Dispensary genetics. Liars, Bad Phenotypes, or hybrid strains? What's going on here?

[Relentless]

3 years ago i made a trip to cali and got 13 diff clones from diff dispensaries.. there were 3 or 4 crap, i mean total crap strains.. where the dispensaries got ripped.. no way they knew what they were getting.. all the rest were GREAT.. hard to say which, but by the time they got home they were infested w/ spider mites, PM, and root aphids..

 

[SeaMaiden]

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice.. Well you know.
I must admit where I stay in CA most all public store fronts have been closed/shut down
Leaving whomever left to raise prices, capitalize, and easily run mass deception.
Also to be honest it may sound shady but with wholesale prices going down down down what incentive does that leave a commercial indoor grower? Are their overheads going down? Hardly try up. Equals out to corners being cut all across the board.
Pulling harvests weeks early you betcha. 1 month + cured, doubt it. Pumped with nutes and properly flushed? Keep dreaming. Made up names on about any random strain, all day long. Follow your gut feeling and take your business elsewhere

Or grow your own.

I know a few who grow for collectives, clubs or dispensaries who bother doing the one thing that, in my opinion, can make or break that herb -- a good cure. It is always rushed and I read, "I just harvested!" and two weeks later "It's all done and ready to go" and I say, "What the..? That's not ready to go, it's barely just dried!" To me a month is a minimum for curing, and depending on the strain I will say 6-8 weeks is a better target.

I fully believe it makes a difference, as do factors such as heat, humidity, air flow, current, and light. A good cure to me is performed in a very particular manner that, on the surface appears to be lazy (and it is, it suits my atoms just fine), but in the end results in a nicely smokeable (smokable? my spellcorrect hates this word, and that word), if not the prettiest (bag appeal), herb. I am also diligent about using organic methods and no harsh chemicals, because I *am* a medical patient for a reason and take stuff like my impact on the environment, etc, seriously.

As for 'strains' and all of that, I don't know a thing about them so can't speak to it. I've never entered a dispensary, only know some who supply them.

 

[irobot sd]

I hear ya SeaMaiden. I wasnt describing my methods but more a generalization of what Ive noticed. I have read how you cure and its a shame not everyone takes the time and discipline to bring the best out of their herb. Grow your own was the subtle direction I was urging this member to take : )
That being said about 2 months ago my favorite store front (now closed) had the best herb Ive seen in 5+ years or more
It was called VSOG - (very special og, i called it)
May have been the best cure ever! When you slowly break a nug in half the tricromes were so swollen that a gooey residue web trail followed. The only way I could describe this is a cinnamon roll or sticky bun like character.
The club would only sell half eights @ 30 per day claiming they wanted all members to try this gem. I went 4 days in a row and my 4th visit had a huge tiger striped bean inside a rock hard 2g nugget. Needless to say how excited I was to find this. I. Left town for a week after that returning to find the store was closed... : (

 

[Skip]

Having worked in a decent dispensary, I can say this...
Quality will vary a lot, really depends on supply and ability & motivation of buyer to reject subpar quality. So a dispensary with a huge base of reliable growers will have more consistent quality. Of course you will have to pay more for the quality buds.

A good dispensary will have a dependable supply of popular strains from their growers. Then they will buy from other growers as needed to expand selection. This is where you take a bigger risk that you might not get a satisfactory medicine.

So first you must find a reliable dispensary with a reliable source of quality weed. Don't just buy those strains you've heard about and want to try. Ask the dealer which are their best strains that are usually in stock. Then pick one of those and you're more likely to be satisfied with the quality.

If there is a strain they haven't recommended that you want to try, ask about it first. Is it organic? Is it from a reliable grower? Will it be in stock most of the time? Is it the best phenotype from that strain? If they don't have the answers, don't buy it!

When buying a strain for the first time from a dispensary, buy a small amount to try it. I always do that. I also try to purchase at least a couple of strains just in case I don't like one, I still have something to smoke.

Also a good dispensary will allow you to return your unused medicine for a replacement if you do not like it. I'm not sure how many do this, but the one I worked at did.

One thing I did discover working at the dispensary is that there is a big difference between generations when it comes to preferred genetics. Oldtimers seem to prefer the old school strains like purples and sativas. The young ones prefer the newer elite strains with fancy names, like fashionistas, mostly strong indicas. So when asking for recommendations from dealers, keep in mind their relative age. You might not like what they like!

 

[Nosmo King]

... Or hit backspace... Click a banner problem solved

 

[mdclone]

... Or hit backspace... Click a banner problem solved

Yes, a similar reply I have seen a lot of in this thread. I appreciate your advice. I am well aware of the seeds and breeders available. I may be a noob here, but I spent much time on the OG board back in the day, so I am fairly knowledgable. Luckily I have access to some elites, however, I just wanted to start a discussion to see what was going on with the name game in the dispensary world, in which I am a noob in.

 

[mdclone]

Having worked in a decent dispensary, I can say this...
Quality will vary a lot, really depends on supply and ability & motivation of buyer to reject subpar quality. So a dispensary with a huge base of reliable growers will have more consistent quality. Of course you will have to pay more for the quality buds.

A good dispensary will have a dependable supply of popular strains from their growers. Then they will buy from other growers as needed to expand selection. This is where you take a bigger risk that you might not get a satisfactory medicine.

So first you must find a reliable dispensary with a reliable source of quality weed. Don't just buy those strains you've heard about and want to try. Ask the dealer which are their best strains that are usually in stock. Then pick one of those and you're more likely to be satisfied with the quality.

If there is a strain they haven't recommended that you want to try, ask about it first. Is it organic? Is it from a reliable grower? Will it be in stock most of the time? Is it the best phenotype from that strain? If they don't have the answers, don't buy it!

When buying a strain for the first time from a dispensary, buy a small amount to try it. I always do that. I also try to purchase at least a couple of strains just in case I don't like one, I still have something to smoke.

Also a good dispensary will allow you to return your unused medicine for a replacement if you do not like it. I'm not sure how many do this, but the one I worked at did.

One thing I did discover working at the dispensary is that there is a big difference between generations when it comes to preferred genetics. Oldtimers seem to prefer the old school strains like purples and sativas. The young ones prefer the newer elite strains with fancy names, like fashionistas, mostly strong indicas. So when asking for recommendations from dealers, keep in mind their relative age. You might not like what they like!

Thanks for your response! I am very interested to hear the story from someone on your side of things. You definitely seem knowledgeable on the subject, but just about all of the people who have helped me seem to know very little about herb. When I start mentioning a high calyx to leaf ratio, they give me blank looks. I have tried quite a few different places, and every time I go I will at least buy a few different strains, sometimes I will get 6 or 7 strains at a time for testing, but after having so many underwhelming results I just get a couple G's at a time now. It sounds like you worked for a good store run by a good person! I would be curious to hear some stories from behind the counter at shady practices!

 

[mdclone]

isnt black domina like a 4 part cross?
and doesnt that mean drastic differences in phenotypes?
maybe the pheno selected that you have is just a different representation of what you were used to?

maybe youre not being burned maybe you just got a different bdomina pheno that was selected by some other chap....

good luck with the fire
aloha

Yes Greyskull, I believe you are correct as someone else said the same thing in this thread. This was one of the possibilities I was wary of (getting the true strain but a bad pheno). This could very well be the case, I just wanted to mention that I was using Black Domina as an example (as I used to be very fond with her) but most all of the strains seem to be "off". Actually the only strain I have had from the dispensary that seems to be "on" was a chemdog cross, which definitely had that sour D taste, so that was pretty smokable, but the rest are a joke! Black Domina is probably an old strain now a days huh? When she is done right, she is amazing though!

 

[Greyskull]

i think it could be classified as old
what, 98 or 99 or something hahahaha

going into the shops for cuts can be a crapshoot
and in a crapshoot you either win big or you lose

i know there are legit clones being sold thru dispensaries
its just finding the place supplied by the right guy

sometimes you can get lucky and bump into the guy in the parking lot... hehehehe
"finding the guy" i found is way better

anyways, good luck

 

[Northstar22]

i think it could be classified as old
what, 98 or 99 or something hahahaha

going into the shops for cuts can be a crapshoot
and in a crapshoot you either win big or you lose

i know there are legit clones being sold thru dispensaries
its just finding the place supplied by the right guy

sometimes you can get lucky and bump into the guy in the parking lot... hehehehe
"finding the guy" i found is way better

anyways, good luck

well maybe you could be the guy i bump into someday lol...

 

[Scottish Research]

I've seen a lot of dispensaries just rename stuff, and list genetics incorrectly...

R.Fortune

 

[vapedg13]

well look at from the stores point of view..... why would they sell cuts to the strains they sell in the store to the public??

So we can grow them clone them and never come back? They woulnt last to long if they gave out thier cuts

what they do... just buy some seeds of that strain and make some clones to sell to the public or just call every clone og....sad but true

 

[Scottish Research]

Yes, it is just business. Everything is always about the money.

I've been surprised to see how many strains are sold that are not even discussed much around here.


R.Fortune

 

[Guava]

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice.. Well you know.
I must admit where I stay in CA most all public store fronts have been closed/shut down
Leaving whomever left to raise prices, capitalize, and easily run mass deception.
Also to be honest it may sound shady but with wholesale prices going down down down what incentive does that leave a commercial indoor grower? Are their overheads going down? Hardly try up. Equals out to corners being cut all across the board.
Pulling harvests weeks early you betcha. 1 month + cured, doubt it. Pumped with nutes and properly flushed? Keep dreaming. Made up names on about any random strain, all day long. Follow your gut feeling and take your business elsewhere

So true! Yeah, it's easy to become disillusioned with the dispensary scene out here. Sad.

 

[deltagrower99]

Im in the central valley and have been looking for a legit OG cut for a while now. I would travel a few hours but i just cant trust the dispensary's or there source's. Every one iv been to they dont know what they have or where it came from. Its starting to seem hopeless.

 

[KUSHEATER1]

just liars the clone scene is shot not many reputable people left to get genes from but if you have one then please get your gear and cloning skills up or you will be upset constantly looking for cuts

 

[Chunkypigs]

dude, they are just re-selling you a baby plant... they can't tell if it's going to be fire any more than you could when you bought it.
I don't think its fair to blame the store.

If you want better odds, shop at dispensaries that grow the flowers that they sell. there are not that many but they are out there,
ask around locally or online and you can find them. the best I know of is in Arcata, HPRC.
the grower there is a member on this board and they sell the genetics they flower on the premises.
You can see the flower room before noon when they go lights out. They hold lots of elites and old genetics and crosses.

Buying clones is as big a crap shoot as popping seeds. It really is expecting a lot to think
that a clone reseller is going to have any type of quality control beyond what you can observe with the naked eye.

I grabbed clones in the bay this spring and it has taken me several cycles to get a couple of them to perform well in my garden.
I'm trying to regveg a couple that got tossed after they were kinda weak the first two times I flowered them.
Third time around they were stronger, temps are cooler now, humidity is down. I grew them better this time.

I'm smoking on this Oaksterdam Kandy Kush clone only cross of Trainwreck and OG.
Fire clone from a dispensary, got it at Harborside.

I think if you hope for one great plant you love from 10 seeds, then you should be willing to do the same with clones.

some of the clone vendors at harborside had jars of the flowers you could check out. nice touch.
I think that the "branding" of nurseries cuts that you see are going to be the key as legalization catches on and shit starts flying between states easier.

Ken's GDP, Nuggetry F1, Forum GSC, OGKB GSC, it's going to be all about branding baby!

If you come on IC asking to find the best example of a certain strain from a disp in your area you can probably get hooked up.
bitching about bad clones is just going to riles haters. There are
awesome people into compassion and sharing everywhere that has a scene, look carefully.

 

[megayields]

The LAST place I would look for good weed would be in a dispensary (Be it CLONES or Buds)....I got a dozen grower friends here that I could get Dank from or just open a jar of my own..here is my friends GSC and BLue Dragon....hell and these were grown under CFL's lol....

GSC below..Blue Dragon above, both were just taken..no trim job on em yet

 

[Godless]

I think that there is some confusion going on in this thread. Some people are talking about dispensary clones and some are talking about buds.

As for buds, phenotype variation doesn't answer the sativa nonsense that I posted about here.
Last week, I was in a Sac area dispensary that has Neville's Haze on the menu. The bud was indica dense - total fucking joke.

Vendors generally can't be trusted to be 100% honest about their strains and sometimes they are just brokers who didn't grow it anyway. I think that has to be taken as a given in this quasi-legal market. This means that it is up to the buyers at the dispensaries know their shit very fucking well. My guess is that many do not. Sure, some of them straight up lie about strains to move more product, but I think that the bulk of them are just uneducated, which says to me that they are not cannabis lovers like those of us on these forums are and that they are there for the love of the other green.

If you can find a combo of ethics and strain savvy, then you have that one in a million gem where you could trust them to treat your grandma right. The whole point of dispensary reviews is to highlight those winners. Sadly though, the majority of the consumer community is also extremely uneducated. IMHO, I think that educating the consumers is the way forward, but I am not exactly sure how to do it.

Now, on the topic of dispensary clones, I don't think the situation is as bad as dispensary bud. Yes, there are only a couple places you can go, but that's a good thing because they are big and have a reputation they need to protect. Yes, you will need to quarantine and proactively use pesticides against mites and PM. But, for 10-20$ you can get some kick ass genetics that have been proven on a large scale. It is somewhat comforting when the guy you are behind in line buys two trays of some cut that you want to pick up. If he got burned, that guy would be up in the manager's face and, because the guy is a good customer that buys a ton of clones, the manager would question buying from that nursery again. Obviously, that only works for big dispensaries like HS - never buy a clone from a small dispensary unless you are in the know.

Now, just because a strain isn't totally bunk, doesn't mean that you are getting the best possible phenos, etc, but that's where the community should be helping. I am quite sure that there are plenty of icmag forum members who have bought HS clones (for example). Why in the hell is there not a HS clones sticky full up with reviews and pics? (if a community like this exists outside of icmag, please PM me)

I guess I can start up a thread when I flower out the HS cuts I have in quarantine, but it would be better if one of you multi-light vendor types did it because it is your business where this is all just a fun little 4H hobby to me.

 

[deltagrower99]

Harborside is the last place i tried for clones and they couldnt really tell me anything about what they had. I know they have a good rep. I was told to get a hold of ape but i cant find him on this sight anymore or anywhere else lol. Just the other day my friend was sapose to pick up chem 4 and the cut they gave him just says chem on it and i cant find any info from them. So i guess i have to flower it and hope for the best. Im just looking for a legit clone only OG mom lol. I guess im just in the wrong part of the state lol.