selecting genetics for hashmaking

Hey there, welcome to Full Melt extractions, I'm David, and if you are a solventless extractor or you want to learn to become one, I'm here to help you gain the knowledge you need to elevate your craft to the next level.

One word you're going to see me use a lot is sorting. It is in no way exaggerating to say that every aspect of being a single source solventless extract producer relates to sorting. And our topic today, Genetics and Selection, is no exception. Stay tuned to the end of the video, where I'll share a list of some top of the line genetics I've already run myself as well as what's working for others, and some of the most up and coming gear that I'm excited about on the cutting edge of solventless extraction.

When it comes to making quality solventless extracts, first and foremost, it all comes down to quality genetics. But what constitutes quality genetics, from a hash standpoint? I'd argue it's all about the trichomes, baby! 

There are a wide variety of opinions on a lot of things among hashmakers. But I doubt I would be able to find one that disagreed with that statement. That's why you should select for trichome qualities and trichome quantity, and not a whole lot else. And I would even go so far as to argue even if you aren't making hash and don't care about extraction, you should still primarily select for trichome qualities and quantity

Now, if you've been growing for flowers for a while, this may seem counter to best practices. After all, your trichomes and their qualities and quantity are important, but it's only just one part of the puzzle. What about the color, what about the bud structure, what about the density, what about the yield, what about the flowering time, what about all these other factors?

And I would counter with the question: All these things are nice, but when people judge your bud ultimately and in the end, will the final judgment be based on any of those things?

In other words, if you had the best bud structure, density, color, yield, etc, but your potency and flavor are not quite on point, is there anyone in the history of ever who will say that was some of the best quality they've ever tried?

Again, I feel like most would agree with me that, of course they wouldn't likely rate that particular cannabis very highly. But I'm sure most of us could relate to the experience of trying some bud that didn't blow us away in terms of bag appeal, but ended up knocking our socks off due to flavor and potency. 

There's a lot of bag appeal factors, stuff that really can push flower in particular to the next level when you can combine an amazing presentation with an amazing genetic in terms of flavor and potency, but bag appeal factors are never what makes or breaks a strain or cultivar. 

In the end it all comes down to flavor and potency, and where does the flavor and potency in cannabis reside? Well it resides in the cannabinoids and the terpenes produced by the plant. And for all practical purposes, where do all of those compounds reside? In those tiny little chemical factories called the glandular trichome heads.

Now you can make the argument, and technically you wouldn't be wrong, that not all of the terpenes and cannabinoids in the cannabis plant are found in the glandular trichome heads. But you'd only be right in the same sense and to the same extent as if you said: "Well, not all the mass of the solar system is in the sun."

Well, technically you're right, we're standing on an earth that proves that there is mass in the solar system other than the sun. However, the sun still constitutes over 99.98% of the entire mass of the solar system. Similarly, the vast, vast majority of cannabinoids and terpenes in your cannabis plant are contained in the glandular trichome heads. And since flavor and potency are the two single biggest factors that pretty much anyone judges cannabis by, that's why I would argue, even if you're not growing for hash, you should be growing for trichomes. 

So let's talk about trichome qualities. Why do I say qualities instead of quality? Well, if I said trichome quality, first off, it wouldn't necessarily be very clear what I meant. Do I mean the flavor, the potency, the melt, ease of separation in extraction processes? Qualities covers all that though.

Trichome quantity is also important, but if the flavor, potency or melt is lacking, or the heads are extremely difficult to isolate in a solventless extraction process, then all that quantity doesn't matter. At least if you're beginning with the end in mind of making your crops into high quality solventless extracts.

There's also good reasons from an extractor's perspective to select against traits that you would likely select for if you were growing for flower, such as extreme flower density and to select for or at least not select away from traits that you normally would select against, such as the tendency to foxtail.  

Flower density, most often doesn't seem to have any bearing on whether or not a strain will perform well, and in some cases, I've found very dense flowers have a tendency to not release their trichomes very easily. Of the strains I've run that looked like they should do well. some of the ones that have performed the poorest have had particularly dense flower structure.

Meanwhile, normally undesirable bud structure such as foxtailing, while it definitely takes away from bag appeal, doesn't seem to have a negative effect on ease of solventless extraction, due to the tops of them being many protruding fingers rather than a single tight nodule, it may even aid in the ease of separation of your trichomes.

Another thing a lot of flower producers don't even realize is a thing to select for, is melt, or thin cuticles.

You see, all trichomes are not created equal, they have differing levels of terpenes and cannabinoids, and their structures vary slightly from strain to strain, and among different cultivars, or phenotypes of the same strain, even somewhat on different parts of the same plant 

Trichome heads sit atop a multi-cellular structure called a capitate stalk. The cell that connects the stalk to the head, is called the basal cell. It connects to the stipe cells underneath the secretory glands which are the chemical factories that produce the terpenes and cannabinoids in your trichome head. And the protective outer layer that keeps those compounds inside the trichome head is called the cuticle.

This cuticle, and its relative thickness to the overall diameter of the trichome head, is your biggest factor in determining melt. If it's thin, like the skin of a water balloon, then you're going to have a very melty hash if you can isolate those trichome heads. If it's more like a Tootsie Pop with a very thick membrane and a relatively small center of active ingredient, then no matter how efficient your extraction process and how well you isolate those heads, you're not going to have a very melty product.

The final trait that I will discuss here, is something we've only been keying in on very recently in the hash making world but many serious single source solventless extractors are now conducting pheno hunts to search for cultivars with what is known as the "weak neck trait" or trichomes that develop abcission zones upon maturity

We've begun to learn, that just like with certain fruits, when some trichomes become ripe, the connection between the basal cell and the stipe cells where the trichome head is connected to the capitate stalk grows more slender and produces what is known as an abscission zone, or a specialized cell layer that separates plant parts at the organ junction in response to developmental or environmental signals. Strains that have large numbers of trichomes with this weak neck trait are what are commonly known as "dumpers" meaning they easily produce large amounts of hash when subjected to water extraction. this is quickly becoming a main trait that is selected for in the solventless extraction world.

You know when you consider all this, it really makes you wonder how many amazing dumper strains were thrown out because of ridiculously arbitrary reasons, such as color or density or bud structure because someone was growing for flower and didn't realize they had something extremely special on their hands.

So, It's time for that list of genetics. Quick disclaimer before I give you this list, just like every human being is a unique individual, so too does every seed grow into a unique plant, unless you're running a clone of a known dumper, you have to treat each and every seed as an unknown quantity. Remember, we are sorting here, people. 

If you have grown a phenotype out, and you know your growing and extraction technique is on point, but you're just not getting the results you want from that cultivar, just plant another seed, regardless of who told you that was a good hash strain, even if it was me.

First, let's talk about some breeders whose gear I have personal experience running

DNA Genetics is an amazing company I’ve run multiple strains of (Sour Kosher, Kosher Kush, Kosher Tangie, L.A. Confidential) as well as having just purchased some GMO Kosher seeds from them that I’m super excited about running soon.

I've recently run some in-house genetics gear. I would definitely classify their Meathead as a dumper at least the cut I got a hold of was. here in the next few months I will also be running some Sugarcane from them as well as some Atomic Jelly. so look forward to that. 

There are clone only variants available that are known dumpers like Gorilla Glue#4 and GMO, to name a couple. Acquiring clones of known dumpers eliminates guesswork and much of the sorting of selection out of the process. This has its advantages and it's disadvantages. the advantage is you're getting a known quantity that is known to perform well.

The disadvantage is you're getting a known quantity so you know you're getting something really nice, but you're not discovering something new which is a lot of the allure of going through the whole selection process, finding something amazing that no one else has ever found before. Nevertheless, it never hurts to add a couple known dumpers while you're trying to build your own stable. they can also give you a baseline reference point to know for sure if your grow process is on point, but we'll talk a little more about that in another post.

But when you talk about clone only hash dumping strains, you have to mention the one and only Schwale, the mastermind at farmhouse studios genetics, this guy is specifically breeding for the weak neck trait, and he goes so in depth as to the measure the average micron size of the heads on his strains. this guy is a serious hash breeder and he does sell cuts, for a pretty penny of his hash dumping phenotypes. He also sells seeds when he feels he can get them genetically stabilized to the point of having at least a few dumpers per pack, I plan to try his strain Banana Shack in the near future if I can get my hands on a few seeds before they sell out. some other strains that I found were dumping for other hashmakers while researching for this article are:

miracle alien cookies,

rainbow belts,

papaya,

grape cream cake,

Apple Fritter,

Tropicana cookies,

Strawnana and Super Boof.

Pretty much all of those are available somewhere in clone or seed form. I'm not going to list seed banks or provide links. this is just a jumping off point to give people a few strains and breeders to go to to get them started. You want to find your next amazing hash phenotype? Just keep popping seeds.

To other hashmakers out there, let me know in the comments what strains you're excited about running, what's running well for you or has done well for you in the past, are there any selection criteria you like to use that I missed? I'd be interested to hear your opinion on this topic. If you have one, let's hash it out in the comment section.

Thanks for reading, this has been David with FullMeltxTractions, reminding you to keep up that passion for the hashin'

Happy Hashing!