Exploring the World’s Best Weed: A Journey with Humboldt Seed Company
It’s a scorching 92-degree (33°C) day at Casa Flor farm in Willits, California, and the towering cannabis plants provide much-needed shade. As part of a fact-finding tour hosted by Humboldt Seed Company, I’m among a group of international cannabis enthusiasts on a mission to discover the top-performing strains. Our goal is to gather data on the appearance, aroma, and yield of various cannabis plants.
Over the course of my 500-mile journey through Northern California, I’ll pass through towns shaped by lumber mills and mining industries. And in the end, I’ll join an exclusive group of modern-day pot prospectors, searching for something just as valuable as gold: hash.
At the end of each outdoor cannabis season, Humboldt Seed Company invites visitors to tour the farms they work with and witness the meticulous and time-consuming process of creating new strains and selling seeds. Unlike most flowering plants, cannabis does not reproduce in one form. Male plants have pollen sacs, while female plants produce the flowers we smoke. As a result, cannabis inherits traits from both parents, and the genetic outcome of a cross is similar but not identical, much like siblings.
To create cannabis in seed form, the company must grow and evaluate different versions of the same cross, select the best one, and stabilize the genetics through multiple generations. At Casa Flor, there are nearly 1,000 outdoor plants to potentially assess, and this is just one stop on our multi-week adventure tour of cannabis grows.
To add to the complexity, this year’s end-of-summer bud blockbuster has a subtitle: Humboldt Seed Company’s 2025 Phenohunt: The Hunt for Washers. In the world of weed, a “washer” is a plant that shows a high potential for producing hash. One of the highlights of this year’s phenohunt is learning the process of testing different phenotypes for their hash production by shaking fresh cannabis flowers in water and ice while still in the field.
After smoking a blunt rolled with a phenotype of Whitethorn Rose by Bleezy, one half of the cannabis-focused rap group Mendo Dope, I examine the wash results of a new form of Whitethorn Rose, Whitethorn Rose x Special G. The particles at the bottom of the jar resemble magenta sand, and according to Ben Lind, chief science officer and co-founder of Humboldt Seed Company, the pigment alone (anthocyanins) makes this strain potentially valuable for hash makers.
All aboard for the 2025 Phenohunt! My journey with Humboldt Seed Company begins at the autumnal equinox, and I’m ready to embark on a thrilling adventure through the world of cannabis.
