cannabis, LSD, and psychedelic mushrooms. In the 1980s High Times evolved into a magazine with a strong Cannabis-only focus and became a leading voice for the increasingly successful legalization movement of the 21st Century.
Hugh Hefner was well-known as the creator of the Playboy lifestyle, but far less well-known for his philanthropy and social justice advocacy. He gave the Cannabis movement the energy behind much of its evolution - it was Hugh Hefner’s money, given privately and without condition, that gave Keith Stroup and NORML their first operating budget and empowered them to become an emerging force and influential voice in the Marijuana legalization movement. Hugh’s generous philanthropy and support for social justice in big and small ways continued throughout his life, and his foundation today leads in advocacy for free speech and human rights.
Irv Rosenfeld is one of the longest surviving patients on the Federal program to receive Mississippi-grown “legal” medical Cannabis. In the mid-1970s a Washington DC attorney who had severe glaucoma named Robert Randall sued the federal government to obtain marijuana medicine under the Compassionate Care Act and won. His victory allowed a few others with qualifying conditions to get cannabis from the U.S. government and that included Irv Rosenfeld. Now over 40 years later Irv, a healthy and successful stockbroker, is still on the program and keeping his cancer in remission by smoking 5% THC Federal joints they send him every month.
Jack Herer (pictured above) is one of the most highly respected authors, activists and innovators in Cannabis culture and is also the name of one of the most popular Cannabis varieties in the world. Jack is best known as the author of “The Emperor Wears No Clothes”, a hugely successful book that introduced millions to the unrecognized medicinal and industrial uses of Cannabis, and that championed legalization with new and credible arguments and indisputable facts. Jack Herer the Flower was introduced in 1994 by the Sensi Seed bank as a tribute to their favorite author. Jack Herer the Flower is as much a legend as Jack Herer the Person, who died in 2009, and so now they are one and the same.
Jane West was instrumental in elevating the stature of Cannabis from street weed to socially acceptable in the Denver arts & business communities. In 2013 she founded the hugely successful Women Grow educational and business support network and subsequently created and built her now-iconic Jane West brand bringing recognizable design sophistication to Cannabis lifestyle products and services.
Jerry Garcia was one of the first and most influential rock stars to smoke Marijuana casually and frequently in public, breaking all the rules and daring authorities to arrest him. Which they did - numerous times. But Jerry always came out looking stronger, and his self-effacing courage inspired a generation of young people to step up and fight for their rights, all of them. His music and poetry need no description, only our shared memories.
Joa is a well-known Amsterdam Cannabis activist and owner of the Green House Cafe. He is Arjan Roskam’s partner in multiple Cannabis ventures and is well-known in the international Cannabis community.
Joe Rogan is a true American original with an amazing world-wide presence. Through his classic podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” and its YouTube video edition he speaks with a fair-minded voice and powerful, ironic personality that attract, challenge and inform the thinking of millions of listeners and viewers worldwide. Joe is one of the most effective advocates for international recognition of the rightful, rational place of Cannabis in society in part because, like all good journalists, he is not a spokesperson for any special interests. If anything, he speaks strongly for the individual citizen’s full legal right to grow. He is an even more effective advocate because he discovered Cannabis as an already-accomplished adult with an established media career, and his mature and passionate focus on accomplishing rational legislative treatment for Cannabis, consistent with its proven benefits to society, makes Joe Rogan one of the Cannabis community’s most valuable voices for sustainable positive change.
John Morgan MD is the author of Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts (The Lindesmith Center, New York, 1997) a groundbreaking book for its time that reviewed the latest scientific and medical research, debunking common marijuana myths and advocating common sense - a controversial position for a physician. Dr. Morgan has published widely on the clinical pharmacology of psychoactive drugs. His work focused on key social issues such as urine testing in the American workplace, the legalization of medical marijuana, the prevalence of alcohol use during national prohibition, and physician drug prescribing practices.
Keith Stroup is a public interest attorney and the founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws - NORML. Keith and NORML have led generations of supporters in the fight for legalization and normalization spanning four decades and their efforts, along with the reform efforts of millions of people they have inspired, are paying off in the US and around the world.
Kenny Morrow is a passionate, brilliant writer and innovator whose writings on the science, art and history of Cannabis, Cannabinoids and Terpenes are insightful, well-documented, and full of gems, and whose Trichome Technologies is breaking new ground in our understanding of the potential of these marvelous natural compounds for human health and vitality. We recommend reading his work in Cannabis Business Times: https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/author/11188/
Leah Maurer is the founder of The Weed Blog and as COO, lead writer and editor has built it into a trusted and respected source of Cannabis news and information. Her woman-focused “Sweet Jane” magazine continually breaks new journalistic ground on special interest Cannabis topics. Leah works energetically to support women, minorities and ex-prisoners who are developing as leaders in the Cannabis industry, and is widely known for her generous mentoring.
Lester Grinspoon MD was the author of more than 140 articles in scientific journals and twelve books. Lester’s work on Cannabis was courageous and pioneering in the often-timid world of academic and medical scholarship. His books include the1971 Marihuana Reconsidered which was published by Harvard University Press and Marihuana, the Forbidden Medicine, coauthored with James B. Bakalar, published in 1993 by Yale University Press. Some of his other groundbreaking books include Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered and Psychedelic Reflections.
Matt Stone is the co-creator of “South Park”, who along with Trey Parker was one of the first and the strongest voices to express concern around corporate venture capitalists taking unfair advantage of Cannabis legalization. South Park has served the movement toward Cannabis legalization and full equity participation for years by making serious fun of both the opponents and the exploiters of legal Cannabis, from their “Tegridy Farms” riff in Season 23 about small marijuana farms going into business with China, to their “Med Men” raps on big pharma’s appropriation of medical cannabis. With a new contract in 2022 “South Park” is guaranteed a run through 2027, giving Kyle, Stan, Eric and Kenny plenty of new opportunities to hold a silly mirror up to society’s would-be elites.
Marc Emery is a Cannabis Canadian activist who is the influential founder of Pot TV and Cannabis Culture Magazine. As a child he was a business phenomenon, making $100s a week by age 12 dealing stamps and comics by mail, later dropping out of high school starting his own “City Lights Bookshop” modeled after his idol Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Beginning in the 1990s Marc was super-active in the BC and Canadian Cannabis legalization scene, frequently provoking raids and arrests and steadily advancing the cause. In 2000 he was a founding member of The Marijuana Party of Canada, and he has since run for office from many Cannabis-related political platforms. Marc is a true original as an advocate, a promoter, an entrepreneur, and an irrepressible voice for freedom of choice fighting against Canada’s deeply moralistic authoritarianism.
Mary Jane Rathbun is known and loved as Brownie Mary, remembered as “the Florence Nightingale of the medical marijuana movement”. As a volunteer at San Francisco General Hospital in the years when the HIV/AIDS epidemic was first overwhelming the San Francisco Gay community, she became widely beloved for the no-nonsense, but grandmotherly manner by which she distributed her “Magical Brownies” to patients. She personally helped thousands of sick and dying people in the dark days before any effective conventional medical treatment was available. Brownie Mary had been a tough young union organizer in the late 30s and a passionate abortion rights activist in the 40s, so her advocacy of medical marijuana on behalf of AIDS victims was a natural extension of that strong, compassionate nature. Arrested multiple times and always victorious, along with Dennis Peron and other grassroots activists Mary was instrumental in the passage of California Prop 215. Tragically, in spite of all the love and care she had given to thousands of others, she died alone and in poverty.
Melissa Etheridge is a singer and social justice activist who discovered and used medical Cannabis in successfully overcoming breast cancer and, recognizing that the laws against medical patient use of Cannabis were mirrored in the systematic legal oppression of LGBTQ people, she became a strong rights advocate and musical voice across the spectrum, notably with her powerful singing in “An Inconvenient Truth”. Beyond her advocacy work she has created a widely recognized medical Cannabis brand Etheridge Botanicals based on her long-time Etheridge Farm’s involvement in the California legacy Cannabis movement.
Mel Frank is a deeply respected, highly original thinker and one of the founders of the Cannabis revolution. He was a prolific grower, researcher and breeder long before it was legal, and is a multi-talented writer, photographer, and botanist. He has received three lifetime achievement awards from the Cannabis industry and has been called “The Godfather of Marijuana Growers.” His 1978 Marijuana Grower’s Guide Deluxe is known to this day as the bible of growing and his original work with Cannabis genetics is known and admired world-wide. Check out some of Mel Frank’s world-famous genetics at: https://agseedco.com/collections/mel-frank
https://www.melfrankconsulting.com/
https://www.instagram.com/melfrank420
Michael Aldrich is a respected Cannabis historian whose 1970 Doctoral dissertation “Marijuana Myths & Folklore” became a foundational work for many seeking to understand the origins and place of this new phenomenon that was beginning to sweep across society. The remarkable achievement of getting a PhD dissertation presenting a balanced view on Marijuana approved at an American state-run university in the late 1960s cannot be overstated.
Mila Jansen is universally known with great affection as the Netherlands’ own hash queen. Mila burst onto the Amsterdam scene in 1965 at age 21 with an outrageous 60s-style fashion boutique aptly, no doubt, named Kink 22, a clothing imports enterprise that quickly morphed into a tea shop offering little hash cakes with the customers' tea. That special customer service innovation quickly attracted police attention in not-yet totally laid back Holland and Mila was off to Asia in her VW Camperbus, spending the next 14 years building a fabrics and fashion business in India with eager customers around the world. Returning to Amsterdam she at once got into the growing business and ran a sophisticated operation for several years but then in the mid-90s she had a flash while using a laundry dryer and the world of Cannabis changed forever. Mila’s invention, based on that spinning dryer and her deep knowledge of Cannabis flowers, was the first really effective hash-making machine, dubbed The Pollinator. Quickly catching on worldwide, it has been followed over the years since by the hilariously named Ice-o-Lator, the Bubbleator and Mila’s latest, the Dab-a-Doo.
Mikki Norris is a highly respected cannabis and drug policy reform activist, speaker and educator. Mikki’s best-known work is “Shattered Lives: Portraits from America’s Drug War”, co-authored with husband Chris Conrad. Shattered Lives is based on the “Human Rights and the Drug War” project created by Mikki and Chris that put a human face on non-violent prisoners of the Drug War. Mikki’s work has been celebrated with awards from NORML, Lindesmith/Drug Policy Foundation, Oaksterdam University, and the Emerald Cup among others.
Michka Seeliger-Chatelain is an amazing French writer whose life story encompasses early years that took her from the Sorbonne to British Columbia where she and her companion hand-built a 44 foot sailboat and then sailed it back to Europe through the Panama Canal. While in BC she had discovered Cannabis, which as Hashish had been a staple of French intellectual and literary circles for over a century by then, so as a Sorbonne student she would not have been unfamiliar. After returning to Paris and meeting Hugo Verlomme, she became passionately involved in writing about Cannabis prohibition, then as now quite severe in France, and published “Le Dossier vert, d’une drogue douce”, followed by many other books that were equally influential in changing minds and that will ultimately change the laws in France. In 1993 she got into a direct conflict with the French state over her right to publish, in which she prevailed. Today she is the force behind Mama Editions, a publisher of books on “taboo and esoteric subjects such as cannabis, shamanism, natural childbirth, channeling and entheogens with an emphasis on global well-being”, and has had a Cannabis variety named in her honor by Sensi Seeds.
Nancy Do is a Cannabis activist/entrepreneur who rose through the challenges of arrest and imprisonment for Cannabis research and cultivation to found Endo Industries, a company founded on Cannabis genetics but extending services and support throughout the Cannabis industry with a special focus on empowering members of the LGBTQ community to become successful Cannabis businespeople, scientists, and advocates.
Ol’ Ed Holloway was an American West coast “sinsemilla” (a new idea in those days) grower who traveled the world seeking Cannabis knowledge and ultimately made his way to Amsterdam in the late 1970s just in time to play a major role in the freshly emerging Dutch Cannabis scene. Coffee Shops had only been around since 1975 and the Cannabis in the shops was all imported, illegal, and costly. That bothered Ol’ Ed, who had already been growing for years in various parts of the world. Teaming up with several younger Dutch friends, who are today leaders of the European Cannabis scene, Ol’ Ed produced the first kilo of legal Cannabis in the Netherlands, which sold for 14,000 Guilders to “The Bulldog”. Ol’ Ed’s striking white Van Dyke beard was an icon in the hazy, crazy days of Ol’ Amsterdam, and the echoes of the wonderful “Sinsemilla” seeds he planted then still ring across the planet.
Red Eye Magazine (this tribute is by Kenny Morrow, because we couldn’t say it better.) Red Eye Magazine was a hashish lovers magazine. The travelogs were written by Zorro (Nick). He would travel to the Hashish producers of the world and watch them make anything from an ounce to a ton. He would sample their wares and come home and write some of the most amazing stories I have ever read. He went to the mountain tops of all modern day hash making, such as the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, he went to Gambia, Tibet, Nepal, he went anywhere and everywhere. I love the man like a brother and I miss him.
Red Eye Press is Mel Frank’s Publishing Company, which took over publication of his pioneering “The Deluxe Marijuana Growers Guide” in 1990 from And/Or Press which, under Sebastian Orfali, had been the original 1978 publisher. Red Eye Press is celebrated in the Cannabis community for rescuing and publishing an updated 2012 edition of Robert Connell Clarke’s landmark 1998 book “Hashish”, still the definitive reference work on this sophisticated topic. Red Eye Press has also published important works in collaboration with Cannabis luminaries Ed Rosenthal and Jorge Cervantes.
Richard Branson is a renaissance man who has created prosperity and wealth for millions of people and whose achievements in aviation, entertainment, transportation and finance are legendary. He has also made many important contributions to the Cannabis legalization movement in the UK and the US - mostly quietly, sometimes publicly, always generous. Founder of Virgin Records at age 20 in 1970, and of many successful “Virgin” entities since, including railways, airlines and space vehicles, Richard’s life and accomplishments totally rebuke the Cannabis prohibitionist’s favorite fear-mongering meme, the dreaded ‘amotivational syndrome’.
Richard Davis was a true pioneer - an overused word but so appropriate here - in the California Cannabis community, homesteading and growing some of the finest Marijuana in Mendocino County in the early 70s, still remembered among growers from that place and time, continually traveling the West Coast as a teacher and mentor to other growers. Years later in the 1990s, he took his impeccable sense of political theater on the road with his Traveling Hemp Museum, speaking truth about the Cannabis while pointing to clear glass jars full of totally illegal flower in front of delighted reporters, hostile police, confused DAs, and a growing and enthusiastic community of supporters.
Dr. Roberta Hamilton was a UCLA biochemist who first introduced Jack Herer, author of “The Emperor Wears No Clothes”, to the virtually unknown research behind the remarkably superior medicinal and nutritional value of hemp seed oil compared with all other plant seed oils. Her detailed research was the foundation for much of Jack’s groundbreaking writing on the medical and nutritional importance of Cannabis.
Robert C. Clarke is an intellectual leader among Cannabis researchers and communicators, bringing a trained scientific mind, an artist’s appreciation, and a writer’s intuitive insight to his lifelong work with Cannabis. His 1981 book “Marijuana Botany” gave the Cannabis community its first complete, systematic understanding of Cannabis as a functioning biological organism, leading to generations of discoveries as others followed the scientific trails he blazed. Rob is the author of other Cannabis ‘firsts’ including “Hashish (1998/2012)”, and “Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany (2013)”. Rob continues to write, innovate, collaborate, and contribute his breakthrough research and discoveries to the Cannabis community.
The Seed Bank of Holland was Australian/Dutch Nevil Schoenmakers’ first-ever Cannabis mail-order seed business, his answer to the US-led War On Drugs. It was the launching pad for tens of thousands of growers in the US beginning in the mid-1980s - quite unfortunately for many people as things turned out with Operation Green Merchant. Built on West Coast genetics first brought to Holland by Skunkman Sam in July of 1984 and then including other genetics from Seattle Greg in August of that same year, Nevil reproduced and leveraged seeds from these now-classic varieties into a legal Cannabis seed business that supplied tens of thousands of clandestine 1980s US growers with seeds created, ironically, from varieties that had to leave the US to find their rightful place.
Sensi Seeds Is one of the best-known Cannabis seed producers in the world, founded in 1985 by Ben Dronkers as part of the Dutch Cannabis avant garde that brought reasonably safe seed purchasing options to growers.
Simon Schmitz is the founder of Serious Seeds, one the The Netherlands’ oldest (1995) seed-companies, known for its focus on producing high-quality, stable and consistent varieties of seeds with proven genetics that growers worldwide have depended on for generations. A high school biology teacher who discovered Cannabis during travels in Africa in the mid-80s, Simon brought seeds back to Amsterdam and began growing and breeding Cannabis plants privately for his own pleasure and interest. In the early 90s Alan Dronkers heard of him through his students, who of course had tweaked to their cool treacher’s activities, and brought him into Sensi Seeds where he became a star breeder, later leaving to start “Serious Seeds”, which quickly made an enduring name for itself among serious growers and breeders.
Sister Somayah Kambui was a tough, smart Black Panther in the early 70s and became a lifelong advocate for equity and social justice after successfully treating herself with Cannabis for sickle cell anemia after everything else had failed. The focus of her advocacy was on Cannabis for treatment of diseases that afflict mainly people of color and therefore receive little attention from for-profit medicine. After the passage of Prop 215 she began cultivating medical Cannabis for herself and others, but her two convictions on firearms and explosives charges from Black Panther days set her up for the “third strike” she suffered when raided in 2001 for Cannabis cultivation. However, in a rare show of the power of justice, the jury refused to convict Sister Somayah and she was set free by ‘jury nullification”. She continued with her dedicated, passionate medical Cannabis mission, but enraged authorities targeted her continuously for the rest of her life, which ended in sickness and poverty on Thanksgiving day, 2008, finally crushed by the government and her suffering largely ignored by the community.
Skunkman Sam is among the legendary and almost mythical founding fathers of today’s Cannabis culture, beginning with his outrageous and daring grows of unique and unusual Cannabis varieties in the Santa Cruz mountains in the early 1970s at the height of Nixon’s War On Drugs, in the days of Paraquat and napalm. He brought the first fully curated selection of West Coast Cannabis genetics to the Netherlands in the mid-80s, including the now world-famous Skunk #1, and that collection then became the foundation for many of today’s Dutch seed companies. Skunkman Sam continues to work in Europe and around the world making original and groundbreaking contributions to the Cannabis community through his writing, his scholarly collections of Cannabis research and writing, his generous support of his brothers and sisters in the community, and his innovative genetic research.
Skunk Magazine is a leading print publication and online resource for credible ‘how-to’ information and research on sustainable, organic home-growing practices. Located in Canada but with a global vision, Skunk brings together growers, scientists, writers and communicators from around the world to create a globally-relevant information resource for organic Cannabis cultivation.
Steve Hager was the editor of High Times magazine beginning with its second incarnation in 1988, and he is credited with removing hard drugs from the magazine, and focusing the content on advocating for and supporting personal cultivation of Cannabis. Steve Hager and High Times were the first to publish and promote the work of now-legendary Cannabis Hemp activist Jack Herer, and over the years have helped hundreds of Cannabis writers, photographers, musicians, growers and entrepreneurs succeed in their work. He is a prolific author, film producer and social inventor, and he is creator of the Cannabis Cup, an annual event in Amsterdam honoring the highest achievements in the world of Cannabis that year and in history.
Taylor Blake is a powerful influence for positive change in the diverse community of California’s sun-grown, small farm Cannabis growers, building on her heritage as the daughter of Tim Blake and member of the “First Family” of California’s Emerald Triangle. She co-produces the annual “Emerald Cup” with her father Tim, an internationally recognized event that has been showcasing and celebrating the achievements of California’s sungrown Cannabis community for 18 years.
Tim Blake is a California visionary whose lifetime of dedication to organic growing inspired him in 2003 to create and organize California’s premier grassroots, sungrown organic Cannabis - The Emerald Cup. First organized by Tim and a close community of like-minded organic sun-growers, the Emerald Cup has expanded every year since 2003 and now includes small Cannabis grower/farmers in every category - sungrowers, organic growers, indoor growers, greenhouse growers, and more, and showcases the best of the best Cannabis flower and Cannabis products. It is a unique event in the world of Cannabis - an intense but friendly and supportive contest for honors among growers and geneticists, a world-class farmers market, a rolling musical riot, and educational programs featuring the best, brightest minds in Cannabis cultivation, science and business where speakers tackle everything from novel applications for new technology to new approaches to nitty-gritty problems like gender and racial discrimination and social/economic inequity.
Tod Mikuriya MD was a California psychiatrist who the NY Times says is “widely regarded as the grandfather of the medical marijuana movement in the United States.” Dr. Tod was a practicing physician and a practicing humanitarian. For many years people with cancer and AIDS came to his private practice in Berkeley from around the world, seeking help that no other doctor had the courage to provide. At the time of his death, he was reported to have written Cannabis prescriptions for nearly 9,000 patients. Dr. Tod was also a wake & bake kind of guy. As The Los Angeles Times reported in 2004, “He willingly acknowledges, unlike most of his medical peers in cannabis consulting, that he does indeed smoke pot, mostly in the morning with his coffee.”
Tom Alexander is the founder of Sinsemilla Tips and The Growing Edge. From his home base in Corvallis Oregon Tom was an early (1980) and effective counterforce to the Nixon-Reagan-Bush War on Drugs. First published as a simple journal, Sinsemilla Tips grew organically by word of mouth through a widening network of growers and emerged as an elegant, well-organized clearinghouse for information that growers couldn’t obtain any other way. Tom brought a wide range of growing know-how into the realm of Cannabis, and was an early advocate of sustainable, organic, sun-grown farming. While Sinsemilla Tips was targeted, attacked and shut down after 10 years of life by “Operation Green Merchant” in 1990, Tom had already pivoted to the strictly non-Cannabis “Growing Edge” and continued on his way. After selling the magazines in 2009 Tom has devoted his time to teaching, consulting and growing 100% legal flowers in the sun.
Valerie Corral is the 1993 founder of Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), the first medical Cannabis collective in the country to be granted IRS non-profit status. She is also the founder of the Raja Kudo project, a compassionate non-profit that supports dying people and their caregivers. She was influential in the drafting and passage of Prop 215 in the 1990s, and in an indication of the level of community support she has generated over the years, in 2000, to protect WAMM against further harassment by Federal authorities, Santa Cruz County simply deputized Valerie and WAMM.
Wanda James and her husband Scott were the first African-Americans in the US to obtain a state-issued medical Cannabis dispensary license. The first “Simply Pure Dispensary” opened in Denver in 2010 and quickly included a cultivation facility and an edibles company - all groundbreaking accomplishments in the African-American community nationally. This work has led to the founding and leadership of the Cannabis Global Initiative, a medical Cannabis networking consultancy dedicated to fighting for veteran patients’ rights with a focus on PTSD.
Wernard Brunning is central to the evolution of the global Cannabis culture. Wernard founded the first Dutch coffee shop, “Mellow Yellow” in Amsterdam in 1973, which operated to international acclaim until it burned in 1978. After traveling the US West Coast and being inspired by what he saw and the growers he met, he returned to Amsterdam and in league with Ol’ Ed Holloway and others he founded the legendary “Green Team” that almost single-handedly created the Dutch Cannabis cultivation scene in the early-mid 80s. That led to his founding of “The Lowland Seed Company” in 1985, a business dedicated to seeing the new varieties of Dutch/American Cannabis seed propagated worldwide, and then to the founding “Positronics” (1985), a revolutionary Netherlands grow shop that met the full range of growers’ needs from seeds and clones to seminars and consulting - from genetics to equipment to knowledge.
Willie Nelson is a legendary Texas musician, poet and pool player who smoked his first joint in 1954, handed to him by a musician friend who suggested he “Get high and be somebody”, an old Jazz musician's blessing. He did; he surely did. There’s not much else that needs to be said in praise of Brother Willie except that he has helped us all feel like somebody.
Woody Harrelson is an actor and playwright loved for his long-running role in the iconic TV program “Cheers”. Woody’s film career is rich and diverse, playing characters from downright evil to heartwarmingly sympathetic equally well and always with a little trademark twist. He is a highly original Cannabis activist, known for creating positive publicity like an event he staged for TV in 1996 in Kentucky, where he dramatically planted four Cannabis (hemp) seeds in front of the cameras and dared the local Sheriff to arrest him. Which the Sheriff happily did, and then of course Woody was acquitted almost immediately. The Cannabis seeds he had planted really were legal hemp seeds, since this was all set up in Kentucky which has a long history of Hemp, but by then he had enough footage for some primo scenes in his new film “Hempsters: Plant The Seed”, plus some invaluable media coverage for Cannabis legalization. Not one of Woody’s more famous films, but one of the coolest send-ups of Cannabis criminalization ever. Woody is a generous friend to many people; for example he immediately posted Todd McCormick’s $500,000.00 bond and stood behind him after he was arrested for growing medical cannabis in 1997 and throughout his incarceration.
Yvonne DeLaRosa Green is an actress, artist and Cannabis activist who is celebrated for bringing upscale art and Cannabis together in her galleries in Venice Beach and Malibu. She was one of the first women to receive a Cannabis Business license in Los Angeles, and appears regularly in television and film including the iconic “Weeds”.
Please comment on our Instagram page who you think should be added to this list.]]>This glossary is intended as a collaborative communication tool, not a definitive dictionary, and the explanations we give are our own understanding informed by thousands of conversations with other growers over many years. We’re still learning new terms and new ways of looking at things every day, and we hope that everyone who has something to add or to say will get in touch and help us keep improving this community reference.
On the pH scale that runs 0 through 14, the acidic range is 0 (highly acidic) through 6.9 (almost neutral acidity).
See Soil and Medium Thoughts
A method of growing cannabis by hanging the plants suspended in air with their roots growing downwards and exposed. They are fed with a nutrient solution that is sprayed on them in a fine mist.
This refers to the amount of open space in the soil allowing air to circulate through the soil to plant roots.
A standard propagation method in which a well-developed stem midway up the plant is selected. The stem is cut ¾ of the way through at a 45 degree angle making the cut from the bottom upwards into the stem. Lifting the stem to open and expose the cut, a neutral object like a thin toothpick or skewer is wedged in to keep the cut from closing. The cut is loosely wrapped with moistened but not soaked sphagnum moss. Next this little ball is wrapped using regular plastic wrap and tied off top and bottom with pipe cleaners or twist ties. A normal environment is maintained for the plant. When roots develop inside the plastic wrap the new plant can be cut free and planted. It is an exact replica of the original, the same result that growers get with a clone, but with developed roots before separation.
This refers to a substance with a pH ranging from 7.1 (almost neutral alkalinity) to 14 (highly alkaline).
See Soil and Medium Thoughts
This term describes soil or growing medium additives that can be either organic or mineral, like biochar or perlite, and they are used to change the texture of a soil/growing medium that is too dense or too uniform for proper air and water circulation.
The is the unit used to measure the strength of an electric current and lets you know how many devices you can plug in without overloading the circuit. For example if you have a 20 amp circuit the safest plan is to load it with 10 amps worth of equipment max and 15 is the absolute tops for safety.
This is the part of the male flower in which pollen is produced. Many people think it resembles a swollen little banana-shaped organ.
See also stamen
Refers to a large family of over 5,000 species of tiny insects with tubular mouthparts that suck vital fluids from the plant’s veins and also transmit plant viruses through those open wounds. These little bugs are power multipliers, with some species giving birth to female offspring that are already pregnant. The sappy secretions they produce (honeydew) are troublesome because honeydew is often a precursor to fungal diseases like powdery mildew and black sooty mold. The Cannabis aphid species (Phorodon cannabis) can be pale yellow, pale green or pinkish-brown and can be seen without magnification in clusters on the underside of leaves and on stems.
See our article on the Bhang aphid and HLVd
This is the grouping of undifferentiated cells at the growing tip of a branch or root that divide rapidly and create new specialized tissue. Many growers prefer to clone from the apical meristem, feeling that these clones are more vigorous.
Refers to assisted propagation using non-sexual (no male needed) reproduction methods such as cloning and air-layering to produce exact genetic replicas of the parent plant.
Autoflowering varieties go from vegetative to flowering independently of the lighting schedule indoors and independent of day-length outdoors. They are preferred by some indoor growers because unlike photoperiod-dependent varieties they are largely immune to intersexing (aka herming) from stray light leaks during dark time.
A category of essential plant hormones that among many other critical plant processes regulate movement, fluid transport, root function and flowering.
The angle formed between individual leaf stalks and the stem where they join. In Cannabis, the flowers initially develop in the axils, also referred to as a "crotch."
Refers to a hybrid plant that has been bred back using seed with one of its parents in order to create progeny that have more of the qualities desired from one original parent or the other. Backcrossing has many applications: it is used to maintain rare varieties, to maintain genetic stability, or to bring out and strengthen desired recessive genetic traits.
A cultural term referring to the compact mass of a mature Cannabis flower.
There are many different insects that don’t eat Cannabis plants but love to eat the bugs that do eat Cannabis plants. We call these beneficial insects, and they really are. Insects like ladybugs and lacewings are an indoor (and outdoor) grower’s best friend when it comes to controlling plant predators like aphids, mealybugs and thrips without having to resort to expensive and toxic bioactive chemicals like fungicides.
A generic term referring to fertilizers high in Potassium and Phosphorus and often PGH, enzymes and other ingredients some of which can be helpful but which can too-easily be overused or misused.
This blight on growers of all kinds of plants worldwide starts out as a white powdery film and quickly turns to a fuzzy gray mold that in Cannabis causes bud rot and ruins entire grows overnight if unchecked. It is widespread and can survive for years in nature and is easily transported inside on shoes and equipment.
See our article discussing Botrytis and the HLVd viroid
The tiny pointed shoots that will become flowers that emerge from the Axils where branches join plant stems.
See also Axil
Similar to a scab in people, one function of callus cells is to cover a plant’s wounded tissue while it heals. It also has many uses in plant propagation including a technique called micropropagation where callus is used to grow genetically identical copies of plants with desirable characteristics.
The calyx is the botanical name for the outer protective layer, composed of tiny green sepals or lobes, that surrounds the individual developing ovule or seed. According to Rob Clarke: “Seeds of Cannabis cultivars are often larger and lighter in color than those of spontaneously growing varieties. In addition, seeds produced by cultivars lack the horseshoe-shaped base and a mosaic calyx pattern associated with freely shattering, camouflaged, wild-type seeds.”
Cannabidiol is a primary metabolite of Cannabis and unlike THC, CBD has no overtly psychoactive properties although many applications are now known for CBD in neurological and psychological medicine. The genetic distinction between THC and CBD-dominant Cannabis varieties is well-established and goes back to prehistory in the Himalayas. Medicinal Cannabis plants and Cannabis hemp plants are naturally very low THC but are high in CBD, while Cannabis plants preferred for adult use are high in THC and have correspondingly low CBD concentrations.
This term refers to medicinal and psychoactive biochemicals first synthesized by natural Cannabis 100,000 years ago from sunlight, soil and water in the Himalayas. Natural cannabinoids are proving useful and even the medicine of choice in the treatment and prevention of many conditions and diseases that are so poorly addressed by many pharmaceuticals. Over 130 cannabinoids from Cannabis have been identified and more are being discovered every year.
The levels and relative proportions of cannabinoids found in a specific Cannabis variety or cultivar
This is the scientific classification, or genus, assigned to the plant many call marijuana. Scientists and growers generally recognize three species: Cannabis Sativa, Cannabis Indica, and Cannabis Ruderalis, although some geneticists and growers question the science behind the sativa and Indica distinction and believe that genetics demonstrate that they are the same species.
This refers to yellowing as a result of inadequate formation of green chlorophyll, most often caused by a nutrient deficiency, but chlorosis can also be due to stress from pH variance, pathogens and toxins.
Term for the amount of demand placed on an electrical circuit by devices that are presently drawing current from the circuit.
See also: OHM’s Law
A clone, or cutting, is an exact genetic copy of the original plant from which the cutting, or clone is taken to be rooted and grown to maturity as an exact duplicate of the original. Cloning is extremely useful and cost-effective when desirable characteristics need to be maintained in expanded production for generation after generation of a particularly desirable original plant.
Refers to the flowering spikes of a mature Cannabis plant. Derived from Spanish, cola means tail, and colita means ponytail — alluding to the graceful bending and swaying flowering tops of a mature Cannabis plant.
A poisonous alkaloid from the autumn crocus used in plant breeding to induce polyploidy mutations in order to manipulate the plant’s genome.
Cold storage is desirable for Cannabis seeds; otherwise cold air, soil and water are all highly undesirable for Cannabis germination, growth, health and flowering. Cold is also a major cause of intersexing.
Planting synergistic plants among or near Cannabis plants in order to repel pests or to add economic value. Both indoor and outdoor grows have successfully integrated different kinds of companion plantings into their growing space. Many companion plantings are chosen for their role in natural insect and disease control, while others are chosen to take advantage of unused lighted space to produce smaller high-value plants in demand locally like succulents, exotics and ornamentals.
Refers to any mixture of decayed organic matter that is high in available nutrients. To become compost organic matter must undergo decomposition processes that use up the excess nitrogen. Immature compost actually uses up soil nitrogen to power its decay. However, once decomposition is complete, a good compost adds essential plant nutrients.
They are the first leaf-shaped objects that appear as the seedling breaks ground. They aren’t true leaves - more like starter organs. Cotyledons use photosynthesis to power initial root and superstructure growth from nutrients stored in the seed. This is one reason that high quality seeds are important - they are the plant’s entire energy source for the first week or so of growth. Once the plant senses that it’s emerging roots are able to pull nutrients from the soil the seedling puts out its first true serrated leaves that will power all further growth.
The correct ratio of light/dark hours to induce flowering in Cannabis.
This occurs when pollen is transferred from the anther of one varietal Cannabis flower to the stigma of a Cannabis flower of a different variety or cultivar.
This is a contraction of “cultivated variety” and refers to a plant derived from a cultivated variety that has persisted under cultivation long enough to be recognized as a distinct variety. The term “Cannabis cultivar” is commonly understood to mean a group of similar Cannabis plants that:
The thin layer of plant wax called cutin is found on the surface of the stalk and stems of Cannabis plants.
The term cutting generally refers to a growing tip cut from a parent plant for asexual propagation. Such cuttings are perfect replications of the mother plant assuming comparable growing conditions and circumstances. While producing clones is the most common use of cuttings, a cut stem can also be grafted onto another Cannabis plant to produce multiple varieties of flower (or pollen) on one plant.
These are a family of plant hormones, complementary to auxins, that promote cell division, direct growth, delay the aging of leaves, and promote photosynthetic processes.
This refers to the biological processes necessary to bring a Cannabis flower from freshly cut to ready for consumption and involves careful management of temperature, humidity, light and ventilation.
Cool and over-wet conditions allow this fungus to thrive and attack emerging seedlings and newly-rooted clones, causing the young stem to rot at its base.
Decarboxylation is the term for transformation of non-psychoactive cannabinoids like THCA and CBDA into the psychoactive and medically active cannabinoids we all know as THC and CBD. Technically the inactive molecules THCA and CBDA have an extra carboxyl ring in their chemical structure and heating the cannabinoid molecule removes that extra ring and “de-carboxylates” the molecule, making it bioactive and fully capable of delivering its benefits.
Species of plants that have the male and female organs on separate individuals.
See our article about the Hop Latent Viroid (HLVd)
This classic variety is fast flowering and easy to grow with an excellent yield. Durban Poison is characterized by dominant tones of spring flowers, garden herbs and sweet citrus with strong hints of earth and moss and occasionally a wisp of lavender.
It is highest in β-caryophyllene, averaging 11.29, followed by terpinolene 10.69, nerolidol-2 8.04, guaiol 6.94, nerolidol-1 6.02, limonene 5.44, a-pinene 4.85, a-caryophyllene 4.76, a-gurjunene 4.51, a-bisabolol 4.43, and linalool 4.23.
Durban Poison and South African varieties are known to intersex (or become hermaphrodite), so keep an eye out and do not breed with any females that do. When a sexually stable female is selected, Durban Poison is an excellent variety to breed with, with an excellent bud structure and 8 to 9 weeks flowering time that make it a useful tool to any breeder.
A bubble of air that gets trapped in the vascular system of a cutting that blocks water and nutrient uptake. This generally happens if too much time elapses between the cutting and immersion in a rooting medium.
An intricate system of cellular receptors and specifically configured molecules found throughout the body that regulate a wide range of functions including pain, sleep, mood, carcinogenesis, memory, appetite, sexuality and reproduction, mental processing, energy reserves, the gut microbiome, and many more. Todd McCormick shares his recipe to create your own phytocannabinoid enriched hemp seed oil that is, in his opinion, better that Rick Simpson oil (RSO or FECO).
A broad family of biochemicals responsible for providing the energy that catalyzes the plant’s metabolic processes. Enzymes do this by breaking down the sugars, proteins, fatty acids and other elements that drive the plant’s growth and development. Enzymes are dependent on the proper temperature, moisture and pH in order to function properly, and when enzymatic reactions are interrupted or slowed by external events like a sudden drop in temperature the plant easily goes into energy-deprivation shock.
Refers to the “First Filial” generation, the progeny of the P1 (1st generation parents) plants.
F1 refers to the heterozygous first filial generation. Heterozygous means a plant that has inherited different forms of a particular gene from each parent. This contrasts with a homozygous genotype, where an individual inherits identical forms of a particular gene from each parent.
F2 refers to the second Filial Generation, a plant resulting from a cross between two F1 plants.
(from: Shilling et al 2020) “The female flower is enclosed within a green leaflike perigonal bract sometimes also described as a sepal, but morphological studies agree that it is a bract. As such, it is not strictly a part of the flower.
Between the perigonal bract and the carpel is a membranous and hyaline perianth which tightly embraces the ovary. It is worth noting that this inconspicuous perianth sometimes is not mentioned in the structure of female Cannabis flowers or is considered missing as it is not visible from the outside of the flower. Most likely, these membranous structures are homologous to sepals.
At the top of the ovary are two filamentous styles. The stigma is brush-like and has epidermal cells elongated into hair-like projections. The commercially interesting phytocannabinoids and terpenes are predominantly produced on the perigonal bracts of female flowers, more specifically in glandular trichomes that cover those bracts.”
Feminized Cannabis seeds are commonly produced by treating the female plant with silver thiosulfate before she begins to set seed, resulting in seeds that are almost 100% female. There are other methods of feminizing including manipulating the photoperiod and the use of colloidal silver or nanosilver, but STS treatment is the most common method.
The reproductive or flowering stage follows the vegetative stage and is the final part of the Cannabis plant’s growth cycle, which in the unpollinated female leads to harvesting of seedless flower for consumption and in the pollinated female leads to seed production. In the male Cannabis plant the flowering stage leads to pollen production and release.
Refers to the process of providing nutrients and other substances applied by spraying the leaves. The sprayed substance is absorbed through the stomata, tiny two-way pores on the lower surfaces of Cannabis leaves that open and close to inhale and expire vapors and liquids, and in response to environmental cues.
This is one of several terms used to refer to the amount of light being sent by or received from a light source. In this case, one foot candle is the amount of light falling on one square foot of surface from a candle one foot away. Mostly used in the US interior lighting circles. Not really very helpful for indoor growers. To convert foot candle (FC) to the more useful Watt (W), use this formula: (W = FC x 0.01609696)
Refers to the process of flowering and is closely related to “flourishing”. From the Latin florescere (flor-escere): to begin to flower.
In our experience, a dependable organic growing medium.
A non-technical term that refers to Cannabis flowers that have been cryogenically frozen immediately after harvest, which if done right preserves nearly 100% terpenes and secondary metabolites of the living flower.
A bioactive chemical product of natural or synthetic origin that destroys fungus through contact or translocation.
A chemical product or natural or synthetic origin that inhibits the growth of fungus.
Fungi are plants that don’t photosynthesize - they don’t have chlorophyll so they can’t make their own food from sunlight. They thrive in moist protected environments in the presence of wounded, diseased or dying vegetable matter. Above ground they grow and reproduce by making spores that seek a host plant (or animal), where they implant themselves and then obtain food for growth by secreting enzymes that dissolve and digest their host plant or animal tissue.
Refers to the first stage of a Cannabis plant’s life cycle, which begins with the initiation of active growth by the embryo inside the seed case, splitting it open and allowing the initially hairless embryo root tip to emerge. Still inside the split seed case the cotyledon leaves develop and open as the embryo root extends and develops secondary root hairs and the stem raises up, finally shrugging off the seed case and beginning the transition into the “Seedling Stage” of growth.
A class of plant growth hormone with many different horticultural applications. GbA is used by Cannabis breeders on females with highly desirable qualities to make them produce male flowers in order to produce feminized seeds with those desirable qualities.
Refers to a class of resin-making glands that, on the Cannabis flower and to some extent its leaves, are principally the bulbous, sessile and stalked trichomes, which along with a subclass of non-glandular trichomes all play key roles in making cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, and other secondary metabolites and in protecting the flower and its seed against harmful UV radiation and other environmental stressors.
Cannabis growers use this technique mainly to produce multiple kinds of flowers on a single plant. The term refers to joining plant structures from two different plants, such as joining multiple branches from different plants to a single strong female, or joining the root of one fruit tree with the stem of another, to get fruit, flowers or seed with the qualities of both the graft parents.
Mel got the original GDP seeds in 2012 directly from a Californian named Ken Estes who was widely credited with bringing GDP into the West Coast grower community. The GDP line has been carefully bred and preserved by Mel Frank to this day.
A manufactured or self-made enclosure designed for self-contained cultivation of Cannabis.
Refers to gradually adapting indoor or greenhouse-started plants in trays or containers to the natural outside environment by exposing them to increasingly long outdoor periods before finally planting them out.
Original Haze was first bred in 1969 in the Santa Cruz Mountains by a gentleman named G, who exchanged seeds with Skunkman Sam who saved the variety and turned the world onto Haze.
Todd McCormick received the variety directly from Skunkman Sam in 2012 with seeds from the original three-way Colombian Haze that was first bred in 1969 in the Santa Cruz mountains by Sam's neighbor "G". Sam kept them through IBL breeding since the 70's to preserve the variety.
This variety contains no Afghan or Indica, so there’s not a hint of skunk, making Haze unlike most everything in modern cannabis. Terpinolene dominates the Haze family profile along with significant amounts of β-caryophyllene, Linalool, β-Pinene, Limonene and Humulene. The first wave of citrus-dominant, lemon/grapefruit-forward aromas and tastes of classic Haze varieties is quickly followed by a smooth sweet mouthful of sunny herbs and warm spice, and many of the Haze varieties finish with a recognizable peppery hit.
Original Haze is an amazing variety that is uniquely useful for breeding because its presence enhances the dominant and subtle characteristics of other varieties without changing them. It’s a Swiss Army knife of Cannabis genetics - full of useful and surprising tools. There is a lot of variability in the expressed traits of this variety which is what makes it such a fun and interesting plant to breed with.
Hemp:
Hemp is a broadly used term with many different meanings but always with Cannabis sativa as the reference plant. Any distinction between Hemp Cannabis and High Cannabis, or however one characterizes the distinction, is manmade. Low THC varieties of Cannabis are bred to be used in the context of “Hemp”, either industrially or medicinally, while high THC Cannabis varieties are bred for their medicinal, psychoactive and pleasurable properties. See our article on hemp seed oil and the ECS https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/the-endocannabinoid-system-phytocannabinoid-enriched-hemp-seed-oil-by-todd-mccormick
Hermaphrodite:
Refers to the manifestation of both Male and Female sex organs on a single plant that under average conditions would manifest only one or the other gender identity. See our detailed article: https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/intersex-inflorescence-in-cannabis
HID:
High Intensity Discharge lights use electrically-charged Sodium or Mercury/Metal Halide gasses to create a light-emitting plasma with output that’s concentrated near the middle of the visible spectrum and tails off rapidly toward both the Red and Blue ends.
Hormones:
Also termed phytohormones, these organic substances are signaling molecules produced by the plant (or applied by the grower) that regulate its growth and development. (See also PGR - plant growth hormones)
Humidity (Relative Humidity):
(See also VPD)
Relative Humidity refers to the amount of water vapor that the air can hold relative to its temperature. A certain amount of water vapor in cool air creates a higher number than that same amount in warm air because cold air can hold much less total water vapor, so any amount will be a higher % that the same amount in warm air.
Humus:
This term refers to the decomposing organic matter in soil from which plants draw living nutrients. Plants also draw major and minor elements including metals and salts from decaying minerals. Along with the microbiome, water and air, humus and minerals make up a living soil.
See more details at:
https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/soil-and-medium-thoughts
Hybrid:
A Cannabis hybrid is a cross between two genetically different Cannabis varieties.
Hybrid Vigor:
Refers to the greater vitality, higher resistance, and faster development that growers often observe in the progeny of hybrid crosses
Hydroponics:
A general term for soilless growing technologies. The main technologies are classified as: Wicking, Deep Water Culture (DWC), Nutrient Film Technique (NFT), Ebb and Flow, Aeroponics, and Drip.
Hygrometer:
Instrument for measuring the amount of humidity or water vapor in an air sample.
Indica:(obsolete term)
Indica and sativa are common classifications of two types of cannabis, which we call varieties, that produce either narrow or broad leaflets. The fact of the matter is, when the taxonomy was being written up in 1753, Carl Linnaeus was essentially aware of only one type of cannabis: the European Hemp variety (Cannabis sativa). It was later in 1785, that the varieties from India (Cannabis Indica) were named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
According to Rob Clarke: “C. indica exhibits much phenotypic diversity across its four putative subspecies but is less genetically diverse yet more heterogeneous than C. sativa; in other words, it has a smaller variety of alleles unevenly distributed among individual populations. This may have resulted from (or was at least encouraged by) adaptive radiation into diverse geographical zones and diversification into myriad geographical races and cultivars (fiber, seed, and drugs). Hillig (2005a) asserts that “the alleles that differentiate C. indica from C. sativa [are] common in the C. sativa gene pool and uncommon in the C. indica gene pool, which suggests that a founder event may have narrowed the genetic base of C. indica. However, a considerable number of mutations appear to have subsequently accumulated in both gene pools, indicating that the indica/ sativa split may be quite ancient.” See our article at: https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/the-end-of-indica-sativa
Inductive photoperiod:
Term referring to the light/dark ratio required to induce, or bring on flowering.
Intersex:
A more precise term for the vernacular “Herming”, when a single Cannabis plant expresses both male and female flowers either due to random environmental or deliberately induced stress such as treatment with STS. See our detailed article: https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/intersex-inflorescence-in-cannabis
In Vitro/In Vivo:
Refers to horticultural or other experiments done in a lab (plant or animal tissue in vitro = glass) versus experiments done in a living organism (vivo = living plants & animals)
Kush:
Kush is a term for the group of Cannabis genotypes originating from the Hindu Kush mountain ranges in current-day Afghanistan and Pakistan where this squat, leathery, sedating and elevating plant has been cultivated for thousands of years, primarily as a source of hashish.
Here’s an AG take on Kush: https://agseedco.com/collections/frontpage/products/o-g-kush-x-on-haze
Landrace:
The general term landrace refers to a local variety of a domesticated plant species which has developed largely by natural processes through adaptation to the natural ecosystem in which it lives. The development of a landrace can involve some selection by humans but it differs from a formal variety which has been selectively bred deliberately to conform to a particular formal, purebred standard of traits. Landrace Cannabis varieties are the original genepools from which breeders have created all contemporary Cannabis varieties.
See our comments on Original Skunk: https://agseedco.com/collections/frontpage/products/original-skunk-no-1
LED:
As semiconductor technologies have advanced and revolutionized electronics the area of light emitting diode technology has revolutionized Cannabis growing. They are full-spectrum, directional, low energy, low heat, shock resistant, and long-lasting.
Light Bleaching:
What is often mistakenly called an “Albino Bud”, in the belief that it’s an unusual mutation, is almost always a normal bud that has been “light bleached“.
Light Leaks:
A term for any interruption of the dark cycle with any level or duration of light. Of particular concern for growers during the flowering stage because even a slight or intermittent light leak can can cause intersexing and also reduce flower yield significantly.
LST (Low-stress training):
This refers to simply bending the plant and tying the branches. Since the growing tip of the Cannabis plant dominates its upward growth by inhibiting side stem growth, when the plant is bent sideways the side stems all then have a chance to become growing tips and then flowering tips in their own right.
Medical Cannabis:
With over 130 bioactive, medically significant Cannabinoids and hundreds more secondary metabolites including Terpenes and Flavonoids, the Cannabis plant is a natural pharmacopeia that medicine and science are only beginning to explore, although there are thousands of years of human experience with Cannabis and healing. The Cannabinoid profile of medical Cannabis plants can be tailored to meet the specific medical needs of individuals based on emerging selection and growing techniques. Medical Cannabis is also a People’s medicine that anyone can grow for themselves or for loved ones, except in retrograde jurisdictions where it remains illegal.
Meristem Pruning:
The Meristem refers to the growing tip of a branch, and the Apical Meristem is the topmost growing tip of a plant. Meristems, or growing tips, are where the most vigorous growth occurs driven by cell division and differentiation, and when a growing tip is removed the plant responds by vigorously putting on side branches - creating multiple new growing tips. Pruning the Apical Meristem is a standard Cannabis pruning technique to encourage development of full side branching with flowering tops and to limit height.
Micronutrients:
This term refers to elements that are essential for plant growth and development but are needed only in very small amounts.
Monoecious:
(see also Dioecious)
The most common form of plant sexual differentiation with both male and female reproductive organs on the same plant.
Mother Plant:
Refers to a female Cannabis plant with highly desirable traits that is held in vegetative stage by manipulating photoperiod, for the purpose of taking successive generations of clones that replicate her qualities perfectly and bringing them to full flower. A Mother Plant can be grown from seed with carefully selected genetics or grown as a clone from another plant - not necessarily one that was being deliberately grown as a Mother but one that had particularly desirable characteristics.
Mycotoxin:
Mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced naturally by certain types of micro-fungi AKA molds. Aflatoxins are among the most poisonous classes of mycotoxins and are produced by, among others, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus molds which are unfortunately not uncommon pathogens in Cannabis grows. If not detected and eradicated, Aflatoxin-producing molds can have potentially health-threatening consequences for consumers of the infected flower.
Node:
Refers to the multiple joints or junctions on the plant’s stem from which new stem, leaves, shoots, branches or flowers emerge.
Northern Lights (#2)
A combination of Purest Indica crossed with Afghan genetics collected and bred by Seattle Greg.
The NL#2 is a broad-leaved mostly Afghan variety that is quick flowering and covered in fragrant resin. NL#5 has a sweet/floral and slightly citrus profile and is equally quick flowering.
Remarkably NL#2 male flowers are also covered with trichomes and produce the most resin that we have ever seen on male plants. After growing the Chem and the OG Kush varieties for years, we’re confident that NL#2 contributed its genetics to those fantastic cuttings.
You can check out NL#2F2 here: https://agseedco.com/products/northern-lights-2-f2
Northern Lights (#5)
Authentic Genetics received Northern Lights #5 directly from Seattle Greg, who is the same original grower who gave Northern Lights to Nevil and The Holland seed bank back in 1984. Northern Lights numbers #1 through #11 were from mostly Afghan, the #1, also called "Purest Indica", to the "Purest Indica"/Afghan crossed with more tropical/equatorial plants.
Those who like a fast flowering heavy hitting "indica" will not be disappointed growing either NL#2F2 or NL#5F2. These are genetics from the 70s and 80s that some of us old growers and smokers remember quite fondly.
And check out NL#5 F2 here: https://agseedco.com/collections/frontpage/products/northern-lights-5-f2
OG:
This extremely common designation has disputed origins and meanings from “Original Gangsta” to “Ocean Grown” and many more, but the designation “OG” simply conveys to us that the named variety is classic, authentic, and traditional.
OG Kush:
One of the most famous early days West Coast varieties that stands on its own beautifully and is the basis for ongoing development of many new delicious, aromatic and potent varieties, including several here at Authentic Genetics. It's a dense plant with many ideal traits for indoor growing in limited spaces and is famous for its euphoric, body-vibrating hit and the parallel calm and thought-full mental state it invokes.
See one of our top OG Kush crosses: https://agseedco.com/products/o-g-kush-x-on-haze
Ohm’s Law:
Refers to one of the basic equations used in the analysis of electrical circuits. The Law states that the current flowing through an electrical circuit is directly proportional to (1) the voltage (the amount of electricity) being applied to the circuit and (2) the resistance of the circuit’s conductive material, commonly a copper electric wire. The amount of current available in the circuit then tells you how much you can plug into and draw off current to run devices without “overloading” the circuit.
Oils (essential)
Cannabis has a range of natural essential oils in its flowers and to some extent its leaves that are widely recognized as having medicinal, culinary and industrial applications. These “essential oils” are resin components generated externally in the flower by the trichomes, and are completely separate from the heavier oil extracted from hemp seed, which derives its nutritional, medicinal and industrial value from the embryo within the mature seed.
Organic:
A term with formal and informal uses, in Cannabis cultivation “organic” most frequently refers to either a non-mineral component of the growing medium, or to cultivation practices that avoid the use of insecticides and fungicides.
Original Haze (100% Columbian):
This variety contains no Afghan/Indica and is unlike almost anything else in modern cannabis. The original 3 way Colombian Haze was first bred in 1969 in the Santa Cruz mountains by a friend of the legendary Skunkman Sam, who has conserved that Original Haze line since and keeps it in pure form to this day. While it takes longer to flower, a grower’s patience will be rewarded with some of the most interesting buds with hints of lemon, spices, and cedarwood in the scent and an unmatched potency that’s famous for having “no ceiling” - meaning the high increases with time! It’s AG’s privilege to be allowed to breed with and offer Skunkman Sam’s original Haze genetics: https://agseedco.com/collections/frontpage/products/original-haze
Original Haze (Purple Phenotype):
A variety of Original Haze with greater likelihood of turning purple and expressing it's colorful flavonoids under favorable environmental conditions. Original Haze is an amazing variety that is best used for breeding. There are many wonderful examples of Haze, but do note that there is a lot of variation in the variety and that is what makes it such a great plant to breed with. Check it out at: https://agseedco.com/products/original-haze-purple-phenotype
ON Haze:
Our designation for the result of a back-cross we did with a Nevil’s Haze female and an Original Haze male comes out just a bit more Hazy.
https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/on-haze
Here’s a purple pheno of Original Haze:
https://agseedco.com/collections/frontpage/products/original-haze-purple-phenotype
Outcrossing:
The term refers to crossing, or breeding Cannabis plants with significantly different genetics. Cannabis is a naturally “obligate outcrossing” plant meaning that it is designed by nature to reproduce by spreading its seed widely in order to seek out unrelated plant populations for each successive generation.
Ovary:
The ovary is part of the pistil and contains multiple bundles of tiny immature seeds known as ovules that will develop into mature seeds after pollination.
Overload:
“Overload” is the term for what happens when electrical circuits crash from having too many devices plugged in. The more devices that are asking for power the more the circuit tries to draw in current from the power grid, working against the resistance of the wire or circuit. This leads to heating and potentially fire, which is why breakers are set inline to disconnect an overloaded circuit from the power grid.
PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation):
(See also PPFD)
Refers to the part of the natural light spectrum from 400 to 700 Nanometers that plants are able to use to drive photosynthesis.
Pathogen:
Any microorganism, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses, that causes disease, mutation, degeneration or degradation of tissue, organ or function in plants or animals. For a discussion of some important Cannabis pathogens see: https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/what-can-the-hop-latent-viroid-teach-us
Perlite:
Horticultural perlite is made from naturally-occurring volcanic glass “pearls” that contain tiny amounts of ancient water, that are crushed and then flash heat-expanded or “puffed”. Perlite is separated into four grades based upon particle size: super coarse, coarse, medium, and fine.
Pesticides:
Refers to all classes of bioactive chemical and biological agents used in the control and eradication of “pests”. Pesticides consist of multiple chemical classes: organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamates, neonicotinoids, pyrethrins and others, each operating on different biological systems in the target ‘pest’, and any other organism impacted, including their neurological, digestive, reproductive, and endocrine systems. Pesticides no longer function like the earliest insecticides and fungicides that were designed simply to kill the organism with highly toxic substances, but today’s pesticides operate instead as endocrine disruptors, DNA mutagens, reproductive teratogens, neurological inhibitors, and through other non-toxic modes of action.
pH Scale:
A scale from 0 to 14 that classifies the acid or alkaline balance in a solution or growing medium. From 0 to 6.9 the solution or growing medium is acidic, 7 is neutral (water) and from 7.1 to 14 is considered alkaline. For Cannabis the optimum pH levels for both soil and water are between 6.5 and 6.9. For a detailed discussion on Cannabis & pH see: https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/soil-and-medium-thoughts
Phenotype:
“Phenotype" refers to an observable trait or characteristic. "Pheno" means "observe" and comes from the same root as the word "phenomenon" - hence “Observable Type”. Each Cannabis variety has a more or less distinctive phenotype, or collection of physical characteristics resulting from interaction of their genetics with their environment that, taken together, make that variety distinctive. Phenotype refers to characteristics that are visible like overall shape, color, smell and vigor and also invisible characteristics like the variety’s particular cannabinoid and terpene profile and disease resistance.
Phytochrome:
A class of light receptors in plants that are tuned to the red part of the spectrum. They’re involved in regulating seed germination through a process called photoplasty, the synthesis of chlorophyll, the elongation of seedlings (as anyone who has ever tried to grow under an ordinary light bulb knows), the shape, number, size and growth pattern of leaves, and the timing of flowering.
Photoperiod
Refers to day length, which in nature increases and decreases with the seasons and with indoor growing it refers to the hours of light per 24 hour period.
Photon Flux Density:
Refers to the number of photons in the 400-700 Nm range falling per unit of time on a unit of surface - a measure of how much light in the visible range is reaching the surface from a particular source.
Pistil:
The female reproductive organ that is composed of a stigma, style, and ovary. Cannabis pistils are the hair-like structures that emerge as flowers begin to develop and depending on the variety and growing conditions these pistils can be any color of the rainbow. The stigma at the tip of the Pistil captures male pollen and transfers it to the ovary where it fertilizes the ovules to create viable seed.
PGR Plant Growth Hormones:
Growers recognize five types of PGH - auxins, cytokinins, gibberellins, ethylene and abscisic acid. Auxins promote & regulate elongation/growth. Cytokinins promote repair and rejuvenation of plant tissues. Gibberellins are involved in every stage from germination to flowering. Ethylene is heavily involved in the flowering process, and abscisic acid is a critical player in plant vigor, resistance and flowering.
Plant Architecture
A term for the deliberate design of a plant’s growth structure through physical manipulation techniques including bending, tying, pruning, or grafting. Also refers to the natural growth structure. See also (Phenotype)
Pot-bound:
A term for a plant’s root system that is restricted by a too-small container.
Powdery Mildew:
Refers to a gray-white fungus that propagates from spores that are literally everywhere in the environment. The appearance of PM is triggered by swings in temperature and humidity, especially by nighttime drops in temperature that lead to condensation on the plants which provides the fungal spores a cool, moist, nutritious substrate that promotes rapid attachment, germination and growth. Indoor and greenhouse growers find that maintaining day and night temperatures within a stable range of 65-75 degrees, as well as practicing cleanliness, provides the best protection against PM germination and spread.
For a complete discussion see: https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/powdery-mildew
PPFD:
Photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) refers to the amount of energy contained in the light falling on a surface as measured at that surface. PPFD is partly a matter of how energetic the emitting source is and partly how efficiently that energy is transmitted to the surface.
PPM:
Parts per million is a standard measurement expressing the concentration of a substance in a medium such as air or water. Four drops of orange juice in a 55 Gallon barrel or water would be roughly 1 PPM. One PPM can also be visualized as one inch on a 16 mile long road, or one minute in a two-year journey.
Pruning:
The technique of strategically trimming parts of a plant to stimulate or shape growth.
Purple Kush:
Purple Kush, a memorable cross of Hindu Kush and Afghan, was first released as a cutting by a San Francisco Bay Area Cannabis company called Trichome Technologies in or around 1995/96. That initial release of PK cuttings was responsible for a lot of the wonderful Purple that has subsequently been bred by Northern California growers and others around the world, creating a whole spectrum of Purple varieties over the years.
See the story at:
https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/purple-cannabis
Resin:
This non-technical term refers collectively to the oils, sugars, terpenes, flavonoids, and other substances emitted naturally by the trichome glands of the Cannabis flower. The term also applies to numerous products made with these substances.
Respiration:
Refers to the processes driven by photosynthesis that take place in the leaves. The carbon atoms are stripped off from the inhaled CO2 for use in making sugars, fluids and tissues and the Oxygen atoms are used as energy resources.
Rhizosphere:
The ecosystem of chemical, biological, and physical entities and influences generated, attracted and sustained by plant root growth and activity in the soil/root interface.
Ruderalis:
According to Rob Clarke “Present-day C. ruderalis, the putative ancestor of extant Cannabis taxa, grows throughout Central Asia and most likely represents a degenerate, inbred, and unselected hybrid blend of various Cannabis gene pools that survived as feral escapes, rather than direct descendants of the now long-extinct ancestral population in its original home.” Ruderalis is highly adapted to shorter Northern latitude seasons and day lengths so it is very quick to flower, which is why it plays a role in the genetics of many ‘autoflowering’ varieties.
Russet Mite:
This devastating Cannabis predator emerges as tiny worm-like larvae that mature into 4-legged mites. They are microscopic and can only be seen with 90x or better magnification. Generally beginning low on the plant, they work upwards and cause leaf margin downward curl and browning that can be mistakenly attributed to nutrient deficiency, light burn, and other causes. They can be controlled by time-release predatory mites, but can easily become widespread before being detected, and without careful scouting can be missed. For a discussion of how Russet Mites can be mistaken for the Hops Viroid see: https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/what-can-the-hop-latent-viroid-teach-us
Rust:
Rust fungus produces asexual spores that settle on the leaves of a Cannabis plant and attach themselves by growing a "germ tube" down into the leaf, which anchors itself there to suck up nutrients for the growing fungus above. After about 10 days the fungus is fully grown and then it erupts with spores, sending millions of little ones off to attach themselves to nearby leaves where they begin sucking out nutrients and the cycle repeats until interrupted.
Sativa:
Literally means “to cultivate” or that the plant is beneficial. According to Rob Clarke: “ C. sativa circumscribes hemp landraces from Europe as well as Southwest and Central Asia and is more genetically diverse than C. indica at the species level, while it is also more genetically homogenous than C. indica at the individual plant level (Hillig 2005a); in other words, C. sativa possesses a greater variety of alleles (diversity) spread throughout the majority of individuals (homogeneity), while C. indica possesses a lesser variety of alleles, with much of this genetic diversity restricted to individual, geographically isolated sub- species.
This may indicate that C. sativa descended directly from its hypothetical PHA ancestor population with little differentiation into geographical races and varieties (Hillig 2005a) and spreading easily from its putative Pleistocene refugia in the Balkan and Caucasus Mountains and radiating across the relatively small and geographically uniform early Holocene European and Central Asian landscape.” For AG’s take on the Indica/Sativa discussion see: https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/the-end-of-indica-sativa
Scion:
The upper part of the union of a graft.
Scrogging (Screen of Green):
Scrogging is a technique for producing more buds and higher yields
by training the individual branches of Cannabis plants onto horizontal screens, webs or frames to create an even one-level canopy. This allows light energy (the Photon flux) to reach all the leaves and flowers equally and provides good air flow and ventilation which are especially critical during flowering. Scrogged plants are said to be more reachable for maintenance and there is far less opportunity for mold and other fungus to take hold and grow.
Sea of Green (SOG):
“The Sea of Green came about in the mid-1980s, supposedly originating in Holland as a commercial growing technique to bring decorative flowers to market quickly and easily. Some enterprising cultivators thought to apply the process to marijuana and before long, indoor gardens flourished.”
“The actual undulating green sea is the end product of a three-step process. The first step is Mothering. A Mother Plant is the source for clones and the keeper of the family genes. She lives by herself under 18-to-24 hours of light per day and can live as long as her root space will allow her to flourish, perhaps years and years. The second step is cloning, taking cuttings from Mother, rooting them in another room and then quickly growing them into short bushes. The final step is forcing the clones to flower in a room filled with other flowering clones in various stages of budding.” From Todd McCormick “How To Grow Medical Marijuana”
Secondary Metabolites:
The term refers to every biologically active substance produced by the Cannabis plant other than its Primary Metabolites THC and CBD (and their precursors THCA and CBDA), although many would argue that there are additional Primary Metabolites among the Terpenes and Flavonoids.
Seed preservation:
“Store seeds in small containers and include a desiccant; clean, dry seeds remain viable at refrigerator temperatures for easily 20 and more years. High temperatures, temperature swings, and high humidity are ruinous for seeds. For very long term storage, glass or metal containers are recommended by seed archivists, but I've used film canisters with great success.”
“Do not store in baggies as these may leak or break, particularly if taken in and out of storage. Most plastics actually “leak” after time, but film canisters are especially tough and impermeable and keep contents reliably dry. Storing seeds in plastic baggies is particularly bad.” (From: Storing Seeds by Mel Frank) https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/storing-seeds-by-mel-frank
Selfing (Self-Pollination) S1:
When a Cannabis plant is allowed or caused to have both male and female organs and the male pollen is used to pollinate the female flowers so that the resulting seed is “feminized” and will produce only female plants.
Sepals:
The tiny green structures, botanically classified as modified leaves, that surround and protect the flower bud as it develops.
Sexual Propagation:
Sexual reproduction means male pollen merging with female ovules to produce seeds that will germinate and produce the next generation of plants that will have the characteristics of both parents.
Skunk:
Of all the varieties that we grow at Authentic Genetics, "Skunk" has to be the most requested and also the least understood. Many people think it is a variety, when in reality, it is more of a description of one of the many distinctive scents of cannabis found in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Hindu Kush mountains. While there are no skunks in Asia or Europe, the combination of thiols and myrcene profiles of certain Afghani varieties makes them immediately reminiscent of a skunk spray to anyone who has ever encountered the animal that is only found in The Americas.
https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/cannabis-confusion-the-history-of-afghan-skunk
Refers to the legendary Skunk #1 developed by Skunkman Sam in the 1970's, and it remains a relatively stabilized, true breeding hybrid in 2022. In 1988 the widely respected writer and breeder Mel Frank received Skunk No.1 seeds directly from Skunkman Sam and reproduced them continually for 8 years until 1996. Then Mel Frank properly stored and preserved them until 24 years later in 2020, their acrid terpene phenotypes were revived by Todd McCormick of Authentic Genetics, which remains the sole source of this direct line of original Skunk No. 1 genetics. See AG’s Afghan x Colombian Gold x Acapulco Gold
Skunk #1 x Northern Lights #2:
This is an absolutely classic combination of genetics first brought together in the 1980s by the Holland Seed Bank when Nevil crossed the Skunk #1 and NL#5. Authentic Genetics initiated the use of Northern Lights #2 as the male, which is completely Afghan. Read more about Skunk at: https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/cannabis-confusion-the-history-of-afghan-skunk
Spectrum:
The light spectrum that’s relevant to Cannabis photosynthesis lies between the 400 and 700 Nanometer wavelengths. Energy below 400 Nm falling on a Cannabis plant tends to cause elongation due to energy deprivation and energy above 700 Nm is progressively damaging to leaves and especially flowers.
Stalked Glandular Trichome:
Of the three principal Cannabis trichomes this little bulb on a stalk is a principal THCA factory whose rich secretions also contain all of the Cannabinoids, Terpenes and other secondary metabolites that ooze from the Cannabis flower.
Stamen:
Term for the male Cannabis reproductive organ which consists of the pollen-producing organ the Anther plus the thin vein that feeds nutrients to the organ.
Staminate flower:
This term refers to a flower in which there are only male reproductive parts present.
Stigma:
This is the organ at the tip of the flower’s pistil which receives the pollen and transports it to the ovaries for pollination of the ovules.
Stomata:
Small pores on the underside of leaves that “breathe” and are responsible for uptake, transpiration, and waste removal along with other life functions. The stomata open and close to receive water, air, nutrients, and anything else deposited on the underside of the leaf’s surface and to help rid the plant of metabolic toxins. The millions of stomata in every Cannabis plant must be kept very clear for them to be able to function properly.
Strain:
In botany: “All the descendants produced from a common ancestor that share a uniform morphological or physiological character.” “Strain” is a popular but technically mis-applied term for a cannabis variety or cultivar. A cultivar is generally understood as a Cannabis plant that is produced and maintained by growers but does not normally produce true-to-seed; whereas, a variety is a group of Cannabis plants within the species that have one or more distinguishing characteristics and usually produce true-to-seed. None of these “distinctions” are quite distinct enough because the terms overlap and are not precise.
Stretching:
A popular term for the rapid elongation of the plant immediately after the photoperiod goes to 12/12 to induce flowering.
Substrate:
Refers to the surface or the material on which an organism lives and grows and from which the organism may obtain nutrition, information, energy and life support.
Super Bloom:
A common name for any fertilizer high in phosphorus and potassium that’s intended to promote Cannabis flower formation and growth.
Taproot:
The single root that emerges from the seed casing and grows downwards seeking water and nutrients, quickly developing secondary anchoring roots and hundreds of fine side roots.
Taxonomy:
In biology, a system for classifying and arranging plants and animals into various groupings according to their biological relationships. While somewhat arbitrary, there are seven main ranks defined by the international nomenclature codes: kingdom, phylum/division, class, order, family, genus, and species.
Terpene:
In Cannabis, terpenes are chemical compounds, produced by specialized glands in the flower, that due to variations in varietal Terpene profiles are largely responsible for the distinctive flavor and smell of each variety. Terpenes/terpenoids also have a wide range of biological and pharmacological activities. Cannabis terpenes with antifungal, antiviral, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antihyperglycemic, antiparasitic, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties include myrcene, limonene, pinene, linalool, terpineol, caryophyllene, phellandrene, ocimene, camphene, guaiol, α-humulene, γ-terpinene, β-elemene, nerolidol and citral among many others.
THC:
THC is without doubt the Cannabinoid first responsible for human discovery of the Cannabis plant, and THC’s most attractive properties are only available once activated by heat. This suggests some interesting possible origins of the discovery. Once activated by heat this single molecule is then responsible for a significant portion of both the psychoactive and medicinal potential of the Cannabis flower along with its primary partner CBD.
THCa:
When heat is applied to a fresh Cannabis flower, in all the THCa cannabinoids a carboxylic acid group is driven off and the THCa molecules are therefore “decarboxylated”, which means that chemically the THCa is converted by heat to delta-9 THC.
Thio: from Greek for sulfur, combined with alcohol = thiol.
Thiols:
Thiols are alcohols where oxygen atoms are replaced by sulfur atoms. In the Cannabis culture Thiols are responsible for the intense skunky smells in some varieties that so many seek out and appreciate while so many others avoid them at all costs. However, thiols play a complex and critical part in cellular processes, immunity and resistance, growth, flowering, and reproduction of Cannabis, so like skunks or not you gotta love Thiols!
Transpiration:
The process by which a plant expels waste gasses and vapors through its under-leaf stomata.
Trellising:
Refers to restricting a plant’s growth and altering its shape and size by manipulating and tying the stem and branches to a mesh or screen
Trichome:
A class of resin-making glands that, on the Cannabis flower, are principally the Bulbous, Sessile and Stalked trichomes, which along with a subclass of Non-Glandular trichomes, all play key roles in making Cannabinoids, Terpenes, Flavonoids, and other secondary metabolites and in protecting the flower against harmful UV radiation.
Trim:
Leaves that have been removed throughout growing and at harvest. With the development of new recovery technologies these formerly waste byproducts of flower production can now yield valuable additional product for growers.
Variety:
A more accurate term used by informed growers to refer to what are too commonly called “strains”.
Vascular:
Refers to the principal ‘veins’ in the plant's circulatory system that transports fluids throughout the stem, roots, branches, leaves and flowers.
Vegetative stage:
The vegetative stage of cannabis follows the Seedling Stage and precedes the Flowering Stage. It is when the plant undergoes all of its primary stem, branch and leaf development before entering the reproduction cycle. Growers are learning that encouraging full vegetative development isn’t necessarily the best strategy for optimum flower yield.
Viroid:
A non-living entity consisting of fragments of RNA code without the protein shell of a virus and, unlike viruses, are only known to infect plants. For details on the dangerous HLVd viroid see our article: https://agseedco.com/blogs/news/what-can-the-hop-latent-viroid-teach-us
Virus:
A term for an entity that consists of a bundle of genetic code, either DNA or RNA, surrounded by a protein shell. Generally regarded as non-living and without any cellular structures, viruses cannot replicate without embedding themselves inside living cells and harvesting parts of the cell to accomplish their replication. In the process of taking what they need they leave behind a trail of cellular destruction that we call disease. Unlike parasites, which draw energy from their host without killing it, viruses have no such agenda. They enter the cell past its defenses, grab what they came for, replicate, and move right along, replicating exponentially as they go.
VPD:
Vapor Pressure Density is based on the idea that at any given temperature the air can hold a certain amount of water vapor before it gets saturated and begins precipitating out. Knowing your VPD allows you to balance both temperature and humidity for a perfect VPD that encourages transpiration in your plants.
The VPD number indicates the % of water vapor (humidity) that’s present at the current air temperature. For example, in a grow room with an air temperature of 65 degrees, a VPD of 80 would mean that the air is 80% saturated at that 65 degree temperature. If the temperature goes up to 70 the saturation point of the air is now higher, so if humidity remains the same the VPD number will be lower.
Water temperature:
“Room temperature” 70-80°F (21-27°C) water is critical for plant health.
Wetting agent:
A compound that reduces the droplet size and lowers the surface tension of the water making it “wetter” - more easily transported through the stomata. Biodegradable liquid dish soap is a good wetting agent used by some growers in hard water areas.
Wilt:
Most commonly due to water deprivation but the characteristic loss of rigidity and drooping of plant parts can also be caused by many different plant diseases.
Xylem:
Vascular tissue that transports water, nutrients and minerals from the roots and sugars, lipids, gasses and proteins from the leaves and roots throughout the plant.
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Introduction: Average Four Minute Read
During the winter months we sometimes get distressed messages, largely from beginning growers, asking why their beautiful plants are suddenly showing signs of herming or, more accurately, intersexing.
Sex determination in Cannabis is controlled in three ways - by genetic factors, by non-genetic factors, and by hormones. While genetics and hormones are huge, in this article we’ll focus on the non-genetic, non-hormonal factors that affect herming and that are largely within the grower’s control.
Both science and our collective experience says that although intersex/herming is most often caused by stress, but in some varieties that tendency is built into the cultivar’s genetics and those Cannabis varieties will express intersex even if they are never stressed.
Some cultivars, and some plants within those cultivars, seem to resist intersexing under extreme swings of temperature, humidity and even lighting conditions. There are no studies we can find that specifically discuss how the natural ratio of males to females varies in outdoor populations of the same cultivars under different environmental conditions.
The bottom line seems to be that every grower has to deal with a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors, along with hormonal wild cards, that can cause some plants to intersex and some not, even in the best-controlled indoor environment. If the seed line comes with a well-documented genetic heritage and provenance, then that’s one less unknown to deal with.
The sensitive varieties are also more easily tripped by even moderate stress from other things like light leaks during dark time, but in our experience the majority of non-genetically determined intersex/herming is caused by some stressful combination of poor VPD (humidity) control, cold air, cold water, or cold soil.
It doesn’t have to be a consistently cold air, water or soil environment either - a short dip in temperatures at the wrong time can be all it takes. Cold temperatures aren’t just a cause of intersex/herming either - they are directly involved in low THC and CBD production, in slower vegetative growth and poor bud development, in vulnerability to pathogens and molds, and in underdevelopment of key ‘minor’ cannabinoids and terpenes.
OBSERVATIONS FROM EXPERIENCE
“Back in 1996 I was growing Cannabis in Amsterdam with Old Ed Halloway and he taught me that if I watered with ice cold water during the first few weeks of flowering, it would usually cause the plants that are semi-tropical to stress and grow male flowers naturally, without chemicals. I did this because I wanted to bring home the genetics of my favorite plants as S1’s and he knew an organic way to do it.” (TM)
#1 on our list of undesirable intersex/herm-inducing cold stress is having the root zone too cold during emergence and the seedling stage, followed closely by having any of the other plant’s zones too cold at any stage. “Too cold” means outside of a specific range.
‘I like to keep the daytime temperature of my Mother-room between 75 to 80 degrees tops, with nighttime temps no lower than 60-65, while maintaining around 70% humidity. Then in my flowering room as my plants go into flowering stage I drop the humidity to around 60 while maintaining daytime temps between 72 & 75 and nighttime temps between 65 & 70. Stable temps and humidity are critical.’ (TM)
Varieties with tropical genetics can tolerate higher humidity levels because of their loose and spindly flower structure that lets air flow in and around the individual buds. However, plants from colder places of origin with densely packed flower structures like the Afghan varieties are more at risk from mold formation when high humidity combines with poor air circulation and creates stagnant air pockets inside the flower.
Some varieties are also more sensitive to root zone temps than others but all are cold-sensitive in the sense that they can be pushed toward intersex/herming later in life by exposure to cold temps during germination or any time afterwards.
The good news is that this #1 stressor is also among the easiest to manage given grower awareness. Here’s some advice Todd gave to a grower in the Rockies a while back that we hope makes the point clearly:
“I have also had the experience of growing the exact same cutting from the same mother plant in different rooms and had the very same cutting sometimes herm and other times not, and because of that experience I always look at the environmental factors before I look at the genetics.
“Some cannabis cultivars are more sensitive to their environment than others, but that is because they come from very different regions and are acclimated to very different climates than what thy are being exposed to, such as 5000 feet in elevation during winter.
“I would definitely recommend controlling your evening temperatures and not letting them drop past the mid 60s, I would also recommend monitoring your VPD which means you have to have pretty big humidifiers to bring up the humidity of the dry climate at altitude, and I would definitely recommend heating your watering tanks, because if you are watering with pretty cold water which I suspect you may be, you are definitely going to get intersex tendencies from plants that would be stable in warmer more humid conditions.”
Now, in no special order, here’s a look at some of the other known intersex/herm-inducing stressors:
Growers can control this and a lot of other undesirable events like Powdery Mildew in their indoor grow simply by managing the relationship between temperature and humidity in their growing environment.
This chart shows you that VPD “Sweet Spot” you need to hit at every temperature level in your grow. Check this out - at an ideal 75.2 degrees F. your humidity has to be between 60-80% in order for your plants to breathe. But only 5 degrees higher at 80.6 F your humidity has to be kept between 70-85% - your plants need higher levels of humidity in a narrower temperature band. That takes management.
“Durban Poison is known to herm, which has been part of the conversation with growing the variety since the 80s. I tell everybody not to breed with the plants that intersex, but Durban plants that don't herm are worth working with because of the short flower time and the great flower structure. It is also one of the most sensitive varieties to environmental problems. If anything in the room is even a little bit off, it will herm.” (TM)
END OF 4 MINUTE INTRODUCTION
REFERENCES & COMMENTS:
INTERESTING NEW SCIENCE BEHIND HERMING
Here are several current research papers, with our comments, that we think offer useful information and valuable perspectives on one or more of the important aspects of herming in Cannabis.
“Hermaphroditism in Marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.) Inflorescences – Impact on Floral Morphology, Seed Formation, Progeny Sex Ratios, and Genetic Variation”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7329997/pdf/fpls-11-00718.pdf
There’s lots of useful info in this research on stressors that induce herming but most interesting to us is their finding that Hermaphrodite female flowers produce only genetically female plants. The research doesn’t look at whether these all turn out to be healthy females, it just finds that they are all genetically females.
Skunkman Sam: “Male intersex plants are different because they are XY times XY so out of any seeds that result, 25% will be YY, 25% will be XX and 50% will be XY.”
We wonder if this research applies only to the cultivars these researchers were working with, or if this could be a more general phenomenon. If seeds from hermaphrodite plants of any cultivar are all genetically female - that might have some interesting implications for breeders and growers.
Here are some especially interesting quotes:
“Seedlings from hermaphroditic seeds, and anther tissues, showed a female genetic composition while seedlings derived from cross-fertilized seeds showed a 1:1 male:female sex expression ratio. Uniquely, hermaphroditic inflorescences produced seeds which gave rise only to genetically female plants.”
Note: We would really hesitate to put any work into growing seeds from an inersex female even with this research in hand
“In the present study, we observed spontaneous formation of hermaphroditic flowers on 5–10% of plants of three different strains of marijuana grown indoors under commercial conditions. In most cases, small clusters of anthers developed within certain female flowers, replacing the pistil. In rare cases (two out of 1,000 plants), the entire female inflorescence was displaced by large numbers of clusters of anthers instead of pistils The factors which trigger this change in phenotype have not been extensively researched.”
Skunkman Sam: “If these were DNA tested I suspect they would be XX just like females that are transformed by Silver thiosulfate (STS). They may look male after transformation but that is just sex expression not what their DNA is. DNA is not changed from female to male or vice versa by STS.”
“Physical or chemical stresses can also have a role in inducing staminate flower development on female plants of marijuana. For example, external environmental stresses, e.g., low photoperiods and reduced temperatures in outdoor production, were reported to increase staminate flower formation.”
“Such stress factors could affect internal phytohormone levels, such as auxin:gibberellin ratios, which could in turn trigger hermaphroditic flower formation in marijuana plants. In marijuana plants, environmental stress factors which enhance jasmonic acid (JA) production could potentially promote hermaphroditic flower formation but this requires further study.”
“Recent advances in Cannabis sativa genomics research”https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10.1139/gen-2020-0087
This quite technical but still very readable research discusses new discoveries in Cannabis genetics that will allow breeding of novel cultivars with desirable cannabinoid profiles, including pretty advanced discussions on genomic variations and their effect on Cannabinoid content. It also discusses the genetic basis of sex in some detail. Frankly most of the science is way beyond us but the information here is interesting and there are plenty of smart people in our community who may be able to apply it.
“The identification of sex chromosomes in the cannabis genome is another notable genomics172 driven achievement. Of the 565 sex-linked genes identified in the PK transcriptome, 363 were mapped to cs10 v. 1.0 chromosome 1 (cs10 v. 2.0 chromosome 10), indicating that this chromosome pair constitutes the sex chromosomes (. This enabled the identification of sex-specific molecular markers to aid cannabis breeding.”
Skunkman Sam: “This is using DNA to find an XY chromosome. There are no reliable DNA tests to find female or intersex that like monoecious plants that are DNA tested will test as female.”
“THCA and CBDA are produced at much higher concentrations in the inflorescences of female cannabis plants compared with males, hence female plants are economically more valuable.
“Having the capacity to identify male and female plants at an early stage enables yield improvement and better management of cannabis crops. Approximately 3,500 sex-biased genes have been identified, which are differentially expressed between female and male cannabis plants, with a subset being expressed in the flower buds. These are genes are not restricted to the sex chromosomes. Some are located on the Y-chromosome of male plants and are involved in trichome development, sex determination, hermaphroditism and photoperiod-independence.”
SKUNKMAN SAM: “Male testing can find males, but simply not testing male does not mean a plant is a female. It could also be intersex, and you do not want to use or breed with any intersex plant as it will give progeny that are intersex, either due to genetics or to increased vulnerability to stress.”
“Architecture and Florogenesis in Female Cannabis sativa Plants”https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.00350/full
While this research is not strictly about Cannabis hermaphroditism, and it offers some unusual explanations for flower induction, it introduced us to the remarkably useful concept of female Cannabis plants having an “architecture” that influences their flowering characteristics, which we want to share here because it is such a useful concept. Since architecture is intentional structural design to produce desired results, it makes a lot of sense to approach our plants this way and to consciously structure their architecture. This article discusses some very hands-on and practical ways that growers can influence and manipulate their plants’ flower yield.
“Short photoperiod induces intense branching, which results in the development of a compound raceme. Each inflorescence consists of condensed branchlets with the same phytomer structure as that of the larger phytomers developed under long day. Each phytomer consists of reduced leaves, bracts, one or two solitary flowers, and an axillary shoot (or inflorescence).”
“Understanding the morphophysiological and genetic mechanisms governing flower and inflorescence development is therefore of high scientific and practical importance. However, in-depth investigations of cannabis florogenesis are limited.
Cannabis producers and researchers consider long photoperiod to be “non-inductive” or “vegetative,” but under these growth conditions, the development of solitary flowers and bracts in shoot internodes clearly indicates that the plant cannot be defined as vegetative or non-inductive in the classical sense. Most probably, induction of solitary flowers is age-dependent and controlled by internal signals, but not by photoperiod.”
“Therefore, the effect of short photoperiod on cannabis florogenesis is not flower induction, but rather a dramatic change in shoot apex architecture to form a compound racemose inflorescence structure. An understanding of the morphophysiological characteristics of cannabis inflorescence will lay the foundation for biotechnological and physiological applications to modify architecture and to maximize plant productivity and uniformity in medical Cannabis.”
Skunkman Sam: “Males with XY can have a female plant architecture and they will have bigger and more male flowers. Females with XX male architecture give less branching with slimmer flowers and are not desirable.”
“Dioecious hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) plants do not express significant sexually dimorphic morphology in the seedling stage”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8376874/pdf/41598_2021_Article_96311.pdf
This very early-days research looks into whether there is any way to physically distinguish plants that are on their way to becoming male or female during the seedling stage of growth, and whether any such signs would vary among different Cannabis cultivars. Obviously the earlier we could tell for sure which plants are going to be male, the less labor and expense there would be. We aren’t too excited about this approach compared with others like DNA analysis but eyeballing your plants for male/female signs is an old tradition among growers and every little clue helps.
“We asked: can we reliably differentiate males, females, and co-sexual individuals based on seedling morphology in Cannabis sativa, and do the traits used to distinguish sex at this stage vary between genotypes?
“Preliminary evidence suggests that co-sexual plants may be distinguished from male and female plants using short hypocotyl length and seedling height, although this relationship requires more study since sample sizes of co-sexual plants were small. In one of the cultivars, two-week old male plants tend to produce longer hypocotyls than other plants, which may help to identify these plants prior to anthesis.
“We call for increased research effort on co-sexual plants, given their heavy economic cost in industrial contexts and rare mention in the literature. Our preliminary data suggests that short hypocotyl length may be an indicator of co-sexuality. These results are the first steps towards developing diagnostic tools for predicting sex using vegetative morphology in dioecious species and understanding how sexual dimorphism influences phenotype preceding sexual maturity.”
“The sexual differentiation of Cannabis sativa L.: A morphological and molecular study”The_sexual_differentiation_of_Cannabis_sativa_L_A_morphological_and_molecular_study
Like the previous article this research is focused on identifying physical characteristics that will allow growers to identify Male and Female plants at the earliest possible stage of development.
“Cannabis sativa L. is a dioecious species with sexual dimorphism occurring in a late stage of plant development. Sex is determined by heteromorphic chromosomes (X and Y): male is the heterogametic sex (XY) and female is the homogametic one (XX). The sexual phenotype of Cannabis often shows some flexibility leading to the differentiation of hermaphrodite flowers or bisexual inflorescences (monoecious phenotype).
“Microscopic analysis of male and female apices revealed that their reproductive commitment may occur as soon as the leaves of the fourth node emerge. Five of the several cDNA-AFLP polymorphic fragments identified have been confirmed to be differentially expressed in male and female apices at the fourth node. Cloning and sequencing revealed that they belong to nine different mRNAs that were all induced in the female apices at this stage.”
“Microgametophyte Development in Cannabis sativa L. and First Androgenesis Induction Through Microspore Embryogenesis.”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8186446/pdf/fpls-12-669424.pdf
The article contains many fascinating micro-photographs of deep structures within the Cannabis flower as the authors discuss pollen and seed development. Paraphrasing the research, it says that exposing Cannabis flowers to cold during seed development makes plants resulting from those seeds more likely to herm.
This response will vary since there are cold-adapted cultivars that are genetically programmed to germinate, grow and thrive in cold high altitude climates, but this research reinforces the principle that growers must avoid cold temps while managing their humidity.
“The Complex Interactions Between Flowering Behavior and Fiber Quality in Hemp”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6532435/pdf/fpls-10-00614.pdf
This article is focused on Cannabis Sativa as the hemp plant HOWEVER it’s discussion of the complex interplay of environment and genetics in the development of female flowering is field populations is easily interpolated to intersexing stressors in indoor growing conditions and helps us relate to the behavior of Cannabis in nature.
“Hemp is a facultative short-day plant, characterized by a strong adaptation to photoperiod and a great influence of environmental factors on important agronomic traits such as “flowering-time” and “sex determination.”
“Herein, we review the current knowledge of phenotypic and genetic data available for “flowering-time,” “sex determination,” and “fiber quality” in short-day and dioecious crops, respectively.”
“Photons from Near Infrared LEDs can delay flowering in short-day soybean and Cannabis: Implications for phytochrome activity”https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0255232#pone-0255232-t001
“There are concerns in the Cannabis industry that photons from NIR LEDs cause monecious flowering. Cannabis is naturally dioecious; only female plants are desired for medical Cannabis cultivation.
Monoecious flowering is often confused with hermaphroditism. Botanically, these terms are distinct: monoecious refers to the presence of separate male and female flowers on the same plant, while hermaphrodite refers to the presence of both male and female reproductive organs within an individual flower.
In practice, the distinction is not important because both monoecious and hermaphroditic Cannabis produce pollen and potentially reduce product quality and value. The tendency of Cannabis to form monoecious or hermaphroditic plants is under genetic and environmental influence.”
“When the going gets tough, the tough turn female: injury and sex expression in a sex-changing tree”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7155049/
This research isn’t specifically about Cannabis, but we think it’s a great look at how some plants respond to stress by becoming stronger and female. We know that early pruning produces more vigorously branching Cannabis plants and flower production in females, but we don’t know whether pruning before sex differentiation increases the likelihood of going female.
“We found that severe damage such as full defoliation or severe pruning increased odds of changing sex to female and decreased odds of changing to male. In fact, no pruned male trees flowered male 2 years later, while all males in the control group flowered partially or fully male. After full defoliation, trees had 4.5 times higher odds of flowering female.”
“The influence of physical damage on sex expression varies across species. In general, poor plant health seems to correlate with maleness, but the experience of trauma is more complex. In some species with generally constant sex expression, the removal of branches, stems, flowers, or storage tissues promotes maleness; in other species similar actions promote femaleness, at least temporarily within a flowering season.”
NOW TO WIND THINGS UP, HOW ABOUT A LITTLE SPECULATION?
If you’re up for it here are some of our other more speculative thoughts on herming in Cannabis.
Let’s begin by framing sexual differentiation in Cannabis from a perspective we think everyone can relate to from our shared human experience. Let’s imagine a typical family with a Mother, Father and three kids. Not unusually, three very different kids. One gay, one straight, and one bi. Same mother, same father - right? Same home, same family influences, same environment, but each taking a different sexual path in life. Lots of physical features in common - you can see they’re brothers and sisters - but manifesting as very different people. It happens all the time in every family - right?
We believe, along with most science, that this happens because diversity is simply nature’s way. With diversity, nature guarantees strength and survival of the species. We always look for nature’s preference for diversity behind every difference we see in our plants.
Animal life of all kinds needs males and females to reproduce little birds, bees and babies, but most plants don’t need gender differentiation - each individual plant can reproduce itself. My pollen, my flower, my seed - and look! More me!
But nature's unbreakable rule is diversity, so of course Nature sets it up so that not all plants can reproduce all by themselves. And so it’s in the name of diversity, nature’s dominant principle, that we have been given Cannabis, one of nature’s true marvels.
Of all plants, only 6% are dioecious and Cannabis is one of the rare plants that need gender differentiation to reproduce, but unlike animal life the little Cannabis plant isn’t ‘born’ with identifying male or female physical features. Almost all (but not all) animal life develops into either physical male or female before it is born, with physical sex differentiation having taken place long before “emergence”, or birth.
But Cannabis emerges from its seed casing as a physical being that is prepared to be either, or both, because Cannabis carries both male and female genetic ‘packages’ well into their development waiting and staying alert to see what circumstances tell it to be. In other words, maleness and femaleness in Cannabis is genetic, but the manifestation of that trait is determined largely (but not always) by environment. Natural diversity at work again.
Under non-stressed, natural conditions Cannabis responds to a set of environmental cues, as well as to its built-in genetics, by ‘deciding’ at the appropriate point to go on to be either a male or female. The science tells us that while Cannabis seed can withstand prolonged very cold temperatures in dormancy, once germination begins, cold temperatures at any point from then on can push the seedling further toward any tendencies it already has for manifesting either maleness or hermaphroditism. If you want nice healthy 100% (or close) females, give your plants ambient temps from the beginning.
Based on what we are learning about communications between plants, it may even be that in a natural environment, untended by humans, Cannabis makes this a community-level decision.
“OK - Listen up sprouts. We’re only gonna need 20 guys in this patch. Who are my volunteers?”
But what happens when the environment, especially the man-made environment, is sending the Cannabis plant confusing signals by creating one or more kinds of stress just at the time the plant is trying to decide what to become? The plant is being pushed and pulled - “What’s going on and which way do I go? Am I in danger? Am I going to be able to reproduce?”
Well, it seems to us that what we see as hermaphroditism may be a plant that couldn’t, or wasn’t able to decide on gender and so, because it had to do something, and was so damned confused and under pressure, that it just went ahead and became a little of both. The plant falls back on necessity - “Well if I have to, I’ll just do it all myself.”
We hope that doing this kind of personification of plants, a scientific no-no called anthropomorphism, doesn’t offend anyone’s sense of scientific propriety, since we find it a great way to try to understand what our plants are going through and why they are behaving the way they are. We try to put ourselves in the plant’s place and look at the world from that point of view.
To wrap this discussion up, here’s one of the clearest statements that we’ve encountered on sex and Cannabis (even though the English is a little off):
“The diversity of theories, and of proofs found in their reasoning, result from the fact that genotype is not only the information placed on chromosomes, but also the information from various cell organelles which contain nucleic acids.
Consequently, to affirm that the sex is determined only by chromosomes or only by environmental conditions constitutes, if not a total mistake, then at least a narrow, limited approach of an extremely important biological phenomenon, with special implications for live world evolution.
Therefore, we consider that the sex, like to any other phenotype character, is a resultant of the flow of hereditary information within genetic channels, but in concrete environment conditions, and the hemp is a good example in this direction.”
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256546647_Some_aspects_of_sex_determinism_in_hemp
We’ve started hearing from our friends asking us to share what we know about HLVd and how we see it impacting the future of Cannabis cultivation, and of course we’ve been keeping a close eye on plant pathogens of all kinds for many years. We’ve reached out to our Authentic Genetics network to discover what other experienced growers are doing, and we’ve taken a look at the emerging and historical research on HLVd and other plant viroid pathogens of interest.
]]>By: Bill Drake and Authentic Genetics
Contributions by: Sam the Skunkman
INTRODUCTION
We’ve started hearing from our friends asking us to share what we know about HLVd and how we see it impacting the future of Cannabis cultivation, and of course we’ve been keeping a close eye on plant pathogens of all kinds for many years. We’ve reached out to our Authentic Genetics network to discover what other experienced growers are doing, and we’ve taken a look at the emerging and historical research on HLVd and other plant viroid pathogens of interest.
We’ll divide this article into two parts:
First, the short, simple steps anyone can and should take in the new world of emerging plant viroids. Both experienced growers and HLVd researchers agree that there are some simple, effective defenses against infection by HLVd. Defense is critical because once infection occurs both a complete crop loss and difficulties with subsequent crops are likely.
Second, we’ll take a cruise through the research on HLVd and plant viroid pathogens, revealing a fascinating world that we can’t see and are barely learning to detect, but that we can learn to work with and live with if we come to understand it better.
PART ONE
We have to confess when all this started we thought - “Oh. Another virus.”
Wrong! Not a virus. We’ve had a lot to learn, starting with the fact that Viroids and Viruses are related but not the same forms of life, and many would argue that neither is ‘alive’. Neither have any energy metabolism of their own and both depend on hijacking a cellular organism host in order to survive, replicate, and transmit, each in its own way.
Viruses can invade plant and animal cells while it is thought that viroids are limited to plants. Viroids are ‘naked RNA”, simply molecules, where Viruses have a protein coating that enables them to force host cells to copy them. Viruses appear to act purposefully on the cell’s mechanisms, getting them to replicate the virus, whereas Viroids appear to be molecular messengers of some kind with indeterminate functional ‘purpose’ and appear to be largely pathogenic.
What all this seems to mean for growers is that infection by Viroids will likely be more difficult to mitigate than infection by plant Viruses, which means that prevention is the key.
We hate to oversimplify, but a lot of the things a grower can do immediately to prevent infection by all plant pathogens, not just HLVd, are things we all know already but don’t practice. It’s kind of like brushing your teeth and flossing - if we all did it right every time we would probably have good teeth all our lives. But we don’t, so dentists drive Mercedes. We all know that cleanliness is the key to plant pathogen control, and most of us probably try, but few of us focus and do it right every time, which is precisely how it has to be done or else - as we’ve found out to our severe loss more than once.
So here’s a list of steps that both science & grower experience say if taken at the appropriate time, every time, will greatly decrease your odds of infection by plant virus and viroid pathogens including HLVd, as well as infestation by pathogenic insects, molds, fungi etc.
This is a short starter checklist - please add your own tips in the IG comments section
IF A GROW IS HLVd INFECTED
There are a number of treatments being researched for viroids in both plant tissues and in the environment.
However, if HLVd infection is detected in a high-value Cannabis grow, current best practice says that all the plants should be removed and destroyed, by burning if possible.
Other indoor and greenhouse pathogens like botrytis and PM can be dealt with at grower’s discretion but HLVd requires removal of the infected plants at a minimum and in reality it means removing everything and thoroughly disinfecting the grow.
Good General Greenhouse Sanitizing Procedures
Good review of the best sanitizing agents (we talk more about milk later!)
PART TWO: THE WORLD OF HLVd & PLANT VIROID RESEARCH
This section offers links to some of the most interesting peer-reviewed scientific journal research we’ve been reading that bears on the origins, spread, and control of the Hop Latent Viroid (HLVd), recently identified as one of the drivers for the Dudding pandemic afflicting thousands of Cannabis grows.
To begin your exploration of the world of Cannabis viroids you can’t do any better than this 2020 article by our old friend Rob Clarke.
A FEW THOUGHTS ON “DUDDING” AND HLVd
The “Dudding” phenomenon looks like it may involve far more viroid pathogens than just the recently identified HLVd, as well as a lot of damage caused by non-viroid entities.
For example, we’re pretty sure that a lot of what’s being attributed to HLVd aka Dudding is actually being caused by the Russet Mite.
We’ve seen whole grows devastated by this almost invisible mite that also afflicts CBD and Industrial Hemp crops big time and whose damage is easily classified as “dudding”. (Quick note - Russet Mites are totally preventable by growing from seed, and there are beneficial insect controls available if they arrive on infected clones.)
But back on the matter of viroids, we thought we would share what’s being discovered by scientists about pathogenic and beneficial plant viroids in both Cannabis and its closest relative Hops. The crossing over of HLVd from Hop plants to Cannabis growing as hemp may very well have occurred a long time ago even though it is just emerging, maybe just like so many contemporary human viral diseases seem to be coming out of nowhere. These viruses and viroids haven’t just appeared from nowhere - it looks like they’ve been here a very long time and are somehow just becoming activated.
The research seems pretty clear that damages from these viroid pathogens, especially to indoor Cannabis, are a complex phenomenon and aren’t just limited to the impact of a single viroid pathogen HLVd. Plant Viroids are part of an extended ecosystem of natural biological entities that flow in, around and through Cannabis plants in a greenhouse or field.
Viroids were first identified in 1971, almost 70 years after the discovery of viruses. It took that long because Viroids are so much smaller and more elusive because they are pure RNA without the more detectable protein coating of a virus. HLVd is one of an emerging group of Cannabis microRNA Viroids that are technically pathogens but that seem to have both beneficial and pathogenic roles in Cannabis growth and development. Some interesting current journal science on Cannabis miRNA can be found in the references at the end of this article and also here, here, here and here.
We especially hope you’ll enjoy this science-heavy but very accessibly-written article that points to Viroids as possible, even likely origins of life on Earth after their precursor amino acids, purines and pyrimidines, and carbon compounds survived interstellar temperatures and radiation and arrived here on meteors.
Given that we know that Cannabis evolved THC specifically for trapping UV starlight to protect its seeds, we think the idea of life first arriving on meteors works beautifully. We hope that the idea of a cosmic aspect to what’s happening in our Cannabis grows can help focus the search for a ‘cure’ for HLVd and other Cannabis diseases and invasions using a more integrated approach that might even include questioning things like quality, scale and value in the Cannabis culture.
On the question of transmissibility through Cannabis seeds it looks like the answer will be yes. The microbiome inside the Cannabis seed is full of beneficial forms of life including, if Hops research carries over to Cannabis, a lot of beneficial viroids too, so it shouldn’t surprise us that Cannabis is also host to pathogenic invaders like HLVd. The idea of viroids occurring in and being transmitted through Cannabis seed isn’t that unusual, since bacteria, viruses and fungi also inhabit the interior germplasm of seeds in nature, where they are translocated from an infected mother plant as she creates the germplasm.
More likely what is happening is that a number of viral vectors are converging on Cannabis for many of the same reasons that mono-cropping attracts biological disasters. The convergence of Hops and Cannabis science says clearly that, just like in Hops, transmission through cuttings will occur from infected mother to clone virtually 100% of the time in Cannabis. There’s also research that says it is sometimes possible to avoid cloning infected tissue by taking your cutting from high on the plant (meristem tissue), but the data show that even that approach isn’t foolproof - as do the experiences of a lot of growers.
All of the available science and best practices discovered by growers argues for seed from plants that have been isolated from HLVd for generations. Knowing the origin of your seed, and the seed that the Mother Plant came from for cuttings, gives you the best assurance that all your hard work won’t go for nothing because of something you can’t see or control. As you can see, that’s the current scientific consensus.
We hope that you’ll find some of the science we’ve curated throughout the article is useful in your understanding of Viroid pathogen issues in Cannabis. We also hope that you’re following us on Instagram and that you’ll contribute your own thoughts on Cannabis viroids and their control in the comments section.
ABOUT THE RESEARCH
We would like to share some of the most interesting research we’ve studied while trying to understand this complicated and novel challenge to our Cannabis community. As usual here on Authentic Genetics the research we cite comes largely from peer-reviewed journal articles.
The research we’ll be showing you seems clear to us - while HLVd is primarily spread “mechanically” in hop plants, meaning through contact, like with tools and machinery, or by exchange of fluids or tissues like with handling, cloning and pruning, as well as very likely by sucking insects like aphids, including the Bhang Aphid which we’ll talk about in an upcoming article. HLVd is also apparently transmitted through infected seeds in at least some hop cultivars - we’ll show you that research too.
So given all the other close similarities between Hops and Cannabis, we think that in addition to being spread through clones HLVd is probably being transmitted IN the germplasm of Cannabis seeds, and of course there’s little doubt that HLVd is being transmitted ON cannabis seeds.
So barring research findings to the contrary, it looks like the Hop Latent Viroid spreads primarily through unsafe cloning and handling and a dirty environment, kind of like unsafe sex in high traffic motels spreads STD.
Shower frequently, check the mattress for alien life, and practice safe sex with someone you know and you probably won’t get STD. Avoid recklessly cloning with strange plants in unsafe environments and grow only from trusted seed in a clean room and you probably won’t get, import or spread HLVd.
OK, that’s a little over the top, but we’re trying to make a point worth remembering about cleanliness and Cannabis grows.
The lesson we take away from the hop-related HLVd research is: clone away but always start with a Mother plant grown from known, trusted seed, and then practice safe handling every step of the way. Both of these commitments to quality critical importance now and for the future of both Medical and Adult Use Cannabis.
Some of the research we’re looking at details the impact of HLVd on the biochemistry of the Hops cone, which is in so many fascinating ways biologically parallel to Cannabis flower clusters. It’s especially fascinating to see which of the Hops terpenes are affected by HLVd and how, because Hops terps and Cannabis terps are almost identical. For example, you’ll see that HLVd infection Increases Myrcene production in Hops cones. I can’t pretend to understand the science but the narrative is pretty clear and Cannabis growers may want to look more closely at what’s going on with Hops and terpene production because it’s been studied a lot longer in Hops - for making beer - than it has in Cannabis.
Another parallel perhaps worth noting is that it appears that HLVd has very different effects on Terpene profiles depending on the Hops cultivar, which might also be expected to happen in Cannabis. The fact that some of the terpenes are increased and that the impact on yields varies significantly between Hops cultivars is very interesting. We wonder what the potential could be for modifying Cannabis terpene profiles by modifying their natural beneficial viroid populations - which have yet to be identified because we’ve just been alerted to their apparently vast and complex presence in Cannabis buds by research like this in hops.
This same area of Hops cultivar research also suggests that breeding viroid resistance into selected Cannabis cultivars might be possible. We wonder that since Cannabis and Hops evolved long ago in close proximity in the Himalaya mountains and highlands, perhaps Cannabis cultivars with pure Himalayan genetics might have more of a natural resistance to a viroid from an ancient co-evolving Hops plant that would have threatened their own reproduction - their flowering. Maybe Mother Nature didn’t allow any dudding in the Himalayas a few million years ago? With the right original Himalayan genetics could we find HLVd resistance today?
Some Curated Hops Latent Viroid Research
After browsing the following research, please come back to the Authentic Genetics Instagram website and share what you’ve learned in the comments section.
RESEARCH PAPER #1 - SELECTED EXCERPTS
“HLVd infection significantly affected the content and composition of secondary metabolites in maturated hop cones of the studied cultivars. The contents of alpha bitter acids and xanthohumol were significantly reduced in the infected hop plants of all the cultivars. The contents of monoterpenes, terpene epoxides, and terpene alcohols were increased, but the contents of sesquiterpenes and terpene ketones were decreased within essential oils in cones of infected Saaz hop plants. For this cultivar, the yield of the dry cones was also significantly reduced for both studied years.”
“Hop secondary metabolites are biosynthesized and accumulated in glandular trichomes, lupulin glands, and on the inner side of cone bracteoles and bracts. In the last two decades, numerous transcriptome and proteome studies have provided a systematic understanding of secondary metabolite biosynthesis pathways and elucidated the role of structural and regulatory genes for bitter acids, essential oils, and prenylated flavonoids biosynthesis in hop.”
“Viroid infection also influences the essential oils composition in hop cones, which contributes to the aroma flavor of beer.
“The increase of myrcene content by 38% for Wye Challenger-infected plants was first reported. Similar results were found for hop cultivars Saaz and Premiant when the content of myrcene was increased by 29% together with monoterpene pinene isomers (about a 40% increase) for infected plants.
On the contrary, all sesquiterpenes were reduced by 4.4% to 29% in cones of infected plants. From other compounds, terpene alcohols (linalool, geraniol, and methylgeranate) and epoxides were increased and ketones were decreased for infected plants.
Therefore, the composition of essential oils in hop cones is genotype-dependent and specific, and these changes cannot be general.
Trends for the content of sesquiterpenes and monoterpenes (myrcene and β-pinene) were similar within Polish hop cultivars, with the exception of myrcene for cultivar Sybilla. The content of linalool was higher for cultivars Sybillla, Lubelski, and Pulawski, but lower for cultivars Marynka and Magnat in cones of infected plants. The content of methylgeranate was lower for infected plants of all cultivars.”
AUTHENTIC GENETICS COMMENTS
The effects of HLVd infection on myrcene production alone suggest that viroids may deserve some special attention from knowledgeable Cannabis growers. Growers may want to look at the potential role of naturally-occurring viroids that are benign or even beneficial in Cannabis as potential ways to enhance specific ‘secondary metabolites’ including Terpenes and Flavonoids for their medicinal effects.
Also, we already know that specific species of beneficial phytobacteria and fungii live in Cannabis flowering tops and that healthy populations of these microorganisms means healthy flowers. Microorganisms not only contribute beneficial compounds to the flowering tops they resist intrusion by pathogenic competitors. Each zone of the Cannabis plant from root to flowering tops has its own distinctive multi-functional microbiome that researchers are just beginning to discover, while as noted above the viroid population of the Cannabis microbiome has still barely been glimpsed.
AUTHENTIC GENETICS COMMENTS
Wouldn’t it make sense that viroids would also play a part in Cannabis biology, given the very prominent role they play in Hops, and given the apparently negative impact of HLVd on Cannabis?
Doesn’t the body of this HLVd/Hops/Cannabis research suggest that Viroids are probably already playing a role, both negative and positive, and that maybe we can beneficially learn more about that role?
This seems likely to be especially true when it comes to fine-tuning Cannabis to meet medical needs. Could we learn how to tweak plant viroids to produce medicines for people and animals along with vaccinations for Cannabis plants?
RESEARCH PAPER #2 - SELECTED EXCERPTS
“Viroids are small non-capsidated, single-stranded, covalently-closed circular noncoding RNA replicons of 239-401 nucleotides that exploit host factors for their replication, and some cause disease in several economically important crop plants, while others appear to be benign. The proposed mechanisms of viroid pathogenesis include direct interaction of the genomic viroid RNA with host factors and post-transcriptional or transcriptional gene silencing via viroid-derived small RNAs (vd-sRNAs) generated by the host defensive machinery.
“Humulus lupulus (hop) plants are hosts to several viroids among which Hop latent viroid (HLVd) and Citrus bark cracking viroid (CBCVd) are attractive model systems for the study of viroid-host interactions due to the symptomless infection of the former and severe symptoms induced by the latter in this indicator host.”
Hop (Humulus lupulus L., Cannabaceae) is an economically important crop, mainly cultivated in Europe, western Asia, and North America for specific secondary metabolites, which serve as an essential component in the brewing and pharmaceutical industries.
Among other diseases, viroid diseases pose a severe threat to hop cone production. Currently, hop plants are known to be the host for four viroid species, namely Hop stunt viroid (HSVd), Apple fruit crinkle viroid (AFCVd), Hop latent viroid (HLVd), and Citrus bark cracking viroid (CBCVd).
The infection caused by HLVd has been reported worldwide in hop growing regions. Although HLVd-infected hop plants are symptomless, infection leads to a significant reduction in bitter acids content.
HSVd was first discovered in Japanese hop fields with typical symptoms being reported after 3–7 years of infection, which include stunting, leaf curling, small cone formation, and a substantial reduction of alpha-acid content.
The disease caused by AFCVd is currently restricted to Japanese hop fields, and symptoms caused by this viroid resemble those of HSVd.
Among them, the disease caused by CBCVd is the most aggressive, and symptoms appear after one year of infection. Symptoms include severe bine stunting, leaf down curling, a reduction in cone size, dry root rotting in hops after the first dormancy, and complete plant dieback in 3-5 years.
AUTHENTIC GENETICS COMMENTS
Could this last paragraph signal a potential for the Hop Stunt Viroid in particular to also cross over to Cannabis unless cloning and seed production practices change pretty radically?
RESEARCH PAPER #3 - SELECTED EXCERPTS
“Medicinal properties of terpenes found in Cannabis sativa and Humulus lupulus”
“Cannabaceae plants Cannabis sativa L. and Humulus lupulus L. are rich in terpenes - both are typically comprised of terpenes as up to 3-5% of the dry-mass of the female inflorescence.
“The current, comprehensive review presents terpenes found in cannabis and hops. Terpenes' medicinal properties are supported by numerous in vitro, animal and clinical trials and show anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, analgesic, anticonvulsive, antidepressant, anxiolytic, anticancer, antitumor, neuroprotective, anti-mutagenic, anti-allergic, antibiotic and anti-diabetic attributes, among others. Because of the very low toxicity, these terpenes are already widely used as food additives and in cosmetic products. Thus, they have been proven safe and well-tolerated.”
RESEARCH PAPER #4 - SELECTED EXCERPTS
“Elimination of hop latent viroid upon developmental activation of pollen nucleases”
AUTHENTIC GENETICS COMMENTS
This 2008 research says “Hop latent viroid (HLVd) is not transmissible through hop generative tissues and seeds.”
While this is arguable, given later research results, nothing is definitive yet as of 2021 and with the apparent differences in response among Hops cultivars there seems to be a lot yet to be learned.
It may be that, like Hops, some Cannabis cultivars can be infected but asymptomatic, while others may be (or can be bred to be) resistant. It may also be that the viroid load is affected by environmental factors under the grower’s control. And so forth. We’ve included this paper because it’s well done and has a lot of useful information whether or not it is correct about seed transmissibility.
RESEARCH PAPER #5 - SELECTED EXCERPTS
“Complete genome sequence of a hop latent virus infecting hop plants”
“The members of the genus Carlavirus in the family Betaflexiviridae are single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses. Of them, the hop latent virus (HpLV) is one of three carlaviruses that also includes hop mosaic virus and American hop latent virus.
“They infect the cones of various hop (Humulus lupulus L.) cultivars, which are important bitter flavoring agents used in the production of beer. The HpLV-infected hop plants do not show any visible symptoms, and the hop production damage caused by HpLV has not been determined. In general, HpLV is transmitted in a nonpersistent manner by both aphids and mechanical inoculation.”
RESEARCH PAPER #6 - SELECTED EXCERPTS
“CBCVd and HLVd are transmitted over long distances and introduced into citrus orchards and hop gardens with infected propagative materials. Subsequently they are transmitted mechanically, by grafting and vegetative propagation, and by contaminated tools or machinery (Barbosa et al., 2005).
There are no reports of pollen, seed, or vector transmission of CBCVd in citrus or hops (Duran-Vila and Semancik, 2003; EPPO, 2015). The reports for pollen, seed, and vector transmission of HLVd vary. There is no evidence for insect transmission (Adams et al., 1996; Mahaffee et al., 2009). However, new infections away from neighboring infected hops, led to the hypothesis that a vector may be involved in HLVd spread in hop yards (Adams et al., 1992). HLVd transmission by pollen or seed has been reported as low (Mahaffee et al., 2009; Pethybridge et al., 2008) or none (Matoušek and Patzak, 2000; Matoušek et al., 2008).
RESEARCH PAPER #7 - SELECTED EXCERPTS
“Degradation of hop latent viroid during anaerobic digestion of infected hop harvest residues”
“The fermentation trials showed that HLVd was significantly degraded after 30 days at mesophilic or after 5 days at thermophilic conditions, respectively. However, sequencing revealed that HLVd was not fully degraded even after 90 days. The incubation of hop harvest residues at different temperatures between 20 and 70 °C showed that 70 °C led to a significant HLVd degradation after 1 day. In conclusion, we suggest combining 70 °C pretreatment and thermophilic fermentation for efficient viroid decontamination.”
AUTHENTIC GENETICS COMMENTS
There’s a lot of research that shows that HLVd is sensitive to heat, and while exposing your plants to this kind of heat isn’t a practical way to treat infection, it seems to us that routine composting of all plant waste is just one of many simple things a grower can do to keep their whole environment as free of these viroids and other pathogens as possible.
FURTHER RESEARCH REFERENCES - ANTIVIRAL MILK SOAPS FOR YOUR GROW?
While it may sound strange at first, it looks like Cannabis growers can add a useful layer of anti-viral and anti-pathogen protection to their grow simply by using milk-based soap for handwashing.
Of course there are plenty of other chemical antiviral soaps and washes, but where else can you get a natural soap that has been called “The Grandmother’s Drug’ and has been used effectively for centuries for treating oral HIV infections in Europe and the Middle East?
Check the research below then consider going online and ordering some inexpensive milk soap. You may find you like it even beyond helping keep you grow safe. We prefer Goat milk soaps, but then we feel the same way about Goat yogurt and cheese.
The Remarkable Anti-Viral Properties of Milk
END OF RESEARCH REFERENCES FOR THIS ARTICLE
Thanks for joining us on this brief exploration of a topic that’s concerning a lot of people these days. We hope that by pointing to the remarkable closeness of Cannabis and Hops that we can not only help focus awareness on new possibilities for control and prevention but also on new possibilities for realizing the full potential of Cannabis as a pleasurable medicine for body and soul.
NOW HOW ABOUT A LITTLE MORE SPECULATION?
Viroids and the Origin of Life
We linked to this remarkable paper earlier in the article. This is not settled science but if you missed that link earlier here’s a taste from the intro:
“A huge meteorite (over 100 kg) spread fragments over a large area in South-West Australia in 1969, the Murchison meteorite. Chemical analyses by various research groups indicated the presence of more than 80 amino acids—a surprising number considering the 20 amino acids used by biological entities (cellular organisms and viruses) on Earth. The Murchison meteorite also contained purines and pyrimidines, the building blocks for nucleic acids, sugar-related organic compounds, and there were di-amino acids, aromatic hydrocarbons, and up to 14,000 unique carbon-containing compounds.”
Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial or Cosmic?
“Life may have been seeded here on Earth by life-bearing comets as soon as conditions on Earth allowed it to flourish (about or just before 4.1 Billion years ago); and living organisms such as space-resistant and space-hardy bacteria, viruses, more complex eukaryotic cells, fertilized ova and seeds have been continuously delivered ever since to Earth so being one important driver of further terrestrial evolution which has resulted in considerable genetic diversity and which has led to the emergence of mankind.”
Finally some sheer speculation:
DID THE ANCIENT HIMALAYAN BHANG APHID PLAY A ROLE IN THE CANNABIS HLVd EPIDEMIC?
There are good indications, but not yet full proof, that in addition to spreading through Hop clones HLVd can be spread among hop plants by aphids. There are plenty of hop fields in Oregon & Washington, and also a lot of Cannabis grows. This situation has existed since at least the 1960s, when of course the Cannabis grows were clandestine but, we can speculate, may have sometimes been nearby Hop fields. Hops and Cannabis are equally attractive to aphids, and there are species-specific aphids like the Bhang Aphid that may have arrived in North America on early European hemp after riding along from their ancient homelands in the Himalayas millenia ago. Aphids hitchhiked vigorously across continents thousands of years ago and they still do today. A little trip from Hops field to Cannabis grow wouldn’t be a stretch.
So - Could the crossover infection from Hops have originally happened with an Aphid migration to perhaps just a single clandestine Cannabis grow somewhere in Oregon or Washington, maybe 2015 or so? Maybe then those initially infected plants were cloned and sold or shared, or maybe the seeds were sold or shared. Everything considered, couldn’t it be possible that the Wuhan lab of the Cannabis HLVd pandemic was somewhere in an Oregon or Washington Hop field?
A little less dramatic but maybe more likely is that HLVd jumped from Hop plants to Hemp plants centuries ago in Europe, or maybe even millennia ago as Cannabis emerged in the high Himalayas and Hops emerged in the Himalayan lowlands in the same period of time.
Whether or not it turns out that Aphids transmit HLVd, as we all know nobody wants them, so we’re putting together an article on Aphids in general, and the Bhang Aphids in particular, with what science and experience say are the best natural controls and treatments. Please share what you know about these little beasts as a comment on this article on: @ToddPMcCormick or @AGSeedCo
Stony the worm from The Cultivators Handbook ©1970
Thoughts On Cannabis Container Soils
We get a lot of questions about the soils and amendments that we use and while we don’t have any special secrets we’re happy to share our ideas and experience. We’re also very happy to be able to include ongoing comments and new ideas on soils and amendments contributed by Authentic Genetics readers.
Buy It Or Make My Own?
Regardless of the size of your personal or small-scale grow - a couple of plants or a couple of dozen - we recommend using a high quality manufactured living soil, rather than creating your own, for any kind of container growing, indoors or outdoors.
While there are lots of recipes for making container growing soils, and some are very good, we’ve found that when you factor in the cost, the work and the results it doesn’t really save any money and it just isn’t worth it UNLESS you simply enjoy making everything yourself AND you have space to work AND access to quality ingredients like compost, manure, clean sand etc free or at a reasonable cost.
Our Recommendations
So to the point - the commercial indoor/outdoor container soil we’ve used for years, along with a lot of other experienced Cannabis growers at every scale, is the Roots Organics brand and we really like their LUSH soil blend which is designed specifically for large container Cannabis growing. We get multiple plant cycles with this soil with no problems. We believe that beginning with a rich, balanced and diverse soil microbiome maintains health, supports growth, and makes all the difference in flower yield and quality. Roots Organics uses high-end quality ingredients that create a complete living soil with balanced beneficial microorganisms. And no this is not a paid commercial - we like the stuff and people are asking us, so here goes.
What we really like about Roots Organics
Here are the ingredients Roots Organics uses across their different blends and what we think is important about each - please add your own comments and suggestions below.
Peat Moss - Peat and Sphagnum are the below-swamp and above-swamp parts of the same 350 species of moss plant that grow everywhere on earth in temperate zones. Sphagnum is harvested alive from above the surface and then dried, where Peat is dead and naturally decayed matter from the bottom of the bog. Sphagnum is pH neutral where Peat is tannic and acidic. Peat is a non-nutrient non-absorbent fiber that is great for aeration & texture, but as you can imagine with a product dug from the bottom of a swamp there’s lots of cheap crap on the market and Roots Organics uses clean, high-end Peat.
Horticultural Grade Perlite - a natural mineral that has been “popped” just like popcorn, it resists decomposition and has superior aeration qualities. Perlite quality varies and Roots Organics uses horticultural grade.
Coco Fiber or Coir - pH-neutral, non-absorbent, non-nutrient fiber that helps aerate the root zone growing environment. It varies widely in quality and Roots Organics uses top grade. Anything less and you can have serious salting up issues. As one Authentic Genetics reader said “You're better off paying the money for quality than spending a whole day washing and rinsing a cheap brick.”
Composted Forest Material - similar to forest floor composition, amended to create a fungus-rich environment; must be carefully composted selected materials to ensure slow release of beneficial tannins
Pumice - natural mineral similar in function to perlite but lasts longer and enables the fine hairs of the roots to grab better
Volcanic Rock Dust - full of trace minerals available to soil fungi and microbes for digestion and transport to the plant roots
Worm Castings - these are the magic ingredient in all soils but castings vary widely in quality from almost all dirt to pure castings. What the earthworms feed on matters a lot in the microbiome makeup of their castings and Roots Organics’s earthworms are fed a crafted diet. By the way, castings are completely different from animal manure which comes from digested living or dried plants while earthworm poop comes from digested decayed organic matter and soil minerals.
Bat Guano - this is a good source of nitrogen that is naturally “time-released” and it stimulates growth of beneficial microorganisms. The NPK profile of guano varies and how its sourced is environmentally important - another reason we like this brand.
Authentic Genetics readers have cautioned about using seabird guano - they tell us it’s persistent in the soil and stinks. We can see that easily. Ever walked too close to a seagull nest on the beach? That stuff they bomb you with is a bioweapon, not plant food.
NON-GMO Soybean & Alfalfa Meal - microorganisms break the protein molecules from these meals into amino acids, then break down those amino acids to create ammonium ions that become available as “slow-release” soil nitrogen.
Kelp Meal - helps to maintain pH balance and provides a wide range of readily available trace minerals.
Fishbone & Feather Meal - rich sources of available proteins for soil microorganisms. Feather meal is a slow-release nitrogen source and it's important that the source is organic not commercial poultry. Fish bone meal, different from fish meal, is naturally organic unlike most “bone meal” that comes from hormone-crazed, heavy-metal poisoned feedlot animals.
Greensand or "glauconite," is a key component for healthy beautiful Cannabis flowers. It’s a marine mineral rich in available potash, silica, iron oxide, magnesia, phosphoric acid, and 30+ trace minerals. Purity is important.
Beneficial mycorrhizal fungi: Funneliformis mosseae, Rhizophagus intraradices, and Septoglomus desertícola. Healthy fungi populations are critical to your plant’s absorption of minerals and nutrients.
Some Of Our Thoughts On Soil pH
Cannabis thrives when the soil is slightly acidic. If pH rises above 6.5 the plant’s energy progressively diminishes because essential minerals and nutrients become less available. The acid-based processes that absorb and transfer these essential minerals and nutrients are reduced and finally eliminated as alkalinity rises in soils. We agree with several comments from readers that a deeper understanding is needed by all of us of what pH is, how it affects Cannabis specifically and our gardens in general, and what growers need to know to manage pH in different environments. We’re working on an article to begin to address that.
The alkali flats of the Western US are an example of totally alkaline lifeless soil. Well, OK, there are plants that grow even in pure salt and alkali, but nothing you would want to smoke or eat.
So when the soil is mildly acidic, minerals like iron, copper, zinc and manganese become more soluble and more available to the fungi and microbes that translocate these minerals to the plant’s roots. There’s a balance however - too much of any nutrient, or an imbalance of nutrients, can lead to toxicity and growth disturbance.
One of the reasons that it’s so difficult to treat what looks like specific nutrient deficiencies by applying just that nutrient or micronutrient is that each nutrient functions as part of a soil/microbiome/plant ecosystem. Sometimes it’s perfectly possible to see a symptom, diagnose it and remedy it, but just like some folks take way more vitamins than they really need, some growers can’t resist using exotic plant growth supplements to tweak their plants. Not saying they can’t help - just saying that more vitamins don’t always make you more healthy.
That’s one of the main reasons that so many growers rely on earthworm castings and earthworm castings tea as a complete foliar spray - because the nutrients, minerals, enzymes and acids are always in perfect balance - nature’s balance. Growers will tell you that you can’t tox out your plants with earthworm castings, but please pay attention to the words “foliar spray”. Use worm casting tea only for leaf-feeding since nobody wants to spray earthworm tea or anything else on flowers that people are going to inhale or ingest.
You could even grow Cannabis in 100% earthworm castings if you wanted to - it would be pretty expensive and not at all necessary, but possible. Earthworm poop is the only poop that you can actually grow green plants in because truly is pure dirt - organic matter and minerals plus all the other goodies the earthworms found and ate and digested and pooped out while crawling beneath the earth.
Cow, sheep, horse, and chicken poop are all digested plant materials from above ground, but earthworm poop is digested dirt, minerals, fungi, bacteria, and decaying organic materials from below ground. Just intuitively, much less technically, you can see why worm castings are completely different from animal manure.
What has been your experience with worm castings?
A Few Cautions
Everybody’s working with a little different situation, and the Roots Organic soils that we like to use may not suit you, so if you’re looking around at all the available growing media options here are some things we hope you’ll pay attention to:
Is Lithium In Groundwater Worth Attention?
An Authentic Genetics reader brings up the question of Cannabis feeding on toxic heavy metal salts, which got us thinking about Lithium in groundwater. While the topic is not widely discussed, Lithium is a widespread and potentially important heavy metal in the environment that may be affecting Cannabis grows that depend on groundwater from wells. Water from public water system wells is treated for Lithium and other heavy metals but private wells may be another matter. Attention to groundwater quality clearly goes beyond Lithium, but we bring Lithium up here because it is less widely recognized and looked for as a possible growth inhibitor in groundwater, and it is widely distributed in Cannabis growing areas of the US.
We do want to say upfront that Lithium and most other heavy metal salts are easily handled by a good Reverse Osmosis system.
The good news about Lithium in the water is that there’s a lot of research that shows that people living in areas of high lithium content in the drinking water experience fewer suicides, fewer violent crimes, and fewer severe psychiatric events. Well, maybe so. El Paso is extremely high in Lithium, and their violence/crime stats are pretty cool. Then too, SoCal well water looks pretty rich in Lithium and there’s that legendary California mellowness, even before Cannabis. Hmmm. There’s also a lot of medical discussions around Lithium and Cannabis, but that’s not the focus of this article.
So human behavior aside, the mildly bad news for growers is that there’s a lot of research showing that Lithium is toxic to plants Here’s a graphic look at Lithium in the public water supply well water in Cannabis-growing states. Since lithium is toxic to Cannabis, with effects apparently ranging from asymptomatic to stunted wilted growth, if well water in these areas is being used without being filtered or tested and growers are having issues they might want to consider lithium as a culprit.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969720382243?via%3Dihub
Why We Think Living Soil Is Important - Outdoors or Indoors
Living soil for a plant is like breast milk for a baby - nothing is better, and nothing more is needed for a perfect start in life. If you start your plant out with living soil, you won’t ever have to waste your money on fancy soil supplements, plant vitamins, etc. You may want to, and you may feel compelled to, but you won’t have to in order to raise beautiful plants. If you provide clean water, strong light, comfortable dark, enough space, good humidity and moving air then the living soil will do its job and sustain the growth of this miraculous being.
Given soil, water and light, a Cannabis seed knows exactly what to do. There’s not a lot a grower needs to screw around with other than to be attentive to the basics and keep an eye out for diseases and predators.
If the soil is living and balanced the plant can take all the nutrients it needs to grow and thrive, with a lot of help from the soil’s living microbiome, but without a lot of “supplements” from the grower.
Humic acid is a great example. Yes it’s great for plants. In fact they can’t do without it. But wait a minute please. Humic acid is produced naturally during the breakdown of organic matter that along with minerals produces soil, and while Humic Acid is essential for plants, like a lot of nutrients for both plants and people, more is not better and too much can be toxic. If you are starting with and maintaining a living soil there will already be balanced and available Humic acid along with all the other essential nutrients that come naturally from living soil processes.
Toxicity can’t happen with living soil. The natural decomposition processes that create soil are driven mostly by bacteria, fungi, and earthworms. When the earthworms digest the decaying organic matter their gut works miracles including the production of just the right balance of humic acid and other acids and enzymes in their poop, all of which goes back into the soil where along with digested minerals and other good stuff it gets transported to the plant’s roots. In just the right amounts, in just the right balance. If your plants have a good living soil to feed on they do not need extra humic acid or extra much anything else - in fact, it could sicken or kill them.
An Authentic Genetics reader talks about Cannabis growers who “use 40 products for every function”. We’re reminded of snake oil. It always sold well at old-time traveling carnivals, and so did 5 cent Tickets to “See The Egress”. You paid your money and went through the one-way door to the outside. The Egress trick only worked once on the rubes and the carnies must have frequently had to leave town fast, but they also must have sold enough tickets to make it worthwhile because the trick is now carnival legend. We mention it because of what it says about gullibility and how easy it is for clever people who spot a widespread vulnerability to exploit it.
In the old days the carnies knew that people didn’t have a good vocabulary and were impressed by scientific-sounding words. Hence - they would pay to see the Egress. Today the equivalent of old-time carnies understand that people can easily become fanatical about their plants, which makes them vulnerable to “snake oil” advertising for those 40 products the reader mentioned. Not that all supplements are bad, or without real usefulness, or fake - not at all. As we know supplements are often the key to plant health and flowering. But what we’re talking about is the vulnerability of some growers, especially newbies, to the suggestion that maybe they aren’t giving their precious babies everything they need. Good advice to parents - calm down and relax and the child will do just fine. Good advice for us all.
Finally, another thoughtful Authentic Genetics reader commented that “Soil/organics brings out passionate fanatics, who in their well meaning earnestness, talk a lot of crap about soil/organic and frequently employ a full stack of the logical fallacies to defend/promote their beliefs.” Very true, and it happens everywhere in life doesn’t it? Passionate beliefs that you hold privately and share with others thoughtfully are wonderful, but when that passion turns into zeal to preach at others, the limits are quickly reached. Whatever works best for each of us is what’s important in the end, and sharing and discussing ideas is the way we all learn what’s best for ourselves.
Down The Rabbit Hole: Thoughts On Worms, Worm Poop, & Beautiful Flowers
Whether you have living earthworms or only their castings in your growing soil, indoors or outdoors, here’s our understanding of what goes on between earthworms, earthworm poop, soil fungi and microorganisms, the roots of your Cannabis plant, the light falling on its leaves and its flowers. We think it’s pure magic.
While passing earth’s organic matter and minerals through their amazing gut, that magic gut nurtures and multiplies the soil’s mycorrhizal and related fungi and hosts of beneficial bacteria while killing a wide range of pathogens. These energized fungi and microorganisms in turn produce acids that break down inorganic minerals like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, copper, and iron along with all the vital trace elements, and then the fungi and bacteria work together to transport those absorbed minerals to the roots of the plant.
Why they do that is part of the miracle. We’ll get to that in a jiffy.
Those absorbed and transported minerals are why veggies grown in soil heavily treated with fungicides taste so bland - all the beneficial fungi and soil microbes are dead, so there are no minerals being transported to the roots of the veggies. Think of commercial vs garden tomatoes and you’ll understand exactly what earthworms and living soil do. Also hydroponic tomatoes vs soil-grown tomatoes - they taste different, right? The difference is that no amount of man-made chemistry can supply what the earthworm’s gut supplies nor can it replace the earthworm gut-to-fungi-to-plant root cycle in living soil.
Playing its part in this dance of life, the growing Cannabis plant sends most of the complex sugars it produces from solar energy falling on its leaves down to its roots, feeding and supporting the mycorrhizal fungi and the accompanying soil organisms as they increase mineral production to support growth and respond to the plant’s signals as the balance of its needs change from vegetative to flowering stages.
This downward flow of plant sugars is the reason the fungi and bacteria cluster around the plant’s roots in the first place, happily eating earthworm poop, digesting minerals, and trading those minerals with the plant for sugars. Minerals for sugars. It’s a solid deal for everybody.
Once the broken-down minerals are transported to the plant through its roots the process of chelation begins, with the plant again using solar energy to bind free amino acids to the minerals making them fully available for its use in growth and flowering. Plants need these organic minerals, along with other nutrients, to thrive, to grow and especially to flower.
Not at all coincidentally, all animals need these chelated minerals to survive. Plants are the only source of digestible minerals for animals - like us. We can’t get them from the soil, except maybe salt licks. No plants, no minerals, no sugars, no animals.
To conclude this discussion of soil, here are some very cool worm poop references - all peer reviewed journal research. Be sure to share links to your own favorite Cannabis soil and poop research references in the comments!
“Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria for Cannabis Production: Yield, Cannabinoid Profile and Disease Resistance”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6698789/
This research discusses the wide range of biological soil processes and characteristics that impact Cannabis growth and flowering and that are affected by the mucous component of earthworm castings.
The mucous is the lining of the earthworm’s gut where all the magic takes place, that is steadily shed and mixed in with the minerals and organic materials the earthworms are consuming as they eat their way through the soil, leaving their mucus-coated castings behind. As we’ve noted above, the best soils are rich in earthworm castings.
“Effects of earthworm casts and compost on soil microbial activity and plant nutrient availability”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0038071702002791
“Role of earthworms' mucus in vermicomposting system: Biodegradation tests based on humification and microbial activity”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28822937/
“Disentangling the influence of earthworms in sugarcane rhizosphere”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5156904
Store seeds in small containers and include a desiccant; clean, dry seeds remain viable at refrigerator temperatures for easily 20 and more years. High temperatures, temperature swings, and high humidity are ruinous for seeds. For very long term storage, glass or metal containers are recommended by seed archivists, but I've used film canisters with great success.
Do not store in baggies as these may leak or break, particularly if taken in and out of storage. Most plastics actually “leak” after time, but film canisters are especially tough and impermeable and keep contents reliably dry. Storing seeds in plastic baggies is particularly bad.
Glass jars are impermeable, but leakage may come through their covers, and more desiccants must be used in larger containers. Divide seeds among many small containers as any one failure is not a total disaster.
Refrigeration is my preferred, long-term storage solution and I’ve had 100% germination with seeds stored more than 20 years.
I’ve had less experience with frozen seeds, but had almost 100% germination with seeds frozen for 15 years. However, some were weaker than refrigerated seeds—their embryonic leaves had gray areas, indicating dead or dying tissue, but with tender care, 90% grew into strong, normal plants (photo below).
The photo shows Skunk #1 seeds with tissue damage after being frozen for 14 years.
This may have had to do with a freezer failure during this time. That convinced me that refrigeration was better, as refrigerator failure would not be as deleterious to seeds going from cold to household temperatures than frozen to thawed. Seeds cannot be taken in and out of a frozen state without harm, but can, in my experience, be taken out of refrigeration for short periods as long as stored with desiccants.
–Mel Frank
Below is a wonderfully in depth article about seed preservation.
A GUIDE TO LONG-TERM SEED PRESERVATION
Purple expressions in cannabis genetics are natural and are largely dependent on the flavonoids within the flower.
Many people in the cannabis community wrongly think that flavonoids (or bioflavonoids; from the Latin word flavus, meaning yellow) have something to do with flavor, but in fact, it has to do with color.
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Purple expressions in cannabis genetics are natural and are largely dependent on the flavonoids within the flower.
Many people in the cannabis community wrongly think that flavonoids (or bioflavonoids; from the Latin word flavus, meaning yellow) have something to do with flavor, but in fact, it has to do with color.
Depending on the variety of cannabis, expressions of purple are commonly found in Afghan, Pakistan, Hindu Kush genetics, sometimes only expressing the darker tones in a colder climate or with a cold snap around harvest.
So in short, nobody made purple cannabis, mother nature is solely responsible.
Mostly the Afghan genetics are the genetics responsible for the purple colors in broad leaflet cannabis, but I have also seen purple expressions in 100-percent Colombian, Original Haze (seeds of which we will be offering shortly).
Two of the earliest purple cultivars to be circulated around northern California as cuttings were:
Purple Kush, which was a cross of Hindu Kush and Afghan, was released as a cutting by a local Bay Area cannabis company called Trichome Technologies in or around 1995/96. I think that this initial cutting was responsible for a lot of the purple that was subsequently bred by Northern California growers to create even more purple varieties.
The grower who owns Trichome Technologies is named Kenneth Morrow and has been very innovative in both breeding and extraction. You can see some of his writings here.
Sometime after 2000, GDP or Granddaddy Purple started to become popular and is incorrectly associated with a Bay Area activist by the name of Ken Estes, but Ken did not breed it and had nothing to do with its inception. Ken was just another person who was given a cutting and change the name of it.
In a Youtube video, you can see Ken tell the real story, which is that he got it from somebody else.
Cuttings (clones) have been circulating around California since the 90’s and sadly many people have been quick to take credit for other people’s work and have changed the name of varieties to pretend that they came up with it, when in fact it is an exact DNA copy of a cutting already circulating, as we started to see when the cannabis community began to do DNA testing through a company called Phylos.
Please see this “clone group” of "31 cuts”, of GDP, which means that the exact same DNA has been tested and came in under damn near 31 different names.
Because of this discrepancy in genetic labeling, it makes it really hard for breeders and historians like myself, to take origin stories within the cannabis community that seriously.
Click here to see some of the authentic purple genetics we offer!
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I am going to share with you my recipe for health and well-being. Over 20 years ago I was already rather high and staring at my Marinol bottle, earlier that day I had just used an A/B two-part epoxy earlier that day to fix something in my house, and it got me thinking about how cannabis works to help and heal our bodies.
If cannabis was approaching you with all of it’s healing powers, in one hand would be the trichomes that contain the cannabinoids and terpenes, and in the other hand, would be the hemp seed, with its complex proteins and perfect balance of essential fatty acids.
]]>I am going to share with you my recipe for health and well-being.
Over 20 years ago I was already rather high and staring at my Marinol bottle, earlier that day I had just used an A/B two-part epoxy to fix something in my house, and it got me thinking about how cannabis works to help and heal our bodies.
If cannabis was approaching you with all of it’s healing powers, in one hand would be the trichomes that contain the cannabinoids and terpenes, and in the other hand, would be the hemp seed, with its complex proteins and perfect balance of essential fatty acids.
Marinol is a synthetic version of THC called Dronabinol, suspended in sesame oil and encapsulated within gelatin. It is a single synthetic molecule of THC devoid of any terpenes and has useful, although limited, medical effectivity, especially when compared to the cannabis plant’s many cannabinoids and terpenes working together in an ensemble effect.
On that memorable night, while staring at my Marinol bottle, I got the idea of cannabis giving us the two-part solution to our medical needs. What if I replace sesame oil with hemp seed oil, and dronabinol, with all of the cannabinoids and terpenes found within the trichomes. I thought to myself, that would truly be full-spectrum cannabis medicine.
So I scooped up some trichomes, as I had piles of resin powder under my collection screens, and I went to the refrigerator and grabbed some hemp seed oil, poured some into a frying pan and heated it up on very low heat while I poured my resin powder/trichomes into the warming oil and watched it melt into the oil. Do to my enthusiasm to get high, I heated it up for a while to let it decarboxylate, and then took it off the heat and put some oil on toast, and not too long after that, well actually, I don’t remember much after that, and I don’t remember falling asleep, but when I woke up, I came to the conclusion that, the oil might be a bit too strong. The next day my girlfriend used some of the oil to make muffins, and my suspicions were confirmed, as everybody who ate the muffins got really really high.
So I started experimenting with using cold hemp seed oil placed in the refrigerator with resin powder/trichomes, and indeed, the oil acts as a solvent and dissolved away most of the trichomes after a few days. I was able to strain out the remaining parts of the plant that would not dissolve such as the leaf material, pistols, and the non-glanduler stalks.
A Bit of Cannabinoid History
“In 1840, Schlesinger was apparently the first investigator to obtain an active extract from the leaves and flowers of hemp. A few years later, Decourtive described the preparation of an ethanol extract that on evaporation of the solvent gave a dark resin, which he named “cannabin.”” Cannabinoids in health and disease - Natalya M. Kogan, MSc
In the early 1940s, a researcher named Roger Adams identified and synthesized cannabidiol, (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN). Then in 1942, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), was extracted by Wollner, Matcheett, Levine and Loewe.
While Raphael Mechoulam is a hero to cannabis research, he often mistakenly credited with the discovery of these compounds, more appropriately he should be credited with elucidating the effects of CBD and THC by isolating them from cannabis which he did in 1963 with CBD, and in 1964 with THC, and then synthesizing both compounds in 1965.
In 1988 the first receptors for THC were found in a rat’s brain. Then in 1990, science confirmed there was an abundance of what we now call the CB1 receptors, which are found mostly in our brain and spinal cord, and then in 1993, we found the CB2 receptors, which are located throughout our bodies, primarily on immune cells.
Once the first cannabinoid receptor was discovered, scientists set out to discover if these CB1 and CB2 receptors were just the targets of phytocannabinoids (cannabinoids made by plants), or if we could be making similar compounds that fit these newly found receptors naturally.
In 1992, scientists found an endogenous compound within us that activated the CB1, and later we learned that it also activates our CB2 receptors, and it was named ”Anandamide”. “Ananda” being the Sanskrit word for bliss, joy or happiness, and “Amide”, which is an organic compound. Scientists describe Anandamide as being the bliss molecule which we all create within us.
These discoveries brought scientists to the realization that we have within us all, a very active and very important, EndoCannabinoid System or E.C.S..
Your E.C.S - The EndoCannabinoid System
We all have within us an endocannabinoid system, it modulates practically all aspects of our life and is mostly responsible for what we call homeostasis, which is literally the balance of our bodily functions.
Oxford defines homeostasis as:
“n. the physiological process by which the internal systems of the body (e.g. blood pressure, body temperature, acid-base balance) are maintained at equilibrium, despite variations in the external conditions.”
Needless to say, homeostasis is important, which is why, when people suffer from a lack of cannabinoids, they can experience what science calls; “Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency”, which can happen when a person has no access to phytocannabinoids (cannabinoids made by cannabis), and at the same time, their bodies may not be making sufficient endocannabinoids to maintain the operating efficiency of their own internal endocannabinoid system.
You may be asking to yourself; “Why wouldn’t my body be making enough endocannabinoids?” And it’s a great question, but currently, science is not that sure about any of this stuff. I would however say that people who crave cannabis, may not be making enough endocannabinoids to balance their ECS naturally, and by using cannabis and it’s phytocannabinoids, they are balancing their own internal endocannabinoid deficiency.
One of the things researchers have connected is the role that essential fatty acids (EFA’s) play in being the fundamental building blocks of endocannabinoids. Without a sufficient amount of them in your diet, your body could well not be able to make the endocannabinoids that it needs to balance your everyday function and enable your immune system to work at its highest potential.
Omega-3 fatty acids (EFA’s) are expensive, and lacking in most of the food you eat, and because of this dietary obstacle most of us face, unless you are supplementing omega-3 fatty acids in your diet, you’re probably not getting enough of them.
The Two Oils of Cannabis
There's a lot of confusion created by some of the marketing around what so many people call “hemp-oil”, which was traditionally referring to the oil pressed from the seed, but recently people who have been marketing CBD, have been referring to CBD oil extract also as hemp oil, because it benefits their marketing, because the confusion of CBD being legal or not in many places. You see, hemp seed oil is legal everywhere, and CBD oil is not legal everywhere, although it should be, and with the passage of the 2018 farm bill that legalized hemp, it is in most instances legal.
Hemp Seed Oil & Hulled Hempseed
Hemp seed oil is nature's most perfectly balanced oil, with a 3 to 1 ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3, as well as containing GLA, Gamma-Linolenic Acid, and all of which are essential to human development and in many respects, essential fatty acids are part of the fundamental building blocks of life. I encourage everybody reading this to look into what I'm saying and learn about why you should be adding EFA’s into your diet immediately.
In 1992, there was a movie released that was based upon a true story called; Lorenzo's Oil, it was a story about a child who had a hereditary disease and his parents were combining olive oil with canola oil, in order to achieve a 4 to 1 ratio of w-6 to w-3. Since that time, science has come to believe that a 3 to 1 ratio is better for human consumption. Hemp seed oil is the only oil on the planet that has this perfect ratio. Hemp seed oil is more healing and better for you than even the miracle oil highlighted within the film.
Charts by: Richard Rose and The Hempnut Cookbook
Back in 1994 Dr. Roberta Hamilton taught me that hemp seed was more nutritious than human breast milk and cows milk and I never understood it until I saw this chart.
If you choose to consume the whole seed, hemp seed has more protein than just about anything other than soy, but, soy has digestibility issues and the protein from hemp seed is more readily available and easily digestible than soy, so truly hemp seed should be number one on the list.
I use about 1 teaspoon (5 grams) of hempseed oil per 50 pounds of body weight per day and I recommend Nutiva Hempseed Oil.
Oil of Trichomes
Within the walls of the trichomes are the cannabinoids and terpenes that make you love cannabis. All of the healing you will ever experience comes from these cannabinoids and terpenes.
These cannabinoids, interact with the receptors within you called CB1 and CB2, to modulate almost all aspects of your everyday bodily functions. Which is why so many people who are using even just CBD, are feeling the positive effects of a well-fed endocannabinoid system.
You do not need to feel the euphoric effects of THC, to feel better.
I’ve come to the realization that one of the best aspects of cannabis as a smoked medicine, is the fact that it is self titrating, as you feel when you should put the joint down. And as any heavy smoker knows, the more you use cannabis, the less you feel it, but still, even though you’re not feeling it as if it was the first time you smoked, your body is still utilizing those chemicals to balance your every day being.
But you may be thinking, how do you use cannabis without feeling the euphoric effects, and that would be a very good question, so let me explain.
Cannabinopathic Medicine
Dr. Lester Grinspoon came up with this new term: “Cannabinopathic Medicine”, which basically means treating your endocannabinoid system with cannabinoids, be it either phyto or endo-cannabinoids.
You can read his paper at his website:
http://rxmarijuana.com/cannabinopathic_medicine.htm
And also on the Americans for Safe Access website:
https://www.safeaccessnow.org/cannabinopathic_medicine_lester_grinspoon_m_d_s_new_coinage
Dr. Grinspoon points out that Cannabis is the only plant that makes these keys to our ECS called cannabinoids, that fit into the locks in our brain and body and unlocks the healing powers of cannabis.
The Endocannabinoid System establishes cannabis and it’s cannabinoids not only as a medicine, but as the only medicine that modulates our endocannabinoid system.
Dr. Lester Grinspoon (June 24th, 1928 - June 25th, 2020) in front of a portrait of his son Danny who passed away from cancer and was one of the first modern medical cannabis patients who was using cannabis to help with chemotherapy treatments back in 1969. Photo: ©2014 Todd McCormick
Cannabimimetic Plants
One of the many things that Dr. Grinspoon emphasizes, is that while there are other plants that make similar compounds to cannabinoids, which are called “cannabimimetics”, they do not work the same way as cannabinoids with our CB1 and CB2 receptors. He explained to me that they were like similar keys that fit in a group of locks, but would not turn and in order for the healing powers of the receptor to work, the key must turn. Which is why cannabis is so important to the greater good of humanity, and must be recognized as the important medicine it is.
Terpenes
Using the metaphor of an airplane; the cannabinoids are the engines that get you going and get you high, and the terpenes are the rudders which direct and enhance the experience.
A simple experiment to see and feel how important terpenes are, is to get a bud that is properly cured and extremely fragrant, roll a joint, or smoke a bowl and get a familiarity with its full potential, and then leave that same flower out and exposed overnight or for a couple of days till it becomes dry and devoid of fragrance, and smoke it again. All the cannabinoids are still present, but the terpenes have evaporated away, and in doing so, changed the effect of the flower.
The best way to capture these terpenes is by not heating them off in the first place or allowing them to over dry or be lost at harvest. Keep your bags of flowers closed and learn how to properly store your cannabis prior to use.
Decarboxylation
You’ve all done it, every time you smoke a joint or burn a bowl, you have removed a carboxyl group and released carbon dioxide and in turn, activated the THCA into euphoric and psychoactive THC. In order to feel the euphoric effects of cannabis, you have to decarboxylate the material, but that is not the case for truly experiencing the medical effects of cannabinoids, which is experiencing homeostasis and balance within your own body. This is why so many people are experiencing positive effects from using CBD products that do not otherwise make them feel euphoric, but make them feel good.
Phytocannabinoid Enriched Hemp Seed Oil
I have been mixing phytocannabinoids into my hemp seed oil for a long time and I recommend that you do too.
You simply need to use 100% pure cold pressed hemp seed oil and start consuming it in order to benefit from the perfect balance of omega-3 fatty acids. I recommend that you use it externally on your skin and that you replace some of the other oils that you use throughout the day, such as on your salad, on your toast, and even in your smoothie, with hemp seed oil.
In order to make your own phytocannabinoid enriched hemp seed oil, all you have to do is grind up some cannabis flowers and put them in a glass jar, fill it up with hemp seed oil, and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few days. The natural solvent of hemp seed oil will dissolve the trichomes with its cannabinoids and terpenes into the hemp seed oil with no loss of the terpenes or decarboxylation to the cannabinoids.
You can then strain the vegetable material from the oil and consume the oil, it really is that simple.
BHO/Shatter
My personal favorite is to take some butane hash oil/shatter, which is only just cannabinoids and terpenes, and letting it dissolve in the hemp seed oil, that way, you can start with a known amount of cannabinoids and terpenes (if you happen to live in a legal state where they are testing the product).
Add the shatter to a known amount of hemp seed oil, say 1 ounce, so that you can know the dosing, if the gram of shatter has 80% (about 800mg) THC and 3% terpenes, then you know that is what you put that in an ounce of hemp seed oil, you will have an ounce of oil with about 800mg of THC. And because it is not decarboxylated, you will be able to ingest the healing cannabinoids without the distraction of getting high or feeling the euphoric effects of cannabis at an inappropriate time, such as when you’re at work or going to school. Children who suffer from seizures would benefit from this approach the most.
But there is often reason to feel euphoric effects of THC, as in cases of depression or nightmares or intense pain. And that can be achieved by simply heating up the BHO/shatter before putting it into the hemp seed oil, as any shatter will decarboxylate completely at 300° fahrenheit in about one hour. Let it cool and then add it to the hemp seed oil, as you do not want to heat up the hemp seed oil, because it damages the EFA’s, which is why I recommend you keep the hemp seed oil in the refrigerator at all times.
DOSING
Nobody can tell you proper dosing, I know there are a lot of doctors trying to do so, but they are just guessing whether they want to admit it or not. The truth is that so little is known about how these compounds work with different metabolisms or against different diseases and more research indeed needs to be done.
Because the dosing is unknown for each person, you have to experiment in experiencing the beneficial medical benefits of cannabinoids and EFA’s yourself and finding what works best for you and the ones you love.
I often get asked about RSO or Rick Simpson Oil, and I always dissuade people from using it. The alcohol and ethanol solvents that they use to extract the cannabinoids are often toxic and leave an incredible amount of residue and make the oil unpalatable and often downright disgusting. Also, the heating of the alcohol evaporates away the terpenes and decarboxylates the cannabinoids, which is not something you always want to have happen. And unlike the phytocannabinoid enriched hemp seed oil that I describe above, RSO contains no EFA’s and is not a source of nutrients.
I hope this helps you to better understand your relationship with cannabis, and how it can help heal you.
I will soon be releasing my next book:
From Cancer to Cannabis: The Essential Guide to the EndoCannabinoid System,
With a contribution by: Robert C. Clarke
]]>I wrote an article for Grow Magazine that I think is important to everybody growing. it talks about vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and how important it is to maintaining a healthy garden.
Enjoy -
]]>By: Todd McCormick (Originally published in Grow Magazine 2019)
What is Powdery Mildew?
Unfortunately, powdery mildew really is a mystery to science and many growers, some believe PM a systemic pathogen that permeates via the plant’s vascular system, others believe is it superficial pest that spreads across the plant’s surface, either way, it is a common problem to many indoor and greenhouse growers. I have had my share of problems with it, I tried everything and sometimes, everything I tried only seemed to only get worse.
Fortunately, a couple years ago I started researching VPD, which stands for “Vapor Pressure Deficit” and I started to think that lack of humidity, could be a bigger problem than I thought.
Most of the time, growers rely upon transpiration and evaporation for their minimum humidity requirements, and while that may work in some parts of the country that are naturally more humid, in places like California, and high in the Colorado Rockies, I have come to realize that it really doesn't work at all.
Initially I tried small humidifiers that really did not make a difference to the room’s overall humidity. So I stepped up to a larger “Portacool” brand unit that I purchased at the local Home Depot, which is essentially a large swamp cooler that stands vertically and connects to a garden hose for constant water filling as it runs. Water is pumped over a membrane while a fan draws the humidified air through and instantly, my room felt like a rainforest, I went from humidity levels between 30% and 40%, up to 60% and 70%, and what a wonderful difference it made.
What I feel that happens is that, in a dry environment, the cuticle layer of wax/oil that accumulates on the leaf surface, dries up and causes the leaf to no longer work. Leafs have small pores that open and close in order to release oxygen and take in carbon dioxide, they are called stoma or stomata. And much like your own lips, stomata don't work as well when they are dried up. Once this cuticle layer of wax is dried off of the leaf, it is gone forever.
When a leaf is supple and pliable it is most healthy and has a thick coating of cuticle layer wax on its leaves, this wax serves as a protectant against everything from insects and UV, to powdery mildew and more. Science is only beginning to understand the important role that the cuticle layer of wax plays in a plant’s overall health.
In hash oil extraction, winterization is actually the process of separating the cannabinoid and terpene rich oil created by the trichome, with the not so tasty or psychoactive wax created by the leaf. If ever you have dabbed oil or shatter made from leaf material, you have tasted that waxy layer pulled off the leaf, and it was probably rather unpleasant.
While that leaf wax is nowhere near as nice as the oil created by the trichomes, it is no less important to the plant. Once the plant gets dry for too long, and that waxy cuticle layer is thin or totally gone, the leaf becomes nothing but a host for whatever pathogen happens to be floating by, photosynthesis stops, and the leaf becomes nothing more than a drain on the plant’s energy.
I would make the comparison to trying to grow a cannabis plant in too dry of an environment, as the same as trying to drive a car across a desert with just water and no antifreeze/coolant in the radiator, you may make it, but it's way more prone to overheat, and while you plant may make it through a dry environment, it's more than likely to have problems associated with lack of humidity.
Powdery mildew mostly attacks plants in dry environmental conditions, even if the plant is in a greenhouse or outside, depending on the environmental conditions leading up to the infestation of powdery mildew, I would now blame it on mother nature giving you add dryer condition than you expected and your plants suffering. I'll be the first person to admit that for a long time I really didn't take minimum humidity requirements into consideration, and I inadvertently dried the wax off of the leafs inadvertently.
If the leaf dries up and the stomata can not open and close the leaf is useless to the plant.
Since I have been operating my plants in a proper vapor pressure deficit range, which translates into around 60% to 80% humidity for mother plants, depending on the room temperature, I have completely eliminated powdery mildew from my three mother rooms, two flower rooms, and a greenhouse. I have over a 100 well known cultivars in my collection and none of them suffer from powdery mildew anymore. The environmental condition that felt good to me to work in, mid-70s at lower than 40% humidity, was negatively affecting my plants ability to transpire.
Adding to my problem, the MH and HPS lights that I was using before LED, created microclimates of heat just above my canopy that was a literally heating away the cuticle layer of wax on my leaf surfaces and exasperating the problem. Making it even worse, the air conditioners that I had to run to cool off my HID lamps further dried my environment and compromised my plants ability to transpire.
So what up really come to realize is that in order to grow a very healthy plant, you have to maintain that cuticle layer of wax on the leaf in order for the plan to be able to defend itself. using high alkaline foliar sprays further washes away the cuticle layer of wax on the leaf and makes many problems worse, and not at all better.
Now I recommend to my friends that they maintain their mother rooms at around 75˚ at 75% humidity, and their flower rooms slightly cooler at 72˚, and 70% humidity for the first 3 weeks, and once flowers start to develop, that they drop their humidity to about 60% and maintain the 72˚ temp.
But with cannabis, one size does not fit all cultivars, more Northern varieties of cannabis should have lower humidity levels further into flowering in order to avoid mold which can grow easily within dense flowers, on the other hand, tropical varieties of cannabis that originate near the equator, can maintain higher humidity levels without mold issues. So please be mindful that your mileage may vary depending on the cultivar you happen to be growing, and the environment you happen to be growing it in.
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]]>I had a female of Nevil's Haze since 2004, and in 2012 I went to Skunkman Sam and I asked him if I could get the Original Haze that he provided Nevil in the 80s.
Sam was kind enough to send me home with seeds of Original Haze. Not long after, I selected a male and back crossed my Nevil’s Haze to make it just a bit more Hazy. Their prodigy came out spectacular.
]]>I had a female of Nevil's Haze since 2004, and in 2012 I went to Skunkman Sam and I asked him if I could get the Original Haze that he provided Nevil in the 80s.
Sam was kind enough to send me home with seeds of Original Haze. Not long after, I selected a male and back crossed my Nevil’s Haze to make it just a bit more Hazy. Their prodigy came out spectacular.
ON Haze
Want to know where Original Haze came from? Read the story here
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