I have a love/hate relationship with this forum on DU

[Ruby the Liberal]

I'm a regular in Drug Policy but this forum is almost too much.

As a cancer "survivor", I turned to cannabis after I lost an astonishing amount of weight and found that this weed was a miracle plant. First time since the late 80s for this gal due to work and drug testing policies. A concerned friend gave me a 1/4 ounce after my first surgery out of fear I was going to starve to death. It worked. Amazingly well. My appetite came back, the weight came back up and my doctor was thrilled (although I didn't tell him why).

That said, I see so much here about strains, and "couch plant" v. "creative highs" and just want to cry.

Here in illegal-town, there is no such thing. You get what you can find on the street - and questions about indica/sativa are met with "wut?".

You get whatever you get - good night and good luck.

I know that formal research on strains is non existent due to scheduling, but at least you in the West have anecdotal 'evidence' that your budtenders can work with.

Ugh.

[haikugal]

1. Ruby, you're a breath of fresh air for this woman..

I have the same exact problem, and I hate it. I know I'd benefit from access and use but have no way to legally, or otherwise, getting any to use.

[delrem]

2. It's possible to grow a couple plants

from well-sourced seeds, in an out of the way closet supplied with inexpensive fluorescent lighting and a simple filtered (the smell) ventilation system. Perhaps questions re. indica/sativa might become more curious if a person could just grow one of each and test out the difference, if any.

It's just a weed.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. I've been growing my own

for about 10 years, just using shop lights and a couple of 120W grow lights. My buds aren't huge or fancy, but they do the job. I don't even notice any difference in my electric bill when I'm growing or not. I don't get into all the technicalities of strains either.

[mountain grammy]

4. We grew our own when weed was illegal

seeds from Amsterdam and a small corner of the basement. Even made a little money selling to our friends, at least covering our expenses. Now that it's legal, we still are still growing, but with prices falling and good organic weed available everywhere in Denver, it's getting almost as cheap to just buy the bud, even for cooking. An ounce of good, organically grown, trimmings is $100 or less, what we used to pay for a baggie full of stems and seeds and whatever other junk was thrown in.


Like marriage equality, legal pot is on the way. I think it'll be legal in some form in every state within 5 years. If Obama doesn't pardon every small time druggie rotting in prison before January, 2016, I'll consider him a failure, and we should be pressuring governors to do the same, although many American governors belong in prison themselves for far worse.

[NightWatcher]

5. You need a better drug dealer

I knew a guy who knew a guy who... could get whatever strain or hybrid you wanted. If you're forced to buy from "some guy in the Circle K parking lot, you probably don't have much choice as to what you can get.

Good luck finding a better guy.

[Go Vols]

10. Yep

Its pretty much like that anywhere now,know the right people,get what you want.

[AgingAmerican]

6. Whether a strain is 'couch lock' or 'cerebral' depends on CBN levels

Here in Wa state there are companies we can take weed samples to and get a cannabinoid profile.

Strains higher in CBN make you sleepy (sleepy, lazy buzz).
Strains with little to no CBN do not make you sleepy (zippy, peppy buzz)

By getting our 'flower' tested, we can 'see' what the high will be like.

https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/understanding-cannabis-testing

[Gregorian]

11. This is great information. Thank you!

Yeah, when I first heard the phrase "couch lock" it was by someone who was so stoned, it was hilarious.

I have never heard an explanation for the different energy levels of cannabis. I'm so glad it's legal so I can actually experiment. I was very lucky over the years to have phenomenal strains to grow. But now I'm not looking over my shoulder.

[MohRokTah]

7. Most strain names are simply some breeder trying to get their cross to stand out.

The vast majority if available strains via seed are poly hybrids crossed with other poly hybrids. There's very little standardization and there will be several phenotype expressions in any given pack of ten seeds.

That said, most of it will be fairly potent and different hybrids will express different highs. Pure sativas are extremely difficult to grow indoors and require the most patience as well as some extremely advanced techniques to be successful. This is because Sativas are typically from tropical to sub-tropical environments.


Another issue is hermaphroditism where a plant expresses both sexes. This is problematic when the desired crop is seedless females flowers. Breeders have made this problem worse by producing feminized seeds (seeds that are all female). The good breeders produce these seeds by stressing a female plant with colloidal silver in order to inhibit ethylene biosynthesis within the plant, resulting in male floral expression. The seeds produced from mating such a "reversed" female will be all female and will not produce hermaphrodites so long as spontaneous hermaphroditism is not an issue in the lineage of the parent plants.

[waddirum]

8. I agree with everything you wrote

I do think that poly hybrids crossed with poly hybrids are ultimately a good thing. Who cares if there isn't uniformity from one seed to the next. The various expressions of the cross are interesting in themselves, and the fun is growing them out and finding the winner of the pageant.

In addition to the problems you mention about feminized seeds, I also feel that the trend toward "auto flowering" seeds is NOT a good thing. Hermaphroditism and auto-flowering are not desired traits, and should be avoided.

I think the future is all about the Terpene profile, and breeding for that holy grail taste/smell.

[MohRokTah]

9. My biggest problem with polyhybrids crossed with polyhybrids is...

so many heritage strains are being lost.

Heritage as in pure landrace strains.

I'm trying to preserve as many as possible nad have compiled a large seedbase of landrace strains.

[Go Vols]

12. Maybe try here

http://www.alchimiaweb.com/en/landrace-tag-33/

[MohRokTah]

13. Most of those are actually hybrids. eom