“Cannabis is a very tissue culture resistant plant. There are certain plants that are that way,” says Lauren Avenuis, CEO of Node Labs, explaining why it took so long for the technology to become viable for cannabis. “So, like avocados, grape vines, they just don’t like to go into micropropagation. They don’t like that kind of replication. And since cannabis is an annual plant, it likes to grow from a seed, flower, and die.”

The scientists working with Node, a small lab located within an unassuming red barn in rural Petaluma, California, spent years studying tissue culture before discovering the methodology that made stem cell technology for cannabis work. Now that they have, their facility houses an impressive bank of cannabis genetics. It causes a few snickers when I say it aloud, but being inside a room filled with shelves devoted to tissue culture clones, each in their own container, reminds me of being in a pet store aquarium. All the plants are growing within a clear jelly-like substance derived from seaweed called agar, allowing their whole root structure to be seen. They are terrariums that hold the story of pot’s past, present, and future.

Chief Science Officer Chris Leavitt walks me through the procedures at Node by explaining that plants, unlike humans, do not have an awareness of their entire body.

“[Plants] are a colony of cells that are attached to each other,” Leavitt says. “So if a stem is receiving all the like sap that it would be getting normally in the agar, it doesn’t even know that it’s not still attached to the plant. You can grow plant parts in tissue culture in a way you cannot grow outside. You can grow a dissection of just a leaf or just a stem… you can really break the rules of typical plant growing by having it in that setting.”

My tour at Node starts in the pre-fab clean room where the media, the agar, is mixed within an autoclave, a device designed for sterilization. This room is also where the other tools used for the tissue culture process, such as scissors and jars, are sterilized. I put on a second set of surgical booties before heading into the growth chamber and transfer room, where I watch the hot agar being dispensed into the same clear plastic containers I see in the bulk food section of my local grocery store. Within this room, the air quality is at ISO 8, a measure that contains a thousand specks of dust within a cubic yard that is also used in electronic and medical manufacturing. All the sterilization and air cleanliness ensure no contamination enters the lab.

“One of the things that we do here is we clean plants,” says Luis Mautner, Node’s director of propagation. “Cleaning plants is a process by which you take a plant from the outside world and you run it through a process that we developed here. We select the plants that do not have any issues associated with them like pathogenic bacteria, fungi, fusarium being one of the ones that affects the cannabis industry very much. Also, we index for HLVd, which is hop latent viroid.”

Mautner started working with cannabis after a career in tissue culture that included work with the berry company Driscoll’s and tropical ornamental plants such as peace lilies. He says the clear media is used because it’s diagnostic and shows when things should not be growing on the plant.

Next, we enter another room where shelves store cannabis plants in various stages of growth. There are also shelves containing some other plants Node is testing for research, including wine grapes and the cutest tiny Tempranillo.  

To start work with Node, clients provide 10 clone stems from a cannabis plant to form what Mautner calls a bouquet. The clones are broken down to the cellular level because cannabis has a strong affinity for endogenous contaminants within its stem, Leavitt explains. The scientists at Node cut the clones down to one part, the meristem, a type of tissue in plants that houses stem cells, or cells from which all other types of cells develop.

“What you’re basically doing is taking [the cannabis clones] down to essentially the stem cells of the plant,” Avenius says. “You’re eliminating all of the epigenetic, all of the genetic toggles related to stress or environment. You’re getting [the plant] down to its pure expression, its genetics, and then also removing essentially all the vascular tissue. So you’re just getting a brand new pure example and sample of that cannabis plant that we can now grow into tissue culture free of any other influences and then see its pure genetic expression.”

When cut down to the meristem, the clones are only about half a millimeter to a millimeter in size. Once the plants grow bigger and start looking like cannabis plants instead of little blobs, they are tested for HLVd. HLVd is a widespread pathogen in cannabis clones that causes growth stunting and reduces the plant’s ability to produce trichomes. Leavitt explains that HLVd is like skin cancer in that it can affect one part of the plant, but not another. This is another reason tissue culture has been such a valuable tool in combating the virus because it reduces a plant to its most basic elements.

After the plants have passed the extensive screening process, they are grown to about 3 to 4 inches and are used to fill the bank, the system in which Node keeps cannabis genetics within a genetic library. 

“These two refrigerators play a huge role in the large genetics cannabis market,” Avenius says as I eye Node’s genetic bank, containing work from cannabis breeders like Sherbinski and Masonic as well as companies like Cannarado, Connected, and smaller growers like Sonoma Hills Farm, which banked its Pink Jesus. 

The genetic bank aspect of the company ties into the beginnings of Node Labs. Node was founded in 2018 after Felipe Recalde, CEO of Compound Genetics and Node co-founder, lost his genetic library of cannabis cultivars and his home in the Tubbs Fire, the most destructive wildfire in California’s history that tore through Santa Rosa in 2017. Recognizing everyone around him had also lost their mom stock, Recalde saw tissue culture as the future for genetic preservation. He’d been experimenting with faulty kits for tissue culture since 2010. Still, it wasn’t until he partnered with Leavitt, who had been working on using tissue culture to preserve endangered species, that he saw that tissue culture could be viable for cannabis. Nowadays, genetics are stored within the lab and at a place offsite to serve as an additional backup against a disaster like a fire. 

Some of the work Node does is private client services of storing the genetics, but some companies like Connected Cannabis Co. also have certified genetics available for licensing. The consistency of the tissue culture clones one receives from Node Labs ensures that brands that operate in many states, like one of the lab’s partners Khalifa Kush backed by rapper Wiz Khalifa, can provide standardized, consistent flowers across the country. Node’s primary partnership with Compound Genetics allows the lab to grow clones to flower for clients to test. The minds at Compound Genetics grow plants from seed in their San Francisco facility and phenohunt to provide the best clone selections for their clients. The process at Node gives the genetics an authentication that does not occur if someone obtains a clone cut from a friend.  

The future of the tissue culture industry is not in creating a million plants to order, but instead holding genetics and delivering mother plants that growers can multiply through traditional propagation, Leavitt says. 

“The main functionary of [tissue culture] here is not in micropropagation. It’s not to get you 50,000 plants in one go,” Leavitt explains of the difference in tissue culture techniques in cannabis versus traditional agriculture. “It’s germplasm storage, which is the fancy term in the agriculture issue of holding genetics, genetic banking.”

Another indication of the future of cannabis propagation occurring at Node Labs is the process of in vitro phenohunts or growing seeds within the agar jelly within test tubes. Node takes a tissue culture from small plantlets the seeds produce and grows those plants out, saving time for cultivators because if they like the results, the tissue culture already exists.

“It allows us to save a lot of time, but it also means that when we pop that seed and then we take that clone and put it out, we already have some of the advantages of tissue culture the first time we grow,” Avenuis says. “As an immature plant, it hasn’t been exposed to any viruses or pathogens. And then it has some of the unique morphology that you get from tissue culture plants. They tend to have higher vigor, higher yields, better stem strength. So you’re already seeing a better-performing plant from the very beginning.” 

Leavitt points out an example within the lab, Gastro Pop #5, a cross of Apples & Bananas and Grape Gas which was developed in-house via an in vitro phenohunt. 

“That Gastro Pop #5 over there, the plants in this lab have never seen microbial fungus and bacteria in their entire life,” Leavitt says. 

If someone finds an outstanding cultivar they are in love with, a six-month process to get a tissue culture clone could stunt the excitement, he explains.

“With that process, in vitro, we could have the excitement of smoking the joint and going ‘This is the one’ and going, ‘Cool, it’s here at the lab’ at the same time,” he says.

An in vitro phenohunt is how Sherbinski and Compound created Tribute, a cross of Gelato #41 and Apples & Bananas. Look out for future collaborations between Compound Genetics and Tiki Madman and Compound Genetics and Green House Seed Company. 

At the Emerald Cup Harvest Ball held in December 2022, Compound was able to offer “bare pulse” tissue culture clones of their newest offerings. These came without the agar jelly because the clones are more transportable that way. The bare pulse part comes from the fact that they are bare root or stored without soil around the roots. The bare pulse clones can be planted in a chosen medium and become a mother plant to power a grow with consistent genetics.

“We love this as the next gen of clones,” Avenuis says.

The whole process of tissue culture clones is an exciting new frontier for cannabis, one which I was able to experience firsthand when Recalde gifted me a tissue culture clone at a social gathering. I took the test tube, filled with a clone held in suspense within what I’ve since learned is agar, home and grew it out to flower. At the time, I didn’t know that miniature plant contained within a test tube had the mighty makings to power a brand.

Read more about Node Labs in the upcoming Science & Technology issue of High Times Magazine.

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The DEA’s reasoning behind the affirmation that cannabis seeds are legal in the U.S. had to do with the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp, defining and separating it from the pot we smoke as Cannabis sativa with less than .03% delta-9 THC. When questioned about the legality of seeds, tissue culture, and “other genetic material” the agency response was that marihuana (yes, they still spell it like that) seeds that contain less than .03% delta-9 THC meet the definition of hemp and are therefore, not a controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act. 

Sprouting the Seed: Reviving & Distributing Genetics

While speaking in his tropical sunroom filled with the lush multicolored tie-dye like leaves of caladiums and yellow and pink ombre neon hued plumeria blossoms on an overcast December day, Rosenthal explains about how the idea to distribute cannabis seeds as a free bonus with his most recent book began. We’re longtime friends and co-collaborators on a number of projects including the 2022 release of the Cannabis Grower’s Handbook, and I start off our conversation/smoke session by asking about a story he once told me of selling seeds in the Bronx as a child.

“I lived in a residential area and there were people with yards with different plants—a lot of annuals, things like marigold, zinnias—and I would go and collect the seeds from plants when they didn’t clip the flowers off and then I made them into packs,” he says. “It was a place where loads of people went out and hung out on benches and everything and I would sell them the seeds, for which they had no use because they were living in apartments but (laughs).”

Now in his late 70s, Rosenthal was just 8 years old at the time and even received an unofficial certificate for his seed business which, believe it or not, was called Homegrown Seed Company. This was the beginning of a longtime career promoting plant cultivation. He co-founded High Times Magazine in 1974 and the 1978 New York Times review of the Marijuana Grower’s Guide he co-authored with Mel Frank catapulted his publishing career. Through all these years of smoking tough he’s settled on one cultivar that’s arguably his favorite strain, J-27. Back in California’s medical marijuana era, growers needed patients to up their plant counts and one in particular found a number of them amongst the employees of Rosenthal’s publishing company. This grower would deliver ounces, but never the cut. Within the last year, he finally acquired the sole J-27 plant, which he describes as a “treat” with a similar terpene profile to Wedding Cake.

“I gave it to two good breeders, but they were so frustrated by it that they gave it back and I had the only plant,” he says. “And I said, ‘You know what? I’m exactly the wrong person to be doing this because I’m too much of a slacker.’”

To revive the almost lost cultivar he partnered with Humboldt Seed Company and hopes to release hybrid J-27 seeds by 2023. 

“They’ve had a hard time with the plant because it’s a cut from the cut, from the cut from 20 years ago,” Rosenthal explains. “The plant is saying, ‘Oh please let me die.’ But they did coax a few clones from it and they have the same problems, but now that they have clones they can breed it.” 

His own homegrown seed promotion, which Rosenthal has coined the “Million Marijuana Seed Giveaway,” started with a female Jack Herer crossed with “two males, that were vigorous and early,” from Humboldt Seed Company, Very Cherry and Blueberry Muffin, to create Double Dipper. 

“As far as the Million Marijuana Seed Giveaway, all of the crosses are really good crosses and they’re hybrids,” he says. “They’re not F1 hybrids [first generation], but they’re F2 hybrids. The next [generation] they sort of sort out and you get a lot of variation. So there’s going to be variation in these plants and then a grower can choose which plants he or she would like to continue with.”

When Rosenthal grew some of his seeds for his own backyard phenohunt this past summer, he did so in a style that allows for more buds and less vegetation. Using light deprivation techniques he brought the plants into flower early, which produced single stalks of long buds. This method allowed him to grow many plants close together. It also enabled the plants to grow more efficiently, using their carbon dioxide resources to grow buds, as opposed to leaves and branches. This method is also economical as the reduced amount of time spent in vegetation gives indoor and greenhouse growers enough time for an extra harvest, he explains.

Prisoners of Weed Packs

Rosenthal’s wife and publishing partner Jane Klein says the seed strategy has worked in terms of boosting book sales. Each seed drop, of which there have been four thus far, averages about 400 packs containing 10 seeds each. In the sale of the “Prisoners of Weed” packs, 10% of each sale is given to the Last Prisoner Project, an organization which advocates to free those incarcerated for marijuana convictions. 

“So many people who are getting the seeds to grow, but also as a collection, already had the books, so then we created the grow tips booklet,” Klein says of a short booklet that includes two seed packs with purchase. 

The booklet has a QR code that will send people to an expanding library of material. 

“We definitely were inspired by the DEA,” Klein says of the book bundle/seed promotion in relation to the April 2022 DEA letter. “I like it that they were saying that seeds don’t fall under the Controlled Substances Act so now we have the whole conversation of should [cannabis] be rescheduled or descheduled? Why should it be even included in the Controlled Substances Act?”

Seeds vs. Clones   

In this new legal space for seeds Rosenthal predicts a future where they go down in price, leading more growers to choose seeds over clones. 

“Let’s say that you have a variety that’s very uniform, there’s a lot of advantages of starting from seed,” he explains. “There’s a lot less of a chance of infection because many viruses don’t transfer to the seed so that’s one thing. Another thing is that they’re easy to store, transport, and things like that. Seeds will wait, but clones won’t.”

He takes his prediction further stating that as the genetics of cannabis seeds get more uniform we might see people offering germinated seeds, or seedlings, in the same way that tomato seedlings are sold at nurseries.

Rebellious entrepreneurs like Rosenthal and Klein will surely keep pushing the boundaries of where cannabis seeds might pop up next. Watch for where that might be; growing your own weed in 2023 makes for a great New Year’s resolution. 

“I think another interesting thing with the DEA ruling is [thinking about] will more hydro stores start to sell seeds?” Klein says. “This would definitely be a new product that wouldn’t take up a lot of shelf space for them and would inspire people to come into the store and maybe buy other things.”

The post Rejoice! Cannabis Seeds are Legal appeared first on High Times.

One of the perks of this technology is the potential to minimize waste. “Portions of the plant matter from the cannabis plant are waste that can be avoided using BioHarvest Technology,” BioHarvest CEO Ilan Sobel told High Times in an email.

“Cannabis plants are grown mostly just for the flower,” Sobel continued. “The flower contains the critical trichomes which are the source of cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids. BioHarvest’s technology allows it to grow cannabis cells with 93% trichomes in its bioreactors.”

The biomass is not grown like a typical plant; instead it’s produced in a bioreactor. “We don’t grow the plant at all,” Sobel told The Times of Israel. “We grow them in huge bioreactors in just three weeks—while regular cannabis takes 14 to 23 weeks. Our tech can also significantly increase the levels of active ingredients, as a percent of the weight, versus what is found normally in the plant.”

And gram for gram, the team at BioHarvest say their cannabis biomass requires less water and resources than plants.

Sobel and BioHarvest insist that the cells are not genetically engineered, and that they’re identical to cells found on living plants. So while the technology may sound far-reaching to the untrained ear, it’s a great way to avoid unwanted plant matter waste and increase potency. The biomass they produce is full-spectrum, containing the variety of phytocannabinoids you’d find in a plant.

“Our composition has significant amounts of both major cannabinoids such as CBD and THC as well as significant amounts of what have been termed minor cannabinoids,” Sobel told The Times. 

The team is able to crank up the potency by tinkering with the conditions inside the bioreactor. He continued, “By adjusting specific conditions to which the cells are exposed, we can create different desired compositions of active ingredients, meaning we can dial up and down the various cannabinoids [compounds].”

The team does not reveal the proprietary technology in detail, but said they have the power to increase potency 12 times, simply by changing the environment inside the bioreactor.

If you’re trying to picture in your head what it looks like, they provide a basic explanation.

BioHarvest Sciences team invented Bio-Plant CELLicitation, which is described in detail on the website. A plant is selected that contains important active phytochemicals. Then they are cut them into small pieces and inserted into a Petri dish on a solid medium that contains nutrients. Like a plant, the cells need light, oxygen, and nutrients. Then those cells are stored in a cell bank for perpetual production. They are biofarmed and when the biomass grows enough, it’s harvested into a powder and the powder can be used for different purposes.

BioHarvest Sciences say that each gallon of water produces 54 times (!) more bioreactor material than plant material, and land requirements are slashed by over 90%.

This system also enables producers to avoid contaminants and also avoid the variation in cannabis compounds that nature dictates in plants.

On May 12, BioHarvest announced the composition of their biomass, saying that trichomes represent 93% of the cannabis biomass produced using the proprietary Bio-Plant CELLicitation technology, and the bitter taste of plant matter is significantly reduced.

“The bottom line is that we can make cannabis and hemp far more useful than before, at lower cost to our planetary resources,” Sober told The Times. “It is a wellness and sustainability solution from Israel that can provide a truly inspiring contribution to the world.”

Dr. Yochi Hagay and Dr. Zaki Rakib founded BioHarvest after meeting in 2007. Beyond cannabis, BioHarvest Sciences’ first product, Vinia, is derived from red grape cells and contains a rich complex of polyphenols which is good for cardiovascular health. The company currently has a footprint in the U.S. and Canada.

The post Israeli Company Clones Cannabis Cells—Not Plants—With Up to 12 Times the Potency appeared first on High Times.

“The continued activation of new legal markets will keep pushing existing cannabis producers to expand operations and draw new producers to the market,” said New Frontier Data CEO Gary Allen. “By basing their strategic plans around the seven key factors identified in this report, operators can capitalize on this massive market opportunity.”

In a press release, New Frontier Data projects that more than 27.7 million pounds of cannabis will be cultivated in the U.S. in 2030 (compared to the 7 million that was cultivated in 2020). These numbers are reflected in the total amount of cultivation, which includes plants grown indoor, in a greenhouse, or outdoor.

The New Frontier Data report states that a shift in legal cannabis available on the East coast, cultivation trends are also beginning to change. “As the legal cannabis industry transitions eastward from West Coast markets, several factors will impact how cannabis is grown in the new markets,” the report states. “Different climatic conditions will favor controlled environments over outdoor cultivation, given either the length and depth of winters in the North, or summer humidity in the South.”

Between 2022-2030, New Frontier Data suggests that California will remain on top of producing the most pounds of cannabis at 26.4 million, followed by Florida at 18.4 million, New York at 15.1 million, Illinois at 11.9 million, and numerous other states producing 10 million or less.

The report’s first point suggests the difference in temperature in summer and winter on the west and east coasts. As a result, most east coast states will rely on indoor grow facilities, whereas California remains the leader in both greenhouses and outdoor farms.

Among its other points of discussion, New Frontier Data mentions that automation will continue to grow, but requires experienced workers to manage them. The report also reviews the pros and cons of building or buying a cultivation facility, now that established markets offer the option to choose. Demand for specific products is also changing, with flower still in the lead, as of average data from 2021, but other products are also rising in popularity. “Value-added products (vapes, edibles, topicals, etc.) now account for half of all legal product sales, and consumer interest in these new products is poised for sustained growth as innovation drives increased product quality and diversity, enabling consumers to integrate cannabis into their lives in increasingly novel ways,” the report states. “While demand for flower is also growing, especially for pre-rolls, it is growing more slowly than demand for non-flower products.”

There is also a shift in resource efficiency, which remains important due to various factors. Energy costs from indoor lighting can cause stress on the electrical grid, but new LED technologies help lower electricity use. Likewise, watering through automated systems vs. hand watering can also help save water, in addition to focusing on water reclamation systems.

On the subject of water though, the report notes that climate change is a threat to many states, especially those that are experiencing a drought. “Cannabis producers must consider the looming implications of a changing climate on their operations,” the report describes. “Longer, hotter summers will add premiums on increased cooling requirements and higher energy demand to operate HVAC systems at higher levels for longer periods. Acute droughts—such as those currently being experienced in the Western U.S. states—will drive water shortages, increased water losses from evaporation, and higher costs of water from municipal or community sources.”

Finally, the report concludes that the industry success will be earned by those who adapt to the future. “While producers in new markets may enjoy a period of high margins and low competition, the most successful operators will be those who plan for where the market is going, not where it currently is.”

The post New Frontier Data Projects 27.7 Million Pounds of Cannabis Cultivated in 2030 appeared first on High Times.

As family law and cannabis legitimization intersect, this development is about as significant as a similar 2014 Israeli case. Namely, families of sick children requiring medical cannabis threatened to immigrate to Colorado unless they were given the right to obtain medical cannabis domestically. The government changed the law within a matter of weeks.

That said, it was not a complete victory in Argentina last week for those who pressed their case. The Court also ruled, unanimously, that a special patient registry now in effect, is not unconstitutional. This was an issue raised by Mamás Cannabis Medicinal (Macame) which presented the plaintiff’s cause. The Court reasoned that the state had the right to control and track all cannabis cultivation—including for medical purposes.

The decision in Argentina is, of course, significant domestically. Yet coming as it does as country after country is beginning to implement or at least talk about implementing home grow more generally, the timing is also very important. In this decision, the Argentine Court seems to be following a global trend that is emerging in countries as disparate as those in Latin America and Europe (Malta, Italy, Luxembourg, and Portugal, so far) to Asia (notably Thailand). Home grow for both recreational and medical use is very much a la mode in the international normalization discussion now clearly underway both legally and politically.

Why Is Home Grow Becoming a Global Default First Step Towards Reform?

There are several reasons for this rather sudden emergence of something that looks remarkably like a consensus at an international level around issues related to home cultivation. Namely, when faced with both a crisis in healthcare delivery systems in the aftermath of both global austerity followed by a global pandemic, and the inevitability of recreational reform, governments are apparently getting the message.

It is becoming increasingly obvious in other words that home grow is not a seditious way to undermine a legal market (of either the medical or recreational kind). Indeed, when tracked (either by being registered or permitted or both), home cultivation of cannabis is a very sensible path towards a normalized market. See Canada—although, of course, the system is not perfect.

Generally, and most certainly in countries on the verge of recreational reform like Germany (for example) today, it is the case that the people most affected by any delay in full legalization, of any kind, are patients. There are close to 200,000 criminal cases pending in the German courts alone for low level possession, cultivation, and/or use. This is a massive waste of time and money that the state can easily cut. In fact, case law is again beginning to trend in this direction, even if only for now, on appeal. However, increasingly it is also the case that courts are recognizing that insurers are also forcing legitimate patients to take legal action to obtain coverage. In the meantime, they must source their own, taking risks along the way.

For this reason, the entire role around home grow is likely to change aus Deutschland as it has in other places, albeit here, at this juncture more likely by legislation than legal action as has just occurred in Argentina.

Prosecuting sick people is not a winning look anywhere right now. In fact, making it easier for the chronically ill to more or less treat themselves at a time when healthcare systems are straining to keep up with just “regular” care, just sounds sensible no matter which way one looks at this. Or where. For an extreme example, see Ukraine. But beyond this, every western state is struggling with chronic care provision—including for those conditions normally treated with cannabis.

On top of such realities, of course, such legal and political decisions are coming at a time when states are being forced to look at how enforcement of rules if not laws themselves takes place—and for issues and themes far from just cannabis reform.

Home Grow Stimulates the Legal Market

Even though the Canadian model has shown that patients are absolutely going to be “competition” to the industry, in that they do not have to rely on a commoditized, bought product, there is another way to look at all of this. Indeed, it is also the case that patient home grow is a way to stimulate the legal, regulated market. Not to mention the broader economy beyond that which will benefit from money diverted from medication purchase.

Growing cannabis is not easy and takes energy. While there will always be recreational hobbyists, most people, including patients, would rather be able to buy cannabis in all its forms the way they buy food, medication, and other legal products.

This in turn creates jobs, revenue, and taxes.

The trick, of course, is to find a middle ground that allows both sides to flourish.

Just as legalization itself is inevitable, so is the right of people to grow their own cannabis, and for whatever use.

It is, after all, beyond all the demonization and stigma, “just” a plant.

The post Argentine Supreme Court Endorses Medical Cannabis Home Grow appeared first on High Times.

Everyone who has ever grown marijuana dreams of the day when it will be legal to do so. For one thing, cannabis is a beautiful ornamental; its foliage is luxuriant, its aroma pleasant. Since marijuana repels most common garden insects, it’s useful interplanted in an organic vegetable garden. And, of course, your own homegrown dope is the best in the world.

But alas, its not yet legal to grow marijuana in your backyard. Even in jurisdictions where grass has been decriminalized, the law doesn’t permit you to grow it openly. And the law is, in any case, only part of the problem. The immense value of premium marijuana in today’s black market makes it an irresistible target for petty thieves—in effect, a shrub with $20 bills growing on it. Until the law permits domestic cultivation and commerce at workingman’s prices, eliminating the black market, the domestic cultivator is going to have to cope with ripoffs (with badges or without) and hide his plants.

There are two basic approaches to hiding dope: concealment and camouflage. To conceal, i.e., hide from sight completely, is obviously the most satisfactory; nothing can beat growing behind an unscalable wall, or within a private greenhouse. But concealment is not always attainable or appropriate. You’re going to attract some pointed inquiries if you throw up a 12-foot concrete wall around a suburban quarter acre. Barbed wire, electrified fences, and guard dogs only attract attention. And heavy security of this sort will, even if it works, take most of the fun out of growing it. For most personal-use domestic cultivators, particularly those in decriminalized jurisdictions, camouflage is a far more practical alternative.

Tying plastic tomatoes onto a dope plant—Furry Freak Brothers-style—is pretty primitive camouflage: While it might work on the most naive beholder (your mother in town for the weekend), it wouldn’t for a moment fool a nosy cop. In the first place, a dope plant resembles a tomato plant, to the practiced eye, as a camel resembles a fireplug. Anyway, this is the completely wrong approach to camouflage—trying to make a dope plant, in isolation, look like something other than what it is. The whole point of camouflage is to make a dope plant look like nothing at all. Make it invisible.

Cannabis is most distinguishable by its stature (six to twelve feet) and its large, serrated, seven-fingered primary leaves. It will obviously be far less conspicuous if it is pruned once or twice before it buds and kept to a height of four or five feet. Topped ruthlessly, trained to a height of two or three feet, it loses its conical shape entirely, making it nearly invisible to the distant observer. But topping doesn’t really do the trick when the observer is able to approach more closely, because those primary leaves are of a distinctive size, shape and color—a red, white and blue flag to the practiced eye. Leaf trimming is the sine qua non of camouflage.

The question is how much to trim, and when. A dope plant, like any plant, depends upon its leaves for the photosynthesis that powers its whole biology. Trimming it too rigorously will stunt and weaken it. But there is apparently a fairly large margin for error in this matter, for the question of whether or not to trim leaves has been a matter of hot and heavy debate among Maui wowie growers for the better part of a decade, and the subject of continuous experiments. Partisans on either side include the best and most experienced growers, whose dope is equally stoney, suggesting that it makes little difference or none in terms of the final product, and that you can trim leaves with relative impunity, according to camouflage criteria. The best rule of thumb is to trim primary leaves only after the secondary leaves have burst from their buds and begun to spread, and to trim secondary leaves only when they become so dense or large as to resemble primaries.

Topping and trimming a dope plant doesn’t make it disappear, of course, any more than tying on plastic tomatoes disguises it. It must have an ambience to disappear into: a garden, a weedy field or a glade full of similar vegetation, where it doesn’t look out of place. A family vegetable flower garden is the ideal ambience for a camouflaged marijuana plant, especially a large, disorderly, overgrown garden. Best of all is a garden on a farm, where no nosy neighbors or cops come snooping. Minimally, a garden in a place where gardens (or oneself) are not so unusual as to attract unwanted scrutiny. A garden with an ordinary inconspicuous livestock fence, and an unlocked gate—to which entry can be controlled, if not entirely prohibited. An ordinary family-sized organic garden, with a family-sized number of marijuana plants scattered through it, in twos and threes.

Vegetables are, obviously, crucial to the ambience of a vegetable garden, an alibi for your long sweaty hours of stoop labor. And, though no vegetable resembles marijuana closely enough to make it disappear, there are several that by their stature and luxuriance contribute to ambience, and can be used to block off sight lines. Corn is wonderful this way, growing if not taller than an elephant’s eye, taller than a man’s. Through a patch of it several rows deep, one can see very little beyond. And, perhaps the most recognizable of all vegetable plants, it’s great for ambience: As nothing else, it makes a garden look like a vegetable garden.

Nearly as good are sunflowers and pole beans. Sunflowers have leaves the size of dinner plates and attain a height of seven or eight feet. Pole beans will clothe a ten-foot-high trellis with foliage as opaque as a brick wall.

But sunflowers and beans aren’t quite subtle enough. Because they are so tall and make such excellent concealment, they invite the suspicions of the suspicious. So they are useful mainly in secondary uses, blocking off sightlines rather than in close proximity to the target plant, and as decoys, giving the suspicious something to look behind.

More subtle are the tomato, the sweet pea, the eggplant, the okra, and the pepper, plants that stand up in the garden to a height of three or four feet. Too short to block off any long sightlines, and thus appearing to conceal nothing, these waist-high vegetables are handy for screening bush-shaped, waist-high dope plants, or as part of a thicket surrounding a taller dope plant. More subtle still are the carrot and the beet, the lettuce and the melon, growing ankle high. They’re useful in the way they can control ground space, directing the feet of a trespassing beholder (around a lettuce bed rather than through it) and useful for the way they reflect light, for the diversity and confusion they lend.

The best camouflage for marijuana is among flowers, a few kinds especially. Marigolds are very good: Their foliage from a distance somewhat resembles that of a flowering marijuana plant, and their big brilliant orange and yellow flowers just dazzle the eye. And marigolds, as a sort of bonus, will imbue the buds of dope plants grown beside them with a taste of their delicious aroma. Certain kinds of ornamental sunflowers are useful, particularly a branching, smaller-flowered kind called Tithonia. It grows five or six feet tall, has luxuriant foliage, and sports profuse, dazzling vermilion flowers. Scabiosa is handy, with its weedy foliage, five-foot stature, and bright flowers in a variety of colors. Blue salvias are excellent camouflage, although, like marigolds, they don’t grow as tall as you’d like. And a few others, like hollyhocks and regular sunflowers, are useful because they’re tall, bright and distracting. But the best camouflage flower, the marijuana grower’s mainstay, is a flower called, appropriately enough, cosmos.

There are two kinds of cosmos, so different that their synonymy is puzzling. The kind called Sensation, with purple and lavender flowers shading into red and white, and ferny foliage, grows as tall as five feet. Its height, profuse flowers and distinctive foliage make it nearly as useful for primary (close-in) camouflage as tithonia. But it is the other kind of cosmos, called Bright Lights, with flowers of orange, yellow and red, and trilobate leaves, that really turns the trick. It doesn’t grow as tall as marijuana—practically nothing does—but it reaches a height of five feet, and its branching habit is nearly identical. Its foliage, while not quite the same color as marijuana, or similar enough to be confusing on close inspection, hangs from the branches the same way, and flutters similarly in the breeze, showing the beholder a very similar pattern of light and shadow. And its flowers live up to the name Bright Lights, growing out of the foliage on long graceful stems, bursting brilliant orange by the hundreds, dancing in the breeze. A marijuana plant, trimmed to an appropriate height and shed of its primary leaves, disappears utterly in a clump of flowering cosmos plants, invisible from only a couple of yards away in full daylight.

Effective as it is, however, a clump of cosmos is very elementary camouflage. It only works on someone who isn’t looking for it: To a ripoff who knows the trick, a clump of cosmos is a dead giveaway. That’s where the other flowers come in, as camouflage for both the marijuana and the telltale cosmos. A marijuana plant screened by a couple of cosmos, a couple of marigolds, a tithonia, a pea vine, a salvia and a tomato is nearly as invisible as among a halfdozen cosmos. And that screen itself becomes invisible amid a particolored profusion of flowers and foliage, vegetables, herbs, and ornamentals of the widest possible variety, consistent with the ambience of the whole garden. Here, where the camouflage camouflages the camouflage, is where the eye of the artist meets its most subtle challenge (“Is it good enough? Is it finished?”).

Vegetables, herbs and flowers are of course only the camouflagist’s palette, and understanding the usefulness of each, being able to see each as a living light sculpture, is only part of camouflage technique. Equally, if not more, important is an understanding of (or an eye for) the fundamental principles of composition and perspective. An exceptionally tall plant (a sunflower) will make all the plants in its vicinity look smaller than they are. A gazing human eye can be dazzled and distracted by brilliant, dancing flowers. A strong vertical line can steer the eye upward, a powerful foreground element can hold it. Perception of color and shape can be dramatically altered by the juxtaposition of different colors and shapes; there are some huge, exploitable loopholes in the laws of perspective. Distortion of the beholder’s perspective and misleading tricks of composition are the camouflagist’s stock in trade.

Camouflage is no protection against a systematic, close inspection in the full light of day, so if you’re worried about the police showing up with a search warrant and a German shepherd, forget it. But each of the camouflagist’s other major enemies, the neighborhood kids snooping by moonlight, a police officer conducting a hasty unwarranted search, a nosy stranger peeking over the fence, is working under a handicap that the camouflagist can exploit and enhance.

The stranger peeking over the fence is a good example. Trying to remain inconspicuous, he or she will approach your garden by the route that offers the best concealment (or the best alibi), and peek over your fence at the most promising spot: If he can see the whole garden from this spot, and can see nothing, he probably won’t bother to take a second peek. Since his route of approach can usually be narrowed down to a couple of choices, the “most promising spot” that he chooses to peek into your garden can just as easily be predicted and manipulated by the design of the fence and the landscaping outside the fence. Being able to predict his point of view so accurately makes it possible to camouflage against him with considerable precision.

The neighborhood kids snooping by moonlight are even easier to trick, working under several handicaps. They can see very little, in the first place: The full moon provides only one three-hundredth (1/300) of the light of the sun—enough to locate a prescouted plant perhaps, but not enough to scout out a camouflaged one; a flashlight, if they dared use one, would cast so many shadows it would make the camouflage more effective. And being teenagers, they think everybody is as dumb as them. They will come snooping, most likely, for a dozen marijuana plants all in a row, approaching by a pretty predictable route. Entering your garden through the gate, or climbing the fence at the easiest spot (wherever you want them to), they will follow a predictable pattern in their search. They will search the spots that seem most likely to them—amid the corn, behind the lima beans, in the lee of your toolshed—and pull up an innocent young marigold as like as not. Their search will probably be a brief, perfunctory one in any circumstances. If they do find a plant, they will take it and run like hell, leaving your others alone.

A police officer conducting a hasty, unwarranted search (an overzealous narc following up a tip that a judge won’t give him a warrant for) is a camouflagist’s worst enemy. He works in the full light of day, as the neighborhood kids will usually not dare, and he has a damned good picture of what he’s looking for. He’s bolder and more deliberate than the ordinary sneak thief, confident that his badge (not to mention his gun) will protect him from pitchfork-wielding hippies. His handicap (having to give up his search if you actually catch him at it and ask him to) is a handicap only relative to a police officer with a warrant (who will double his search if you ask him to quit, and if all else fails discover some evidence in his pocket).

But his handicap, such as it is, can be exploited. If a garden is overlooked by a house or two, and protected by a barking watchdog, he will worry more about being interrupted (and the indignity of having a citizen tell him to beat it) than about being systematic. Since he is, generally speaking, a law-abiding person who doesn’t like to go wantonly trampling through people’s flower beds, a constipated person who’s worried about getting shit on his shiny brown shoes, he will usually keep to the paths you have laid out in your garden and can be discouraged from searching a whole section of a garden by a well-placed, really ripe compost heap. And ambience will throw him off stride more than anything: If a garden looks more like a respectable Republican vegetable and flower garden than he expects a dope garden to look, he’ll begin to worry that he’s gotten another bum tip. Since he is entering the garden by a predictable route, and following a somewhat predictable route in his hasty search, it is possible to predict somewhat his points of view, and to manipulate by camouflage what he will see from them. Just hope he hasn’t read this article.

The question of whether camouflage is going to be the answer to the problems of a particular domestic cultivator is one that must properly be considered in the context of his particular legal climate: whether the local police conduct unwarranted searches, whether the local judges will convict on the basis of illegally gathered evidence, whether (and how much) dope in your garden can get you locked up. For camouflage is truly more of an art than a criminal technique: the province of poets, philosophers and dilettantes where the law only slaps one’s hands, but far too imprecise to dabble in where the law flings 20-year sentences at thought criminals. In jurisdictions where it is feasible, in neighborhoods where the police (or the neighbors) aren’t aggressively nosy, camouflage can be the answer to the ordinary dope fiend’s prayers. To the ordinary starving artist, it offers, besides the satisfaction of a neat trick, something to keep his muse stoned.

This article appears in the March 1981 issue of High Times. Subscribe here.

The post From the Archives: Growing Undercover Camouflage (1981) appeared first on High Times.

My main tip for watering is do not water on a schedule. Instead, pay close attention to your plants, checking them once or twice a week and watering as needed.

I am an organic grower who uses living soil. I was taught by a pseudo-scientist, Dr. Av Singh, who always says, “the plant should dictate when it wants to eat and when it wants drink”. With the use of living soils, the plant eats when it wants to eat without the grower forcing the plant to uptake nutrients.

When we water from the bottom of the plant, this gives room for the plant to drink when it chooses and uptake the right amount of water it needs. The drainage holes in your pot allow the water to absorb into the soil over a period of time without oversaturating it.

How Do I Water From the Bottom?

This is a technique where you need a potted plant (must have drainage holes), water, and a saucer.

1. Fill your saucer with enough water to reach the bottom layer of soil in your pot. Some growers like to use drainage rocks at the bottom of their pots so make sure that the water level is high enough to reach the soil. Keep in mind that particular mediums absorb water differently. Soil absorbs water faster than peat moss so keep that in mind while you are waiting for the water to absorb.

2. Place your pot into your saucer.

3. Give it some time. Let your plants sit in their bath for 10-15 minutes. You will notice that the water level in the saucer has gone down. An easy way to check if your plant has been sufficiently watered is by sticking your index finger a few inches down into the soil to see if it is moist. If the soil is still dry, wait a little longer.

4. Remove your plant from the saucer. There may be some excess water leftover. Do not add this to your plant because the soil did not want to absorb it. Discard of it and return your plant to its home. You may get a small amount of runoff water, and that is okay.

I suggest you try it at least once and see if you find it more manageable. I do find every now and then, it is beneficial to give it a top watering because the top layer of soil can get very dry and form a crust-like layer.

Benefits of Bottom Watering

• Promotes overall root growth, as it forces the roots to reach down for the water 

• Helps prevent fungus gnats who thrive on the top layer of wet soil 

• Prevents oversaturation of the soil 

• It provides an even distribution of moisture throughout the soil. Top watering can result in dry spots 

• Reduces the chance of over and underwatering 

• Prevents splashing on the leaves. Sometimes when you feed your plants, the water can splash on your leaves which can result in plant burning. When you bottom water, this is completely avoided.

Feeding

As for feeding from the bottom, it is the same concept as feeding a plant how you would normally feed your plant. Add your nutrients to the water first and then feed from the bottom. If you are feeding with a top dressing, skip the bottom water as a whole. You will need water to leech the nutrients down into the soil. Happy growing.

@herbudz__

The post Reverse Watering Potted Plants appeared first on High Times.

The Many Lifetimes Of Nikki And Swami

Lastreto and Chaitanya are world travelers whose spiritual experiences have shaped their cannabis venture. Lastreto describes herself as a flower child who grew up in San Francisco. She first met Chaitanya, a “27-year-old hippie artist,” when she was 14. They connected again later at a party in San Francisco and married in 1985. Lastreto worked for the San Francisco Chronicle for many years in the 1980s and Chaitanya was an artist and photographer. Together they traveled to various countries, including China and Thailand, and for a time, they lived in South India in a house overlooking the Arabian Sea.

Eventually, Lastreto, and Chaitanya would divorce. Citing a desire to embark on a new purpose and path, Lastreto moved back to the United States and embraced her love for hosting parties and creating giant altars that featured statues from different religious traditions. At the time, she worked with Tim Blake, founder of the Emerald Cup, to develop and coordinate various events. During this time, Lastreto explains, “Swami became Swami,” while he remained in India and took a religious initiation at the Kumbh Mela, a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism, in 1998. Chaitanya lived in the Himalayas for a few years and continued to travel around the region to visit temples. During this time, he and Lastreto remained good friends and Lastreto would travel back to India to meet with him and visit one of their spiritual teachers. When Lastreto expressed a desire to build a temple to the Hindu goddess Sri Mookambika in the U.S., their spiritual teacher suggested Chaitanya should help, leading them on a journey to Mendocino County.

Honoring The Land

The idea behind Swami Select’s location came from a vision Chaitanya had at a Rainbow Gathering in the 1970s.

“I had a vision of a beautiful piece of property with a mountain in the distance and some trees in the middle and an open field and some trees behind me, and the message that I would spend the end of my life there,” he said.

Thirty years later, he and Lastreto purchased a property in Mendocino County that resembled Chaitanya’s vision. When they bought the land, they decided to get married again—this time, intending to save money in taxes. In 2017, with the arrival of the 50th anniversary of 1967’s Summer of Love in San Francisco, Lastreto and Chaitanya married for a third time in a more private, spiritual celebration on their land.

Sacred Space

In the beginning, the homestead had no electricity or running water—it was just an old two-room cabin. It has taken many years to develop the property into the thriving, spiritual landscape that it is today. In addition to cannabis, the farm features a thoughtful layout and many religious statues. For example, upon entering their property, there’s a sizable 1,500-pound stone statue of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god, to greet visitors.

Even before Lastreto and Chaitanya chose to grow cannabis, they wanted to ensure that they treated the property with respect.

“We’ve tried to [develop] in a really conscious way that, you know, honors the land because we really see ourselves as the stewards of this amazing piece of land,” Lastreto said. “We don’t own it, just like the natives didn’t own it, but it’s our duty in this lifetime to take care of it.”

This mindset has led to embracing regenerative agriculture on their farm to maintain harmony with nature. Regenerative agriculture describes farming practices that reduce the effects of climate change by using techniques that revitalize the soil and the environment. Swami Select believes the regenerative approach to cannabis cultivation produces some of the best quality flower.

“Folks, if you want to smoke something that is going to feed your body, feed your mind, feed your spirit, [regeneratively grown cannabis] is where you want to go,” Lastreto said. “I know that sounds like a marketing kind of ploy, but it’s true. It’s coming from my heart.”

Growing With Spiritual Intention

With Swami Select, Lastreto takes care of the business side of things, while Chaitanya focuses on growing and farming. Together, they frequently visit dispensaries in the San Francisco Bay Area that carry their product to train budtenders and meet customers face-to-face.

Their approach to how their cannabis is grown is unique. The garden at Swami Select is designed in the shape of a sacred geometry pattern called Sri Yantra. The idea is that having the garden created in this shape supercharges the cannabis plants that grow within it. The grow also incorporates other rituals.

“When we decide what seeds we’re gonna grow each year, we have a statue of the goddess Ganja Ma, who’s the goddess of cannabis, who was revealed to us from our spiritual teachers,” Chaitanya said. “In her lap, we put these seeds, and then we say a special mantra for the seed.”

Beyond conjuring the goodwill of Ganja Ma, Chaitanya also adds a few drops of water from India’s sacred Ganges River to each seedling.

“The seeds sit in front of the goddess of cannabis for about a month before we plant them,” Chaitanya said. “That charges them up in a very special way. After they’ve cracked and start to sprout, we put them in a little plant container with some soil and then we put another drop of the sacred Ganges water on them. All of this is to create a spiritual basis for the healing and inspiration that the cannabis plant provides for the people who use it, or celebrate its use.”

They have a few statues of Ganja Ma on the property. One in the house (where the seeds sit), another that is placed outdoors during the growing season, and an additional statue that they take with them when visiting various dispensaries for in-store demonstrations.

“We always set her up and explain to people who she is. So you know, this is really infusing the cannabis with this consciousness,” Lastreto said.

Swami Select believes cannabis can help consumers tap into their spirituality.

“[With cannabis], it’s not just your heart that’s open, it’s your mind that’s open,” Chaitanya said. “One of the things that cannabis does is it takes away a lot of your filters, which block out so much of sensory input… All of your different sense organs are heightened and more refined. So that’s why when you smoke cannabis, your food tastes better, you listen to music better, and your creative talents are more liberated and free.

“Cannabis takes away so much of the restriction and limitation and blinders that society puts upon you. When you open up to that, then all of a sudden, you get not just the five senses, but your sixth sense starts to get opened up and your intuition and those sensory feelings about what the magic in the world is and how you relate to it and how energy flows.”

The Sense Of Community

While Lastreto and Chaitanya have been developing their homestead, they’ve also spent years founding local organizations such as the Mendocino Cannabis Industry Association and connecting with other growers in the industry. Chaitanya is a founder and board member of the Origins Council, a statewide organization for cannabis cultivators that aims to preserve historic cannabis regions in California. Lastreto is working on bringing back cannabis farmer’s markets to the area. Together they contribute to the tight-knit community working to preserve the growing history and dedication to craft cannabis in the Emerald Triangle, the cannabis growing hotspot of Humboldt, Trinity, and Mendocino counties.

“This is such a passion for all of us and a lifestyle,” Lastreto said. “We know we’re really helping other people by doing this. And it’s just created, like I keep saying, this amazing community.”

Lastreto and Chaitanya have been judges at the Emerald Cup for 18 years (you might have seen them at the recent Emerald Cup awards in Hollywood, California on May 14). Their work with the Emerald Cup has also been the source of a community-driven passion for cannabis.

“When we come together at the Emerald Cup, there’s this great celebration and respect for everyone’s differences,” Chaitanya said. “That’s one of the great things about cannabis. You appreciate and honor the differences between people because we also honor the differences between the different cultivars of cannabis and the different ways of smoking and the different ways you can use it for tinctures and salves. And it’s all about this diversity. And there’s no one way to do it. No one way, no one group.”

Marijuana is an incredibly diverse plant that can assist people in many ways. Swami Select believes cannabis can be a powerful tool for cultivating wellness.

swamiselect.com

This article appears in the June 2022 issue of High Times. Subscribe here.

The post Cannabis Consciousness appeared first on High Times.

Seed germination for outdoor growing starts in spring. Seeds require 10-15 days longer than clones, so the end of April is an excellent time to pop them to get the 2022 outdoor harvest outside by Mother’s Day. We checked in with three ganja growing all-stars to see what cannabis combinations they’re excited about this year.

David Downs
Senior Content Manager, Leafly

What seeds are you excited about for this planting season?
For this planting season, I’m super-juiced to re-run Humboldt Seed Co’s Squirt (feminized) for year three. I can smoke that super-optimized modern Tangie cross all day, every day, and it makes a great salad with another sativa during the day or some gas at night.

I’m also hyped to bring back HumSeedCo’s Hella Jelly (fems) for year two as a super-agronimized modern sativa that finishes early and has mad cherry and cotton candy taste and zippy daytime effects.

I’m stoked to run Archive Seeds Dosi-Tree outside for the first time for that Dosi gas plus Lemon Tree’s size and syrupy lemon smell. Yum! Last year it was In-House Genetics’ Slurricane IX—that killed!

And lastly, I’m pumped to run Terp Hogz Geneticz Z3 for the first time this year! I think I’ll always want some Zkittlez in the garden, and Z3 is a way to get at the root of some optimized Z terps, as opposed to chasing new Z crosses. I can’t wait to have a pound of Z3 for Thanksgiving! Terp Hogz is selling seeds direct to your door on NXTLVL delivery in the Bay Area—if you don’t know how cool it is to shop, buy and get Terp Hogz genes delivered in a couple hours—now you know! It’s so clutch.

Do you typically grow from seed? If so, why?
Yes! I like the vigor of seeds, especially regulars—they get huge outside! There’s also less chances of a virus or pest infection from seeds vs. clones. I buy seeds all year and they keep well until it’s time to plant. (But I still might get a clone of Jokerz from Compound Genetics for this year, and if I do, I’m all about it!)

What does your grow setup look like?
I start popping indoors the first day of spring and raise babies inside where it’s warm, then sex the juveniles, and harden them on the porch in The City, before transplanting the keepers into 30-gallon fabric pots outdoors in the NorCal sun by Mother’s Day! We try and KISS (keep it simple, stupid). We use Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil plus amendments and well water on a drip timer. And BT to fight the caterpillars!

Are there certain types of cannabis or specific cultivars that do well where you are growing?
Yeah, I’m an outdoor NorCal Bay Area grower, and I’m deliberately running Humboldt Seed Co, Archive, and Terp Hogz because I think their gear tends to be tested and screened for outdoor runs. I know HumSeedCo does a bunch of mixed-light testing, and Terp Hogz in Mendo also works in mixed light. Archive’s stuff seems to be developed more indoors in Oregon, but I know that Lemon Tree has killed it outdoors in Santa Cruz. 

I want to run stuff that’s been tested outside, for sure. Lots of the latest crosses are bred and tested inside and many breeders and growers don’t know how they’ll react to the variations in heat, humidity, etc. outside. I want stuff that’s hard to fuck up, as opposed to some diva that molds the second it rains, or some crazy sativa that won’t finish until November. But that’s just me! Everyone’s needs are pretty specific!

Jeff Jones
Horticulture Instructor, Oaksterdam University

What seeds are you excited for?
I am fond of recommending and growing varieties that produce well-rounded plants with new tastes and smells. 

Do you typically grow from seed? If so, why?
No, but I have done so with Oaksterdam University students over the years often.

What does your grow setup look like these days?
A simple 4′ x 4′ area light up with LED lights in a larger room that I have found no need for AC to cool. 

What has been your experience growing autoflowers?
To me, this is the best reason to grow from seed. They only come this way and are getting better varieties all the time. 

Are there certain types of cannabis or specific cultivars that do well where you grow in Oakland?
We have a mix of urban growers that are survivors. Many obstacles to keep from having a successful harvest in tight city living. I grow inside due to this better neighborhood policy. I find less issues and arise with having long-term success. But I do know a few good areas that have outdoor gardens with little to no worry for either the garden or neighbors with bad smells.

Shango Los
Podcast Host, Shaping Fire

What seeds are you excited about this year?
Since I live on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest, I have to choose seeds that will finish flowering fast enough during our short summers. I’ll mostly be growing autoflowers so I can germinate them on June 1 and harvest at the end of August before the rains start. I am excited to grow the Purple Pope collaboration between Gnome Automatics and Night Owl Seeds. The flowers smell of sandalwood, lemongrass, and yuzu. Northern Cheese Haze from Mephisto Genetics is always a winner for me too. It captures some of that fresh sunshine-dried linen sweet smell of haze with the bloomy-rind cheese funk that we love cheese strains for.

The most reliable photoperiod for where I live continues to be Mandelbrot’s famous Royal Kush from Mendocino, which will often finish in 50 days. There is a new collaboration between Emerald Mountain Legacy and Mean Gene From Mendocino called Royale with Cherries that blends the gas and shorter flower times with Mean Gene’s Cherry Lime Pop which contributes a complex Maraschino cherry sweetness. It is exquisite. Last summer, it finished well ahead of all the other photos. And it hashed well for us too.

How was the 2021 Autoflower Cup? Are you experimenting with autoflowers?
The 2021 Autoflower Cup was a great gathering. For so long, autoflowers really didn’t perform as we wanted. But the modern era of autoflowers are so much better tasting and yielding. And because they can be grown nearly everywhere in the U.S., they are quickly gaining a following. And, of course, since autoflower enthusiasts are so often ridiculed by photoperiod growers, it is nice to hang with a big group of people who share this special interest.

I am past simply experimenting with autoflowers at this point and have fully embraced them. Before this season, I have grown 156 varieties. I’m at the point now where I believe in them, understand their advantages and disadvantages and can really work with them to meet my cultivation goals.

The post Hot Cannabis Seeds To Grow in 2022 appeared first on High Times.

After two years of smoking in solitude, returning to live events is an exciting prospect for California, the cannabis community and the culture. I made sure to be among the crowd of 10,000-plus excited cannabis enthusiasts in attendance for the inaugural Harvest Ball and Craft Cannabis Marketplace. 

Planning for my trip to the Bay Area, I knew that I would find fire flowers from all over the state. Coming from the East Coast, I was pumped to see what California cannabis was all about. Top priority? Advance my understanding of the quality of the sun-grown smoke coming out of the legendary Emerald Triangle.

Sun-grown, Not Schwag

“The sun-grown herb has a whole different effect and flavor,” said Jason Gellman, second-generation Southern Humboldt Cannabis Farmer and Founder of Ridgeline Farms. 

Gellman went on to say, “We have dedicated our lives to growing the finest Cannabis on earth. There are so many amazing farmers in the Emerald Triangle that the quality and potency keep climbing. We grow the best so you can smoke the best.” Color me intrigued.

Jason was kind enough to put me in touch with a handful of other legacy growers from the Emerald Triangle’s Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity Counties. With my leads from Ridgeline in tow, I sent some messages on Instagram and boarded my flight to SFO.

Into the Triangle… Kind Of

I woke up the next day to a text from the legendary Johnny Casali of Huckleberry Hill Farm fame. The man is an actual living legend in California cannabis culture, but more on that later. 

Johnny had heard I was here to see the heat grown up on the hill this past season, and he wanted to make sure I saw it perfectly.

He extended an invite to hit the fairgrounds and meet with some cannabis farmers a few hours before general admission. 

Early access to the Harvest Ball Cannabis Marketplace? Awesome! A chance to meet with these legacy growers to see and sample their finest flower? Hell yes!

Breakfast of Champions

I met the homies for an early breakfast at the now weed-famous Flamingo Hotel. 

Each table in the Flamingo dining room is packed before 9 a.m.—it was a room filled with the architects and arbiters of West Coast cannabis culture, all sharing breakfast together. The feelings of joy permeated the room; it was apparent everyone in attendance was extremely pumped to be back together again.

Breakfast was a vibe, during which, as fate would have it, I was gifted a pre-roll of one of Huckleberry Hill Farms legendary strains: “Whitethorn Rose.”

This heady breakfast joint would be my first experience smoking sun-grown bud from the triangle, and it did not disappoint. Post-puff, I arrived at the fairgrounds parking lot buzzing with excitement and blasted by the berry terpene profile of the classic Casali strain.

Not in NYC Anymore

I must have simply flown inside the fairgrounds because shortly after parking the car, I found myself right in the heart of the event, literally hours before it opened to the public. 

In an instant, I was surrounded by food trucks, epic outdoor staging and branded consumption lounges galore, met with giant indoor pavilions and a solid selection of epic, custom-built outdoor activations from some of the biggest hitters in the game. Included were the likes of Seed Junky and STIIIZY.

The Best Indoor Bud and Outdoor Booths

AlienLabs/Connected/Doja Pak shared a fantastic installation for their booth, an epic collaboration with some truly iconic offerings. I grabbed some super stupid good Biskantè indoor-grown by AlienLabs for a friend with serious FOMO who could not attend (shout out, Jon Cappetta).

My runner-up pick for most dope outdoor activations is Cookies. They came through and set up a neon-lit, color-changing geodesic dome. After securing a small stash at the outdoor activations, I continued my way down the central ave.

Compound Genetics was next to catch my eye. They have always had an objectively sick style and consistently clean approach to their brand aesthetic. 

The two-story, multi-purpose structure they assembled on-site from a repurposed shipping container. The creativity of this booth alone makes it my choice for the most dope outdoor activation at the Harvest Ball. 

Instagram Comes to Life

Inside, on level one of the Compound Genetics booths, I spot two friendly faces, the legendary Breeder and Compound Genetics founder Chris Lynch plus the one and only Jimi Divine, aka one of the hardest-working weed journalists in the game.

We all chatted briefly, and I got the chance to congratulate Chris [Lynch] on the new Apples and Bananas crosses seed drop. Chris told me it was “the culmination of a lot of hard work… extremely excited to be here all together with everyone to celebrate.” 

Chris and his relentless optimism always humble me. This positivity appeared to be echoed by everyone during a magical two days north of the bay. Even the cold NorCal rain that poured down all of day two was no match for the positive vibes this group of humans collectively radiates.

Harvest Ball felt like Instagram had manifested itself into reality. I was scrolling through my feed in person, using my legs, not just my pointer finger. I wandered the grounds, sparking up with old homies, new friends and personal heroes, wading through an epic sea of West Coast weed legends. Truly a trip.

Small Farms Initiative

By now, it was close to 10 a.m., and I was excited to get a peek behind the “Redwood Curtain.” so we all said goodbye for now and set off to the indoor “Hall of Flowers” Pavilion.

The Small Farms Initiative at The Harvest Ball aims to provide a platform to promote the foundational local growers to the thousands of cannabis connoisseurs attending the event.

Collectively, those selected farmers represented every corner of the Emerald Triangle. Twenty-seven legacy cannabis farms were assembled and given pro-bono exhibition space, all with the vision of lifting and amplifying these small farms in the global marketplace.

Death by Taxes

It is essential to understand that the past few years have been incredibly tumultuous in California cannabis. Further regulatory hurdles, a flooded market, falling prices and inconceivably high taxes are particularly tough pills (for anyone) to swallow. Given these hurdles, most small, craft cannabis farms have struggled to stay afloat. 

Even from an outsider’s perspective, it’s clear as day that the cultivation tax is broken at best and downright predatory at worst. The state’s idea to raise the tax in January to $161.28/lb Feels like an open slap in the face to most of these legacy farmers, in addition to local taxes. 

I would love to see anybody try and make a case for how an initial tax rate of over 50 percent is even close to reasonable. Anybody? Go on; I’ll wait.

All that said, the resilience of these Emerald Triangle farmers is impressive, and so was their flower. 

A Warm Welcome from the Farmers

Time seemed to race as I spoke with over a dozen legacy cannabis farmers about growing the best sun-grown bud. Everyone I met was so excited to share their stories, passions and labors of love with me, a relative stranger. Undoubtedly a heart-warming experience amid these strange days of social distancing. 

I have to shout out Johnny Casali personally here, who leveraged his legendary status among his community of Emerald Triangle farmers, granting me access to their world and their weed. 

For those who don’t know, Johnny Casali is a second-generation cannabis grower and breeder. Johnny runs Huckleberry Hill Farm with his girlfriend Rose, where he cultivates and breeds some of the dopest genetics in all of Humboldt.

Casali followed a rocky path to becoming one of the state’s first licensed cannabis operations. In 1992, when cultivation was still very much illegal in California, Casali was arrested after federal agents raided his gardens. Although he was a first-time, nonviolent offender, mandatory minimum guidelines meant he would be sentenced to 10 years to life in federal prison for a plant, and he served eight. Upon release in 2000, Johnny returned to his home in the Emerald Triangle, a folk hero. 

Farms Worth Fighting For

While this community is by no means out of the woods (no pun intended), after meeting the people, hearing the stories and smoking the bud firsthand from the farmer, I can say wholeheartedly that this pillar of the cannabis culture deserves saving.

Regardless, one thing is abundantly clear. These farmers care about their communities with such depth that they’re willing to go above and beyond to work through byzantine and largely pointless regulatory hoops to bring you the heat. 

I need to give everyone an enormous shout out for showing this East Coast kid what West Coast weed is all about. With that said, let’s get down to it. Here is a rundown of the best buds and hottest heat from the 2021 Harvest Ball. This opportunity warmed my heart, and I can’t wait to see everyone again next year!

Standouts from the Show

This is by no means a complete list of all the heat that one could come upon at the Harvest Ball. We all walk our own path, so by all means, if you saw the heat, and it’s not here, hit me up on Instagram and let me know: @east_coast_kid_

Ridgeline Farms

Second-generation grower Jason Gelman of Ridgeline Farm has come into some minor celebrity as of late. He is what I call weed famous. One of the first legacy growers to team up with Berner’s Cookies through the Humboldt Grown Initiative, Ridgeline’s award-winning genetics speak for themselves. The organic, sun-grown flower was the top-selling SKU in Cookies California retail locations for weeks in 2021. That’s saying something.

For Jason and the team at Ridgeline Farms, “The most exciting thing about this collaboration is how many people that have never smoked sun-grown can now enjoy true craft cannabis,” he told me. That said, Jason’s farm in SoHum focuses on quality over quantity that is clear to see.

Best-in-show buds from Ridgeline included Lantz, Green Lantern and Ridgeline Runtz. My favorite was Green Lantern. This strain is pure gas and a powerful illustration of the best that Kush can be. The nose is Diesel fuel dominant, and the flower reaches THC levels as high as 35 percent. 

Green Lantern was my go-to ganja all weekend. Far from a fan of pre-rolled pot, I proudly puffed at least 15 of them during my two-day stay in the bay. Keep an eye on Ridgeline Farms in the New Year; definitely cop some yourself if you get the chance. 

AlienLabs

AlienLabs’ Harvest Ball offerings were impressive. AlienLabs has a stellar reputation for pushing the envelope to create unique exotic strains. The brand is constantly moving the conversation forward, which has earned the team my respect. 

Honestly, I vouch for everything that comes out of its operation. Alien is all about finer things, for those who like their finer things a little weird… this is something I can appreciate.

Native Humboldt Farms

I am incredibly excited to get the opportunity to talk about this next heady contender. Native Humboldt Farms is a small farm in Southeast Humboldt owned and operated by Lindsey Renner and Jon Obliskey. To say this small farm is doing big things is putting it mildly. 

This past season 5,000 square foot of canopy space was dedicated to growing three top-notch genetics for Cookies. This dynamic duo produces storied strains like Cheetah Piss and Sunshine #4 as a collaboration between legacy cultivators in the Emerald Triangle called the Cookies Humboldt Initiative.

My favorite from Native had to be its organic, sun-grown take on the famous Orangutan genetics by Heavyweight heads. I had the opportunity to compare the Orangutan indoor and sun-grown versions side-by-side. Feel free to call me crazy, but the sun-grown smells gassier and just smacks harder than the same genetics grown indoors. Maybe the most full-spectrum experience does come from the sun? I’m a believer.

Briceland Forest Farms

These heads had an excellent setup at The Harvest Ball. An immersive, farmers’ market-style experience highlighted a cornucopia of buds grown under the sun. The growers at Briceland Forest Farms are faithful stewards of their land, and their passion for the plant is palpable. Briceland’s organic and regenerative farming practices make a perfect model for authentic pot permaculture.

My pick is their Mother’s Milk Pheno #31—a cut from the original Bodhi Seeds cross. THC levels in the Mother’s Milk from Briceland Forest Farm’s reserve is a strong 22 to 23 percent with terp levels exceeding four percent on this latest batch. Needless to say, this fresh farm bud blew me away. 

Canna Country Farms

Ted Blair and the team from Canna Country Farm, along with their Forbidden Fruit x Cherimoya cross “The #26,” is a perfect reminder of how variety is the spice of life. 

The team at Canna Country painstakingly bred this bud in a clear labor of love that you can feel when consuming the flower. The #26 won the Breeders Cup and took second place in the sun-grown flower category at last year’s Emerald Cup Awards.

The #26 stands out as a favorite from the event for many reasons. Perhaps most notable is the expression of an incredibly rare terpene called Ocimene. The #26 has a sweet, woodsy fragrance and undoubtedly holds therapeutic properties.

The #26 aside, Blair’s breeding prowess is evident. He and his team entered three cultivars in the Emerald Cup, and all three strains were selected within the top 21. That said, you should consider yourself lucky to get your hands on anything these guys breed. I certainly do. Keep an eye out for Canna Country Farms.

Connected

The people over at Connected pretty much always do it proper. I have been a massive fan of their Gelonade x Biscotti cross Lemonatti. Not going to lie, I love the name, and I know it’s not the “newest drop,” but I think it is some of the best bud available at that price point.

The result of a tirelessly epic pheno-hunt (#17, to be exact), I think it is a perfect expression of the best of what both parents have to offer. Get yourself some.

Huckleberry Hill

Earlier, I noted Huckleberry Hill Farms and briefly touched on the legend of Johnny Casali. Casali is Second Generation grower and breeder in Humboldt. Now I want to let everyone know what’s good with his weed.

Every offering Johnny gave me that weekend was packed with pure power and super-expressive flavors. The Whitethorn Rose; if I put things in a box, I categorize this cultivar as “Dessert Wine Weed.” The perfect antidote to the dessert strain hype. 

His other most notable is “Mom’s Weed”—which Johnny grows as an homage to his beloved mother, who taught him all he knows about the plant. This strain aims to honor the vital, though often overlooked, role that women have historically played and continue to play on cannabis farms.

This is one of many things that make Johnny unique as a cannabis grower. Each strain he breeds and cultivates on his farm is rich in narrative. A born storyteller, he believes in the power of the place. His weed has resonated with many because it is unique to the farmer. Especially in the cannabis market today, authenticity is a veritable currency that must be valued and preserved. 

My favorite of Johnny’s buds? Personally, that pick goes to the Paradise Punch x Zookies cross called Amalfi. Testing at a substantial 27.98 percent total THC, I challenge any skeptic of sun-grown to hit that and still hold that outdated opinion. With an intense aroma of muddled fruit in a gas can, this strain smells and tastes fantastic, with a cerebral effect that certainly smacks. Ask for it by name. Tell them Johnny sent you.

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