What's up all. Chicago here. Like the post says anyone else think quality of bud has kinda just gone down overall in the past few years. I do!! Everything is brand named mostly outdoor garbage. I know there is lots of good bud still floating around it just seems to me the market is completely saturated with really really mediocre weed everyone thinks is awesome cause it has a stupid name. It's my belief this is actually legalization's fault. Years ago right before the legalization if you were gonna grow bud it was still a big risk and therefore those involved would hopefully be very knowledgeable and serious at what they did. Ok there was still a huge variety and a lot of bad weed but if you were getting something sent to you from California you could trust it'd be of a certain quality. Now it's just a fucking joke. Everybody and their mother grows shitty weed, names it and flood the market with it. I buy "skywalker og" last week and I'm seriously contemplating on quitting or taking a break cause it's just getting ridiculous and boring. The biggest thing to me is that people are starting to actually forget. They show up with commercial outdoor with a designer name and expect to impress me, because they themselves are genuinely impressed. It's like a bunch of kids driving a school bus with no destination acting like they're seasoned race car drivers. And not even realizing they're 5 year olds on a bus!! I'd like a little feedback from SEASONED experience tokers from around the country that pay close attention to detail. Honestly in my personal experience 2006-2011 rocked, getting really awesome around 2008-2009 and slowly going downhill ever since. It makes sense to me if you think about it. Where are the standards? Anyway, let me hear what you all think.
I agree with everything you said except your strange obsession with "outdoor" grown weed. I have been a grower for nearly 40 years and the most potent weed is grown outdoors in the sunshine. The prettiest weed is grown indoors in controlled conditions but it can't touch the strength of weed grown outdoors where a plant is allowed to reach its full height and flowering maturity because of unrestricted root growth. I agree that there is an awful lot of mediocre weed out there today but most I am seeing is being grown in tents under too little hps for the number of plants in pots not large enough to allow a plant to reach its full maturity and potential....and the further one goes from growing in soil, the less one smells those incredible terrine profiles. The very same people who would argue with you all day over an HPS light spectrum which is large is better for a plant vs an LED with a limited spectrum, would then turn around and try and convince you that growing in a very limited method like coco or hydro is somehow better for growing a plant that has for millions of years grown and thrived in soil.
I agree fully. I'm not against outdoor but it's just the way they are doing it nowadays that gives it, in my opinion, a really bad name. I used to pay extra for "cali outdoor" around 10 years ago and now it's become something to stay away from almost like Mexican or BC bud. At least the harvest that are making their way east to Chicago. Planting 1000 plants outside and letting nature take is course is different than me or you doing 4 personal ones in our own backyard properly taking care of them and I think you'd agree with me. Plus genetics and techniques, anyway just getting into details now but I think we're on the same page. And like you said again is all just bad practice, indoor bud is great too, done properly. But that's my point, indoor or outdoor, most of it is mid grade at best due to lack of knowledge, experience, and even the care to have it be the best it could be. I wish I could grow but still not worth the risk in Illinois for me. Anyone else have any input? Curious what it's like elsewhere and even other in Chicago.
I think the bud quality is getting better! I guess it depends where you live. I live in the Rocky Mountains and honestly the weed gets better every time I get more! Colorado has great weed. I have bought from dealers and dispensaries, and I never get bad quality.
I do indoor organic in the winter and let the girls go bonkers in the back yard during the summer. That being said legit organics under full spectrum MH/plasma lighting combos (my spectrum laughs at HPS super villain style) on movers absolutely slaughters man. It's everything outdoor is (nose and potency) without any of the "dirty" stuff and abuse outdoor is inherently exposed to outside of a room that gets totally HEPA filtered every couple min. Right now I'm running a True OG cut that test regularly over 23% and used to have a Chemdawg heirloom cut that would push upper 25%....so I totally disagree that outdoor inherently = more potent. If you like outdoor better, that's all good, I do outdoor too and very much enjoy it. But from the testing I've done Indoor done right is every bit and in some cases more potent and with more terps as outdoor. I think if one were to look at it objectively you would find that just like with every other grown product what is known/can be summed up as gardening skills is what determines end product....because all the systems work. Hydro, organic, aqua, aero, indoor, outdoor, greenhouse they all work....and grade AAA+++ top shelf can be had with any of them, I've seen it. IF the grower knows how to work it and really understands what the hell they are doing beyond buying the most expensive pair of tits on a jug they can find at the grow shop and pouring toxic amounts of it on their plants because moar is better. It's not as risky...lot of rookie/armature gardeners out there that don't have a clue what they are doing, don't really care to learn some basic gardening concepts/philosophies are flooding the market with their garbage. Lot of folks out there do it just to make a quick buck too....they don't care to learn how to do it right, I've met more than one grower that doesn't even consume cannabis, like ever, and thus wouldn't know good weed if it bit them in the ass. They just generate LB's to get paid. Every market has a Keystone Light segment I suppose.
I never said I PREFER outdoor weed to indoor. I do both and my indoor is prettier, cleaner and tidier. But as far as quantity and power, the sunshine kicks all to the curb. I harvest over a kilo off one Hindu Kush this year and it was awesome...but I use a chemdawg cut myself for some crosses indoor and I make some truly delicious bud using MH, HPS and LEDs with reptile lamps added during late veg till late flower. Lately I have been working with some hazes...Columbian, Jamaican, Original Haze, Destroyer and others and I just cant get enough light to them for long enough of the year to get a decent harvest unless I veg them for 8 months inside, then put them in the ground with the rest of the babies in the spring. They are a real bitch (not the Destroyers) to grow but give great head.