Points 2 and 3 have always felt intuitively wrong to me, but having never falsified them myself, and having never drilled down in the data enough, I have never felt comfortable crapping on that parade. You know, those numbers always seem to mean a lot to people and I’m not about to call shenanigans on their good time until I’m ready to get my broom.
But yeah, point 3 in particular has always been a sticking point for me. I have a friend who grows great flowers, is a great guy, but is the one who says “that plant is literally a quarter THC man!” I cringe everytime that nonsense comes out of his mouth.
It really depends how its measured, but if its a mass-spectrometer, they put a known mass in a known volume of solvent. Then they compare that to a standard that was created by putting the same mass of 100% THC in the same volume of solvent. Then they compare the peaks, if the peak in the sample is 25% of the reference peak, that’s the number they use.
Now, if it is a GC, the sample gets heated to above the decarboxylation limit, so they can only measure THC. Most early measurements were GC. When they get a MS reading of THCA, they mathematically subtract molecular weight of the carboxyl (COOH) group from that.
So in short, you can think of it as saying, it is 30% as potent as pure THC. That’s just slightly different than saying it is 30% THC by weight.
ok ok I think I see what you are saying. I have to check and see how close to 100% that hash I produced is, so I can get a better grasp of what kind of nuts extraction is being performed. The plant material and stalks will count against the percentage in the overall. The secret is they never count any of the actual plant material towards the THC percentage. I better try my hardest to win that contest.
it’s been forever since it was tested but I think it was 80%, I’m looking forward to having it tested again. They only tested it once like…hmm 15 years ago? Then asked if I could make the same product every time. I told them it was the only thing I could make.
ironically… it’s only been lately I’ve been looking around on here and meeting more people. Guess I was a newb to the forums though he hheh. Was just keeping to myself for a bit but what the fuck eh? I need more human minds to pick around in looking for good ideas and conversations!
OG is literally the only place I have chosen to post anything publicly in over 20 years. No joke.
Facebook/Twitter/“social” media is a mental health crisis that erodes rational thought and strengthens irrational bias, by the very nature of being designed as advertising systems. It’s a giant incubator for non-falsifiable statements that people have deeply tied to their sense of self identity. It’s bad crack and folks shouldn’t be smoking it the way they do, thinking they are the users of the system and not the product.
Ever been the only one at the party that wasn’t tripping their face off on all of the acid? All political discussions with heavy social media users make me feel like that.
I don’t drink or use anti-social media. My thesis was on human learning…turns out humans just seek to enforce their confirmation bias to avoid cognitive dissonance. Then, they prove themselves wrong - but fail to notice due to the fact they don’t even know what they are saying. real life examples:
lunatic: “I can receive radio signals in my brain”
me: “We’ll test that…I’ll choose the station, you think of the song that’s playing and tell me, we’ll see if it’s right”
lunatic: “It’s a matter of focus!” <–proved himself wrong by making it non-falsifiable
lunatic: “Reincarnation is real, I KNOW there is more to life than this!” <—meaningless reason
me: “So… you have evidence that this is real and not just wishful thinking?”
lunatic: “Keep an open mind!!!” <–proved himself wrong by not knowing what that means
lunatic: “You only know things because someone told you how it was”
me: “So…science isn’t real?” <–I get some serious laughs when someone says stupid shit.
antisocial media only feeds your echo chamber, I’ve seen it happen to people around me. They are lapping up QAnon conspiracy bullshit because it lacks proof. Then,I remind them about null hypothesis. You think that concept actually penetrates the echo chamber? of course not, humans don’t learn
Yeah antisocial media is like steroids for confirmation bias.
But maybe, maybe that’s just what YOU wanted me to think! Yeah, right, that’s it, I’ve got it all figured out man! The only reason your hash is nicer and more plentiful than mine is that you have OBVIOUSLY been worshiping Satan and eating babies, you shapeshifting lizard you!
It has absolutely nothing to do with your attention to detail or careful technique, don’t try to distract me with the facts!
yah yah ok here’s how it all unfolded! Back in “the day” this guy taught me how to make bubble hash out of these 2 hermie plants I had. Real basic shit I used a cake mixer on that. Made 2 chunks and I gave one to the guy who taught me. Then I made my own batch and showed it off on overgrow. This guy I call hehatchi said I should wash out the chlorophyll and used the lift and drop tech to clear the water. OK I adopted all those suggestions and took my hash to the next level. Then I went back to the teacher dude and said man lookit this hash - I’ve improved the method with lift and drop and washing the green out. He had misgivings about the changes. OK sucks to be him, I already moved beyond his teachings. I was growing 2 different kinds of plant, one took 6 weeks, the other took 8. Things were moving along I had scored the contract with compassion to supply them with hash. After a while I decided to grow more of the 6 week plant because I could get more harvests in a year. Things were suddenly looking grim! For some reason… I wasn’t making enough loot even though I had changed up to a faster blooming plant. At this point I was still making mixed hash batches, they call came out the same I just needed 10% of the red hash to make the chunks red still. Then, I cranked out a batch from the AK47XGF using only it’s buds. I was astounded at 100% additional yield. WTF! I’m back! So then I was cranking out just the 8 week and making hash. At this point I was still growing buds to smoke. OK so cruising speed on the hash, I would run a different plant every once in a while to see how it stacked. But now I knew, it was plant based - not something else that resulted in the yield. Also I had seen plants make dark hard hash. So I knew the plant determined if it was garbage or not.
After a while… there was this flood, that took out my entire lab. Everything was lost, all genetics…the entire operation was wiped out. Dark days, my friends! So… I got a clone of blue cheese and I ordered a pack of bigbuds from AMS. And started to rebuild. I made a well in the floor to prevent floods in the future. Government legalized weed. I genetically selected a super producer from the seeds I got. Things were going good, I had a plant that could easily produce 125 grams of hash per light and I was all in. Every bud went into hash then I took it to compassion. I was just cranking shit now, and selling it in 5000$ chunks… then came the public safety dude. Closed it all down. Eventually I got bored, decided I could teach other people since I’m just a penniless hobo now with lots of secrets. Being a legend doesn’t pay the bills.
hey there’s more stories. Back in the day after I was making my own hash and moved beyond what I was taught, I was just smoking hash by myself. I thought that other people had made hash like mine or whatever. I thought everyone was packing some gnarly hash! Because I didn’t even know people in real life! I knew 2 people hah hah and one of them was the guy who taught me how to do it. Everyone was doing it, right? One night I was going for a walk around town and I saw these guys I knew were always hanging out and stuff. Causing trouble, etc. So I walked over to them I said “hey you guys want to smoke some hash?” I took out my hash chunk.
“What the fuck is that?” he says pointing at my hash
“Well, that’s the hash.” I reply…
“Doesn’t look like any hash I’ve seen” He says.
That’s when I realized that the hash I was producing was something nobody had seen before.
When I rolled into the compassion club even Dr Hornby was astounded and the purchasing dude kept asking how I manufactured the color. Back then, I didn’t know half of the shit I do now lol! All the secrets are here for the plucking…all people have to do is toss their confirmation bias under the bus and prepare for dissonance - then you can learn. Oh… and buy a decent microscope and learn how to use it. heh forgot about that part.
It got dark over the years for my secret identity, I put all that behind me when my daughter entered the picture. And then I was just me, instead of the legend. I got all my friends to stop calling me that. hah hah I know these are strange stories, but I’ve seen…things man… parts of my life would seem completely made up they are so…downright bizarre. Then again, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. Today, I embrace my secret identity - we’ve never been closer. It’s who I really am.
Interlude is over!!! makes more ice
ok here’s a good hash story. I know this guy he’s growing medical weed.
his weed is contaminated by pesticides
his hash…ditto, also gross dark color.
Now here’s the crazy part, I’ve known him since we were in highschool and he’s known for like 15 years that I can make this crazy hash he is scared to smoke. He also knows I can show him how to grow pesticide free. I told him to use a clean room and stop getting turds to make his clones. You think that he learned anything from the three teaching sessions I gave him? Hell no.
I showed him how to make a still, how to brew uncontaminated oil, how to grow weed parasite free and I’ve even attempted to teach him about how I make the hash. The strange part is he tosses the information under the bus right away! I got a bud from him ohh good stuff he says pesticide free I only sprayed it with NOVA 3 weeks ago. I’m not going to smoke his bud, but instead I will do a contamination scan. He is the quintessential mildew eater! I made this nickname for him that contained the word mildew…a decade ago and the fucking name stuck lol. I wonder if protocol 0 will get rid of mildew? Never had to test that theory due to a lack of powdery mildew.
Buddy sounds like the classic leading a horse to water scenario…
As I understand it, the mildew spores are everywhere, they just need the correct environment to multiply. That said I do my best to keep spore densities to a minimum in the grow environment (and not give the spores a grow opportunity).
Touch wood?
heh heh the contamination scan goes like this:
I get a sample of buddy’s weed a bud after it’s dry then I get out my microscope and I start cutting off small bits of plant and putting it under the scope. Then, I start looking for contamination. I look for fibers, eggs, exoskeletons, growing medium, and anything else abnormal. Fungus…etc. Whatever you can see at up to 1600x magnification which is pretty much anything, but…you don’t need to go that hardcore, usually 400x can resolve anything. I don’t care about things like cotton fibers or some human skin cells, but you have to spend time getting to know what an uncontaminated plant looks like and what kind of contamination you are looking at. Figuring out what things were took a few years initially, but now I can pick out strange objects and even know what they are compared to other known objects right? lol! Ok so my control group for clean weed is my own supply, so I know what it SHOULD look like. The creepiest shit I ever saw was phase contrast hash oil with spider mite eggs in it. GROSS!!! Or trichomes with mildew spores on them NASTY!
“Man this is good weed!”
“funny…it’s riddled with mite carcasses”
“Oh it’s the mite carcasses that are gettin’ me so HIGH!!!”
you might wonder how I can see like that buddy put some pesticide insecticide etc on there… well I got the phase contrast and a pair of eyes I got that microscope setup specifically for cannabis analysis. For my own crops. Then…I turned it like a laser on my friends crops…and I’m sure they hated it except when they call me up for a scan. I did lots of scans for non profit they are always amazed at the things I can find. What I discovered is that only human eyes can see what a machine can’t. Oh I’m sure the worst was all that hash I scanned - every single one was contaminated! Oh for that I dissolve the hash in alcohol and see what the fuck is left behind! You don’t want me finding synthetic fibers in there or bits of dirt.
As for the mildew… it’s actually more complex than the spores are everywhere. There not actually everywhere, they are host specific. This means your plant material like old leaves and currently growing plants can harbor the spores. Like…if my pumpkin plants get mildew it’s never going to transfer to the tomatoes. But it will transfer to crops from the same family of plants, like squash. If you clean up the grow and make sure no plant material gets infected with mildew there should be no problems with it…ever. Mildew is like any other parasite on cannabis, it’s brought in on the host plant.
hmmm are you thinking what I’m thinking? I could do like a cannabis microscopy thread complete with gory details on what is what. Could probably compress a few years worth of scientific discovery into some dense posts with pictures of the most common contaminates.
I got that microscope setup specifically for cannabis analysis. For my own crops. Then…I turned it like a laser on my friends crops…and I’m sure they hated it