My experience as a commercial grower in the recreational scene

[SooperSmurph]

I can verify everything the OP said, Recreational is a joke, and the people going Rec are motivated only by profits and higher prices on 8ths.

They are targeting the lowest common denominator, special does not matter, just getting as much weed into the hands of college kids as they can.

 

[Benjamin Check]

So, why would you refuse to tell them why?

Maybe everyone would benefit if most growers would stop this "unappreciated genius in his own time" attitude towards talking about gear.

You said it yourself, the man made a statement, which was patently incorrect, and instead of correcting him and proceeding to educate the poor man, you rip into him.


Those of us, those of us here who grow in kind, have a special respect for the plant that most don't.

That respect, that admiration you have for nature, because we must all truly appreciate this beautiful bounty of a gift, exists because you cultivated your own curiosity into what you love to do now.

You can be that same type of positive influence in someone else's life if you took the approach of educating them, not talking down to someone, not speaking to them as if they are dumb for not already knowing it.

Would you say an astrophysicist is dumb because he doesn't know what BHO stands for?

Not having information is a lack of access, not a lack of ability.

It may be as easy as going on the internet for some, but we must be considerate of those who don't process the information as coherently as we do.

Honestly....here in the Southeast you're oftentimes dealing with people who become VERY upset when you try to educate them on simple things. I've had arguments almost lead to fistfights over pride and people being embarrassed they didn't know basic shit; they cover it up by getting anti-intellectual and acting like you're a know it all. This person was one of those, and long personal experience lets me know when a person is willing to accept new information or their mind is closed. That conversation would have proceeded with me trying to explain the difference in between the 4 types of marijuana, and the basic biology of plants and reproduction. All for him to say "nigga, do you grow weed? Oh, then shut the fuck up." Now, because you've taken proper grammar and enunciated words as a sign of being soft...I have to take my mask off and let you see my real face. I can't just say "yes stupid motherfucker, I have 2800 watts and 2 rooms perpetual with 3 strains for hobby and shits and giggles." I grow for personal and for experience that will come in handy when my state finally allows MMJ. I plan to have the dispensary up and running and maybe my own signature strain the instant its allowed. Capital is no problem. But I try not to sound too much like a weed grower when I talk to people. I like growing, and once you grow you start to recognize other growers by certain talk. I was a party and recognized a grower bragging about how good the weed "he gets" is. Pulled him aside and informed him that around the civilians you can talk about terpenes and pretend like trips to Colorado where your "cousin" lives and grows taught you......but to those who know, the very mention of terpene profiles is a sure indicator you grow.

Lack of knowledge? 2 1/2 years ago I had a lack of knowledge. I knew more than the average moe, jorge cervantes I was not. It's called use that smartphone/internet. I've read thousand of pages of blogs, across 10 forums and cross referenced what was being repeated as gospel. Now...I'm pretty good at it. A few grows from trying to breed something. I have no time or patience to educate those who are either unable or unwilling to do the research, hence why posters like me don't ask redundant question and create endless repetitive threads asking what ph or what is lst without using the search function. You can't teach those unwilling to learn on their own.

 

[steadydets]

Honestly....here in the Southeast you're oftentimes dealing with people who become VERY upset when you try to educate them on simple things. I've had arguments almost lead to fistfights over pride and people being embarrassed they didn't know basic shit; they cover it up by getting anti-intellectual and acting like you're a know it all. This person was one of those, and long personal experience lets me know when a person is willing to accept new information or their mind is closed. That conversation would have proceeded with me trying to explain the difference in between the 4 types of marijuana, and the basic biology of plants and reproduction. All for him to say "nigga, do you grow weed? Oh, then shut the fuck up." Now, because you've taken proper grammar and enunciated words as a sign of being soft...I have to take my mask off and let you see my real face. I can't just say "yes stupid motherfucker, I have 2800 watts and 2 rooms perpetual with 3 strains for hobby and shits and giggles." I grow for personal and for experience that will come in handy when my state finally allows MMJ. I plan to have the dispensary up and running and maybe my own signature strain the instant its allowed. Capital is no problem. But I try not to sound too much like a weed grower when I talk to people. I like growing, and once you grow you start to recognize other growers by certain talk. I was a party and recognized a grower bragging about how good the weed "he gets" is. Pulled him aside and informed him that around the civilians you can talk about terpenes and pretend like trips to Colorado where your "cousin" lives and grows taught you......but to those who know, the very mention of terpene profiles is a sure indicator you grow.

Lack of knowledge? 2 1/2 years ago I had a lack of knowledge. I knew more than the average moe, jorge cervantes I was not. It's called use that smartphone/internet. I've read thousand of pages of blogs, across 10 forums and cross referenced what was being repeated as gospel. Now...I'm pretty good at it. A few grows from trying to breed something. I have no time or patience to educate those who are either unable or unwilling to do the research, hence why posters like me don't ask redundant question and create endless repetitive threads asking what ph or what is lst without using the search function. You can't teach those unwilling to learn on their own.

I hear that. Whenever I run into that type of person, its better to politely smile if, and apparently in the south west the risk runs high, they get offended by you helping them out.

Whether you have time or patience to teach people isn't really the issue because for each time that you dismiss the idiots, there may be one actual enthusiast in the rough that just needs "a little help from his friends".




When our history, your's and mine, are written, people will never remember us for what we had, but rather, for how we treated other people.

 

[Jhhnn]

Honestly....here in the Southeast you're oftentimes dealing with people who become VERY upset when you try to educate them on simple things. I've had arguments almost lead to fistfights over pride and people being embarrassed they didn't know basic shit; they cover it up by getting anti-intellectual and acting like you're a know it all. This person was one of those, and long personal experience lets me know when a person is willing to accept new information or their mind is closed. That conversation would have proceeded with me trying to explain the difference in between the 4 types of marijuana, and the basic biology of plants and reproduction. All for him to say "nigga, do you grow weed? Oh, then shut the fuck up." Now, because you've taken proper grammar and enunciated words as a sign of being soft...I have to take my mask off and let you see my real face. I can't just say "yes stupid motherfucker, I have 2800 watts and 2 rooms perpetual with 3 strains for hobby and shits and giggles." I grow for personal and for experience that will come in handy when my state finally allows MMJ. I plan to have the dispensary up and running and maybe my own signature strain the instant its allowed. Capital is no problem. But I try not to sound too much like a weed grower when I talk to people. I like growing, and once you grow you start to recognize other growers by certain talk. I was a party and recognized a grower bragging about how good the weed "he gets" is. Pulled him aside and informed him that around the civilians you can talk about terpenes and pretend like trips to Colorado where your "cousin" lives and grows taught you......but to those who know, the very mention of terpene profiles is a sure indicator you grow.

Lack of knowledge? 2 1/2 years ago I had a lack of knowledge. I knew more than the average moe, jorge cervantes I was not. It's called use that smartphone/internet. I've read thousand of pages of blogs, across 10 forums and cross referenced what was being repeated as gospel. Now...I'm pretty good at it. A few grows from trying to breed something. I have no time or patience to educate those who are either unable or unwilling to do the research, hence why posters like me don't ask redundant question and create endless repetitive threads asking what ph or what is lst without using the search function. You can't teach those unwilling to learn on their own.

The "Proud to be ignorant" headset is all too common in some circles, unfortunately.

People do learn sometimes even when they don't want to. We we at a gathering awhile back where a peripheral acquaintance was rolling a few joints, going on about how great the kush he had really was. I'll grant that it was pretty, and pretty good, too. I tossed out a nice bud of homegrown Satori. It's nothing to look at- olive drab, not well trimmed, not very frosty or particularly fragrant, but he rolled it up anyway w/ some negativity in the process. I made sure he got his share, and then some, then we left. At next meeting, he was going on like "WTF was that shit? OMG! I couldn't sleep all night!"

Yeh, no shit, Sherlock.

 

[Max Headroom]

I don't want my post to be taken as hostile, but this "capitalism" you speak of is the reality of the world we live in. Criticism is all fine and dandy, and if you want to make believe we all live in a "Contemporary Ethics" course in college, that's you're prerogative I guess, but it doesn't reflect the reality we live in.

oh, i know its the reality! that doesn't mean i have to like it or accept it as unchangable.

but you have to excuse me, i've been reading and it has inflamed my mind

Myers - History of the Great American Fortunes Vol. II - Great Fortunes from Railroads (1909)
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=6306072&postcount=849

it clearly shows that capitalists were always criminals with enough money to buy laws and propaganda that were favorable to them, while the working masses were/are inhumanly exploited, treated worse than slaves and kept in check with the full force of the police/military apparatus.

 

[steadydets]

oh, i know its the reality! that doesn't mean i have to like it or accept it as unchangable.

but you have to excuse me, i've been reading and it has inflamed my mind

Myers - History of the Great American Fortunes Vol. II - Great Fortunes from Railroads (1909)
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=6306072&postcount=849

it clearly shows that capitalists were always criminals with enough money to buy laws and propaganda that were favorable to them, while the working masses were/are inhumanly exploited, treated worse than slaves and kept in check with the full force of the police/military apparatus.

"Capitalist" is not racial or ethnic, so how could they be "always criminal"?

There has been abuse, there has been fraud, that is certain and does exist in any type of other form of Mixed or social economies around the world.


I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not going to click on that link.

I've heard many arguments like this before and they all fail to provide one answer.

That answer, would be an alternative.

What other system would we have?

Are you saying every capitalist is evil?

Does the capitalist system not reflect the same values found in theories that include Natural Selection, and rather, our biological footprint?

How do you feel about the people who run ICMAG.com, are they evil? How about the people who sold you the genetics you are using, if you did start from seed, and if you did buy from a company, these are all assumptions I'm making, but I do believe they are all fairly small logical steps.

Adam Smith talks about people looking to satisfy their owns needs, their needs for shelter, luxury, the need to take care of their family, are good needs.

These needs spur people on to provide other services in society, they provide jobs, they pay taxes, they build goods and services.

Unless you live in Cuba (or North Korea) how could you call a capitalist evil?

I always find that people who criticize it will then push away from their Ikea desk table (i have one myself, its cheap but lovely), pick up their Apple Iphone (my ringer stopped working) and dial the pizza delivery service down the street (melty cheese expertise).


But then again, I could be wrong. You could be so ideologically dedicated to your cause that your computer is built with Soviet Russian Components, your food is shipped from Cuba, which means, you have none at all and you read how to grow pot from that great book written by "Comrade Vladimir Jose Cervantes".

 

[steadydets]

worse than slaves and kept in check with the full force of the police/military apparatus.

Worse than slaves?

Imagine that conversation huh.

Max - "Stop whining bitches, think your life is bad? Look there.
Those people who make money have to spend it on things like food and clothing. It's a wonder they do it all, you guys are lucky you've got me here to provide you with all that.

::A crash is heard and the two men spin around. A large portion of the roof sheltering the slave quarters has finally fallen, leaving a single solitary wood plank to keep out the elements.::

Slave - "Boss, do you think you could get around to fixing that roof? It gets real wet and soggy at night, my clothes are soaked in damp and my ears are green."

Max - "Now, Now, I'll get around to that as soon as I can, just be lucky you have me around to fix it for you."

 

[Rob547]

Going along with the trend of this thread..... thought it was all too convenient that once MMJ passed here it was not only... big business (and behind the curtain to say the least) taking over, corrupt politicians hooking up their old buddies, and of course.... NO compensation allowed for caregivers/growers.... they also tried to force a 1 patient limit on all caregivers but not sure what really happened legal wise.

 

[idiit]

subbed.

totally agree with the above posts. i'm seeing it here in the usa se area. growers pandering to the uneducated commercial "buy weed" legions.

customers equating bag appeal with quality of smoke. growers geared for yields of bag appeal bud.

don't forget the paclo epidemic.

 

[Max Headroom]

slaves: i've read from several sources that slaves, since they were someone's property, were treated as such, while 'free' factory workers were not. they were 'free' after all - no initial purchase necessary. and if they died or were unable to continue working - well, others were already lined up around the block to take the vacated 'job'.

capitalism is by its very nature and origin criminal. if you think otherwise, i suggest you read some history (the book i mentioned is a good start, but there are many).
any positive feelings you have towards capitalism have been indoctrinated into you by the propertied classes for whose sole benefit the whole system was set up from the very beginning.

sure, there are some very nice sides to the totalitarian marketplace (should you have money) and i am enjoying some of them, of course. but it could be sooooo much better for ALL of us if we could replace this inhuman system with a human one.

and please don't come at me with the old "come up with an alternative or shut up" crap. that's just such a stupid argument.

here is an idea: how about a system that has as its supreme goal not the generation of endless, pointless PROFITS, without the slightest regard for humans and their habitat?

how about a system that has as the supreme goal the improvement of the quality of life of the population?
what a fucked up, crazy idea, right?? totally insane! who would want THAT???

 

[Jhhnn]

Capitalism has, so far, been a necessary evil, something to be bent to the needs of society, not worshipped.

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

John Maynard Keynes

 

[Galactic]

A supreme goal of collective quality of lifw sounds like socialism or some shit.

Wants and needs delineate the path. The problem is we humans are selfish, so our wanting can never be quenched.

This is a zero sum environment. One world shit. Money brings more balance than happy feely universal health care type mentalities.

 

[bobblehead]

Honestly....here in the Southeast you're oftentimes dealing with people who become VERY upset when you try to educate them on simple things. I've had arguments almost lead to fistfights over pride and people being embarrassed they didn't know basic shit; they cover it up by getting anti-intellectual and acting like you're a know it all. This person was one of those, and long personal experience lets me know when a person is willing to accept new information or their mind is closed. That conversation would have proceeded with me trying to explain the difference in between the 4 types of marijuana, and the basic biology of plants and reproduction. All for him to say "nigga, do you grow weed? Oh, then shut the fuck up." Now, because you've taken proper grammar and enunciated words as a sign of being soft...I have to take my mask off and let you see my real face. I can't just say "yes stupid motherfucker, I have 2800 watts and 2 rooms perpetual with 3 strains for hobby and shits and giggles." I grow for personal and for experience that will come in handy when my state finally allows MMJ. I plan to have the dispensary up and running and maybe my own signature strain the instant its allowed. Capital is no problem. But I try not to sound too much like a weed grower when I talk to people. I like growing, and once you grow you start to recognize other growers by certain talk. I was a party and recognized a grower bragging about how good the weed "he gets" is. Pulled him aside and informed him that around the civilians you can talk about terpenes and pretend like trips to Colorado where your "cousin" lives and grows taught you......but to those who know, the very mention of terpene profiles is a sure indicator you grow.

Lack of knowledge? 2 1/2 years ago I had a lack of knowledge. I knew more than the average moe, jorge cervantes I was not. It's called use that smartphone/internet. I've read thousand of pages of blogs, across 10 forums and cross referenced what was being repeated as gospel. Now...I'm pretty good at it. A few grows from trying to breed something. I have no time or patience to educate those who are either unable or unwilling to do the research, hence why posters like me don't ask redundant question and create endless repetitive threads asking what ph or what is lst without using the search function. You can't teach those unwilling to learn on their own.

Your lack of knowledge is still evident in your posts. If you hope to survive in a future medical market, it would behoove you to work on growing a quality product. In a flooded medical market, that organic grown og, not kali mist, is going to get a higher ticket over your bullshit unflushed chronic that doesn't even burn. Honestly what you described wouldn't even sell here, you would have to turn it into hash.

Good luck achieving your goals.

 

[IGROWMYOWN]

I decided to try my hand at commercial growing by joining a group that I thought was heading in a good direction. What I found truly disturbed me and Colorado as well as the rest of the scene should do what they can to inform the public to not support these businesses.

There are several dispensaries funded by a group of Russians whose money is bad to say the least. When I heard rumors of money coming through via heroin, prostitution, and massage parlors I knew that my intuition was correct. I was in the belly of the beast so to speak. Also, I was doing things I was completely against. These are just rumors though right? There's more.

The growing process was beyond amateur. It was as if the growers did not understand how to grow at all. It was a 'stick a clone in a bag of FoxFarm and water' type of process. Every plant was sick and dying. According to the head grower, these are perfectly acceptable results as long as yield goals were met. Fertilizers were heavily applied to plants that were saturated in nutrients and clearly burning alive. The head grower ignored the runoff of 6.0ec and pH of 5. Next, these crispy, salty flowers are pulled very prematurely to be hung in a drying room for a week. The drying room part seems legit...or not because it was actually referred to as a curing area. I was told the plants are cut down and hung to cure for 7 days. This is drying, not curing. There was no curing. This is truly pathetic and lazy but it gets worse. The genetics...one big lie. It was openly admitted to me that they were lying about their Girl Scout Cookies, Bruce Banner, Green Crack and a few others. Not even close to real and yet they'll steal the label in order to trick customers.

These people will do and say anything to take money from uninformed customers. It's so sad and it needs to be stopped. They're damaging what has taken the scene so many years to build. What I saw goes beyond what I have said here. I hope you all understand my pleas. Please do not support these businesses. Choose a Colorado run business that puts you first. Quality will win at the end of the day, but first I feel like the truth needs to be heard. They are using their money to buy up small shops which then are turned into shit. These people are making a serious push to get themselves into other states. Its scary to say the least.

Welcome to what's been going on in Cali for years...some of the mid/lower shelf stuff I see is soo over ferted and poorly grown I often wonder if they even tried brown hay smell none of these places are going out of business due to lack of quality though so I wouldn't count on that.

 

[stoned-trout]

atleast rec peeps dont lie and say they do it for compassion....its all about the $$$$$$...i am tired of the med scene and would like to go back to rec users

 

[IGROWMYOWN]

Stoned you not feeling the over ferted poorly grown pulled quickly brown stems and all shitty trim job " compassion OG" for $25/35 an 8th? EVERY smart club here in LA has that setup. Some people are just cheap they don't understand quality it will always be this way. I believe more people than not are this way I think it was poster yesprop215 posted about research that said canna consumers were most influenced by price.

 

[Daub Marley]

whoa I gotta chime in here. When you see skyscrapers in a city ask yourself how is this made? You can easily start to think about specific parts, materials, and construction techniques and overlook them most important factor as to how it got built. It exists because of capitalism and the distribution of money. Capitalism is the carrot in front of the people that incentives them to do constructive things. Whether you define that as slavery is a simple matter of opinion. Almost every product of modern life is brought to us by this unification of self interests. It's expensive, inefficient, and wasteful, but extremely effective. When you have a cup of coffee ponder the distance traveled and the organized labor that it took to get those beans to your house for a cup. It would never have happened if you didn't pay someone's profit every step of the way.

Now these Russians lol. There is no way for them to compete in the future with the products OP has described. They have a little opportunity in Colorado that will vanish. I soak up as much knowledge as I can possibly find so that I can out compete most anyone, and I will find it very amusing to see idiots like these that don't know what they are doing fail. In cali midgrade weed is almost impossible to sell, an indication of an already competitive market. Imagine the pain some will feel when more states legalize. GL and get ready to feel the wrath of the free market.

 

[LEF]

it's all capitalism... if the russians grow shitty weed and sell it for $$$ then they will eventually be driven out of business by good growers.

the key is to educate cannabis consumers , so they don't buy shitty nuted out weed

and theres nothing wrong with making money off drugs and prostitution, my issue with organized crime is that there is always violence and extortion involved.

nothing wrong with making money off prostitution ?

not saying there is anything wrong with it... but I am not sure there is nothing wrong with it

I know that there is a tendency for women to trade themselves for things

and that prostitutes are very upfront about this tendency

I just feel it's wrong to pay for sex
women get pleasure too

 

[steadydets]

slaves: i've read from several sources that slaves, since they were someone's property, were treated as such, while 'free' factory workers were not. they were 'free' after all - no initial purchase necessary. and if they died or were unable to continue working - well, others were already lined up around the block to take the vacated 'job'.

capitalism is by its very nature and origin criminal. if you think otherwise, i suggest you read some history (the book i mentioned is a good start, but there are many).
any positive feelings you have towards capitalism have been indoctrinated into you by the propertied classes for whose sole benefit the whole system was set up from the very beginning.

sure, there are some very nice sides to the totalitarian marketplace (should you have money) and i am enjoying some of them, of course. but it could be sooooo much better for ALL of us if we could replace this inhuman system with a human one.

and please don't come at me with the old "come up with an alternative or shut up" crap. that's just such a stupid argument.

here is an idea: how about a system that has as its supreme goal not the generation of endless, pointless PROFITS, without the slightest regard for humans and their habitat?

how about a system that has as the supreme goal the improvement of the quality of life of the population?
what a fucked up, crazy idea, right?? totally insane! who would want THAT???

I can't believe you would actually post this completely facetious argument.

Anyone that actually believes what this guy is saying should stop reading blogs or interest group studies and taking what they say as fact.

Saying that all capitalist are criminals is about as low brow, ignorant, uneducated statement anyone can ever make.

Anything that I say won't sway you to consider a thing and trying to make a point to someone that says I've been:

indoctrinated into you by the propertied classes for whose sole benefit the whole system was set up from the very beginning

is probably paranoid and delusional.

 

[steadydets]

Capitalism has, so far, been a necessary evil, something to be bent to the needs of society, not worshipped.



John Maynard Keynes

One of the main tenants Adam Smith describes is the government regulation of private markets in order to instill confidence in the investor markets.


Things like High Frequency Trading, as described in Michael Lewis's new book, is a complete rip-off.

The repackaging and classification of Class B bonds into AAA Multi-Tiered bonds were criminal and allowing those bonds to be sold to be public market as low yield high security notes was criminal.

But why was this allowed to happen?

Because we failed to police our congressmen and pass legislation preventing this type of obviously shady practices from happening.

But, who elects the electorate? Who polices our congressmen?

Our entire citizen population has been dumbed down, as evidenced by Max's argument I quoted in another post in this thread on a different post. The fact that people even entertain those arguments shows how far the disconnect from reality they truly are and how because they don't feel able to affect change in the market, they choose to not participate at all.

Because the markets are complicated and involved with so much politics, the average American isn't savvy enough to understand the intricacies of things like Credit Default Swaps and how that completely fucked AIG. (who we should have NOT bailed out. Letting them bail out the banks was a huge mistake and abuse, but then again. Where were the pitchforks?)

But, if our public schools weren't a mess, if America wasn't ranked 40 something in science/mathematics worldwide, if we had a social safety net for young students who can't afford college, we might have a brighter electorate which would choose better options and smarter decisions for how we govern.

The problem is we choose to point the finger at politicians but refuse to recognize that our finger pointing stops whenever they satisfy the particular interest of only the person pointing said finger.

In other words, minority interest are selfish. People don't care about other people, especially if they are different.

That isn't a capitalist problem, that's a human problem.