Grow lore, put on trial.

Myth: “Most shelf weed is 30 %”

Verdict: Busted. Independent retests find most retail flower in the mid-teens to low 20s, often well below its label. Reaching 30 % total cannabinoids is a rare, real feat

Myth: “Flower can test 35 %, even 42 %, total cannabinoids”

Verdict: Busted. Not credible: cannabinoids are made only in trichome heads and bud is mostly bract and stem. Numbers like that come from concentrates, lab shopping or inflated testing

Myth: “Humidity packs keep your stash fresher”

Verdict: Busted. A marketing gimmick: the only pro-pack data is the manufacturer's own. A good cure in a full, airtight, dark jar does the job

Myth: “Frost and purple mean potency”

Verdict: Busted. Frost is how many trichome heads you can see, not how full they are; gland density didn't predict THC in a field study, and consumers' potency ratings didn't match measured THC. Purple and red are anthocyanins, set by genetics and cold, with their own temperature optimum separate from cannabinoids

Myth: “Autos are easy”

Verdict: Busted. Autos run on a strict countdown from germination, so any stress or mistake costs yield they can't recover. They're good for beginners because they quickly show who has a green thumb, not because they're forgiving

Myth: “UV-B lamps raise THC”

Verdict: Busted. Controlled trials found UV made little or no difference to cannabinoids, and high doses can cut yield

Myth: “Cold nights boost terpenes and resin”

Verdict: Busted. Cold can bring out purple colour (anthocyanins) in cultivars that carry it. More terpenes, flavour or resin from cold has no peer-reviewed support

Myth: “Day 1 of 12/12 is day 1 of flower”

Verdict: Busted. After the flip the shoot tip needs days to rebuild itself into an inflorescence; in controlled studies the first proper pistil clusters appeared about 8–14 days after short days began, and later in slow cultivars

Myth: “High-phosphorus bloom boosters mean bigger buds”

Verdict: Busted. Four independent cannabis trials found a plateau: past roughly 25–60 mg/L P, more phosphorus didn't raise yield or cannabinoids

Myth: “LED lights make plants need Cal-Mag”

Verdict: Busted. LEDs don't create a Cal-Mag need. Demand is driven by cultivar, RO or soft water, coco's cation exchange and root-zone pH

Myth: “A pre-harvest flush 'cleans' the plant of nutrients”

Verdict: Busted. Plain water can't pull stored minerals back out of tissue. The only valid flush treats the medium (salt build-up), not the plant

Myth: “Molasses in the reservoir sweetens and fattens buds”

Verdict: Busted. Sugars feed soil microbes, not the plant, which makes its own by photosynthesis. In mineral hydro they just feed slime

Myth: “More sulfur means more terpenes”

Verdict: Busted. Terpenes contain no sulfur. Once S is sufficient there's no mechanism for extra S to make more of them

Myth: “Ladybugs from the garden centre will clean up indoor aphids”

Verdict: Busted. Field-collected convergent lady beetles arrive semi-dormant, tend to fly off, and may take weeks to lay eggs; their larvae do most of the eating

Myth: “Any Aphidius wasp kills any aphid”

Verdict: Busted. Aphidius colemani parasitises small aphids such as green peach and cotton aphid but is not effective on larger foxglove or potato aphids; species matching decides success

Myth: “Aphids lay eggs that hatch after you spray”

Verdict: Busted. Indoors under long days the common cannabis aphids give live birth with no egg stage; eggs only come from sexual forms under short days or outdoors in autumn

Myth: “Running the room hot kills aphids”

Verdict: Inconclusive. Above 28-30 C the cannabis aphid collapses in lab tests, but the cotton aphid still grows fast at 30 C, and heat stresses the plant and the beneficials

Myth: “Aphids spread hop latent viroid”

Verdict: Busted. Hop latent viroid spreads mainly mechanically through cuttings, tools and sap; the cannabis aphid can carry cucumber mosaic and alfalfa mosaic virus, not HLVd

Myth: “You can check for broad mites with a 10x loupe”

Verdict: Busted. Females are about 0.2 mm and eggs about 0.08 mm; extension guidance calls for 20x or more and prefers a microscope, so a clean 10x look proves nothing

Myth: “Twisted new growth means calcium deficiency”

Verdict: Busted. Broad mite feeding produces the same twisting and glazing; rule out mites under 40-60x after checking pH and root zone

Myth: “Broad mites only arrive on clones”

Verdict: Busted. Clones are the main route, but broad mites also ride on hands, clothing, air currents and on whitefly and aphid adults

Myth: “A hot-water dip cleans infested cannabis cuttings”

Verdict: Inconclusive. 43-49 C for 15 minutes is documented for other crops; on hemp cuttings 41-43 C reduced russet mites but did not eliminate them, and no cannabis broad-mite protocol exists

Myth: “Dropping humidity will wipe out broad mites”

Verdict: Inconclusive. Broad mites are favoured by high humidity, but no cannabis study shows low RH eliminates them, and low RH also kills predatory mite eggs

Myth: “Bt kills any caterpillar in the bud”

Verdict: Busted. Bt must be eaten and works best on small larvae on the surface; large larvae inside colas eat little treated tissue, and kurstaki-strain Bt killed only about a third of field-collected corn earworm larvae in Virginia tests

Myth: “One spray at the start of flower protects the crop”

Verdict: Busted. Bt breaks down in sunlight, often within a week, and corn earworm moths keep arriving for weeks, so protection lasts only as long as fresh residue is on the buds during flights

Myth: “Pheromone traps control budworms”

Verdict: Busted. Lures attract only males and catch too few to matter; traps tell you when moths are flying, nothing more

Myth: “Budworms only hit hemp next to corn”

Verdict: Busted. Corn is a major source of moths, but Maryland trial moths preferred hemp to sweet corn and migrating moths reach isolated fields; distance from corn reduces but does not remove risk

Myth: “Corn earworm and tobacco budworm need different management on cannabis”

Verdict: Confirmed. Both are heliothine moths with the same egg-on-flower habit and very similar degree-day needs; the practical difference is insecticide resistance profiles in field crops, not cannabis tactics

Myth: “Cannabis aphids are just green peach aphids”

Verdict: Busted. Phorodon cannabis is a distinct species that develops only on Cannabis; mistaking it for green peach aphid can lead to a less suitable parasitoid

Myth: “A clean room can be reinfested from weeds outside”

Verdict: Busted. Cannabis aphid develops only on Cannabis and starves within a few days without it; reinfestation comes mainly from introduced Cannabis plant material

Myth: “Aphidius colemani is proven against cannabis aphid”

Verdict: Inconclusive. Industry reports disagree on it versus Aphidius matricariae, and no peer-reviewed greenhouse trial on cannabis aphid was found

Myth: “Cannabis aphids only lay eggs outdoors”

Verdict: Busted. Colorado State reports sexual forms and eggs indoors after the switch to short-day lighting

Myth: “Bt kills caterpillars on contact”

Verdict: Busted. Bt must be eaten and is a stomach poison; spraying larvae that are already inside stems or colas does little

Myth: “Caterpillars are only a problem outdoors”

Verdict: Busted. They are mainly outdoor pests, but greenhouses and light-dep houses with open vents in late summer are hit too, and indoor rooms get them through unscreened intakes

Myth: “Pheromone traps catch enough moths to control them”

Verdict: Busted. Lures attract only males of one species and catch a small share; they are timing tools

Myth: “Leaf holes in veg mean you will lose the harvest”

Verdict: Busted. Looper and armyworm leaf feeding on mature hemp is usually minor and generally does not need control; buds are what matter

Myth: “Burning or removing crop debris reduces hemp borer next year”

Verdict: Confirmed. Overwintering larvae of Eurasian hemp borer sit in stems and seed-head leaf folds, so removing residue removes them; CSU makes it the main recommendation

Myth: “A layer of sand or diatomaceous earth stops fungus gnats”

Verdict: Busted. In tests, sand and DE on the medium surface did not reduce adult emergence or egg laying; the gaps let larvae pupate and females lay eggs

Myth: “Adult fungus gnats spread Pythium root rot”

Verdict: Busted. Adults never transmitted Pythium in lab tests and Pythium DNA was not found in adults; larvae can carry it, mostly in lab assays

Myth: “Fungus gnats always mean you are overwatering”

Verdict: Inconclusive. Constantly wet media are the main driver, but microbially active media (compost, worm castings, kelp, blood meal) can produce 2-5 times as many gnats even when watering is reasonable

Myth: “Hydrogen peroxide drenches cure fungus gnats”

Verdict: Inconclusive. No controlled trial against Bradysia was found; strong drenches can damage roots and the beneficial microbes and predators you want

Myth: “Yellow sticky cards will wipe out fungus gnats”

Verdict: Busted. Cards catch short-lived adults (about 6 days) while most of the population sits as eggs, larvae and pupae in the medium; cards are for counting

Myth: “You can see russet mites with a 10x loupe”

Verdict: Busted. They are 110-210 micrometres; Colorado State says 15-20x minimum and a Kentucky study needed 55x to count them

Myth: “Russet mites come in on seeds”

Verdict: Busted. NC State says the mites cannot be sustained on seeds and starting from seed is the best prevention

Myth: “Predatory mites will wipe out russet mites”

Verdict: Busted. Some predators reduced field populations but none eradicated them or reproduced on infested hemp

Myth: “A hot-water or soap dip cleans an infested clone”

Verdict: Busted. Dips at 41-43 C or soap reduced mites on hemp cuttings but eliminated none

Myth: “Russet mites survive on other plants in the room”

Verdict: Busted. Hemp russet mite is host specific to Cannabis; without hosts the remaining mites die within about a month

Myth: “Russet mites like dry rooms”

Verdict: Inconclusive. Sources conflict: Colorado State lists high humidity as favourable, tomato russet mite data favour low humidity

Myth: “A preventive spray every week is IPM”

Verdict: Busted. Calendar spraying without scouting is the opposite of IPM: it selects resistance and kills beneficials while missing the pest's real timing

Myth: “Clean clones from a dispensary or a friend don't need quarantine”

Verdict: Busted. Clones are the main documented route for spider mites, russet mites, broad mites and root aphids into indoor rooms; eggs and eriophyid mites are invisible without magnification

Myth: “Bugs come from the soil or appear out of nowhere”

Verdict: Busted. Indoor pests arrive on plants, people, pets, air intakes and reused media; they do not generate spontaneously

Myth: “Sticky cards will catch your spider mites”

Verdict: Busted. Spider mites, broad and russet mites, mealybugs and wingless aphids do not fly; cards only catch flying adults such as thrips, whiteflies, gnats, shore flies and winged aphids

Myth: “If you release predators you never need anything else”

Verdict: Busted. Predators work only inside their climate window and at a sufficient predator:prey ratio; hot, dry rooms or late releases fail

Myth: “Spraying leafhoppers prevents curly top”

Verdict: Busted. Transmission takes hours and migrants keep arriving, so insecticides do not stop infection; CSU calls them ineffective

Myth: “Curly top only spreads by leafhoppers”

Verdict: Busted. Leafhoppers spread it in the field, but grafting and cuttings from infected mothers also transmit it

Myth: “Hopperburn is a nutrient burn”

Verdict: Busted. Leaf-tip yellowing and scorch from potato leafhopper looks like nutrient or drought stress but has insects under the leaves

Myth: “Beet leafhoppers breed in hemp fields”

Verdict: Inconclusive. CSU field observations found only adults in hemp, but a CSU lab study showed they can lay eggs and develop on hemp, so it is unsettled

Myth: “Every leafhopper on the sticky card is a problem”

Verdict: Busted. Over a dozen leafhopper species visit Colorado hemp and most are harmless transients; only beet leafhopper transmits a known hemp pathogen

Myth: “Mealybugs are a fast pest like spider mites”

Verdict: Busted. Citrus mealybug r_m is about 0.084/day at 25 °C (doubling ~8 days) against several times that for mites and aphids; they build slowly and are missed for that reason

Myth: “One spray of soap or oil wipes them out”

Verdict: Busted. Wax and ovisacs shield adults and eggs; crawlers keep hatching for 10-20 days, so repeats are needed

Myth: “Leptomastix only attacks citrus mealybug”

Verdict: Inconclusive. UC IPM's Pest Note says so, but UC's natural enemies gallery lists at least 50 mealybug hosts; it performs best on citrus mealybug

Myth: “Cryptolaemus works in any grow room”

Verdict: Busted. Development and reproduction slow greatly below about 20 °C and short days, and it needs prey egg masses to reproduce

Myth: “Ants are harmless bystanders”

Verdict: Busted. Ants tend mealybugs for honeydew and attack their natural enemies

Myth: “Root aphids are the same pest as lettuce root aphids or phylloxera”

Verdict: Busted. Cranshaw and Wainwright-Evans showed online cannabis 'root aphid' biology was borrowed from Pemphigus and grape phylloxera; the cannabis species is mainly rice root aphid, which needs no tree host indoors

Myth: “Beneficial nematodes control root aphids”

Verdict: Busted. Aphids are poor nematode hosts; the woolly apple aphid suppresses the nematodes' symbiotic bacteria and a field spray gave only a marginal effect

Myth: “A week between runs is enough to starve root aphids”

Verdict: Inconclusive. No starvation data exist; adults live up to about a month in cool conditions and survived 24 days on non-host potato

Myth: “Fungal drenches (Beauveria, Isaria) help against root aphids”

Verdict: Inconclusive. Best observed results among commercial products in cannabis facilities, but no controlled cannabis trial

Myth: “Root aphids are an outdoor hemp problem”

Verdict: Busted. Rice root aphid has not been found on outdoor hemp; it is an indoor and greenhouse pest

Myth: “Shore flies eat roots like fungus gnats”

Verdict: Busted. Shore fly larvae feed on algae and decaying matter and do not consume plant roots; the risk is pathogens carried in their gut and frass

Myth: “Bti controls shore flies as well as fungus gnats”

Verdict: Inconclusive. No trial showing good Bti control of Scatella was found, and extension shore fly guides do not list it

Myth: “Shore flies are only a cosmetic nuisance”

Verdict: Busted. Lab studies show larvae and adults carry and transmit Pythium aphanidermatum, Thielaviopsis basicola, Fusarium and Verticillium

Myth: “Spraying adults will clear shore flies”

Verdict: Busted. Females lay eggs about 3 days after emerging and the thick-skinned puparium resists insecticides; adult sprays do not fix the source

Myth: “Salt is a good slug control”

Verdict: Busted. Salt kills the slug it touches but damages soil and plants; baits, barriers and trapping work without harming the bed

Myth: “Beer traps will clear a garden of slugs”

Verdict: Busted. Beer traps attract slugs only from within a few feet and need refilling every few days; they monitor and reduce, not eliminate

Myth: “Iron phosphate baits are not effective because you never see dead slugs”

Verdict: Busted. Slugs stop feeding soon after eating iron phosphate and die over several days to a week, usually hidden

Myth: “Copper tape always keeps slugs out”

Verdict: Inconclusive. Copper deters slugs only when tall enough, clean and continuous, and it cannot stop slugs already inside the barrier

Myth: “Spider mites cannot survive high humidity”

Verdict: Busted. High humidity slows them (densities up to 3 times lower at about 80% than at about 55% RH on greenhouse cucumber) but does not stop them, and late-flower humidity invites bud rot

Myth: “A weekly spray matches the spider mite life cycle”

Verdict: Busted. Egg hatch takes about 3 days at 30 °C but about 6 days at 20 °C, so the right re-spray interval depends on room temperature, not the calendar

Myth: “Red or orange mites are always predators”

Verdict: Busted. Predatory Phytoseiulus is orange-red, but so are diapausing spider mite females and the red (carmine) form of T. urticae; predators have no dark side spots and run fast

Myth: “Spider mites love heat”

Verdict: Confirmed. In lab life tables the intrinsic rate of increase roughly doubles from 20 to 30 °C; above about 33-35 °C net reproduction falls, but plants and predators suffer more

Myth: “Phytoseiulus persimilis works in any grow room”

Verdict: Busted. Its eggs fail in dry air (7.5% hatch at 40% RH vs 99.7% at 80% RH, 27 °C), and it cannot keep up with spider mites above about 30 °C

Myth: “Mites die in winter”

Verdict: Busted. Indoor rooms never fall below spider mite developmental thresholds of about 8-14 C; outdoors, females diapause in debris and return in spring

Myth: “Just raise humidity to beat spider mites”

Verdict: Busted. High RH slows mites and helps predators in veg, but it does not eliminate them and is dangerous in flower because of bud rot

Myth: “Hotter is always worse for every pest”

Verdict: Busted. Cannabis aphid, broad mites and thrips decline above their optimum near 25-31 C; spider mites are the main pest that keeps accelerating to about 30-32 C

Myth: “A weekly spray schedule works for every room”

Verdict: Busted. Development time halves or doubles with temperature, so intervals must be set from life tables at your temperature

Myth: “Cold rooms stop pests”

Verdict: Busted. Pest growth slows below 20 C but continues until the lower developmental threshold, typically 6-13 C

Myth: “Sticky cards will control thrips”

Verdict: Busted. Cards catch only flying adults; eggs inside leaves, larvae on leaves and pupae in the medium never reach them

Myth: “Weekly leaf sprays will wipe out thrips”

Verdict: Busted. Eggs are inside leaf tissue and about 98% of western flower thrips pupated in the soil in a bean study, so sprays miss most of the population

Myth: “Thrips will give my cannabis a virus”

Verdict: Busted. Thrips spread tospoviruses in other crops, but none are known to infect cannabis

Myth: “Minute pirate bugs work just as well in flower”

Verdict: Busted. Short days push many Orius insidiosus females into reproductive diapause; about 57% at 12:12 in one lab strain

Myth: “A cold room kills thrips”

Verdict: Busted. Western flower thrips develops above about 8 °C and does not diapause; it just slows down

Myth: “Predatory mites can rescue a heavy infestation”

Verdict: Busted. N. cucumeris and A. swirskii eat only first-instar larvae and no adults, so they prevent rather than rescue

Myth: “Red spider mites are a different, tougher species”

Verdict: Busted. Most acarologists now treat the red (carmine) mite as a colour form of T. urticae; no study has shown the red form is inherently more resistant

Myth: “You can tell the species by colour alone”

Verdict: Busted. Colour varies with age, diet, temperature and diapause, and hybrids come in many shades; males and juveniles of both forms look alike

Myth: “Orange spider mites are the carmine mite”

Verdict: Busted. Bright orange females without dark spots are usually diapausing females of either form, which stop feeding and laying

Myth: “Red forms never go dormant”

Verdict: Busted. Many red-form populations fail to diapause, but some (in Italy, Greece and Lebanese mountains) do

Myth: “Green and red spider mites need different control”

Verdict: Confirmed. The same predatory mites, environment set-points and IRAC rotation apply to both forms

Myth: “Yellow cards will control whiteflies”

Verdict: Busted. Cards catch flying adults only; eggs and nymphs under the leaves keep coming

Myth: “Encarsia works on any whitefly”

Verdict: Busted. Encarsia formosa is the greenhouse whitefly specialist; Eretmocerus is the usual choice for silverleaf whitefly

Myth: “Whiteflies love heat, so cool the room”

Verdict: Busted. Silverleaf whitefly does, but greenhouse whitefly lives and breeds less above about 26 °C, and cooling below about 17-18 °C helps the whitefly more than Encarsia

Myth: “One spray clears whiteflies”

Verdict: Busted. Eggs and late nymphs survive contact sprays and hatch or emerge within a week at 25 °C

Myth: “Whiteflies only make honeydew, they are harmless”

Verdict: Busted. Large nymph populations cause yellowing and leaf drop, and adults can carry broad mites

Myth: “Late-flower bananas are normal”

Verdict: Busted. Late 'nanners' are staminate flowers (anthers) forming inside a female's buds: that is intersex expression, a herm. Sex expression is heritable, and stress only reveals the plants that carry the weakness

Myth: “A herm is fine if it's the best plant you've grown”

Verdict: Busted. Its pollen makes all-female seed that carries the same tendency. Keep it and you spread the problem; cull it and don't breed from it

Myth: “Two-way humidity packs make a better cure”

Verdict: Busted. A marketing gimmick: the only data that says packs help comes from a pack maker's own test. Cure by the bud's water activity, and add a fresh bud if a jar goes too dry

Myth: “Irradiated weed is radioactive”

Verdict: Busted. Gamma from cobalt-60, e-beam up to 10 MeV and X-ray up to 5 MeV (7.5 MeV with gold or tantalum targets) don't make the product radioactive, the same as irradiated spices. The real questions are terpenes, mycotoxins and disclosure

Myth: “Irradiation has no effect on terpenes”

Verdict: Inconclusive. Some studies found no significant change. Others measured 10–20 % losses in volatile monoterpenes (up to 38 % for one compound) right after treatment. The effect is small and real. Nobody has shown it's harmless to aroma, and nobody has shown it ruins it

Myth: “A passing retest means the mould problem is gone”

Verdict: Busted. Irradiation and other kill steps reduce the count of living spores. Toxins the mould already made, and the dead spores themselves, can stay. One small study still found mycotoxins and viable Aspergillus and Penicillium after gamma treatment

Myth: “Flushing with plain water before harvest makes smoother, better-tasting buds”

Verdict: Busted. Cannabis stores what it takes up; water at the end doesn't wash it out. Controlled studies found no quality gain, and starving the plant while it finishes costs yield and resin

Myth: “24–72 hours of darkness before harvest boosts resin and THC”

Verdict: Busted. Why switch off photosynthesis while the plant is finishing? No credible study shows a benefit, and the founder's 20-year challenge is still unclaimed

Myth: “Amber trichomes mean CBN and couch-lock”

Verdict: Busted. CBN forms mainly by oxidation after harvest, not on the plant. Amber marks ageing glands, not a different high

Myth: “Crossing two famous cuts makes a new strain”

Verdict: Busted. Two heterozygous clones give a segregating, untested F1 population, not a uniform or stable strain. A strain is what's left after years of selection and testing

Myth: “Only the females matter in breeding”

Verdict: Busted. Half of every seed's genes come from the father. Selecting only the mother halves the response to selection, and an unselected male is a gamble on half the genome

Myth: “A 10-plant test grow proves a line is herm-free”

Verdict: Busted. Ten clean plants can't tell 0 % from 20 %: a line with a 1-in-5 herm rate shows zero herms in 10 plants about 11 % of the time. Claims of under 2 % need about 150 plants

Myth: “If it has the right name, it's the real cut”

Verdict: Busted. Same-named cuts from different sources are often genetically different; only a documented chain of custody plus a DNA comparison settles it

Myth: “Legal cannabis is clean because it's tested”

Verdict: Busted. Regulators have recalled legal flower for aspergillus, failed microbial limits and banned pesticides, and private retests have found residues on licensed shelves. Testing reduces risk; it doesn't guarantee it

Myth: “Indica = couch, sativa = energy, and they're different species”

Verdict: Busted. One species, Cannabis sativa, showing different phenotypes. Nearly everything sold is a hybrid, and the labels don't predict chemistry or effects. At most they describe plant shape

Myth: “Different names mean different plants”

Verdict: Busted. Genotyping has found differently named retail samples with identical genotypes, and one state's 637 recorded names collapsed to three chemical profiles. A name is a label, not a genotype

Myth: “A new name means new genetics”

Verdict: Busted. Renaming a cut or a reselection costs nothing and changes nothing in the plant. Only a documented cross, a grow-out or a DNA comparison shows something is new

Myth: “If it has the famous name, it's the famous cut”

Verdict: Busted. Studies of same-named retail samples find genetic outliers in most names. Without a chain of custody or a DNA match to a reference sample, 'the original cut' is a claim

Myth: “A strain name tells you what genetics you're getting”

Verdict: Busted. Genetic studies of retail cannabis show the same name often hides different genotypes. A name is a claim; documented lineage and DNA are the evidence

The flip isn't day 1 of flower: the 10–14 day transition and how to count it

Your breeder says 8 weeks, your plant takes 10. Nobody's lying: the clock usually starts at first pistils, not at the flip. The data on the 10–14 day transition, and how to count it.

Irradiated cannabis: gamma, e-beam, X-ray, ozone, RF and what they do to your weed

A lot of legal flower gets zapped before it reaches the shelf. Most buyers are never told. Here's what gamma, e-beam, X-ray, ozone and RF actually do to terpenes, which places make anyone disclose it, and why growing your own skips the whole question.

Breeders vs pollen chuckers: what real cannabis breeding looks like

Crossing two hype cuts and selling the seed untested isn't breeding. What a breeder actually does, with the arithmetic, and why it's the reason your 'feminised' pack hermed.

Elite clone-only gatekeeping: why the classics live in a few hands

Some of the most important cuts in cannabis history survive in a handful of private gardens, swapped cut-for-cut or sold for thousands. Here is what the public record shows, and why GenetixBay exists to open it up.

Craft vs industrial cannabis: did legalisation's commercial model hurt quality?

The founder thinks the commercial legal model was the worst thing that happened to cannabis quality. Here is the case (recalls, irradiation, price collapse, small farms priced out) and what the data don't show.

Landrace hunting or biopiracy? Benefit-sharing, consent and cannabis

Nearly every modern line is built on farmers' selections, and almost none of them were ever asked, credited or paid. What the Nagoya Protocol requires, why cannabis falls through the cracks, and what fair landrace work looks like.

Patents and the gene pool: who can own a cannabis plant?

Cannabis plants, traits and methods can be patented, and some are. Here are the public records, the one notable court case, the legal debate about the commons, and why open documentation is the answer.

Same cut, a thousand names: renaming, relabelling and the shrinking gene pool

One state's medical lab records carried 637 strain names that boiled down to three chemical profiles. Genetic tests keep finding one plant under several names and several plants under one. Here's how renaming hides a shrinking gene pool.

Why everything tastes the same: the evidence that commercial cannabis is converging

Thousands of strain names, but most commercial flower falls into a handful of terpene groups, landraces are being hybridised away, and the market pays for THC. The data, and what we do about it.