From Seed To Session Community Questions – October 7th to 13th, 2024
October 17th, 2024, marks the beginning of the seventh year since Cannabis Legalization within Canada. Over these past six years, the number of cannabis consumers has grown significantly. The growing number of consumers and the base level of knowledge for the consumer and budtender are immense compared to year one.
Over these six years, I have been incredibly blessed to have a growing number of cannabis consumers and professionals join the Right of the Leaf Community and Discord server. As this wealth of knowledge and experience expands, I want to share some of it with you all.
With a fresh set of questions being shared within the Right of the Leaf Discord server every Tuesday, the community members will take the week to respond and share their experiences. I am excited to share these responses and add my opinion afterwards. Between the in-depth questions and the array of responses we’ll receive, I am excited to dive in.
Here are the questions I put forward to the Community members this week:
For Cultivators: What have been your biggest learning moments with nutrient management, and have any unexpected sources of nutrients or additives improved your grow?
For Consumers: How do you gauge the quality of a new strain? Are there specific characteristics you look for immediately, whether it’s smell, look, taste, or effects?
For All Levels: What’s one cannabis myth or misconception you believed when you started, and how did your experience or research shift your view?
For Medical and Recreational Users: Have you noticed different experiences or effects depending on the method of consumption (edibles, vaping, smoking, topicals)? How does your choice of method align with your purpose for consuming cannabis?
Advanced Growers: What challenges have you encountered with phenohunting, and what advice would you give to those just beginning to explore different cannabis genetics?
For All Experience Levels: If you could design your ideal cannabis strain, what would it include regarding flavour, effects, growth difficulty, and uniqueness?
If you want to share your opinion on these questions, please add it to the comment section below.
For Consumers: How do you gauge the quality of a new strain? Are there specific characteristics you look for immediately, whether it’s smell, look, taste, or effects?
Nostrum Narcoleptic
—
For myself, the first thing I’m looking for would be the burn/ash. I’m looking for light grey at a minimum; bone white is ideal. The second would be flavour/smell, as I find they usually go hand in hand. Third would be the effect, as I see there are very few strains I just get nothing from, and lastly, I’d say look/bag appeal because strains like Zkittlez prove that the buds don’t need to look perfect to check the boxes of all the other categories.
Response:
Burn/Ash: This is the one point that I am starting to disagree with utilizing as a factor in the quality of cannabis. I have a few reasons for this:
- Papers used will affect the burn rate and temperature of the joint at the cherry. For example, Zig-Zags, compared to Elements Rice paper, will burn at very different temperatures and speeds. A thicker paper (Zig-Zags, Red Elements, or other Cigarette style papers) will help increase the temperature, causing more flower to burn white or at least salt and pepper due to the higher temperatures.
- No flower grinds the same. This can be due to the structure of the cannabis flower, the grinder/buster utilized, or the Relative Humidity (RH%) within the flower. A finer grind will burn hotter and at a faster rate than a chunkier ground flower. The best comparison for this would be to see how fast a pile of sawdust ignites and burns vs. a single piece of 2×4. The more the object’s surface area is exposed to a flame or heat source, the quicker it will combust.
- The roll’s tightness will also affect the speed and time of the joint burning. While a tighter-packed joint will burn longer, it won’t reach the same temperatures as a poorly rolled loose joint. The oxygen provided to the cherry will also affect the temperature at which it burns. This is one of the reasons why I always promote a sipping draw style from all joints to help keep that temperature as low as possible. The looser the roll, the more oxygen is available and passes over the cherry while you draw, forcing the temperature to rise. In contrast, in a tightly packed joint, the air passes slowly, keeping the temperature more manageable, similar to how a cigar burns versus a cigarette.
While the Burn/Ash can be a factor in deciding the quality of the smoke, it is difficult to curate over a larger group of consumers that roll their joints due to those inconsistencies. It can be a tool for the individual that rolls the same way across every genetic and knows what kind of experience is best for them. I don’t put much weight behind it, but I am open to having the conversation.
Regarding the rest of the points you bring up, I agree. The taste and aroma combine to curate an enjoyable and tasty experience, from opening the bag to pulling in that first puff. When your bud has a room-filling aroma that just doesn’t stop, the time you take getting ready to smoke is almost as enjoyable as that first draw, especially when you bust it up and get that wash of fresh, aromatic tones that don’t come out until the bud is ground.
While bag appeal shouldn’t be purely focused on the top cola nugs, I would say that there should be a base standard for what is put into the bag. If the genetic only grows in clusters of dense little rock-sized buds, at least make sure they are crystal-coated and as dense as possible. Comparably, with a more airy and open Sativa-leaning bud structure, the trim and finish should be lovely and immaculate. It should be the best showcase of that genetic vs. the best High Times Magazine cover photo bud.
juanamakesome
Because we cannot see what is in the bag, my first judgment comes from tearing the initial seal off the top and smelling what is inside before I do anything. I then like to look at my buds under a microscope because I smoke for health reasons, and I don’t want to consume anything that looks poor under magnification. I check for the number of stems in the bag and weigh everything before pressing it into rosin. I like to take note of the posted THC on the bag and compare it with my yields from the press. From rosin, I can tell a lot. How it cures up and tastes in the dab rig can be pretty telling and expose imperfections, such as poor cure, grow practices and overall quality. I like to repress my rosin pucks, and I will dab the 2nd press as the 1st press is curing.
Response:
As someone who presses out some of my flower into rosin, you have hit every key point I would look for myself. There are small things that I would incorporate as well, like a flower vs. rosin flavour and effect comparison. This will help me see just how much degradation the heat of the press caused on the cannabinoid profile, especially with citrus-dominated experiences, because they can quickly transition from a creative and uplifted high to a spacey and euphoric experience. While I enjoy both of those styles of highs, one I use for the morning and tackling some of my more significant tasks that day. The euphoria spacey rush is better at the end of the day for escaping the day or enjoying a passionate evening with your other half.
With all of the content you have shared on the discord server, I am confident in any recommendations you put to the group. The key reason is the focus on pressing your own medicine, the care and time it takes to rule out anything that could cause further problems, which forces you to become an expert on the quality of flower you’re consuming/utilizing for medicine. Additionally, you incorporate a microscope to visualize the product better than most consumers.
kannakitty
If we’re talking about releases on the legal market, if someone on Reddit has not reviewed the product and the lot, then the product will not be purchased until a review has been published by someone willing to get skunked. After too many bad buys, this is the only way as a seasoned consumer not to be trolled by boof cannabis on the legal market.
If your only way to judge the flower is to buy it because you can’t see it in the bag, this is the first test that must be passed to get on to the next step: buying and opening the bag.
From that, I judge by the bag’s smell, how the bud feels, and how the trim job looks. If larger stems are left on the bud, it instantly drops on points for me. As well as how it feels nice squishy bud that bounces back is primo in my eyes.
Response:
Reddit: While Reddit can be utilized as a resource to help avoid some of the boof products on the market, I would only partially rely on it. The amount of time I have spent looking and scrolling through Reddit and seeing nothing but shit posting and bashing products while only providing specific details to support their point. I’ll thank the individuals who take the time to post quality reviews on Reddit with pictures and complete information. I’d argue that there are twice as many people there to bash and shit on the legal market, no matter the quality of the flower. It is crucial that you can identify the difference between a quality reviewer and a shit poster. I dig into the poster to see if they have ever provided positive feedback and their quality standard. If I can’t find those two things quickly, I don’t put much fate into that reviewer.
While it can be a resource, I recommend it to only the more experienced cannabis consumers and Reddit users.
While the larger stems can be a negative point, if I weigh out those nugs and find that they accommodate that weight of the stem with extra bud, I wouldn’t be deducting any points. By maintaining the larger bud vs. breaking it into smaller pieces, they are preserving the overall experience for the consumers. However, I would also be upset if the stem was half a gram or more of my eight or quarter.
THE OG!!!
I judge it in 3 steps.
The amount of crystals on it and the size of the buds, just like everyone.
The smell of it.
The taste of it.
For me, it’s all about the taste of it. I’m not an orange or lemon guy. But other than that, anything goes. The more funky and dank, the more I enjoy it.
Response:
As one of the original followers and members of the ROTL community, Darryl has provided some fantastic feedback on products over the past six years. While this system is short, it’s to the point, and this man knows his bud.
For Cultivators: What have been your biggest learning moments with nutrient management, and have any unexpected sources of nutrients or additives improved your grow?
Taylor Hiar
When I started growing, learning about the nutrients was the most significant curve for me. Understanding the numbers on bottles and how each nutrient plays a role in how your plant grows was a learning cure. It’s one thing to grab a bottle or amendment and read and follow the instructions, but understanding your plant and its needs to go with them takes a lot of work. I remember on my 1st grow ever, I grabbed a bunch of fox farms grow big and tiger bloom and had no clue what I was doing a feed almost every feeding through veg and flower. Once I started catching a grasp of nitrogen being your primary nutrient, my 3rd grow, I murdered a plant I spent six months growing in its second week of flower, giving it nitrogen poisoning. I learned that plants don’t like nitrogen in flower.
At that point, I dove into what each nutrient does for your plant and how/when to use which one. The game changer for me was when I was looking for a more hands-free, low-maintenance way to grow, so I switched to dry amendments. Today, because of that decision, I have a little bit more control over the nutrients and can understand whatever strain I’m growing craves. Not only has the quality of my grows has gotten better, but so have my yields. I can’t give that all to switching to dry amendments, continuing to grow, and learning more every time also played into that.
For beginners, I’ll give you some advice. Seedlings don’t require many nutrients, but phosphorus is the key to faster-growing roots in an early stage. Nitrogen is your crucial building block for your plant in vegetables, and phosphorus/phosphate is your key bud builder. Cal and mag are also essential because that’s what helps your plant determine how much nutrients to take up.
Response:
Next to optimizing your environment, dialling in your nutrient systems is crucial for your ability to grow fantastic cannabis plants. While understanding the basic NPK rations and systems for your plants can get you started, there is an endless amount of learning to have after that.
While this week focused on the consumer-focused questions, I am excited to see what next week’s questions have in store for us. I am excited to continue this conversation in the comment section below.
To join the Discord Server, Click Right Here. By joining the server and answering the questions, you could be featured in the next From Seed to Session Blog Post.
We look forward to seeing you all there!