PROCESS
Mythical Selections garden is a space where Both spiritual and biological goals work in tandem to cultivate a truly holistic
medicine.
For the full experience of both the high and medicinal properties to be unleashed, very particular subtleties of our natural environment must work together in concert. Below, I'll uncover the secrets of both outdoor and indoor cultivation, as well as landraces.
SUN GROWN
Most growers these days think indoor is the best simply because they choose the wrong genetics to grow outside! Even in a humid place like Michigan, some varietals are completely mold-resistant, while most get demolished by our harsh climate. There are immense differences in quality of experience between traditional sun grown and the most common bud in the U.S.- indoor grown with synthetic fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides and insufficient lighting. Take this example comparing two cultivars with almost the same genetics:
G13 x Chem #4
Sun Grown in Living Soil
Liberty Haze (ABG13 x Chem 91')
Indoor Grown with Synthetic Nutrients
Mythical Selections Grown via Doctor Greenthumb Seeds
via Barney's Farm
It takes no microscope to see the difference in quality between these two cultivation methods of almost exactly the same variety.
Sun grown resin is developed to repel strong UV rays and is always sticky. The sun's subtle and exact light composition is required for proper maturation and resin development. Living terroir creates the base flavors that range from earthy hash to coffee.
Commercial Indoor
Here are a few more examples of the quality of resin found in a natural setting versus the indoor artifice. Sun grown produces pristine bud with perfectly uniform, visible trichomes on the surface of the flower. Indoor lighting like LED often produces mutated plants with strange morphologies like an overly tight structure, whereas HPS is more known for foxtailing and lacks a full spectrum. Synthetic nutrients disrupt the plant's natural feeding cycle and change its natural expression. These are indicative of the disharmony of biological stimuli in most indoor settings.
Mid-Flower
Sour OG Sun Grown in Living Soil
by Mythical Selections
818 Headband aka Sour OG from Cali Connection
vs
Pre-Harvest
Synthetic
Whether Indica or Sativa, full sun resin contains a larger spectrum of both cannabinoids and terpenes which synthesize in unique ways due to the intensity of UV rays, as well as the wind load which compiles them. Natural terroir contributes both to the base flavors and scents and also imparts an energy that is easily perceivable to the user. An indica grown in clay terroir under the sun will give one an electric buzz alongside its normal couch lock effects found inside because the confluence of soil and light composition are what evolved this plant for eons, whereas indoor is honestly still experimental and not a true horticultural environment. This is why sun grown smoke is so much more potent to the user, even though the THC percentages are the same. It retains that expectorant, lung cleaning quality required to open one up to the compounds-
and experience through the cough.
Indoor
Growing out long-photoperiod varieties to full maturity means their morphology
(bud and plant structure) is developed harmoniously through the relationship of the exudate system and the sun- which provides the information and energy to do so via the photoreceptors in the plant's leaves called chloroplasts. These are microscopic and flat circular disks which have different qualities depending mostly on the type of light they receive, or photon energy waves. The type of energy lying within each spectrum given off by a light is what the plant actually receives, not any visible element as many may
think.
Chloroplasts mediate the type of feeding regimen the plant will use
in its environment, mostly having to do with the procession of the sun and seasons, along with smaller factors like day-to-day changes in photoperiod. The plants then use this schematic as a template for their exudate synthesis and schedule. The right exudates are sent out at the appropriate times to attract microbial communities to feed off of in a mutaal exchange. This is the ancient relationship to the sun and soil that cannot be found in a bottle nor under most indoor lighting. Plasma, high-end LED and CMH are best.
Landraces
Resistant cultivars originate from humid areas themselves like the jungle or equatorial plains. These are most often landrace, long-photoperiod cultivars, anecdotally referenced as sativa by the community, which are ancient hemp varieties crossed with short-photoperiod varietals or "indica" seeds brought in from the Kush region or China. These new progenies were then acclimatized to these areas, as in places like Thailand, Vietnam, Southern India and more. This is the origin of Thai stick and all the other famous southeast Asian sativas. In places like Columbia, Mexico and Africa, the process is more recent, happening within the last five-hundred years.
These landrace sativas are the backbone of all modern cultivars like Haze and Skunk, melding with the influx of Afghan genes in the 80's that still continues today in the form of OG Kush iterations and more. Afghan hash-plant is notoriously the least resistant cultivar on the market and its popularity is due to a short cycle, low odor and "resin rails" or trichome covered sugar leaf, which do not always translate to higher THC. They are particularly bred for hash making in this way, and selected for these traits, whereas equatorial sativas are often higher in potency in the actual bud but lower in leaf resin content. True sativa grows large buds distinct from their fan leaves, which can then drop earlier in flower as environmental pressures show up.
In order to capture these traits of long photo-period landrace sativas while still keeping harvest times under 10 weeks, proper selection of resistant short-photoperiod varieties to pollinate is most important. Traditional Kush varieties from northern India vary greatly from the popular hashplant types found in Afghanistan. This is mostly due to differences of opinion by the people who select the plants (bottlenecking their expression for generations.) Traditional Hindu Kush is a hard earthy and woody smoke with lemon and other herbal notes and, most importantly, massive mold resistance. This translates to a high-energy buzz alongside non-sedative pain relief. The Shiatsu Kush I use in some of my crosses has a mix of old-world East Asian, Himalayan and Afghan genes, then acclimatized to the humid island of Oshima and selected for resistance. Its progeny is completely mold-proof no matter what environment they go in.
Durban Poison
Black Congo
Oaxacan Gold
Acapulco Gold
Preservations via
