CHEM DAWG ››

from 2013 06 UK

GROWING IN A TENT ››

Chem Dawg: the legend comes to Europe

Chem Dawg first made history on the United States market, from the royal New York underground to the dispensaries in California, and has several awards and mentions in High Times magazine to its name. Dinafem has been working hard to create a version of this strain!

Ganjah Selecta

We’ve already talked about the historic Chem Dawg dynasty several times. Originally selected by Chemdawg from seeds found in an ounce of sinsemilla grass, the plants soon began to be shared and hybridised, which led to the appearance of renowned genetics such as: Original Diesel, Headband, Daywreck Diesel, Underdawg Diesel, East Coast Sour Diesel, Sour Diesel, Giesel, OG Kush, Bubba Kush or New York City Diesel. Examples of Spanish genetics are Juanita La Lagrimosa and Cannatonic.

It’s important to highlight that these plants earned their fame for their special flavour, characterised by its oily, fruity accents and reminiscent of Marsala wine. It’s truly unique. Another claim to fame is their intense effect, which you can appreciate from the first drags. Later, when medicinal cannabis and analyses came to the forefront, high CBD levels were detected in several examples of these lines, both in Europe and in the United States, in some cases with a 1:1 THC-to-CBD.

All the original Kush strains stemming from this wave present the same merits as well as the same defects. We’ve already described the good points: sweet and typical flavour, high potency, medicinal effect. As for the inconveniences, it’s a plant for expert growers, because of its slow growth and susceptibility to pests and diseases, as well as to an excessive fertilisation. Although the plant does represent a challenge for novice growers, it was

amongst the ten most popular strains on the US market, with means that its merits definitely exceed its defects.

We must bear in mind that the US market is the most mature in the world, as it’s been using weed since the second half of the previous century, thanks to the presence of strains from all over the world that have been expertly hybridised and selected. In the past few years, the experience of medicinal cannabis clubs has allowed users to choose from a wide range of strains. When it comes to choosing favourites, Chem Dawg definitely holds a privileged position in the immense offer of strains available on the US market.

While certain details of Chem Dawg’s genealogy remain obscure or even surreal, one thing is clear by now: the interest that this strain arouses, both in experts and in medical users. After researching the original sources of the Chem Dawg genealogy, the Dinafem seedbank is ready to create an elite hybrid from the most often selected part of this renowned strain. For this labour of selection and crossing, Dinachem has been able to rely on genetics from the original source, Chemdawg in person – a living legend – with all the problems encountered while conducting the selection (after a raid in his apartment, where he was selecting the definitive elite Kush in seed form).

On one hand, Dinafem is using the original Chem Dawg as mother plant, while the pollinating plant was selected from a batch of Guava Chem seeds – another Chemdawg strain. Dinafem explains that the age of the original clone gives it signs of strength that disappear in its descendants, but that would complicate the selection, as it is a sybarite plant, that requires lots of care and attention to yield good results. Guava Chem makes up the lost strength, maintaining the original features while noticeably increasing vigour, as it’s in seed form.

Studying the Guava Chem family tree, we find that Chemdawg’s selection process of the strain concentrated on specimens as similar as possible to Chem Dawg. This allowed several reproductions and hybridisations between these related plants, with the presence of other strains while still selecting the most similar descendants to Chem Dawg, and then backcrossing the selected strains with the original. Chemdawg’s aim was to reproduce the renowned Chem Dawg genetic in seed form, thus giving new strength to the legend, which has been kept alive as a clone for too many years. The result is an extremely homogeneous strain, much more vigorous than the original ancient cutting, although a slight weakness remains due to the inbreeding which characterised the process.

Dinafem is currently performing the first hybridisation tests between the original Chem Dawg and several Guava Chem specimens, selected for their strong resemblance to the original strain – the very same selection process followed with Guava Chem. The aim is to launch a new strain, as close as possible to the legendary Chem Dawg standards, on the market.

Here at Soft Secrets, we were lucky enough to get to try the first selections, during a recent visit to one of Dinafem’s selection centres. They’re definitely on the right track. The first samples show a homogeneous lineage, which maintains the features that made the original Chem Dawg legendary, including the oily flavour with its combination of gas and fruit, with a predominance of citrus petroleum. Another important feature is the high potency, with its intense effect on all the senses. The medicinal aspect can be sensed from the first taste, although a lot still depends on the definitive hybrids and respective analyses for a final confirmation.

MAX OUT YOUR GROW ROOM:

By Golgi Apparatus

Perpetual Harvesting

Perpetual by definition means 1. Neverending, 2. Occurring repeatedly; so frequent as to seem endless and uninterrupted. Those are words we would all gladly associate with our harvests! Once you get your grow room thriving and producing acceptable dankness having a more frequent, continuous cycle of harvesting is just a few steps away.

Normally a basic HID light set up has a ballast plugged into a hood or reflector, that powers one light. You will then need two separate bulbs each containing a different spectrum of light, one for vegetative growth and one for blooming/flowering growth. You switch these bulbs out when you cut the light hours back to the 12/12 cycle for bloom.

Starting a perpetual harvest cycle will almost always require an investment in more equipment because more plants you have the more space, more light and more everything you will need. You will need to separate the vegetative and blooming growing areas with a partition, one that is sealed to prevent light leaks which can be detrimental to the plants on either side of the wall. Use light proof materials such as panda film, wood or foam board to build the partitions. This is also a great opportunity to use a grow tent. But if you don’t have any more space to work with then you will need to divide up the space you have and grow fewer plants per cycle. I know that doesn’t sound ideal but when you can triple or even quadruple the amount of harvests you can do in a year it will work out mathematically in your favor.

Selecting a new light for your separate vegetative area is also an opportunity for you to save some money on electricity, simply by leaving your powerful HID lights for the bloom/flowering area and purchasing a T5 fixture for the vegetative area. While these T5 bulbs usually don’t come packing the lumen output of HID’s they also don’t use a lot of energy to run and work great for veg when your plants don’t need that intense light to thrive. They are also nice because they don’t put off a lot of heat, which means you can get them really close to the plant canopy without the risk of burning the tops. While these T5 units are one option you can use any type of light you choose just make sure the bulb is a vegetative spectrum

bulb. This area will be used for cloning and vegetative growth and then plants will be transferred to the blooming area when it is time to flower them. Make sure your flowering area has a bloom spectrum bulb and its own separate timer.

Growing plants in individual pots allows for them to be moved freely from room to room making the perpetual harvest process easier and more flexible with shorter intervals. Seeing as they are not connected to each other or using a shared reservoir it allows them to be fed different nutrients to coincide with the cycle they are in. Whether it is in soil/dirt or soilless medium or individual DWC (Deep Water Culture) buckets moving your plants from one area to another is easy, but what if you run a hydroponic system

with a shared reservoir? This will require you to add more hydro systems grouping them by the nutrients and bulb they need. Using the same light fixture set-up in each area you can simply switch the bulbs out or grow using removable medium (such as rockwool blocks or containers filled with grow rocks) and move the plants to the room with the reservoir and light they require. While doing it this way means less staggering of the groups, you can still double your harvests. If your hydro system has plants that are all in one tray/container where the plants grow to intertwine with each other method rendering them stationary, then switching the bulbs out is the way to go.

Another benefit to growing in individual pots is that you can have more a staggered harvest cycle, allowing the possibility of harvesting once a month or every two weeks. A sample schedule is to have your room set up in four different stages, such as; 0-2 weeks, 2-4 weeks, 4-6 weeks and 6-8 weeks. Depending on the length of time your plants need, from start to finish, it will change these stage estimates a bit, but you get the idea. This also means that you need to feed all the plants in different parts of the cycle different nutrients and additives. It’s easy to get confused if you don’t write yourself a personalized schedule and post it on the wall in each area.

The perpetual harvesting method employs the old adage; the more you want to put into it, the more you will get out of it. I have seen successful grows that are perpetually harvesting as frequently as every week. Now that’s production!

Another thing that can take your perpetual harvesting to a whole other level is the autoflower varieties that have grown in popularity in recent years. These strains don’t rely on light cycles and they automatically go into the flowering phase when they reach a certain point of growth. This means you can have a single room with all your different stages growing in it and on the same light cycle, so there will be no need to build separate light tight spaces for the different spectrum bulbs. You will still need to feed the plants different nutrients so be sure to keep them organized by age. Simply put your lights on a timed cycle for 18-20 hours of on time and your plants from cloning to harvest will thrive. The amount of light autoflower varieties need is a big debate in the world of cannabis growers but I have found 18/6 or 20/4 cycle work great. These same ideals will work for any grow light set up not just HID’s, whether it’s a VHO (Very High Output) fluorescent, LED, plasma etc.

Success is all in the set up, maintenance and care!

Beginners Guide To Pollen

Pollen: You may know it by a different name, but one thing’s for sure once you’ve tried it you’ll never forget it. The golden colour, the way it fluffs up and expands when a flame is put to it and the knockout punch it delivers

when you smoke it. It’s a firm favourite for a reason! Here’s the beginners guide…

First off, let’s get the definitions out of the way. What smokers refer to as pollen, isn’t pollen in the sense that it comes from the reproductive parts of the male plant. It’s a term used to describe a type of pressed hash that is comprised purely (or near enough) of resin glands – trichomes - that have fallen or been shaken from the plant. Seeing as these resin glands contain the majority of the psychoactive compounds stored in the plant, you know that this type

of hash is going to be fairly potent… not like the shitty soap bar that you used to get when you were a kid.

The glands that have fallen from the bud are commonly known as kief or skuff. So, you may have come across pollen before by the name kief, kief hash, or simply as skuff. For the purposes of this article and to avoid any confusion over terms, we’ll refer to the collected glands as kief and the resulting pressed hash as pollen.

Anyway, definitions aside, it is lovely stuff and it’s pretty easy to make yourself. You collect the glands, press them and you’re done. It’s nice to have a bit of hash around too; it takes up less space than bud, is easier to stash, smells less and can generally last a bit longer than bud when you store it. It’s also a great way to use up all the goodness on the trim (leaves and stems) that would otherwise be discarded. So, if you’re growing a few plants at home right now then mentally keep one to the side and dedicate it to making some homemade pollen. You won’t regret it. Let’s go through the basics…

Collecting kief is actually pretty easy to do without even trying. Purchase yourself a decent 4-tier grinder and you’ll start to collect kief every time you grind up a bud. It’s the golden, powdery looking build up that collects in the bottom compartment of the grinder, the part below the layer of mesh screen. You can also invest in a kief box to store your bud in. This is a similar concept to the 4-tier grinder, where there is a mesh screen on the base of the box and a catchment tray underneath. You simply store the weed in the box, give it a little shake from time to time and let the kief build up in the tray.

Obviously these ‘passive’ collection techniques will only yield you a little bit of kief

each month or so, depending on how much you toke. So, if you’re looking to get a few grams of pollen to smoke you’ll need to harvest your kief using more active methods.

At this point, it’s worth mentioning that to get the maximum amount of kief from your bud and trim material you’ll need to bag it up and put it in the freezer for a few hours. The cold temperature will make the resin glands brittle and more likely to break off from the plant material. It might seem weird to put your weed in the feezer but - believe us - you’ll harvest more kief this way.

Sifting for kief is basically a more advanced method of using a kief box. Get yourself a kief box or some screen printing material from an art supply shop (100-150micron

sized screens work well), take some ground plant material that has been in the freezer for a few hours and place it on the screen. Then simply tilt the screen back and forth, rolling the ground material across its surface, the kief will fall through the screen and will be caught in the catchment tray (if you’re using a kief box). If you’re using a homemade screen, hold it over a mirror and watch the kief fall onto it. Once the kief stops falling, you’re ready for the next batch. Simple.

There is a next level of dry sifting… The Pollinator machine!

I can recall staying at a mates house one time, lot too long after he’d brought a decent crop down, and he asked me if I’d like to have a bit of pollen to smoke. “Yes” was the obvious answer and he left the room saying “I’ll be back in min.” Now I fully expected him to come back with a coin sized piece of pressed pollen and I would’ve certainly been happy enough if that was what he brought me. When he re-entered the room, my jaw hit the floor. He had a Tupperware container full of pollen! It was like a fucking brick!

“Where’d you get that”, I asked. “The Pollinator”, was his response.

He then proceeded to tell me about a machine that he’d bought online and, after undertaking a bit of research myself, I was totally sold on the concept.

The Pollinator is basically a dry sifting machine that looks like a plastic box with a rotating drum inside and a motor at one end. The drum is made from screen material and acts like an automatic sifter. You put between 100-200 grams of plant material into the drum turn on the motor and leave it for a few minutes, the kief falls through the drum and collects in the box below. Much easier than sifting by hand for hours!

Once you’ve collected your kief, you can sprinkle it straight into a joint or into a bong, if you’ve collected enough then you’ll want to press it into pollen to make it easy to store. Mini hash presses are cheap and widely available from all good head shops. If you’re a cheapskate, why not wrap a few

grams of kief in some cling film and place it inside your shoe? After a few hours of walking you’ll have pressed it yourself!

Next month we’ll look at water extraction methods.

Happy collecting!

Behold… The Pollinator! For serious kief collectors!