Luckily you are living in a state in which both medical and recreational marijuana are legal. If you are going to buy marijuana for the first time, you do want to know how to evaluate weed quality. If you have purchased subpar cannabis flowers last time, keep reading this article. A smoke test is the best test for evaluating the quality of your weed. However, you can learn a lot about the type of strain after a careful visual inspection. You can even learn about the conditions in which weed is grown. So, before you Google ‘marijuana dispensary near me’, learn how to visually inspect marijuana.
Smell it
You are not going to find any smell in inferior buds. The weed is either grown in poor conditions or it is not cured properly. A good quality bud has a pungent, identifiable smell. This smell can be sweet to earthy to diesel like. This indicates high terpene content. Indica strain smells like coffee or chocolate. Sativa has acidic citrus notes. Hybrid strains have components of both.
- Avoid buds smelling like hay or having no smell at all.
- Pungency is linked to terpene content and potency.
Color
The best quality cannabis buds have green color. Don’t go for brown buds. The color can be from darker forest green to lighter frosty green. There will be some undertones from golden to rosy to purple. Can you make sure that the bud is from a healthy plant? A quality bud comes with hints of blue, purple, pink etc. A bud coming from an unhealthy plant is rusty red, tan, brown, or yellow in color. If the bud is bleached white, it is from a plant that has fallen victim to light burn. Or, the plant is grown in unfavorable growing conditions.
- Don’t buy white, red, tan, brown or yellow buds.
- A good bud is green in color.
Bud Structure
A sativa bud is light and fluffy while an indica bud is tight and dense. Indica buds grown carelessly have a sativa-like appearance. It will be open and incomplete bud with visible stems. Structural traits of hybrid strains contain the traits of sativas and indicas. Sativa buds are covered in more little orange/red hairs called pistils. Indica buds are covered in less pistils. Don’t buy a bud with open and loose structure and visible stems.
Trim
All leaves surrounding the buds are trimmed. Always buy hand-trimmed buds.
Trichomes
A properly grown plant has densely packed bud with ripe trichomes. Crystals are clearly visible on the surface. Terpenes and cannabinoids are stored in trichomes. You can easily distinguish trichome density with the naked eye. You can see how ‘frosty’ the bud is. There will be no trichome coverage on poor quality buds. However, you will need a jeweler’s loupe or magnifying glass to assess trichome ripeness. You can easily determine trichome ripeness with the color of the glandular trachoma head. Trichome head is milky white with a hint of amber if the plant is harvested on time. Clear trichome heads indicate that the bud is from a prematurely harvested plant. Amber heads indicate that the bud is from a plant harvested after peak ripeness.
Hermaphroditic Traits
Best quality buds come from female cannabis plants. Male cannabis plant produces pollen sacks. Strong female genetics play an important part. Female plants produced by finicky strains come with hermaphroditic traits. Enough time or stress can tend the plant to produce male flower sites or nanners. Avoid buds with seeds, nanners or male flower sites.
Mold and Pests
You might find mold and pests in marijuana that is not purchased from an authorized medical marijuana dispensary in Orange County.
When you are looking for a dispensary for buying medical or recreational marijuana in Orange County, make sure that it is authorized to sell.
