photo by Kyle LeGrow
“ WHILE THE COURSE IS DESIGNED for hash-making newbies , even some veterans and people who are switching over from BHO extraction can learn from Dave and pick up some tips through the process .”
While the course is designed for hash-making newbies , even some veterans and people who are switching over from BHO extraction can learn from Dave and pick up some tips through the process . A prime example is when lifting the hash-filled micron bags from the 25-gallon bucket that is almost full of water after the material is drained from the washer . When you simply grab the first bag with both hands and lift , it ’ s virtually impossible because you ’ re essentially lifting all that water . But Dave has a pro tip to get those bags out . Instead of just lifting with both hands , you start drumming your hands up and down while holding onto the bag . That motion of drumming ( without lifting ) gets the bag out of the bucket with ease . Given that the best plant material means better hash and rosin , Dave is continually seeking that ultimate strain with plenty of high-yielding trichomes and terpenes . He ’ s been phenotype hunting for four years , while also breeding cultivars and working with a collective of growers to develop new strains . “ My focus is on genetics . I ’ m a business person and I see where my intellectual properties lie ,” says Dave , who has been involved with cannabis for more than 24 years after starting out in guerilla grows near Victoria , B . C . “ Right now , we ’ re in the process of working with tissue culture and finding out the original DNA from some of our strains and recording that , then sending it off to a lab and claiming it . So that ’ s what we ’ re in the process of doing . I sent 17 cultivars off for tissue culture and we ’ re going to register them .” “ When we ’ re ( phenotype ) hunting , we ’ re getting multiple phenos of certain strains , so what I ’ ve been doing is , whatever my top pick is , the next two or three underneath it ,
I either give them away to my collective or put them on a cut menu where I give people access to them . There are only three to five people that will get enough cuts off one plant and , once they get that , then I destroy that plant . So those people get that cultivar , and they are the only ones with it , and we work out a deal that ’ s fair and everyone ’ s happy with it .” Suffice it to say there can be a lack of integrity among cannabis breeders and sellers when it comes to proprietary ownership , something Dave has dealt with firsthand with some of his own cultivars . “ Three years ago I gave my Mimosa to some people and they lied to me after , saying they got it from someone else , so I ’ m a little jaded giving them out . So , moving forward , I definitely want to make sure I own everything .” Gastown Dave has come a long way from his greenhorn days growing up in Langford , B . C ., just outside Victoria . “ Langford had a lot of growers and lot of the good weed came from Langford and Sooke for Victoria . I bought an ounce for $ 200 , and I would roll the whole thing up into joints . Then I would sell the joints and my ounce would end up being be free . Then I started working with growers and a dude named “ Fat J ” and he had the best weed . He was the OG and I learned a lot from him ,” Dave recalls . He then started brokering at age 18 . “ People were showing up in Victoria with American money by the bagload and buying , so growers needed the brokers to move their stuff . The growers just wanted to sit at home and buyers just wanted to sit at home so the someone had to work between the two .” After getting his own place , Dave decided to grow his own and admits his first attempt “ failed miserably .”
92 Maximum Yield