Easy tricks on Cannabis Soil you apply for better yields

Wed, 11/Aug/21

Mixing your own organic soil for growing marijuana is already a humble “scientific” job for a true hobbyist. Regardless of the expertise, you are having at the start, go on doing for in the end, your experience shall grow inevitably high along with the dope nugs, no doubt! If you are passionate enough, you shall be rewarded, this one always performs well.

This post contains the basic guidelines on how to design a soil mix for cannabis, what are the basic ingredients for the cannabis soil, and a few directions to keep it moving in the most enjoyable way possible. Do not forget to have a look at our guide on organic soil amendments to fertilize your soil naturally, and use the existing materials to rule the nutrition for your marijuana plants.

Any future buds start from soil:

“You will find only what you bring in.” – Yoda.

Ingredients for soil structure

Which ingredients do you essentially bring in soil to build its structure:

• Sand and/or Silt.

• Humus (this is soil per se).

• Hydroton and/or crushed pieces of carbon.

The latter may be helpful in correcting a desperate situation of a heavy clay structure of the soil in your backyard, then adding sand may become even a harmful solution for the structural change.

How to make cannabis soil mix

The first and the most important step in making your own cannabis soil mix is the selection of the original soil, that you are going to modify. Don’t worry, this is not as sophisticated as it sounds. Just the best hint to picking a proper basic soil is to listen to what your heart desires. And, no, it’s not a master Yoda speaking again, but – you start from being comfortable yourself, also you utilize what you have read and heard about soil (called “unintentional knowledge” in brain-related sciences).

– Cannabis soil should be loose for the roots to strive in a comfort, and for oxygen and nutrients to reach the roots of marijuana plants freely. On the other hand, the soil should not be too loose to waste less water and nutrients dissolved in it but absorb everything properly. The extreme situation of water going through too easily is a hydroponic growing, a very different story.

– Cannabis soil should be rather coarse and grainy, and you avoid the fine ground. The fine ground, which may seem rich, loose, and of nice color, shall be tamped quickly with watering.

– Both provisions above work for water drainage. Marijuana plants have evolved mostly in dry regions, they hate over-watering. The water must go and still keep your cannabis soil moist.

If you buy the ingredients for your soil mix

In the market of the pro mix organic soils, even though all soils in grow shops are “cannabis soils”, some of them may fit your requirements or your character better, some are good for germination, another – for vegetation, and yet another – is for a lazy grower, etc. Pro mixed soils feature different contents and the purpose.

– Set eyes on the NPK of the soil, that will make your life easier then.

– Avoid clay soils. It’s hard to mess with this type.

– Loam soil is the best for marijuana.

– AP soil, all-purpose, of course, exists too.

How to choose the basic soil for the mix

Basic soil in your mix plays a vital role: (1) Potentially, it may contain (with luck) a fairly balanced set of nutrients, like silt soils; (2) Apparently, some types are close to impossible to pull through, like clay soils. For the case you have no intent to pick a commercially available mix of soil, but you wish to excavate a batch of random soil “from the garden” and make a perfect soil mix of your recipe, such may work, and for this, we have criteria:

• Extend your search a little beyond your backyard. Better soil at your starting point shall require fewer soil ingredients (like sand, clay, etc) and fewer amendments (like nitrogen, magnesium, etc).

• Skip the previous provision if you are sure about your garden soil, wish to experiment with the particular soil or any other reason you have for that.

• Color and texture: the best colors are dark brown or almost black, dark red, and tan. The brown or black color of the soil indicates there is a high amount of organic matter, which is the main ingredient (humus) with all the NPK in it.

• Test watering: pour a glass of water and watch how it’ll drain itself. There is no certain know-how but your own experience in comparison to different kinds of soil. Water should not disappear too quickly, and should not stay as a paddle on the surface.

Adding sand to cannabis soil for drainage

The dominating majority of the commercially distributed cannabis soils from the grow shops already contain sand mixed into them. Cannabis loves sand! Why do you need to add sand to your cannabis soil? Sand regulates the drainage properties of cannabis soil: the water should not transit easily, and it should not get stocked either.

Amending sand to cannabis soil prevents water stocking, as exceeding water may block roots from access to oxygen, then roots start rotting. Apparently, too sandy soil may lead to frequent watering, then, if your nutrients are dissolved in water, you risk wasting them as water goes through, and eventually impact your bill. If you have nutrients in the soil in a form of organic matter, like manure or coffee grounds, then the transiting water may wash out from the soil what should be kept.

That is why you need sand.

Grains of sand should be of a fair size.

F* that sand if its grains are almost flour.

Btw, if your approach is the laziest and the cheapest way (I did it a couple of times, and all went smooth) then – whatever soil you find, consider adding sand essentially. The only exception is clay soil, and there’s no other choice, and you skip adding sand, or end up with cement!! Read further to find out what to do then.

Adding silt to cannabis soil

Silt shares the properties with sand, except that it is mud. Silt shall not hold water for too long, just like sand saving you from over-watering, but not like sand it keeps nutrients much better. The pro mix organic soil ingredients are essentially sand and silt.

Due to its structure – minerals and organic particles – silt is fertile and helps your organic soil mix to stay moist with no excess water in it. Thus, silt soil is one of the best types of soil to start from. Also, idyllic for germination.

So, once you amend sand to your organic soil mix, then it should not be all sand, and silt shall be your next consideration. There is no universal bullet-proof recipe, anyway. To make the close-to-clay soil loose and moist I’ve amended a few handfuls of crushed carbon pieces once.

As a first-timer, do all your mixed soils wisely. If you have several pots, or several spots in the open air, like a garden or a backyard, consider differentiating the techniques for each plant. Then make notes and watch how your growing expertise produces the perfect recipe for the weed soil mix.

Clay pebbles aka hydroton for cannabis

Clay pebbles (hydroton) are multipurpose. A well-known fact they are essential for hydroponic marijuana, apart from that they serve perfectly the same purpose as sand in the soil mix. Hydroton pebbles are made of clay by heating it to a few thousand Fahrenheit, then clay fills with bubbles and transforms into small round units.

Hydroton / Clay pebbles

Clay pebbles (hydroton) pros for cannabis

• Clay pebbles, clay pellets, aka hydroton are offered in the market in various sizes, from 4mm to 16mm in diameter.

• Clay pellets are easier than sand to apply: they weigh a few times lighter than sand, are relatively clean, and are practically designed to do the job nicely.

• Pores in each such clay ball work for a better distribution of nutrients, water, and oxygen; compared to natural gravel which has no pores, does not allow water and air to go through.

• Hydroton supports plant position, which is especially crucial if you mess with clones.

For normal weed growing (not hydroponic) fill in the bottom of the pot with pebbles at first. For outdoors, you can make a pit and fill the bottom with clay pellets. Such shall add to drainage, anyway.

Clay pebbles (hydroton) are in many ways better than sand as soon as they are designed for this.

Should there be any cons to clay pebbles?

The Moon, of course, has the dark side, and so do the clay pebbles for cannabis.

• If you leave the whole system dry, the hydroton balls shall dry out too, and – when you add water back again – they’ll absorb the enormous amount quite quickly leaving nothing to plants. Watch it, also mean it when watering for the first time or after a dry period.

• The real con is the price, but for smaller home systems it works.

• Clay pebbles (hydroton balls) need to be sterilized once reused. This is critical.

Clay

Clay pebbles are fine, now let’s find out what is useful in natural clay for your marijuana crop. Clay is basically made of fine-grained rock material with a little quartz, fully loaded with aluminum and magnesium oxides. Clay is plastic when moist and hard when dry, it hosts the roots of your marijuana plants badly, including – due to the lack of ventilation.

If clay dominates in the soil of your garden or backyard, such is very close to a disaster. But clay works well as an ingredient in your perfect weed soil mix. You amend clay as little as 5-10% of the total soil mass to manipulate the overall ventilation property.

Well, what if you face a struggle, and there is no option but clay soil? Do not think you can just add sand, and voila, as you’ll only create an artisan cement.

– Add more humus to decrease the amounts of clay.

– Use crushed carbon and/or hydroton instead of sand.

We do not mean it is all clay as it is, but a heavy quantum of clay in your soil. Some plants are still growing in it, just marijuana plants are rather whimsical, and we need to please them.

Loam soil

Loam soil is a champion soil. It already combines sand and silt with smaller portions of clay and humus, of course. Loam soil is what you try to achieve when making your DIY organic soil mix, having no ready loam soil around. Needless to say, loam is the most desired weed soil to pot marijuana. It features good oxygen levels and excellent drainage properties, neutral PH, also naturally fertile.

Humus and manure

Humus is a “usual soil”, what we think when saying “soil”. Humus is the mix of organic matters like roots and dead plants, rotten to an end. Any normal grow shop, either oriented to marijuana or not, offers humus as the basic soil. Humus is the essential ingredient for your cannabis soil mix, and it takes the major share of the overall mass of your pro soil mix for marijuana. Hydroponic is an exception, of course.

If you are thinking to buy some ingredients for your soil mix, but not all, to leave space for the experiments, then a good investment would be buying humus – the basic soil ingredient.

Sometimes humus is called compost, but indeed compost is the mix of humus and manure. You amend both into weed soil if you have them around. Manure is worth looking for it. Bovines are poor digestives: they absorb roughly about 1/5 of what they intake, and the rest 4/5 of “yummy stuff” (including the NPK nutrients) goes into manure — marijuana plants shall be thankful!

Also, manure is great for making worm casting.

Worm castings for weed

Worm castings for weed (also vermicast or vermicompost) are earthworm’s poo. As worms travel through there under the surface they consume soil sending it through their digestion system, and what we get at the other end of a worm is what your marijuana plants would love to have!

You can buy worm castings as a ready thing in a grow shop, otherwise, you can pet worms in your place to produce worm castings for weed, or we call it vermicast. Compared to compost worms casting is easier to produce: worms require lower temperatures and deliver no smell. Despite that they are already crawling literally in bull sh*t, what we call manure, however, the additional smell is none, which we can hardly say about compost. Also, making worms casting is a significantly faster process rather than making compost, and requires less space.

Worms casting for weed is rich with elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. And you can apply worms casting directly to plants, compared that you mix manure with mud before you put it to plants. Messing with worms casting for weed is a cleaner job overall.

Common earthworm species used for the purpose are:

1) Red Wigglers, or Red Californian Earthworm.

RED WIGGLER WORM

2) Night Crawlers, these are larger.

NIGHT CRAWLER

— Worm castings improve the germination and all the weed growing;

— Fertilizers you use with less fear about damaging the plant;

— Worm castings hold water and nutrients;

— Worm castings provide microorganisms and minerals to the soil, increasing the disease resistance greatly!

These worms are in the market, and they are good guys.

No PH problem ♥

For the marijuana plant soil PH level, where the best value is 5.5, the soil plays an important role. Especially indoors, where you emulate an unnatural system to be as natural as possible. Thus, a proper mix of soil may clearly demonstrate the concept “Just add water!” as it shall require significantly less (or not at all) nutrients. Even though adding some you only double-check on PH once in a while.

Just another reason to think about humus to buy, if you are a first-timer: the proper nutrients in humus from the beginning, may eliminate or reduce the marijuana plant soil PH level problem in the future. Nobody is there on the clouds with a PH-meter every time before it starts raining in the wild nature, because the natural soil “mix”, where the wild weed grows, is already perfect. Once you succeed with mixing the soil for your cannabis plants you’ll probably never come back to the “easy peasy way” anymore.

How much soil do I need to pot marijuana?

The roots of a cannabis plant require space. A common mistake is when roots go curving around in a narrow pot. You’d better give a lot of space, the first-class accommodation to your marijuana to flourish well. For one plant, the recommended volume of the pot is 2-3 gallons, which is from 8 to 12 liters. The pot is to be almost full of soil, so you need this quantum of soil mix for each weed plant on your marijuana plantation.

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Caryophyllene terpene is for Peppery taste in marijuana

Tue, 29/Jun/21

Caryophyllene terpene is the only psychoactive terpene! It is responsible for the peppery herbal scent of marijuana, often described as an earthy taste and compared to rosemary or black pepper. Feeling weed as racy and spicy as you smoke most likely points to that the particular marijuana strain contains a good quantum of caryophyllene terpene, just like black pepper does.

To catch the very idea try to compare the smell of Diesel strains to black pepper – that’s the best way to learn how to recognize the presence of caryophyllene terpene in marijuana. And, why that caryophyllene attracts our very special attention out of many, we dig up in this post!

What do terpenes do?

Terpenes are volatile chemical compounds found in any vegetation: in plants, flowers, berries, fruits, and vegetables, including, of course, marijuana plants. Terpenes easily evaporate at room temperature and even lower, we inhale them as they fly, and that is how terpenes form smells and flavors for marijuana or any other fruit of nature. Terpenes in marijuana, like ones in red wine, gift us a colorful dance of splashing tastes and after-tastes.

• A scientific phrase describing terpenes is “ethereal oils”, to be precise: ethereal oils incorporate terpenes. Ethereal oils term demonstrates the basic idea perfectly as soon as “ether” is air in Greek, so flying away and spreading smell is what terpenes are for. Such happens less if the temperature is lower, I bet you’ve noticed before, that even the most smelly buds give significantly weaker fragrance once stored frozen in a fridge.

• “Essential oils” is yet another scientific term for terpenes because essential oils include the essence of the plant’s fragrance. Reads: essential oils contain terpenes. Simply, they make plants smell.

• Terpenes affect the human body in various measures, bringing different effects, once they are consumed. Such includes inhalation. Terpenes are among the required nutrition for the living organisms, which is us.

What is caryophyllene terpene?

Caryophyllene terpene in marijuana provides a peppery, herbal, musky scent, and a spicy-earthy flavor. Outside of marijuana caryophyllene is found in black pepper, rosemary, clove, and in some fruits and vegetables but spices especially.

If you’ve ever smoked the traditional Indonesian tobacco-free cigarettes made of a local strain of clove, they feature this aroma too, thus must contain caryophyllene.

Caryophyllene is the only psychoactive terpene

Caryophyllene terpene out-stands from the whole cohort of all other terpenes in marijuana as it effectively interacts with the endocannabinoid system, namely it contracts the CB2 receptors in the brain. This makes caryophyllene a psychoactive terpene!!

Simple logic dictates that the same provision makes black pepper slightly psychoactive too due to good amounts of caryophyllene in it. I confirm smoking Indonesian clove was not a cloud nine but somewhat a cloud it was, just I knew nothing about caryophyllene at that time.

Psychoactive effects of caryophyllene

Caryophyllene interacts with the endocannabinoid system by touching the CB2 receptors, where the whole system works for forming our cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to stress. Therefore, caryophyllene is effective to overcome stress and depression, studies confirm.

Loosely speaking, it creates relaxing calmness and happiness as a feeling in the brain – next time eating black pepper, why not listen to your mind attentively to find out how caryophyllene changes your emotional state (a black pepper lover for life is speaking in me now).

What else does caryophyllene do for the body?

Apart from its impressive psychoactive properties caryophyllene helps the body to tolerate low ambient temperatures. Regardless if it is in marijuana or black pepper, caryophyllene improves the resistance of the body to cold by slowing down the activation of “cold and menthol receptor”, also referred to as CMR1 or TRPM8, that one making us sense freezing. Oh, that explains a lot about what happens when we eat way spicy food, does it?

What is beta-caryophyllene?

It is the same thing but the other name. Beta-caryophyllene or β-caryophyllene is just a more formal term for caryophyllene, while we tend to shorten the names of complicated compounds while referring to them. The same way we say THC instead of its full name Delta-9-THC.

Yet another (off-cannabis) example is carotene. As a word it is used in everyday speech, while the formal name of this compound required to build our skin and connective tissues is beta carotene or β-carotene. That’s in carrot, just in case.

Well, back to beta-caryophyllene, which is also β-caryophyllene, or caryophyllene, it sometimes shrinks to merely an acronym – BCP!

Caryophyllene forms the famous Diesel taste

Caryophyllene (beta-caryophyllene) forms the famous Diesel flavor, once in combination with limonene terpene in the Diesel strains of marijuana. As it follows limonene terpene is responsible for the citric taste.

1) Limonene terpene provides the citrus taste, and

2) Caryophyllene terpene is for the black pepper taste,

— together they bring us the diesel taste.

I only wonder, does it make black pepper mixed with lemon remind gas to us? Btw, the diesel taste of weed eventually influenced the “gas” to become a slang word for high-end marijuana.

Caryophyllene strains

Caryophyllene is just present in cannabis, but the greater amounts are found in Diesel strains, which are usually a very special gourmet’s pleasure!

1) The most original diesel strain is Sour Diesel which has lifted the diesel mania among stoners once invented.

2) Another beautiful diesel strain is Jack Diesel, the mix of the legendary floral aromas of Jack Herer with NY Diesel.

3) Most of the caryophyllene-rich strains contain the word “diesel” in the branding, exceptions exist – for example, Bruce Banger or fuel-stinking Chemdawg.

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Delta-9 THC explained

Wed, 02/Jun/21

THC or Delta-9 THC represents the principal psychoactive compound present in marijuana. THC is an acronym, which unwinds to its scientific name “Delta nine tetra hydro cannabinol”. In the market, however, and in everyday speech, we use a popular handy nickname calling it simply “THC”.

Delta-9 THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is there in marijuana to make us high when we smoke weed, eat weed as edibles, or otherwise consume it.

Impact of Delta-9 THC

If you’ve just hit, and you suddenly start feeling an increase in imagination and an over-positive mood; troubles are far away; if a favorite movie involves you more than usual, or you desperately want to play a video game, or express your avalanching creativity in a drawing — it means the weed is good and rich with THC, and it’s kicked in.

Kenny McCormick, South Park series

For more than 12,000 years, people smoke marijuana for creativity, spirituality, and merely fun, and also we leverage the outstanding medical properties of weed, just along with the general highness THC gifts to us.

Boaters smoke weed, filmmakers definitely smoke weed, game designers, artists, poets, executive managers, and craftsmen — everyone smokes weed. Yeah, the latter two need a lot of creativity to keep going! The software developers of this website, marketers, designers, and copywriters love toking as well. The whole world.

Is Delta-9 THC addictive?

It depends greatly on what you call “addictive”, but just… er… Everything is addictive: social networks are addictive, the morning coffee is way addictive, and the Sun in the sky is addictive beyond imaginable.

The Cambridge dictionary defines the word:

Addict /ˈæd.ɪkt/ is a person who cannot stop doing or using something.

I personally cannot live without software making, I’m also video game addict, and an oxtail soup addict (yes, I’m very serious about oxtail soup!)

How long does Delta-9 THC stay in the body?

Studies indicate that 80-90% of the total intake of Delta-9 THC is gone from the system within 5 days. The peak reached after smoking falls in 4-6 hours. If you are a “chronic stoner”, Delta-9 THC is never out of your system. It also accumulates in fats where its presence expands to an undefined time span.

The crystal monstrosities in the picture above are the trichomes on the cannabis plant magnified. The trichomes make buds look frosty, while the contents of trichomes (namely, Delta-9 THC) make us high.

When we puff…

At the temperature 220-235℉, it equals 105-112℃, carbon dioxide present in the trichomes of marijuana abandons THCA (the THC acid) changing it to Delta-9 THC. As heating continues the temperature rises very quickly to 350℉, which equals 176℃, and at this point, THC evaporates: it changes from solid-state to gas. We inhale it with smoke, then in the lungs, Delta-9 THC absorbs into blood, and heads towards the brain.

How Delta-9 THC works on the micro level

On the micro-level, the molecular of THC has a proper structure to interact with the cannabinoid receptors in the human brain. These receptors are part of our endocannabinoid system, and, loosely speaking, Delta-9 THC is incidentally “compatible” with it. So THC contracts those receptors of the endocannabinoid system and incentivizes the chemical processes, eventually changing our behavior and our way of thinking.

Anandamide in relation to THC

The “high” that Delta-9 THC performs is a natural condition, and we have Anandamide in the body for the purpose to make us happy, thoughtful, and creative. THC only stimulates it.

This is what goes on when we intake marijuana.

Who has discovered Delta-9 THC?

Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, Israeli organic chemist and professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, was born in Sofia in Bulgaria in 1930. He discovered THC and its effects on the human body and also isolated THC, and fully synthesized it in 1969. Also, he has identified how Anandamide works concerning the chemical backgrounds of happiness, and how marijuana affects this condition in the human body.

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Indica vs Sativa Explained

Fri, 02/Apr/21

Marijuana strains in the modern market are axiomatically divided into two main families: Indica and Sativa. These are the historical families of the cannabis plant, but just the modern breeding progressing wildly made them – “Indica” and “Sativa” – the labels, the trademarks: practically there is no pure Indica, nor pure Sativa, but just historically we find it way convenient and we stick to the definitions. I bet anyone has seen a description saying: “Indica 60%” – let’s dig up, what does it even mean?

There is also Ruderalis, becoming a popular term as autoflowering seeds are conquering the market – the easiest and fastest way to grow cheap weed at home. However, those autoflowering seeds are usually a mix of Ruderalis and either Indica or Sativa. And the latter two forever take their special place in the language, in the industry, and among end consumers – aka stoners, which is us!

What’s the difference between Indica and Sativa?

About 30 years ago I have stepped on the path of a recreational stoner, and loving it. Even though we didn’t have 50 strains over the counter, however, that day a very close friend of mine told me the difference: “The formula is simple to catch the basic idea, Sativa is to laugh, and Indica is to sleep.”

Since then I use it as the basic definition, for whoever asks me. Of course, not only this, and a whole speech follows about the myriad of nuances, but the truth is – Sativa delivers storms of laughter, and an avalanche of creativity, but Indica is to feel sleepy, relaxed, being deep into strategic thinking. This just explains everything we want to know about what is Indica, and what is Sativa.

Sativa (on the left) and Indica (on the right)

Cannabis Sativa gives a taller plant compared to Indica, which is, in general, a lower plant and bushier. Also, you can detect the domination of Indica or Sativa genetics in a marijuana plant by the shape of the leaves, and by color. Indica is in general darker with deeper green, while Sativa obviously features a lighter green color of the leaves and buds if you put both together in front of yourself. Basically, Indica and Sativa determine the type of your high.

Indica effects

Indica cannabis family originates from the northern regions of India, just as its name suggests. Thus, Cannabis Indica has evolved in a cooler climate rather than Cannabis Sativa. Cannabis Indica is considered amateur marijuana once it comes to growing weed at home: as a northern lass Indica is less whimsical, not yet all-forgiving but some grower’s mistakes it certainly allows.

Indica delivers sleepy effects indeed, recommended for the beginner stoner to bake one in the evening. It delivers vast relaxation to the body, and slowness in movements, compared to Sativa, Indica is responsible for physical effects on the body. Once you intake a good portion of Indica you get what we call “stoned”, rather than “hyper”.

Sativa effects

Sativa cannabis family has evolved closer to the equator, and it loves high temperatures and arid climates, and it gives taller slimmer plants. Many growers confirm Cannabis Sativa is harder to grow rather than Cannabis Indica.

What does Sativa make to you? Sativa strains make you “hyper” and “pro-active”, as only hyper one can be from marijuana. Anyway, you get high as it is top-notch marijuana, but Sativa just alters the mind different way and less the body’s physical condition. For the creative drive, you prefer Sativa. This is not carved in stone, and you get your creativeness and a lively mind from Indica too, but the stoners recognize it as the general idea to start from – the liveliness of Indica is “slower”, so to say.

Historical record

In 1753, a Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, also referred to as Carl von Linne, was the first person in recorded history who identified a cannabis plant as “Cannabis Sativa L.”, where “L.” stands for Linnaeus, his name.

In 1785, a French military scientist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck identified the other type of cannabis plant – Cannabis Indica, and he classified it as “Cannabis Indica Lam.”, where “Lam.” is for his name. I’m not a botanist but it seems obvious that they all were putting their names trailing.

In 1924, a Russian botanist Dmitry Janischevsky has identified the third variety Cannabis Ruderalis, separating it from the already-discovered Cannabis Indica and Cannabis Sativa.

Cannabis Ruderalis

Cannabis Ruderalis originates from the Chuy Valley, a natural wonder located on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, where the wild weed grows for ages covering 400,000 hectares – equals the size of Delaware, full of wild marijuana, belonging to no one, totally wild.

Some sources call it Siberia, other sources call it Russia, but it is neither, it’s Chuy. This type of marijuana plant is also found in the northern Himalayas in Asia. The cold climate, compared to what Indica or Sativa enjoy, made Cannabis Ruderalis evolve as less sensitive to the light regime so that it gives flowers by reaching a definite age, rather than reacting to the rhythm of the Sun. Also, the full growing cycle of Ruderalis from seeds to buds is significantly shorter.

Cannabis Ruderalis “suffered” less marketing attention but gained its fame eventually with the development of the autoflowering seeds at the beginning of the 21st century. The genetic properties of Ruderalis concerning the light regime gave us the brilliant opportunity to grow the all-forgiving amateur weed in no time.

Why do breeders mix Sativa and Indica?

First of all original Cannabis Sativa plant may reach a great height, several meters in the wild, which is not convenient for home growing. Mixing its rich properties with the physical characteristics of Indica, including its resistance to pests and environmental conditions, is just reasonable. Hybrids and Indica-dominant strains fit a limited growing space nicely.

Secondly, the breeders work hard to satisfy the market needs, delivering the mixtures of flavors, what we call terpenes, also the amounts of THC making the recreational weed higher than high, and also delivering proper medical properties of marijuana.

Breeding is a usual process while messing with plants.

Indica vs Sativa vs Hybrid

Nowadays they are all hybrid. We have hundreds of strains in the market, and most of them indicate some percentage of Indica and some percentage of Sativa. The dominating genetics makes it this or that, but they are all hybrids, however.

What do we choose then? We choose the baseline, as weed strains come to the market marked as “more Sativa” or “dominant Sativa”, usually called simply Sativa, or “dominant Indica”, referred to as Indica, with a respect to the high effects as we described above for both types.

Examples,

• White Widow is Indica, a strong and very classic one.

• Strawberry Chemdawg is a mad mix of everything. This one we officially call a hybrid strain, it contains the aromas of strawberry, diesel, and black pepper, also featuring the energetic effects of Sativa and calmness of Indica, altogether.

• Sour Diesel is a Sativa-dominant strain, but it may relax you due to the amount of caryophyllene, the psychoactive terpene standing apart from THC or Sativa properties.

• Northern Lights, showing in its name the Northern origin, is an Indica-dominant strain of marijuana offering the classic Indica effects.

Autoflower Sativa vs Autoflower Indica

The autoflowering marijuana inherits the unusual growing cycle from Ruderalis, making it very easy to cultivate at home, requiring less growing space, and the breeders have already mixed it with Indica and Sativa – so we enjoy a good amount of high in the autoflowering plants.

Basically, the autoflowering strains share the branding with the famous normal strains but may differ in amounts of THC. There is White Widow Autoflower, and there is Sour Diesel Autoflower. Despite that any autoflower is a hybrid, we’d better call them already Autoflower Sativa and Autoflower Indica, as soon as the genetic of Ruderalis is present in the autoflowers anyway.

Examples,

• “Auto Orange Bud” contains the genetics of the classic Orange Bud, from the classic era of cannabis breeding. It is now an autoflower, and extremely high Sativa, altogether.

• “Auto Skywalker” certainly breaks the rule about lower THC in autoflowers, it counts 25% of THC, and is a Sativa strain. Limonene and Caryophyllene are also there.

• “Auto Blueberry” is another super-classics in a form of autoflower, and it’s Indica.

Practically all the weed in the nowadays marijuana market is technically hybrid, but we still use the archaic terms “Indica” and “Sativa” indication to describe clearly what is going to happen as soon as we consume it, and how we grow it. And, all the commercially distributed weed is high, but we also choose the smell, the terpenes, the price, the easiest effort to grow one at home, etc. It is great fun to know the origins and try to taste the basic difference between Indica and Sativa. So we expect and plan the type of high, and we can compare the feeling while trying all of them.

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