Find sativa strains hard to find...

[BeachBum4u]

So, where I live on the east coast of the US, I'm finding it very difficult to find more then one or two strains at the dispensary, tops!

They'll have 20 - 40 indica and hybrid strains but very few sativa strains, I do realize that there a many? hybrids that could almost be considered sativas but....

Do others see this trend as well? My shop basically says that it's all about the growers and not them but hell, we drive sales. Wouldn't it seem logical to keep sativas up to demand or am I the only one who prefers this strain?

 

[G_Chem]

It’s likely where you live.. Are you NE coast? Imagine that in your neck of the woods sativas are much more difficult to grow.

Where I’ve been I’ve noticed Sativa strains usually are found in areas with warmer climates and often outdoor grown.

-GC

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

I grew for many years and Sativas are not inherently more difficult to grow than Indica or Sativa/Indica strains. The Sativas do, however, take considerably longer to flower and mature and tend to be less productive per given growing space due to being larger per plant. Most Indica or mix strains come in between 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 months of flowering whereas many of the pure Sativas I grew took 3 to 5 months to finish flowering. This means a grower will often choose non Sativas because they can literally bring in two harvests for the same time spent in flowering.

I

 

[BeachBum4u]

Well hell, so if it's a matter cost, then why not charge more? Isn't that basic ecomonics 101? Now, where my suggestion won't hold water is if the increase in the product's cost could never realistically be recouped. So, basically the cost of an 1/8 could end up being somewhere in the $120 - $150 range. Personally speaking now, even if the MMJ is absolutely out of this world, I seriously doubt I'd ever spend that much on even good stuff but hey, I say let the customers decide with their own "hard earned money"! Ladies and gentlemen, I would have to say capitalism is alive and well in the good ole US of A?

 

[G_Chem]

I grew for many years and Sativas are not inherently more difficult to grow than Indica or Sativa/Indica strains. The Sativas do, however, take considerably longer to flower and mature and tend to be less productive per given growing space due to being larger per plant. Most Indica or mix strains come in between 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 months of flowering whereas many of the pure Sativas I grew took 3 to 5 months to finish flowering. This means a grower will often choose non Sativas because they can literally bring in two harvests for the same time spent in flowering.

I

You hit it on the head. They are harder because they take longer to flower and are often much lower yields per square meter. In an area like the NE it’s much easier to grow squatty indicas for a number of reasons. It’s all logistics.

When it comes to capitalism, especially on the east coast money is king and the growers will go for what yields them the quickest fattest crop.

-GC

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

Well hell, so if it's a matter cost, then why not charge more? Isn't that basic ecomonics 101? Now, where my suggestion won't hold water is if the increase in the product's cost could never realistically be recouped. So, basically the cost of an 1/8 could end up being somewhere in the $120 - $150 range. Personally speaking now, even if the MMJ is absolutely out of this world, I seriously doubt I'd ever spend that much on even good stuff but hey, I say let the customers decide with their own "hard earned money"! Ladies and gentlemen, I would have to say capitalism is alive and well in the good ole US of A?

It's not only economics and productivity. Medical Cannabis is selected for production by being useful as well. Indicas tend to produce profiles that many find useful in reducing inflamation or pain, for example. The pure Sativas tend to produce profiles that can cause anxiety in many. They are the polar opposite of relaxing and some are very psychedelic. I enjoy them the most and always choose them for my "creative" activities that need that kind of energy. But the majority request the Indica leaning mixes, so that along with the cost ratio strongly move the growers towards Indica.

You should let the dispensary know your love of Sativa, maybe even get a local users group to make a presence known in the marketplace. One can only try.

 

[G_Chem]

^^^Definitely talk with your local dispensary and the bud tenders, your voice does matter and in their minds if one person speaks up then 100 people are thinking it.

I speak around my area and nowadays they’ll even ask my opinion on different products and what not. It also shows them you know a thing or two and they’ll respect you more and might give you better deals.

I know the frustration though, it depends on the shops too.. Some try to cater more to a medical crowd strictly and don’t have many sativas.

-GC

 

[Blowmonkey]

The whole sativa/indica is ambiguous as hell anyways, most stuff is hybridized, the ratio's they come up with sometimes really are a mystery to me, what do they base it on? Mendelian heritage? No idea, probably the effects and how it looks like, bag appeal. I mean an actual "sativa" the way White Rose describes them, you don't see a lot of that for exactly the reasons he gave, noone who grows their stuff indoors will waste that much energy on something that can take 2-4 times as long to finish as something indica heavy.

One of the best or notorious east coast sativa's is probably that uptown haze, or piff, whatever it is it's probably not a full blood sativa either. But you should ask around for it, lol.

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

If you search carefully you can obtain the genetics from landrace Sativas and Indicas; there are seed gatherers who specialize in it. I have personally grown plants from these sources, so I know that they exist. Asian, Indo-Asian and African landrace are good examples.

But I agree that there is a lot of hype going on in the community as well. There's a lot of fanciful strain names and claims; many are not true breeding hybrids but "Strain Mixes" that have many phenotypes with differing profiles. . The study of cannabis was forbidden until recently, so we truly don't know as much as we should. And we are still discovering new cannabanoids which haven't been properly studied enough to understand. how they affects humans.

However the landrace Sativas and Indicas have been preserved and are available if one looks diligently. If one does get their hands on some of it, the difference is immediate and undeniable; both in terms of the way the plant acts while growing and flowering, and in the effects of the final product.

 

[BeachBum4u]

OK, so I'm just some old guy who goes to his dispensary a couple times a month but I do make inquiries and requests. The budtenders who have helped me are sympathetic to the lack of sativas in stock but they lay the blame squarely on the growers, period.

I understand the grower's dilemma but geez, isn't variety the spice of life? It would just seem reasonable to produce some of everything so consumers have a range of choices. BTW, I do have a basic understanding of cannabis and indeed hybrids do fill in the blanks, so to speak, and many sativa leaning hybrids are pretty darn nice. However, I would love to have my next dispensary visit include more than one sativa choice. I'm just sayin'.......