Subcool's Library

Throughout my life as a grower and toker I have always loved the fruity flavors and incredible terpine profiles of Sativa's. I have never really been a Kush fan but only because I never really liked the taste and because being a Hash Man most Indica's have much smaller resin heads and the outer cover of the tricome seems thicker and more volatile to me. Hash made from Indica's are generally darker and it's rare when you can make real full melt, there are exceptions. As I have grown older my super potent Sativa's really do a number on me at night and I have to actually be careful not to over indulge on my favorite Vortex because it can actually bring on an anxiety attack if I over medicate. This has lead me to take a second look at Indica's in particular the one that makes really nice night time Hash, Bubba Kush. Over the last year I have sampled about 15 assorted Kush cuttings and by far my favorite is the one they call Pre-98. Dioxide the creator of Chernobyl and Qrazy Train is an amazing strain hunter and he reminds me of myself when I was young. The cat is relentless in his search and acquisition of rare genetics and he has a library of gear most people only dream of. If you remember I turned to Dioxide for the cutting of Jack Herer(Pronounced Like Terror!) that I gave to Jacks son Mark. He has been running the Bubba Kush Per-98 cutting for some time and has already made some new hybrids with her. He brought me a nice healthy cutting and I ran her through my grow room. As I write this story the plant is at day 54 of flowering and almost every single pistil is a vibrant orange color and the plant looks finished to the nakid eye. I asked Dioxide and he informed me that the plant finishes about day 60 and suggested I wait a few more days. So the best way I know to determine if a plant is ready is to study the trichomes so I set up my trusty Nikon d-50 and got as close as I could to Bubba Kush. When I was a young man I could just stare hard and see the heads but at 50 I can't see nearly as good and those scopes are cool but for me there is nothing like a macro shot with a 105 MM lens and zoom in with adobe on my 22" monitor. THis not only looks bad ass but leaves no doubt about what stage a plant is at. I use just side lighting and a very shallow depth of field generally an very low f-stop like 3.5. I use my ring flash mounted directly to the lens and in the low light the plant appears to float with no background. In reality there is a black back drop hanging but its a good 4 feet behind the plant so there is no reflection from the lights or the flash. The results are some pretty amazing pictures and if you study the shots you will see that indeed there are no amber heads and the plant clearly needs more time to complete its journey. For a plant I never liked the flavor of it sure smells amazing to me maybe I just needed to grow it myself. So we wait till day 60 and do this again. Look for my start to finish Youtube video of this same plant I am just waiting for harvest to mix up the clips.
Macro Rules!

Sub

I think I got my money’s worth out of my first set of Bubblebags. I couldn’t guess how many runs went through my first set. Since they first appeared, I have wanted a 90 µ bag, but I knew eventually my bags would wear out and I would need a new set. That day finally came and I ordered a new eight-piece one gallon set from Aqualabs. Unlike other places I have ordered from in the past, the bags were in my hands in four days so I think we cleared up where to order.
My favorite thing on earth to medicate with is Tiny Bubble. Apollo-13 Red Crumble is more potent, but nothing hits as smooth as Tiny Bubble. It comes out the color of white beach sand and dries looking like caramel.I If made properly, it completely disappears leaving less residue than any strain I have seen. Unlike Apollo-13 bubble, which will cave both your lungs and your head in, this strain makes much more appealing bubble to the taste and aroma senses and is easier to actually smoke without coughing your head off.
I taste a great deal of Bubble hash and, in all my travels, I can easily remember each time I have tasted exceptional water hash. Once it was made by a friend of mine using an early harvested ECSD that had gone hermaphrodite on him. This bubble was made based on one of my tutorials, but it was almost white in color and looked like a crack rock rather than something natural, organic and not man made, just man collected.
The other was some made from Bubba Kush that was absolutely amazing as well. What I have learned is that while technique is a huge part of this, the type of resins collected can make a huge difference in the end product. This Bubble made from Tiny Bomb leaf turns almost clear when heat is applied and bubbles until it’s simply gone. It leaves very little residue.
In this section, I will detail the steps I use to make a large batch:
I need to discuss the collection of your sugar leaf first. This is where I think many people fall short, mainly because of the way the product is marketed. While it may turn trash to stash, if you want Full Melt Clear Dome Bubble Hash, take care when collecting your leaf material. I treat mine like a food grade ingredient basically. If I had bugs or mildew or even just a not perfect harvest, I simply won’t make Bubble with that type of material.
When trimming, I do so with two stages. In the first, I remove all the fan leaves and trim the tips off of all the trichome encrusted leaf. I leave only heavily coated leaf on the buds and then I proceed to the second trim. I take a clean pan and slowly and deliberately trim all of that remaining leaf from the buds. I like to chop up any lowers not larger than my thumb as well, but again this is after cleaning off the raw leaf. I then make sure this pan is kept sanitary and allow it to reduce over night. I don’t call this drying because we do not want the leaf to be dry or it will crumble and contaminate your end product. Larger producers may want to separate and do their “trash” separately for marketing, but for head stash this is the only way, in my opinion.
I would also like to note that material harvested just a bit early tends to make better melt than plants left to full maturity. As the heads develop and turn amber, it seems more residue chemicals are formed.
After collecting, I store the leaf material in the freezer. That way, I can use it to make fresh Bubble anytime.
Next, I clean the three one-gallon buckets I bought from a paint store and I get my Sham Wow out. (The only thing these POSs are good for is making Bubble.) Ice choice is more important than you’d think. I like to use square cubes and I break these up into shards using a hammer handle. Take your time and do this thoroughly. It’s important.
Place the work bag (marked 220) in the bucket, folding the top over so it will fit it the refrigerator shelf when done mixing. Place about 3” of the crushed ice into the bottom of the work bag, then about 2” of reduced leaf which is about ½ sandwich bag stuffed full, another layer of crushed ice, followed by a second layer of leaf, topped off with ice.
Next, we need to add water, but not just any water. It must be chilled so that is does not melt off the sharp edges we created by busting up the ice. I take a tray of cubes and mix it into the water, mixing well until it’s ice cold. Then, I pour it into the bucket carefully.
The bucket, now full, is shaken slightly to evenly distribute ice and plant material and then placed in the refrigerator to chill for 20 minutes. I then remove it, place it in the sink, and fold the sides of the bag upwards. Taking a steel spoon, I briskly stir the mix for five minutes. When I get close to the end, I raise the bag concentrating the ice and material in the bottom of the work bag so that I make sure to get all those yummy resin heads broken off. Once this task is complete, I allow the mix to settle for 20 minutes more.
Now, we strain it all through the first bag by lifting slowly and allowing it to drain. I will rinse the ice with a splash of water from my sink sprayer to flush the last bits downward. Once drained, we start the process of filtering the water through the different bags. The 160 µ bag removes large contaminants and I don’t even clean it out until I am done making all the runs I am going to make that day. The 120 µ bag surprisingly catches some amazing product with Tiny Bomb, a large resin head bearing plant, so this is actually quite good. Using the new 90 µ bag for the first time, I can already see why it’s revered already since the color of this wet Bubble has a nice clean look and light color. The final step I take on the first run is the 73 µ bag, which before the 90 µ came along we considered the cream of the crop.
I do not use any other bags at this time, but I reuse the water in the next run and use the 45 µ bag to filter the water just before I am done using it. This low quality hash is used to put in cookies or tincture.

Now, I scoop the “sand” out of each bag and onto the pressing screen, but I do NOT press them at all. I blot the water out using a dry paper towel on top and on the bottom of the pressing screen. Do not smash with weight, but simply press and let the moisture absorb outward. Then place the pressing screen into the freezer. This is the only way to work with resin this fresh, and it would almost be easier to make Bubble in a walk-in cooler. Someone should try it sometime. It only takes about 5-10 minutes and to be frozen solid and then you can remove the hash if you work fast. I like to place the product onto paper plates with a small piece of wax paper to prevent sticking. Now, wait until the piles both dry and cure. Do not touch them since they’re incredibly gooey and messy.
Some strains take longer to dry and remain tacky for days, but this Bubble will only take a few days before it will start to crumble. After some time, I try to peel up the edge of each piece and once I can do so I then flip it over so the bottom can dry. Eventually, it will lose is elasticity and crack when bent. This tells me its ready to place inside small open glass jars to finish curing. Unlike bud, this will only take a few days and I personally prefer fresher Bubble than when its turned to dust and powder. After a few weeks, it loses its melt the longer it sits. Bubble does not sit long around me.
Last but not least is clean up, and by that I mean: Take care of your bags! Don’t leave them wet or sticky and a make sure they’re clean before storing them. I have seen dirty, moldy bags affect the taste of primo Bubble. I immediately pour a few inches of 91% rubbing alcohol into one of the buckets and turn each bag inside out rinsing the screens thoroughly until all debris is removed. I then wash the bags and dry them by hanging them separated overnight.
If quality is your goal, this is the best way I know to achieve it. I have had some really fine Bubble made by machines and with larger bags but I have never smoked anything as pure as this concentrate. The one downside is that when I run out, it takes a few days before plain bud tastes good to me again. While smoking pure resin like this, I simply have no taste for bud and this lasts for a few days after I run out.
Call me “Mr. Bubble,” what can I say?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDT8FZFnueQ
99.000 Views???
Holy Shit~

Water Hash or “Bubble” as its known as by almost any grower is one of the real rare pleasures of the hobby. When made properly from 100% Organic high grade Cannabis the results are simply amazing.


I have a unique method that produces amazing quality Bubble that requires little more than a small set of “Bubble Bags” and a steel spoon and a few tall one gallon buckets.
We take the 1 gallon bags and add a layer of ice that’s been crushed using a hammer handle to produce lots of sharp angles.
Then we add about 3” of sugar leaf, meaning encrusted waste only no fans or crap and use fresh wet frozen weed! A big part of the quality is how you collect and process your trim. A good trick is to allow your trim to set out over night before freezing loosely in freezer bags.



This reduces the volume and allows more leaf to be stirred at once.
Add a second later of ice, more weed then top off with Ice lots of rough shaped ice. Top off with water leaving about 1” from top of bucket.
Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
After the mix sits and is really cold remove place in sink and start stirring in a motion so that the stuff on bottom comes to top and the ice and water agitates to the bottom. The roundy roundy will come later but at first concentrate on moving the mix in a up to down motion as the trichomes break off and pass the screen they will naturally fall into the bottom of the bucket. As the ice breaks apart and you get more room you can increase the stirring action and really whip it up. This takes 6-8 minutes and it took a few batches before I could do it the entire time without a small break but you get used to it.



Stir Stir Stir for 5 minutes picking up speed, it will be foaming and this is when I shift into turbo stir really buffeting the mix around to maximize production.


When making multiple batches I just load the next as I press the last batch out.
I even re use the water and we save the left over leaf to use in butter making. Some people run there trim twice but the product you see in the finished pictures is what I’m after and nothing else!



Once the mix is stirred well I again allow it to sit for like 20 minutes and then I simply drain each bag starting with the 240.
The Clean Trichome latent water is then poured through the 120 bag. This is strained and folded into a triangle so the resin heads collect in one corner.



The green water is then poured through the 73 Ui bag and the same process is repeated. Once more with the 25 Ui bag and then we collect the payoff with a spoon and place onto the pressing screen provided with the bags I desperately need a new one of these. Bubbleman?



So scooping it out and onto the screen we close the wet sand inside and press out the water with a paper towel. Once its really dry into the freezer it goes for about 30 minutes this allows easy removal from the pressing screen.



Now comes the fun part when we see what was made and start the drying process



I use wax paper even though Bubbleman prefers unpressed sand like hash to dry first. Since were making very small amounts I feel this works fine for us and it drys so fast there’s no worry of spoiling. I am generally to the dry and pealing stage in just 2-3 days.



Now for the Hash Art



After another day passes these shapes fully dry out and can be crumbled into what I prefer to smoke above all other things.
There is nothing like the taste of clean Trichomes.




It doesn’t hurt to start with great genetics and all of this amazing hash was made using our Hash Hybrids like Vortex and Space Queen. Some plants simply produce larger resin heads and produce large amounts of Trichome heads to be collected as Bubble.
Since we are Hash heads we tend to work with some pretty resinous gear.
Vortex

Space Jill

Try this method once and you will never use a machine again to produce you head stash hash.
Subcool is the author of Dank: The Quest for the Very Best Marijuana

As far as I am concerned one of the best things about being a Medical grower is making Bubble Hash once all the trimming is done. I have a small set of 1 gallon bags thanks to Bubbleman and I have to tell you for small custom batches its absolutely impossible to beat the quality and taste you get from hand mixing in these mini bags. The secret to great bubble IMO is following these instructions to the letter. This works with 1 and 5 gallon sets.

Start with only high quality Wet sugar leaf, no fans, no yellow leafs, nothing but crusty resinated sugar leaf and lower buds that have been stored in the freezer. Remove all fans and anything not coated in resin. I make a first layer of nice crushed ice on bottom then about 3” deep with frozen weed, more ice is placed on top then another layer of weed and one final layer of ice. Water is added to just below the bucket rim. Let the water get ice cold this is extremely important, we even place our 1 gallon bucket inside the refrigerator for an hour before stirring. I use an equal stirring motion with a slotted steel spoon, stirring to agitate the water/ice /weed mix so that it tumbles from top to bottom, this will insure the most resin heads are removed. I start slowly but as the ice melts and it becomes easier I speed up the stirring increasing in speed till I am finished.10-15 minutes is plenty of time and your arm will be plenty tired by then anyway. Some growers prefer to run there shake through a second time using a mixer to make sure they don’t miss any trichome heads but I prefer to just add the shake to the butter making pot.

When straining each bag make sure to swish each bag around to allow the smaller resin glands to fall through to the appropriately sized screen. I dip just the silk screen portion into the cold water several times. I also make sure I fold the bag forming a corner so the resin collects into one pile making collection easier. After your done collecting each grade and pressing all the water out of each piece using the silk cloth provided place the silk pressing cloth into freezer and remove after about an hour and quickly flick each piece of bubble off onto wax paper. If you work fast it will not stick to your hands, let the pieces dry till there manageable this will take about 2-3 days do not touch them until they dry out or it’s a gooey mess. I like to twist into long strips. Once these are dry I crumble into chunks to allow all water to dry out. ( Thanks for the tip Badboy)

The pieces of bubble featured are of Tiny Bomb (Space Queen B) it has an amazing taste and melts like butter in a hot skillet. It is some of the lightest colored I have ever made and took 4 days before it didn’t stick to everything it touched.

The twisted pieces are of Jacks Cleaner and Jack the Ripper bubble. You can see this stuff melt and almost disappear as it’s burned. It taste like no hash I have ever smelled having a clean lemon taste and a nice tart exhale. This crumble smells like lemons in glass, mixed with the JTR it tasted like Sour Gummy Worm candy and had an incredible flavor.


I recently took down a 74 day Apollo-13 Sugar mom with all the amber, orange and brown trichome heads I knew this would make some mean bubble and I was not mistaken. I used the same method described above. The 25 UI from this extra mature plant is almost black, I assume because the most mature heads shrank and this is where they ended up. ( Small Dark Piece) This is also the first to dry out.

See A-13@74days File

As usual with this hand stir method the 120 looks pretty damn good I have twisted into a few shapes to show off its nice dark rich color. This is the last to dry out and its surprisingly Kick Ass! I crumble it once I am able to and once its super dry I place into glass jar with all the other #3 crumble making a nice stash of not quite primo but still better than anything I have purchased before its also great for adding into cookies or cannabis foods. ( See Crumble file)

The 73Ui is the blob of goo that I have formed into strange and wonderful shapes to show off its consistency and color. I tried using as many lighting types as possible so you can get a real idea of what it looks like this is much darker and richer than the tiny bubble I made or the Gummi Worm we made from JTR.

The color reminds me of Malana Cream but to me its in a different dimension when it comes to potency. This is top shelf and even though Gummy Worm taste better this hits much, much harder. I like the Apollo-13 Bubble so much I grow a full size plant just to turn into this amazingly potent creation.

Last but not least some Bubble sculpted into small Hash croissants made from a seeded Jacks Cleaner plant I took down and used the shake to produce this darker Bubble due to it having more mature trichomes heads, it’s kinda fun to make shapes out of it as it becomes dryer.( See Cresent Hash file)

Next time you trim a plant up freeze the good trim and give this method a try you will be a Bubblehead in no time at all!

Extra Tips:
Crushed cubes like you buy at the store works best it seems as the sharp edges break off the heads better as opposed to ice cubes or ice slices.

Keep collected sugar leaf separated into each strain and you can make either pure or mixed hashes.

Wash bags about every 5 uses with Golden Grain or ISO and always hang to dry after using.

Left over leaf can be used in making butter as it still contains some THC and a lot of CBD’s.

This Article was written a very long time ago but provides a great starting point.
These methods landed me the cover of Big Book of Buds!

“I wish I could take pictures like you do Sub” is a statement I see more than any other. I have no formal training and everything I have learned I taught myself. If I can you can! Since my very first opportunity to look through a macro lens I have been hooked. Cannabis is such an amazing subject and through a powerful macro lens it can take on an almost Alien appearance. While I would not begin to try and teach anyone about Photography technique ( I am still learning myself) I think I can offer some pointers to greatly improve the pictures most of you take of your favorite plants.
The basics people often forget are to use a well-lit white room, no incandescent lighting its produces yellow hues. No toilets, buckets, brooms moms or dog turds in the background take the time to clean up a bit or you might end up with a shop vacuum in a Cannabis magazine with your favorite plant.
The next thing is the one that is going to upset you hydro growers. You cannot take proper pictures under a HID light. While white balancing and editing with photo software can make a picture taken under HID better you will never achieve the results I do until you use a properly lit area to photograph in. Without spending a fortune on fancy lights and reflectors you can still take amazing shots with a very in expensive “Light Tent”.
I set mine up by using some white sheets and several CFL bulbs mounted in painters reflectors you can buy at any hardware store in the painting section.
Cut the sheets or cheap white fabric into 4 foot wide sections and select a bright corner of a room to hang 3 sections to form a box open on one end. Once the cloth is in place position your CFL lamps on the outside of the tent facing the cloth so that the light is deflected in an even pattern. I like to use a combination of natural sunlight type bulbs and bulbs that lean to the blue side of the spectrum. Try placing the bulbs in different locations to see what effect they lend. Experiment till you get the best even lighting but do not take this lightly if you do not have enough external lighting your pictures will not be as sharp as you would like.
Next on the list is a good back drop to contrast your subject. You don’t have to spend a fortune here either cheap cloth is 1-3$ per yard and even fine crushed velvet is only 5-7$ per yard. Two square yards is plenty to shoot against and over the past few years we have collected some 2 dozen different ones to compliment either the color of the bud or the festive time of year like Christmas or the Skull cloth I use for Halloween shots. Invest in a few but make sure Black and Purple Velvet are among the ones you collect first. We hang the back drop and position the plant in front but at least 12-16” distance between back drop and subject. You want focus on Bud not backdrop.
It’s finally time to talk about camera’s! You might think you need some ultra expensive DSLR to get great close ups and it does help but my Cover shot of Sputnik on the cover of Big Book of Buds 3 was taken with a Nikon Coolpix Digicam. How was I able to achieve this with a simple point and shoot camera with a fixed lens? I used a Tripod! This is the one thing so many amateur photographers take for granted. When taking close up shots everything has to be perfectly still and even the steadiest of hands will waver as the shutter opens and closes. So what ever type of camera your using mount it on a tripod. When researching a point and shoot digital camera for use on close ups the only important factor is the minimum focal distance. This will be in the specifications of the camera. The Nikon Coolpix 5400 has the ability to focus as close as 1cm from the lens although 2cm is more common with most point and shoot cameras today.
If your camera won’t get closer than that with a fixed lens your close ups won’t be as sharp or as close as you want. The final aspect of close up photography I employ is a lens mount ring flash. This is critical to get really close and still have proper lighting on the subject. While I now shoot with a professional rig and a Sigma Ring flash when I started I simply built my own using this great online tutorial.


http://brainerror.net/texts/howto/macroring/

Without a lens mount lamp or flash your camera body or even the barrel of the lens itself may block the external light and cause shadows. Using a ring light is the easiest way to prevent this and also provide enough illumination to capture a close up shot in a crisp clean form. Led lights really make trichomes stand out and its pretty easy to fashion a home made light using a few of these inexpensive bulbs.
Once I learned a few things and I was able to sell a shot to Big Book 3, I decided to buy a SLR camera and a nice macro lens. I took it out of the box and my first 100 pictures were terrible. It is amazing how many settings a point and shoot camera figures out for you, automatically and when its left up to you some education is required. What I am saying is it is much easier to get good close ups with a point and shoot macro camera than it is with a SLR until you learn a few basic settings. As I said I won’t try and teach photography but I wanted you to understand unless your willing to put in the time a Digital camera may be a better choice than a full blown SLR.
Photography is an amazing and addictive hobby and there is always a better lens to buy or a better tripod or something exotic like Macro Rails, but that doesn’t mean it cost a lot to get started, I bought my first Nikon on Ebay for under 400$ with a Nikon SL-1 ring lamp included.
Several months later a photograph taken by me with that camera was featured on the Cover of Big Book 3. It went on to take many pictures for many magazines and books!
While I now shoot with a Nikon D-50, D-80, a Sigma 105 MM Macro Lens and a Sigma EF-140 Ring Flash it all started with that simple Digicam. Dare to dream and there are no limits to what you can achieve.
TGA Genetics can be researched @
www.tgagenetics.com

Feel free to comment but keep the chatter down we have a very long way to go
God Bless The Weed Nerds
Fuck you Rusty Shackleford!

Sub

The gospel according to Subcool. Can i get an Amen!!!
I'll be peeping and jonesin for that Devil Berry.
thanks Sub

i don't know about gospel but it's certainly my strong opinion based on experiences

Sub

Got any stories about all of the different looking seeds you have seen in your life?

That black cherry soda... oh my.

Cant wait to see you in Colorado Sub!!! here is a pic taken with a Nikon coolpix s8200 of spacebomb! The mountains are near the "dream stream" where i stalk giant trout. Another beautiful Colorado sunset! gotta love photoshop haha

Thanks for bringing this all together in one spot! It's like clicking through the Weed Nerd YouTube channel, only with words...

It’s probably not a big secret to my readers that I smoke a lot of reefer, I have been a toker for over 30 years and after all those bong hits my lungs are not what they used to be. Cannabis is an amazing medicine and unfortunately for many smokers many of it’s benefits can only be taken advantage of by actually eating the Cannabis. Many of the important chemicals inside Cannabis are simply burned off in a joint and not transferred into the body where it can do some good. There are many ways to consume cannabis without smoking it. You can make Canna-butter and make baked goods with it or you can create a tincture using Glycerin but this process can take up to 2 months to complete. Now I take my meds at night in the form of canna cookies but MzJill has very sensitive taste buds and cannot stand the taste of eating weed. Even in chocolate the taste of cannabis almost makes her sick so just eating one cookie takes her like 30 minutes and she simply hates the taste. Now I simply love the high of eating Cannabis it is an all over body buzz and just completely makes my knee pain go away allowing me to sleep a full 6 hours and this allows my knee to rest up and get better each night. So while I get to enjoy a great canna buzz each night MzJill is stuck smoking late at night and that’s just not good for your lungs and make her cough more during the night. My solution for her was to make some Cannacaps so that she can simply take 2 when she has pain and not bother with eating cookies. My other thought is while I am not over weight at 180 pounds eating 2 cookies every night is added calories everyone could probably do without. How cool would it be to simply take a cannacaps when medication is needed in a public place without having to light up attracting attention just to get some pain relief?

I need to insert a warning here though about consuming baked goods for medicating. One of the best medicinal properties of smoked cannabis is the ability to titrate* the dose, meaning take the exact amount of medication (puffs) to elevate the pain or condition like spasms without getting wasted. When you consume cannabis orally it takes much longer for the drug to reach the blood stream and it can take as long as 30-45 minutes before the effects come on. With potent edibles it can come on quite strong and most first timers eat to much and get sick and never try it again. It takes your body time to get used to consuming cannabis I believe so start with very small doses and wait a full hour before increasing the dose. This will prevent any unpleasant episodes of being so high you can’t even talk, it may sound fun but trust me it is Not! You cannot die from consuming weed but I have wished I could once after eating to many cookies and being sick to my stomach all night and all day while also not being able to open my eyes.
Enough cannabis eaten can actually make one slur their words like being drunk so watch it.

I have read a good bit about this preparation and I wanted to add my guru touch and pass on the info while I am at it. We will be making two types today, one dry consisting of mainly kief and high quality shake in a Dry filled capsule. The second method will be actually cooking ground bud and kief in coco butter and adding the oil to the capsules allowing the oil to solidify.

Lets get started.

All Cannabis has a different profile or buzz and today we are going to use two strains that are very good for treating joint and muscle pain. I have found that generally Indica’s are better for pain and Sativas for treating nausea but its not set in stone and through lots of experimenting we have found certain strains that are much better for pain relief. My Favorites are Jack the Ripper for its analgesic properties and ability to numb pain at the source. The other strain I like to eat is Vortex as it has a slight motivating buzz some pain relief and a lot of anti nausea effect. When I mix the two in consumables it makes great medicine. So today we will be using mainly these two strains to make these capsules. Since I produce seeds I have a good supply of both samples that has been deseeded and is a bit harsh for smoking not good but great for extracting medicine.
Ok the first thing we want to do is grind the cannabis and remove all sticks, and larger hard pieces using a screen I slowly work my hands across the weed until the finest dust falls though. I then use a kief box to make collect some resin heads ( kief). I mix about 3 grams of ground cannabis and 2 grams of kief to ½ gram of Red Pepper and ½ gram ginger. There is a product on the market that includes other additives that help the absorption called Canebrex but I am pretty much a hands on kinda guy and I wanted to see what kind of results I could get myself. I am sure there system has more science behind it so it wouldn’t hurt to give a product like there’s a try if you have the extra cash. Once this is done I placed both piles in a pan lined with foil the mixture is baked at225 for 20 minutes, this activates and removes c02 as well. Its important not to over heat the weed or heat it for to long the goal here is just to activate the THC and other canabanoids present in the oils inside the cannabis.
I purchased a capsule making kit from a health food store and some 00 size gel caps so to fill with the mixture. Once the pan is dry I place the Capsule filling kit in a glass pie pan to catch the over spill and use a plastic card to work the mix into all the capsules.
I will save the time of the capsule making instructions there spelled out on any kit you will buy you simply fill and press together. They pop out the other side and walah! You have easy to transport herbal medication ready to consume.

[h=1]Coco Capsules[/h]
Now this next method is more work so unless they knock us out this is the only time we will use this method. Not to mention I used a pile of dry dank JTR and Apollo-13 top shelf unseeded BUDS! I want to make sure these are as potent as possible in case the dry capsules are a failure so I even added some of the kief in. Now I have to warn you as the coco butter melted and I started stirring and warming the mix it produced a simply horrid smell, you’d think it would smell nice but the warmer the oil got the worse it became and I had to open a window fast so be prepared for this if you try this method. Again be careful not to over heat the mix as THC will degrade at temps over 220 very fast and you can ruin your medicine if you rush it. I sautéed the oil/weed/kief mix for about 10 minutes and then removed from the heat and poured through a tea strainer. I then used a eye dropper to suck up the warm coco oil and fill each cap again using the standard capsule making kit. I was worried the oil would melt the gelatin capsules but there was no problem. I popped the capsules out into a dish and placed it in the refrigerator to cool of and congeal back to Coco Butter. Coco butter stays solid up to about 75 degrees so there pretty easy to transport and the Dry caps can be carried in a pill bottle anywhere.

Epilogue:


Jill and I both had 2 dry caps last night after dinner the effects came on very fast and hard but seemed to back off after just a few hours so we took 1 more each just before bedtime. I slept like a baby and had a slight hangover. The buzz was all body and as far as pain relief I can't imagine a better delivery method. I am sure that the absorption of the dry product could be enhanced with other herbs and such so this report is more my experience with this method and not a definitive how to by any means.
I normally take my meds every other night to let my tolerance go down but I was anxious to try the Coco caps and the very next night we made some hot chocolate and took 2 caps each. I don’t think I have ever had the throb in my knee go away so fast and even though I don’t think I ever felt high from just 2 I am positive it reduced my pain level while allowing me to function normally. Jill also noted a good deal of relief from her Hip pain and the next day I noticed she had a harder time waking up and MzJill can out smoke any person I have ever met other than me so if she had a weed hangover these things are potent as hell.
Give these extraction methods a shot if you have some left over shake around or if you have old stoner lungs like me or if you need to medicate without firing up!

• *Titrate Chemistry, determine strength of, or analyze, etc., by finding the smallest amount of the substance that will produce a given effect

Subcool
tgagenetics.com

Two strains I really enjoy smoking mainly for their flavor are Querkle and Exodus Cheese. I am very intrigued by the unique smell and taste of the Exodus cheese cutting and I have been growing and breeding with it for about two years now. I like mixing the Cheese with Querkle in a joint or on my trey to pack bowls with. The musty pungent taste of the Cheese mixes really well with the Grape/Lavender taste of the Urkle. The taste, which is hard to describe, is amazing. The buds are very hard very nice structure and have a classic cheese like smell we are also picking up hints of Grape and a buttery smell as well. The stand out female by far though is the Urkle dominant variation, it wraps the tongue is flavors and you tend to focus on figuring out what the taste are by taking hit after hit and making pleasure sounds as you do. Before you are able to nail down all the flavors of Cherry, Grape, Cheese, Dank and others you find yourself higher than expected with a big ole grim on your face. It's fun to smoke and it really does the job. Pain relief without making a patient sleepy is a big plus and this strain seems to be quite strong in effect without the accompanying drowsiness of many potent Indica's. The THC and CBD profiles seem to be very evenly distributed. MzJill says this is her new favorite and request it now more than any other strain we medicate with. You may have heard me use the term Smokability before and what I mean by that term is how enjoyable the overall experience is when smoking the sample. Cheese Quake gets a high rating in the category, it has a great taste as well as being smooth on both the throat and the lungs. While not devastatingly potent the high is really up beat and mode changing and a few bowls will turn a bad day into a very good one. The feedback on Cheese Quake is phenomenal my favorite comment was from a grower in Cali who informed me he grew out 6 different strains from 4 of the largest seed companies online and my Cheese Quake was the best of all of them and I was delighted to hear his comment. : I couldn't imagine what a Grape Cheese Danish would taste like in Cannabis form but the first hit I took I knew exactly what Sub was talking about.

Cheese X Querkle
The taste, Like a Grape Cheese Danish is amazing and we already dig this new strain. Both variations of the females are special in their own way as far as flavor is concerned. The Urkle Dom has a more grape musty taste and the Cheese Dom that unusual cheese smell, but both of the females have the same euphoric head high combined with a body stone. I can't wait to have this strain tested at the lab as both MzJill and myself get really high after smoking it to the point of impairment and that's unusual for us. Its easy to smoke has a nice flavor but the high is much stronger than you would expect and I think Cheese Quake gets me higher with more pain relief that either of it's parents.

Phenotypes - Variation with phenotypes like both parent strains
Height-Medium to Tall
Yield-Heavy
Indoor/ Outdoor
Best Way to grow- Untopped forms a classic tree shape topped forms a thick bush like plant
Harvest Window-8-9 weeks
Sativa/ Indica 40/60
Hybrid- Cheese X Urkle X Space Queen
High type-Head tingling initial buzz followed by energetic body stone
Taste/ Smell Pungent and funky with hints of Cheese and fruits along with a musty sour smell and hints of grape

When accepting clones or cuttings, there is always a danger of bringing in pest or problems along with the new acquisitions. Even if a clone appears perfectly healthy, it can be transporting mites or mildew and this can really put a damper on your already work-intensive hobby.
I will cover several ways to help prevent transfer in this article, but the first and most important one is a simple rule:
When accepting a clone, assume it has mites and treat it accordingly. What does this mean? In a word… Quarantine!
I grow organically, but when it comes to prevention and dealing with pests I choose a nuclear warhead and dip new clones/cuttings into Avid. While the precautions on this systemic pesticide look pretty heavy, there are two main factors that rest any fears I have. First, I do not spray the product at anytime. Instead, I mix per label directions and use this as a dip. Second, my research uncovered the fact that Avid is used heavily in my local agriculture on many berry and fruit bearing plants, so I am already likely to be consuming large quantities. Some growers choose to use more Earth friendly products such as Neem Oil, but Neem is really hard on the plants and does not always ensure a full kill.
The proper way to apply Avid is to dip the clones as soon as they arrive and then again three days later, ensuring that all emerging eggs are also killed. Mites have a life cycle of three days.
I will actually treat clones and then place them inside a dome and use duct tape to seal it shut. This prevents any pests from escaping and infecting your garden. I am also a fan of pest strips. Make no mistake, these contain a controversial toxin called dichlorvos and it is a carcinogen. I guess it’s really according to how bad you hate mites or as we call them, “The Borg.” I would never use them around flowering plants, but I have been known to tape one up inside a dome with newly received clones.
The other big issue with clones is the dreaded powdery mildew. It is also invisible in spore form, meaning your clone can look perfectly healthy, but as soon as conditions are right, powdery mildew can spread so fast it can literally destroy a garden in days. Keeping your humidity low and temps between 70-74 degrees Fahrenheit during the dark cycle will severely hamper mildew’s ability to spread. So, with mildew, think “environment” before “treatment.” If your conditions are poor, no treatment will stop the spread of PM.
I have had some really good results using safer mildew treatments made up of natural oils such as garlic and cinnamon. During the winter months, we treat any new clone upon arrival and again while it is in the vegetative state. Some old timers like to use lemon water, but my research tells me that mildew actually likes a slightly acidic condition. Air movement is also crucial to prevent mildew.
Sometimes infestations require drastic measures and I have taken down entire grow rooms, killed all the early flowering plants, and fogged my rooms to prevent infestation. Sometimes, this can be the only solution since treating flowering plants is a big-time no-no. Young clones can always be dipped and you simply start fresh; this can be less stressful than combating mites cycle after cycle.
Many times, clones are improperly labeled and it’s quite common for me to see medicine grown from a cutting from a club that is not what the grower was told. While it takes additional time and effort, many times it can be safer and more productive to actually start some good seeds and find your own elite clone without bugs and fungus.

Mohican said:

Got any stories about all of the different looking seeds you have seen in your life?

Click to expand...

I have DEFINITELY read some subcool written material about seed traits. cant remember where haha. remember there were comparisons in space dude and Jack the ripper offspring seed characteristics

In Depth Article on Sputnik, the strain to be featured on the cover of the Big Book of Buds.
Created by the process of back crossing.



Many growers ask me to elaborate on the process of cubing a strain.



There are many schools of thought on this one. Many breeders, like A/B Hybe and STP, use STS to reverse a clone and create a stress herm to out-cross with. Or, in Soma’s case, he uses clones that have very late male flowers or naners. I don’t think we can’t do this, because JC and OV get these after day 60 so it’s not magic. And I love Soma but IMO it’s the easy way out. My mom always told me anything worth doing is worth doing correctly. I feel the male is essential in the proper breeding of any hybrid, and when working with 4-6 Elite mothers and fathers from the same genetic pool you get the magic island effect or the Galapagos theory. This is my own, and isolation inter-breeding among special hybrids can crate magic. Look at the amazing colorful birds on isolated islands that did not get a chance to breed with the dull and or ordinary, but instead the extraordinary. Get it?
So simplified, Dank X Dank can make danker.

Lets look at Apollo-13, and I will discuss how to outcross a clone only strain.
Soul claims only 500 of these seeds were ever produced and the owners of the few female cuts to survive are somewhat of a cult. I created some waves when we first used her in a breeding project, but after awhile it was ok. Most of them remembered they didn’t breed her just find her, and I am making her available again to the masses. This strain makes some of the best bubble I have ever tasted.



So what now? I have been growing this same clone for some 8 years and it's so stable it’s crazy. I've never seen a herm flower or any problems. She will shift in and out of bud pretty easy, and is also easy to clone. She ships well to.

I had started some of Nebu’s Black Russian and it gave us Purple Cannabis!

So we now had a Purple plant that I loved; the looks, the flavor, even the buzz in the mornings. Black Russian has scissor goo that looks like grape taffy. The problem is I am known for devastating potency and incredible raised trichomes. Now if you follow us at all you know I think Grimm’s Apollo-13 is the cure-all to lack of potency, and so far I have been absolutely correct. So we took a male using our same criteria with a new twist; we budded all the males out and selected the one with the most purple coloring. We could have a month long discussion on botany and argue if this works or not, or do what we did - make it, grow it out and see what happens.



What happened was amazing!



What we found out is there are two basic phenotypes in SP 1. The first is a pink/purple pheno that is much better than Black Russian. It has a hint of A-13 and a great deal more resin than any of the BR phenotypes. This was about what I expected in the outcross and we ran Pinky several times enjoying every bud. But more so it was just an amazing plant to take pictures of so I kept it around.



Sputnik by TGA
The other phenotype was the big surprise. At about day 30 the White phenotype we nick-named simply "whitey", was forming a much more dense cola and had a smell that reminded me of Fanta Blue Cream Soda. As time went by, say week 6 in 12/12, she started smelling nasty like rotting turkey or something bizarre. Past day 56 she started getting sweet but the weird meat or stale refrigerator smell kinda lingered in the bottom. We jarred it and I didn’t touch it for a few weeks. One morning I was surprised at a sweet/sour smell that was very nice, and that cream soda smell had returned. I smoked a few bowls while answering e-mails and all of the sudden noticed I was extremely high. My peripheral vision was shot and space and time slowed to a crawl.



Later I sent some samples to TOB and she commented that it made her trees seem cartoon like. I knew we had a winner and released it.
So now I have an established dank color strain but I am more intrigued with the Whitey genetics. We cracked a load of Sputnik 1 and selected a male that does not have any purple traits visible. We later learned it was still passed on but in smaller percentages. The coolest thing is Apollo-13 taken late past 65 days gets color as well!

So we grew out Sp 2 and everyone simply loves it. Her fans have demanded I continue to work this line. We have passed our breeding Apollo mom to TOB and she has gone through the remaining Black Russian males and found one that matches the one Suny Cheba lost and Sputnik 2.0 lives on. It was released on Bizbay auctions in early 2007.



Sputnik 2.0

Back-crossing absolutely locks down the traits of the mother plant, and we have proven you can absolutly work with a clone only strain and produce seeds that grow out buds that are every bit as good as mom - and in some cases the added vigor makes them better.

We continue to work with Apollo-13 and other male plants.
You can see the amazing Sputnik close up when it comes out on the cover of the Big book of Buds #3 in March.



Want some Dank? Seek out some Apollo-13 Hybrids.
Look for my Article on Purple Cannabis " The Color Purple" later this year in Heads Magazine.
Subcool

Sub....bro....man u have takin growing weed to such an unimaginable level is the only way I know how to explain it...I mean the shit ur doin is just crazy bro....completely outta hand u are....ha...im in awe....I really am...ive been smokin weed every day of my life for 22 years n ive never seen or ever thought id see stuff like this.....good job man.

Isn't it nice to be able to get your message straight to the source

This strain is an old time favorite and it was passed on to friends up north and recently Homegrown and friend of Badboys sent me these pictures from his grow in the great white north. It is what MsJill would call original kind bud as it has that skunky fruity smell of the first Indica strains I ever tasted. I originally received this clone from Squid and it gained the name Cuddlefish to separate it form the BC hash plant. This is a different strain and was found in a pack of Sensi Seeds in about 1984. It is extremely similar to the mother plant Super Skunk used in our Neon Skunk Hybrid but there are subtle differences that differentiate the two phenotypes. Hash Plant has a sweeter flavor and a speedier finish SSK has as the name implies the smell of something rotten and while Hash Plant is a high odor strain it smells more of rotting fruit that rotting meat.
The main attribute of this plant and why we use it in breeding projects is it has an extremely short profile and minimal stretch, having a large mass center bud its perfect for Coli and cage style growing but also does well in DWC or soil when vegged to a proper size. Finishing in 8 weeks with large rounded colas she will turn all shades of the rainbow as she enters the final stages of floral maturity. You can see the beautiful reds, yellows, and maroons present in Homegrowns amazing pictures.
I have also grown this plant outdoors and it yielded some big numbers for sure and even in the mid west of the USA it was able to finish before the first frost came. The Outdoor smoke looked great and had a sweet smell but I think the fertilizers used in the corn fields gave it a harsh taste but I’m kind of a pot snob about Organics anyway. I have seen full rooms of her run in DWC with amazing totals, it’s almost bred for the super fast vegetive speed of Buckets. With many strains hydro is so effective that you can’t really grow a large plant or the stretch during the first weeks of 12/12 means to much height. Hash Plant only stretches about 2X in Hydro and even less in soil.
When topping the plant can be so thick in a crowded room the canopy can get so think I have removed fan leaves to allow more light down into the canopy this is one crazy bush when topped more than once. I had a mom once that was budded and regenerated and I bet she had 30 heads on her she only grew about 10” after going to a 12/12 light schedule and the canopy was so thick she basically yielded just one layer of triangle shaped buds.
We like this cross so much we used her to create one of our earlier crosses that Suny gave the name Conquistador to. I hate typing all that and among fans it has the nick name Connie. Known for her Huge towering columnar buds she has a fruity watermelon smell that is quite incredible the first time you smoke it tasting almost like artificial watermelon gum flavoring like in Hubba Bubba bubblegum. Some people who try this strain first out of all our genetics become such loyal growers they never try any of the more speedy hybrids we produced later. Connie proved to be extremely stable and out of many grows across the planet I am always able to spot this massive cola courtesy of Badboy on his first run of his new strain created using my proven moms.
Our latest creation following Connie is Zorro following the same theme as Conquistador but a shorter handle I don’t mind typing. I believe collected older stock is always the best way to create a hybrid today as most of the genetics I see available are pretty un impressive. We run so many strains among our little group of friends and I am not going to dog any one out but just last year we ran White Russian, Sugar Chemo, Blueberry Northern Lights, Dab, and a few others in search of decent fathers to create new hybrids. None of these met our criteria for head stash the very first that must be met in order to merit a second run in our grow room much less the breeding area.
I had been hording a pack of Grimms Mix for about 8 years and the source was the same as or amazing Ortega male so I have a lot of confidence in our new out cross Bigfoot using hash Plant as the Mother and Grimm male we selected based on methods established by me in earlier breeding projects. This strain is under going testing and should be available by mid year.
This strain has been adopted by many commercial growers in Canada as a heavy yielding potent strain but it is also known for needing large Air Scrubbers to deal with the funk it creates especially during harvest. The stone is a Heavy Indica with full blown munchies and the typical pot nap this strain is very good for those seeking relief from insomnia or weight loss.

This strain was lost due to a visit from Leo