THC concentration

A quick read through some of the older liturature and then through the newer, and youll see something that stands out pretty clearly...

40 years ago 5% THC would have been unheard of in cannabis

nowadays you get strains that claim to have 20%+ and grow these at home to full potency with a little effort...

How can this be possible? are the modern day numbers just exagerated or have new strains really developed that far in the last 40 years?

People breeded more and have new technology you would be surprised what kind of equipment they use. it's just like technology everything just keeps getting better and better

marijuana must be the most rapidly altered plant man works with, I dont think the potato growers in the world have put this much effort into their prize potato strains, if you know what i mean. I wonder when itll max out... 20% is kinda rediculous. I also wonder if the high has been effected in any negative way by choosing traits that are easier to sell such as big buds and shorter growth cycle.

20% is kind of ridiculous when you think about it I dont think thats too often, but before about 100 years ago plants were susceptible to so many factors it was stupid, diseases that could kill entire crops over night, conditions had to be so specific it was stupid. Now plants are some of the most enduring organisms, disease resistant, pest resistant. It really is amazing stuff, but mainly its breeding. Same exact thing about chili peppers, every year there is always a new world record. A ghost pepper has about 1million scovals, but when you get people breeding and cloning for years they make strains that grow with 1.5 million scoval, thc is same idea im assuming

You can go to many dispensaries here in California that have 19% THC and this is lab tested. I even have a clone from a J-1 mother that yielded over 24% THC, mine is one week in flower. Starting my own mother of her also.

For example here is a link to something that is lab tested over 20%
http://www.calcannalabs.com/connoisseurs-chem-p91/

From the few growers I have talked to about this they all breed to get as close to the "root genetics" as possible. However I am a new grower and down really understand the meaning of that completely all I know is i have some crazy ass shit growing in my tent and I cannot wait to see her swell.

I have some Kali Mist that is just starting off, they are lovely and only 17 days from seed, I can smell the reefer on one already and i think that particular plant if it proves to be a female is going to be a keeper pheno, also has the most vigour and loves being right under the light. Its my first grow and its funny to think that if I dont fuck it up and get mold or pests I could have some dope thats multitudes better than anyone could have had 30 years ago!

does anyone know if the plant is giving off a strong smell of bud like I just opened a jar, can that indicate being a female? or no correlation here?

Was the testing accurate 40 years ago? just a couple hippies with a joint saying "hey man thats 5%."

"40 years ago 5% THC would have been unheard of in cannabis"

People didn't really grow sensi 40 years ago, it looked more like mulch/dirt.

Yea I have a book from 79 and you can tell they didnt seem to understand the connection between seedless bud and thc concentration, so they were probably mearsuring the thc from seeded flowers. Thats a good point, that would influence the data quite a bit.

Also I think they did have accurate testing, at least in 79 which isnt really 40 years ago but even at that time you didnt see much over 5%. The numbers they show go to two decimal points so I doubt they were just making numbers up.

another thing mentioned in the book is that THC is significantly higher at the top flowers of the plant. In one example the top flowers are 3 times more potent than the bottom flowers

The book is Deluxe marijuana growers guide by Mel Frank and Id like to point out that some of the samples with the highest THC were infact taken from Male plant samples... I just noticed this just now. So perhaps had they taken those samples from unseeded mature females they would have been alot more impressive. For example a sample from Afghanistan taken from a male plant had a THC content of 2.68%, relatively high compared with many other samples from that time. Just imagine if that was from an unseed female. Could be somewhere in the teens