Yo, what’s good? It’s ya boy Dan, and today we’re talkin’ about that tricky part of weed growin’ – decidin’ on the potency of your buds. You might know how potent the parent strains are, but what about your new strain? Is it stronger, more powerful? Or does it lack the kick or buzz you’ve been lookin’ for?
If you plan on sellin’ your buds or usin’ it as a medicinal strain, then you need to carefully check its potency. Only when you know the potency level of your strain can you allow other users to consume it.
So how do you assess the potency level of your strains?
First up, you can use home kits. These DIY testin’ kits let you test the THC levels and the levels of other cannabinoids in your new strain. They’re easy to use, compact, and efficient. You can take it anywhere and use it on any plant.
Some cannabis growers use home testin’ kits together with other testin’ devices or a third-party testin’ company’s help. This is to make sure that the results are accurate, and the strains are ready to use for recreational or medicinal treatments.
The most common home kit is a kit that uses color to indicate the level of THC. The colors stand for different THC levels with the lightest color for very little traces of THC and the highest THC levels with the deepest color.
But yo, keep in mind home testin’ kits don’t provide the exact amount of THC but only an approximate. Also, the test can only provide the highest readin’ at 20% and the lowest at 1%.
You can buy home testin’ kits online, but before settin’ up your testin’ lab, consider the accuracy of the test kit. And of course, consult testin’ labs to find out if this is a worthwhile test kit to use.
Another way is to go to professional testin’ facilities if you live in a city or state where weed growin’ and use are legal. These services allow even an ordinary home grower to find the THC and other cannabinoid levels in their homemade weed.
Each testing facility operates differently from each other, but usually, the way they work is very straightforward. Just like any lab, you can come over and provide a sample of your plant. Provide a piece of dried bud and carefully fill in all the details of its growth on a form.
But yo, it may take a few days to get the results. But no doubt that you’ll get an accurate and satisfying result.
Now if you wanna go old school, take a sample and consume it yourself. Growers and breeders do this all the time. They take a bit and smoke it to determine if you need to wait longer for buds to dry. They may also take a sample and vape it to check if the buds are dry.
This is a time-tested way to test new strains, but are you up for it? If you’re new in this game, then it would be impossible to gauge if the strain you’ve just grown is powerful or not so potent.
So it would be best to have a professional consume your new strain and gauge its effects for himself. We also recommend takin’ testing to another level by asking a group of people to test your buds for ya.
Have a testing or “tasting” event. Prepare freshly-rolled joints or if your participants prefer, clean and sterile bongs, to smoke the new strain. Hand over a questionnaire for the participants to fill out. Make sure that everyone completes this form.
But here’s some reminders for ya:
Don’t reveal any details about the strain – doing so will affect their opinions and can affect the way they judge the strain.
Tell them not to drink anything or take any medication at least an hour before the test – this will help you accurately judge the potency of the strain.
Properly screen your participants as well – make sure they are experienced smokers and have had the chance to sample different strains before.
Serve freshly-rolled joints to smoke or dried buds to vape – don’t offer edibles because these can take time to take effect.
A taste test is an informal way of testing the potency of weed, but it helps provide subjective things about it like taste, flavor, aroma, and effects.
So what now? It would be best to have your strains professionally tested AND conduct a taste test for good measure. This way, you can test the potency of your new weed strain subjectively AND objectively.
After ya get your results, ya can now appropriately gauge how ta use yer new weed strain effectively. Peace out!