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Bringing class to grass™ The New Smoker Magazine Issue No.8 January 2018

Please email us at: info@thenewsmoker.com Get The New Smoker Magazine on your Smartphone, iPad® or Tablet! Visit www.issuu.com Or Download the free issuu app for best viewing of

The New Smoker Magazine.

Editor-in-Chief Art Director Cover Design

SJ George Lawrence Snelly S.G. Clarke SJ George

Copy Editor

Joe DePatta

Contributing Credits

Soren Gray

Executive Editors

TNS Contributors

Follow The New Smoker on Facebook® , Twitter® , Instagram® & Issuu®

Magazine

Dr.Frank Luca Belloiu Frank Lauria Elly Prothero Lawrence Snelly Chef Tiffany Friedman Dyson Bronti Soren Gray Clarke Green Ben Parker Karris via KINDLAND Adrienne Airhart via KINDLAND Amanda Reiman via FLOW KANA

All contents © 2017 The New Smoker, LLC. The New Smoker has nothing to do with tobacco or any of it’s related products. The New Smoker magazine is published and distributed by issuu.com. The New Smoker does not condone or endorse any illegal use of any products or services advertised herein. All materials are for educational purposes only. The New Smoker recommends consulting an attorney before considering any business decision or venture. We take no responsibility for the actions of our readers. A number of characters and images appearing in this magazine are parody, satirical or fictitious. Any resemblance to any persons, living, created, or dead, is purely coincidental.

ISSUE No.8 CONTENTS:

THE NEW SMOKER

TEN TOP TIPS TO GROWING AT HOME A Quick Guide on Growing Great Grass.

THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF FLOWER 7. Did America’s Founding Fathers Smoke the Grass They Grew? INNOVATION vs PRESERVATION Can We Save The Past While Rushing To The Future?

13.

OLD SCHOOL NEW Classic Ways of Smoking, Redesigned for the Stylish Smoker.

18.

MULTI-GENERATIONAL CANNABIS FARMERS Californian Family Cannabis Businesses Thrive.

20.

FEATURED FARMS Indoor & Outdoor Grows And A Few In Between.

23.

THE GROWING MAN Interview with Cannabis Cultivation Icon: Ed Rosenthal.

35.

CANNABIS CRITTERS The Extended Ecosystem In Cannabis Crops.

43.

MASTERING THE CANNABIS CRAFT Environmental Controls for Indoor Grows.

50.

MUSIC TO GROW BY New Album Releases To Help You & Your Plants Grow.

54.

THE EMERALD TRIANGLE GROWS THE BEST BUD But Why...?

57.

SOUR LEMON HAZE A Sweet & Sour Review.

64.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THENEWSMOKER.COM 5 of the Best of Best "Reviews" from TNS Tastemaker Site.

66.

TERPENES ARE THE SMART WAY TO PREDICT YOUR HIGH 71.

Indica vs Sativa Is For Suckers.

SEEDS 101 The Basics To Knowing & Growing From Seeds

76.

CHEF TIFF’S RECIPES Autumn Recipes From Chef Tiffany Friedman

81.

FRANK TALES - THE FUTURE OF GROWING Frank's Tales continue.

85.

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How to Grow

ere’s a quick guide to growing the good green ganja in, or around, your home. It’s a great way to get to know the plant you enjoy. Plus, with care and attention, you can grow some amazing cannabis right in your own back yard or spare room.

Easy Steps

Before you grow, you need to decide where you want to grow. Indoor vs Outdoor. Depending on environment and kind of strain, both can grow great green. Some strains prefer indoor, some prefer outdoor. Indoor = More manageable, but more costs. Smaller plants, but more harvests per year.

Outdoor = Less maintenance, much cheaper to grow, but less control. Needs good sun, soil, and terroir. Bigger plants, but only once a year. Greenhouse/Hoop-house = Best and worst of both worlds. Indoor/Outdoor hybrid. More control, more harvests, more natural, but more cost, more pests, more maintenance. (Hydroponic growing is for larger scale pros. Don’t bother for home-grow.)

10 Top Grow Tips: 1. Genes - Get a strong female with good genetics. Seed or clone, make sure she's strong, healthy, and a Lady 2. Soil - Give your new Lady a good home. Nutrient rich organic soil. The bigger the planter, the bigger the plant. 3. Food - Feed your Lady well, but don’t overfeed her. Too much of a good thing is always bad. 4. Water - Quench her big thirst, but don’t over do it. Keep her soil damp, but not soaked. 5. Light - Let the Sun (or sun-like light) shine in! Veg: Give your Lady as much light as possible to grow big plants (18hrs+ a day). Flower: Less light when it’s time to grow big buds (12hrs- a day). 6. Pests - Protect your Lady. Holistic methods like natural predators and organic pesticides are best. 7. Harvest - Pluck her when she’s plump, smelly, sticky... and the crystals are amber. 2+ months to harvest small plants with dense buds indoors 6+ months to harvest big trees with big buds outdoors 8. Drying - Hang her upside down in the dark for days until her smaller stems snap. 9. Trimming - Make her pretty by carefully cutting away anything that’s not a beautiful bud. 10. Curing - Pop her in a sealed container in the dark and only let her breathe once a day for a few weeks, to a month or more, until she smells and feels just right. Dry buds = keep lid closed, damp buds = keep lid open Bonus step: Enjoying - Roll her up and smoke her until you become one with the Ganja Goddess herself.

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INNOVATION VS

PRESERVATION

by Dr. Frank, MD

annabis has changed since the 60s and 70s. We have gone from strains like “Panama Red”, “Acapulco Gold” and “Thai Stick” to names like “Gorilla Glue”, “Bruce Banner” and “Granddaddy Purple”. Eagle-eyed readers will realize that we went from mostly sativa, landrace strains mostly grown outdoors to fast-flowering hybridized strains that are grown indoors. Cannabis back in the 60s and 70s was also far more likely to be imported, be full of seeds and on the most part not necessarily as potent as the cannabis found today. This happened because of the “homegrown explosion”, when short-growing indicas like Afghani became more commonplace. Sativas were also stabilized and crossed with indicas in order to take advantage of hybrid vigor and create plants that were a bit more forgiving to look after. Growing landrace strains in alien environments is a difficult task, usually left to the best growers and breeders. Hybrid strains are generally much better to grow for beginners. Yet, have we lost something in the switch from the landrace strains of yesteryear to the highly engineered strains of today? Let’s look at some of the main issues surrounding the growing of cannabis, why it’s important, and why the line between “innovation” and “preservation” is blurry (and could even be said to be a false distinction) … The “More Bang for Your Buck” Attitude

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In the past, people wanted high-yielding, fast-flowering, THC-packed cannabis. The point was to be able to keep hidden from authorities and be able to make as much profit as quickly as possible. For those doing personal grows, the point was to be able to produce enough within one or two grows to last the whole year, thereby lessening the chances of getting caught. Sadly, this meant that breeders were often only looking for THC, often to the detriment of the other cannabinoids and terpenoids. Companies would try and compete on creating the most THC-laden strain possible, meaning that strains and individual phenotypes considered “low value” were bred out of particular lines. This, of course, leads to a lack of genetic diversity, which leads to … Population Bottlenecking This means that many types of cannabis are, for all intents and purposes, now likely to be extinct. Even strains that are in the middle of South America or Africa have become hybridized, due to pollen flying over from other plantations. This increases the chances of inbreeding and genetic homogeneity, which can cause an increase in mutations and disease, which means extinction becomes a distinct possibility unless fresh genetic material enters the genepool and recovery occurs. Hybridization is only an advantage if it’s done properly - over-hybridization can make plants all the same as opposed to all different. This also means that strains that might have very distinct medical properties are lost in the milieu. 14

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FEATURED FARMS

any of us who enjoy consuming cannabis don't quite know where, or even how, it's really grown. We enjoy the result, but we rarely know all the hard work that goes into producing such great green. We might have heard the terms "Indoor", "Outdoor", "Greenhouse", "Hydro", even "Hoophouse". But not many of us really know what they really mean. What are the differences? Is one better than another?

e here at The New Smoker took it upon ourselves to answer some of these questions by visiting various farms in California that exemplify the various styles of growing. Originally we had lined up a trip to visit a half dozen farms in the Bay Area and Mendocino, but the Croptober Fires of 2017 broke out in Napa and Santa Rosa the week before and we had to cancel the trip as the farms scrambled to save their crops, their homes and their lives.

nstead, we selected a few of our favorite farms in Southern California. From Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, to Topanga Canyon, to downtown LA, we found great ganja grown all over. We realized it's less about the method one uses to grow, and more about the people who know what they are doing, committed to the cause, love their jobs, and put that love into the plants themselves.

hese days many worry that corporate cannabis is starting to take over. But we found even the big farms still have pride in their crop and aren't just cashing out. They keep the spirit of the small farms alive, keeping quality and quantity high, and employee spirits even higher... not as just workers, but as partners.

hey pride themselves on their product. It's that passion for the plant they love so much that shows in not only in the way they grow great grass, but in the way they do business. And we thank them for it.

Image credit: Lowell Farms, Photographer SJ Gray

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FARMS TO FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM TSO Sonoma TSO Sonoma farm carefully curates their organically sun-grown cannabis guaranteed to meet the highest standards of purity and quality. No pesticides or solvents used. Located in Sonoma County. www.tsosonoma.com Follow on Instagram: @tso.sonoma

Kiskanu Kiskanu is a small craft organic off grid, sun grown seasonal farm in Humboldt. Women owned and run, manufacturing topical products and flower. www.kiskanu.com Follow on Instagram: @kiskanu and @kiskanufarms

Northern Reserve Northern Reserve is a family business of Sonoma County natives and longtime growers, who have spent more than a decade building the foundations of Northern Reserve. www.northernreservefarms.com Follow on Instagram: @northernreservefarmers

Image credits: Images from each farms Instagram or provided by individual farms.

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Green Goat Estates Green Goat Estates has sun grown, appellation focused flower, bred to thrive specifically in the environment in which it is grown. They also do live resin produced in partnership with Kind Bill (inventor of the process) and pre-rolls of exotic strains. www.greengoatestates.com Follow on Instagram: @greengoatestates

Humboldt Marijuana Co. Humboldt Marijuana Company specializes in cannabis extracts and organically grown flower. They offer the purest, most potent cannabis experience possible for consumers who care about what they put in their body. www.humboldtmjco.com Follow on Instagram: @humboldtmarijuanaco

Giving Tree Farms Established for nearly 10yrs in Northern CA. In 2014, Giving Tree Farms began the process of implementing greenhouse environments. Giving Tree Farms are environmentally conscious and work hard to ensure they minimize their environmental impact and carbon footprint. www.givingtreefarms.org Follow on Instagram: @giving.tree.farms 34

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THE GROWING MAN NEW RULES FOR OLD WAYS by SOREN GRAY

first met Ed Rosenthal briefly at one of the many cannabis events I attend for The New Smoker. It was filled with usual suspects I see at most of these events in LA, nothing special. So I breezed in, breezed through, and was about to breeze out when I noticed, too late, the list of speakers included Ed earlier in the day.

’d been looking for someone relevant to interview for this “Grow” issue of the magazine, and Ed was right at the top of my list of ideal interviewees. Ed is well known in the cannabis community as a master 35

grower; one of the original cannabis advocates; a long time contributor to High Times magazine in the 80s and 90s; a fierce fighter for the cause, arrested in the 2000s; and teacher at Oaksterdam University. Basically a cannabis icon. He’s even had a popular energetic hybrid strain create in his honor: “Ed Rosenthal’s Super Bud”.

disorganized, as one can be hosting a convention booth all day, but also very agreeable, if a bit gruff.

for the next 2+ months to nail Ed down for said interview. Apparently, Ed’s a very busy man, plus possibly a bit disorganized.

e said he’d love to fter numerous back H do an interview and I should call him to set Aand forth phone calls, something up. He couldn’t find a business card, so hand wrote his office number in adorable chicken scratch on a tiny piece of paper and gave it to me.

emails, smoke signals, with various assistants, I was finally given Ed’s cell number and told to call him after he landed in Hawaii the following week.

as it is, some amount of disorganization and disarray seems to be the nature of the canna-beast. But little did I know this would be especially true as I tried

on the phone about his new book, his fight with the feds, his controversial thoughts on inequality in the industry, and his passion for the plant.

bout to kick myself e finally got to chat elays are expected in A for missing my chance to connect with the man Dthis industry. Cliche Wover a couple of days himself, I found out he had a booth set up in one of the main rooms. I introduced myself and my interest to interview him. He was a bit distracted and

Image credits: Ed Rosenthal by photographer Tonya Perme

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This interview has been edIt also goes into personited for brevity and clarity. al use. At a party, for inTNS - The New Smoker stance: what rights you have in transporting it. At ER - Ed Rosenthal one point, only a decade or TNS: Hi Ed, Thank you so ago, pot was legal, but it for doing this with us. wasn’t legal to transport it Let’s start with your new so cops could arrest people book “New Rules”. Can for transporting it, busted you tell us a little bit about for carrying a few joints. it? TNS: What’s the rule ER: Sure, “New Rules” is now? a book about the new recreational cannabis laws ER: Well, you can move coming into effect on Jan- your pot around; take it uary 1st, 2018 for mari- with you. juana users in California. We go through what’s al- TNS: In what way did the lowed, what’s not allowed, legal troubles you’ve had what will affect them. It inspire this book? You’ve also covers the medical gone to jail for the cause. laws. ER: My trial was a totalTNS: Just for users? Not ly different thing. It was for businesses? a political trial. When I was arrested the head of ER: No, it’s not meant for the DEA came out to anbusinesses. They have a nounce my arrest. What lot more regulations, and they were trying to do was those vary by county and to compromise leadership. city. It didn’t work exactly the way they thought it would TNS: What are the main work. changes that we can look forward to? What do we TNS: They were trying to need to be aware of? get you for anything, but they found something that ER: The book talks about transportation, possession, cultivation for per- “If you are going to mess with sonal use, cultivation for medical use, and generally someone, don’t goes into just how to stay mess with someone out of trouble. Is it really legal to smoke who’s articulate.” outside a bar? You know, the bar owner will say, didn’t stick? “Go smoke in the alley?” ER: They were trying to Is that legal? Smoking in make me ineffective. As it turned out, the trial, from public? the very beginning, was

surrounded with publicity. We were on the right side, as history has shown, and every time information came out it made it look worse for the government. I was an officer of the city of Oakland, and I was sworn in to supply marijuana to patients. So when the government wouldn’t even let that come out at trial it looked very bad for them. Everything the jury couldn’t hear the rest of the country was hearing, it was getting front-page publicity, a lot of TV and radio. It made me much more effective than I had ever been because it gave me a voice that the press was willing to hear. TNS: A wider audience... ER: Another thing. If you are going to mess with someone, don’t mess with someone who’s articulate. That was another mistake they made. Reporters could relate to me. TNS: Does what you learned from going through the trail connect to the book now? ER: No, not really. We’re in a new age. Then, we were fighting for the rights of patients to get their medicine. It’s not that the fight is over but we’re on a way different front of that battle. TNS: What don’t you like about the new recreational laws?

ER: Well, I’ll give you a very broad scope on that. The more that you exclude people from entering or exiting the market, that is when you have excessive regulations or taxes or when you limit the number of people involved you won’t exclude those people from the market, they’ll just be in a different part of the market, in the illicit or unregistered portion. TNS: Like the quasi-legal “Gray Market”. ER: I’ll give you an example. Take somebody who’s been growing and selling for years. Now they’re just going to say, “It’s illegal for you to do it,” but it was illegal all along. What does that person care? There are many different ways to evaluate profit, but if it’s more profitable for them to stay out of the market, they may very well choose to stay out. When you think of gross profit and net profit, there are things that profit people in different ways. Let’s say, you have a lot of money but all of the money is in cash and you want to buy a house. You have no credit. Joining the market might cost you taxes and you may have less net income, it could be to your net benefit to join, and to be taxed. But the more restrictive on growing and manufacturing and sales, depending on the market when there is a gross to36

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The

CANNABIS CRITTERS PHOTOGRAPHS BY JESSE HULL There are many cannabis critters one comes in contact with when growing outdoors or indoors. But not all are pests eager to destroy your hard earned work. Beneficial Bugs come in all shapes and sizes and can help keep away the bad guys. Here's a closer look at a few of our favorites.

The Praying Mantis might look dangerous, especially to a prospective mate, but they are harmless to humans & helpful by keeping big pests away.

Image credits: One Mantis - stock image - all other images by Jesse Hull

The Itty Bitty Blue Belly Lizard enjoys hunting for those pesky pests by roaming through backyard gardens in search of any insects to eat.

FROM

MANTISES TO LIZARDS

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Mastering The Cannabis Craft :

Environmental Controls For Indoor Grows By Danny Sloat

rom years of cultivating craft cannabis at AlpinStash, I’ve learned that a proper growing environment is critical to a healthy garden. Yet, it’s often one of the last aspects facilities invest in and implement. I recommend professional cultivators place primary importance on creating the optimal environment for their plants. Properly integrating environmental controls--temperature, humidity, air movement and filtration, CO2 enrichment, and insulation--dra-

matically affects the success of your harvest. Here are some core tips to begin navigating this aspect of cultivation.

Temperature Control

ou must be able to easily control the temperature of your grow, on both the hottest summer days and coldest winter nights. When using CO2 enrichment (as I discuss below) optimal leaf surface temperature is around 85 degrees. Night temperatures shouldn’t

Image credit: Danny Sloat in his garden, courtesy of AlpinStash

dip below 75 degrees. I recommend at least half a ton of cooling per 1000 watts of non-ducted HID light used. Add at least 10 percent more cooling than you think you need. It's much better to have it and never use it, than to need it during that critical time in bud development and not have it. Many try to slide by with a minimal amount of cooling, either planning to add more as needed (which can be a lengthy, expensive and messy prospect and is usually required in a pinch) or hope to deal with the heat

issues that will inevitably arise. This approach leaves the grow open to many issues, which reduces both quality and yield.

Symptoms of heat-stress: ° Photosynthesis tapers off dramatically when leaf surface temperatures climb above 85 degrees and completely stops in the upper 90s. In this scenario, your plants won't grow. ° New growth and buds fox-tail, twist, warp and 50

W W W. B I N G B A N G N Y C . C O M

MUSIC TO GROW BY

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5 New Releases for Growing Better Buds Selected by MAT JACKSON

Mat Jackson loves all things punk and is the co-founder of Cool-Tite, a Los Angeles-based publication set on “Bringing you LA’s Coolest, Titest garage, punk, and vinyl.”

an plants be happy? If they can, I don’t think you’d recognize it the same way you would with people. Rather than a smile, I suspect you’d find vibrant, luscious flowers boldly popping out all over. Rather than laughter, you’d find stems and branches full of thriving plump green leaves.

For me, good tunes have always had a tendency to put me in a better place – to make me feel stoked on life. It doesn’t seem that far off to think that your plants would fare better, be happier, and flourish with a soundtrack of good music. Sure it’s a bit of a romantic idea, but who cares! It’s not like a plant would actually be worse off after experiencing Dark Side of The Moon, or even the most current of bands throwing down tracks in the lineage of Black Sabbath. So whether it’s for the plants themselves or for the green thumb bringing them into this world, here’s five new records that I’d like to believe are prime for growing better buds.

Check out: www.cool-tite.com

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Why California’s Emerald Triangle Produces The Best Weed In The World It all begins with morning fog and a bit of California sunshine...

t’s no secret California produces some of the best cannabis in the world. Specifically, though, weed farmed in the northern region’s Emerald Triangle––AKA where Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity Counties converge–– is widely revered as being the dankest of the dank. In the Emerald Triangle, cannabis is cultivated in abundance. Here, weed plants have been rumored to grow into actual trees, sometimes reaching more than 15 feet tall, thanks to some of the most ideal natural conditions on the planet. The area’s rich soil and Mediterranean climate are to weed what the geology of the Napa Valley is to wine. The morning marine layer covers the hills in a dense, 57

plant-nourishing fog, while the “terroir” adds a unique flavor to the finished herb. “In terms of indoor, hydroponically grown cannabis, there may not be much difference between a plant grown in Eureka and one grown in Los Angeles,” reads a Leafly report on the particularly high quality of Humboldt County weed. “But the same isn’t true for cannabis grown outdoors. Just as wine connoisseurs sing the praises of Napa Valley or France’s Burgundy, region, some in cannabis say the Emerald Triangle’s soil itself is special.” Toward the end of the 1960s when the counterculture movement was reaching its peak, many

Image credit: Image from original article published on thekindland.com - provided by Flow Kana

of the free spirits and flower children who once smoked grass in San Francisco’s Dolores Park suddenly migrated en masse to the Emerald Triangle. Soon enough, they’d learn how to grow the good stuff, starting several makeshift marijuana farms throughout the region’s dense, creek-laden hills and forests. Today, Emerald Triangle-grown weed fetches higher prices than much of the other product currently being cultivated and sold at commercial scale. Statewide, legal medical marijuana sales reached $1.8 billion in 2016, while the industry at large, could be worth $5.7 billion by 2021, according to a report from Arcview Market Research.

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This projected increase in consumer demand, and growing consumer demographic––with brands hoping to tap into the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks of the general public––will mean that Emerald Triangle growers will absolutely see an uptick in production. Still, cannabis growers in Mendocino County already generate an estimated $1 billion a year, and marijuana represents nearly two-thirds of the local economy, according to a county-commissioned study. The cannabis in Humboldt County––California’s first municipality to adopt a commercial land use ordinance for marijuana––is so renowned it’s causing spikes in the price of land and real estate in the area. Cannabis prices are expected to drop, though, as legal adoption of the crop becomes more widespread, and regulations become more stringent––a shift that will likely result in consolidation of the market. Reasonably, weed farmers in the county take considerable pride in their product––so much so Humboldt-grown weed even carries “proof of origin” labeling.

“It really is the perfect storm for amazing cannabis to be produced.” Over the last five decades, growers have developed techniques and strains exclusive to the Emerald Triangle, subtleties that ultimately rely on the area’s biodiversity. “Micro-climate-specific, and strain-specific knowledge; how to deal with pests and diseases naturally, knowing what strain to plant where, which plants are more susceptible to producing powdery mildew, and [knowing] how to use companion planting to your advantage” is crucial to cultivating cannabis says Simon Evers of Elysian Fields in Mendocino County. Evers describes the weed-growing business in Mendocino as a “lifestyle,” telling KINDLAND, “We are stewards of the land. We don’t use chemicals, or pesticides, we really don’t even use liquid fertilizers. We try to go one step further than organic farming. We’re aiming for long-term sustainability, and what we believe will allow us to achieve that, is really focusing on the soil, and cultivating living soil.”

Elysian Fields sits on fifty acres of land that his family has been preserving for generations, a practice, he says, could describe many parcels of land in the Emerald Triangle. “The knowledge, and the heritage, and the culture of this area is so closely tied to the climate, and micro-climate of the region,” says Evers, adding, “In the summertime, you have these hot, dry days that are very conducive for fast, vigorous growth. And as the plants transition into flower toward the end of summer, and the days grow shorter, cool nights allow for the flowers to ripen. At this time, the trichomes are being produced, and the cannabinoids are being concentrated, and it’s all kind of magical, but also a result of the micro and macro-climates of the region. It really is the perfect storm for amazing cannabis to be produced.” Evers maintains that monocrops––or the practice of growing a single crop, on the same patch of land, each year––can create a very weak ecosystem. Instead, Evers says by integrating cannabis into a larger, more bio-diverse “forest” of plants, and growing marijuana alongside other plants and herbs, such as lavender, can be crucial for the quality of the end product. Image credit: Flow Kana 58

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Terpenes Are the Smart Way to Predict Your High Indica vs sativa is for suckers.

ost bud users are satisfied to know that indica will put you down (in da couch) and sativa will lift you up and help you focus. Many budtenders still rely on the old “Here, smell this dank,” and that brand of customer service still seems to still be working for many smokers.

What are Terpenes?

But there's a lot more to figuring out the perfect weed for you, and a little info can go a long way to making that decision. Studies have proven that sativa doesn't always help you focus and that some indicas will get you hyphy.

Aromatherapists have been preaching the properties of terpenes for hundreds of years, only to fall upon deaf ears (except your crazy aunt who uses lavender oil for deodorant). But no longer shall we ignore you, lovely sage-burning hippies! While indica and sativa are easy ways to classify weed strains, the terpene profile of a plant will really tell you what will happen to your body when you get high.

Why? Terpenes.

You know them, you love them, you’d recognize them if you smelled them—because terpenes are the parts of a plant that you can smell. They’re organic chemical compounds produced by plants that carry aromatic or flavonoid properties.

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When you think of sativas, you imagine a citrusy smell, while indicas are reminiscent of cloves or pine forests. Sometimes weed smells like beer because it’s got myrcene, one of the terpenes

Eating a mango (which has myrcene) 30 minutes before smoking weed intensifies your high. found in hops! Remember, 50 percent (or more) myrcene content makes a strain an “indica” because of its sedative properties—just like beer! So if your strain smells hoppy, you’re going to feel warm and sleepy when you smoke it. The lemony scent from sativa is because of the terpene limonene which is prominent in strains like Super Lemon Haze. It’s like red wine vs white wine; they’re both wine, but all the particles inside and how they smell will tell if you if you’re going to pass out immediately or try to hook up with your ex at a cocktail party.

Steep Hill Labs is the father of the terpene movement right now; its research has produced strain profiles and breakdowns to educate us about the different terpenes and their effects. Steep Hill's judgment is that “a 50 percent limonene content makes it sativa and thus 50 percent myrcene content makes it indica.” Hybrids are sort of a gray area: typically anything lower than a 70/30 ratio—for example, a 60/40 or 50/50 ratio—is considered a non-dominant or well-balanced hybrid. Rev. Dr. Kymron deCesare, chief research officer at Steep Hill-Halent Laboratory in California says, “The terms sativa and indica are only really valid for describing the physical characteristics of the cannabis strain in a given environment and are not nearly as reliable for making assumptions about energy [the high] vs. couch lock [the stone].”

Image credit: Image via Steep Hill Labs

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All About the Ladies...

by Elle Prothero

When growing your own cannabis plants, one of the most important factors to consider is whether you have male or female plants. Male plants produce some THC, but they do not produce those precious THC-laden flower buds that we strive for. Only female plants do that.

Seeds 101: In fact, just get rid of those dudes, because when it comes time to have your ladies make seeds, you actually don’t need the guys to get it done. You can make this happen through the amazingly simple process of feminization.

If you have multiple plants, even one male can wreck your harvest by fertilizing the females in your group. This is because if your lady plants become fertilized by one of these males, she then will not produce as much THC because she’ll be using all her energy and nutrients to produce seeds instead of buds.

Of course, you can simply purchase feminized seeds online, but let’s say you’ve cultivated your own killer strain and want to make more of it without wasting time and energy on growing a male plant…

Seeds 101: For an optimal harvest, keep your male plants away from your female plants so that these ladies don’t spend all their days making seeds instead of buds.

Through the process of feminization, you can prompt a female plant to produce pollen, fertilize another female plant, and voila: produce seeds. The [ideal thing] about feminization is that because the resulting seeds have come from TWO female parents, (heyyy — DNA 101!) the resulting seed is (almost) guaranteed to also produce a female plant. 76