Hummingbird Healing Center

Hank Sims provides us with the scoop on Hummingbird Healing Center, a new Northern Humboldt cannabis collective.

Hank also dropped a link for the club review which lists the various strains they carry. In the interest of strictly entertainment and educational value, I’ll go over what these strains are.

• Trainwreck. An old-school Humboldt original. This is a powerful pain-relieving strain especially for neuropathic pain. Its taste is reminiscent of sour apple candy. Examine any outdoor-grown Trainwreck carefully as it has a tendency to initiate flowering in early July. Indoor should be inspected as well as indoor Trainwreck has a tendency to hermaphrodite if left unchecked. The inexperienced grower may also harvest too early based on overall physical appearance as opposed to microscopic examination. The immature product is a result of the pistils on Trainwreck changing color well ahead of the trichomes. This is valid for most Trainwreck hybrids, especially Pineapple Trainwreck which tends to appear finished weeks before peak resin production. In short, a patient should examine Trainwreck for being underripe, overripe, hermaphrodite, and/or seeded. These irregularities are why quality Trainwreck is in high demand.
• Aota. A North Carolina Rainbow Farm strain. This strain is your basic 50/50 indica/sativa phenotype hybrid. The initials “Aota” stand for “All of the Above” although some say this also stands for AK-47, Orange Crush, Trainwreck, Afghani. Either way, this is an easy growing strain and one can expect a more or less regular product from any given batch.
• Durban Wreck. A Durban Poison x Trainwreck hybrid. Expect a more sativa-leaning phenotype than regular Trainwreck.
• MountHigh Kush. Never heard of this before. Made up?
• Warlock. An Amsterdam indoor variety. This strain is supposedly a result of Skunk #1 x Afghani “bag seed” (literally, seed found in bag of cannabis) from an Amsterdam coffee shop in the 90s which was subsequently bred to produce the Warlock strain. I tend not to believe such stories of casual breeding and lucky finds. Whatever the true origin is, Warlock is reminiscent of Skunk/Afghani with the typical roadkill odor.
• Grapefruit Diesel. This is hybrid of the Grapefruit Indica with Diesel. Grapefruit Indica strains have a unique taste and smell that are unsurprisingly similar to grapefruit. The breeders of this strain, Next Generation Seed Company, use mostly British Columbian genetics, so expect similar as other B.C. indoor strains.
• Christmas Tree. Another name which sounds made up.
• AfWreck. An Afghani/Trainwreck hybrid. Old-school Afghani genetics typically dominate over any early initiation problems, making this strain more dependable and easy to grow for beginners. Expect a combination of a sleepy indica effect with the pain-killing effect typical of Trainwreck.
• Afgooey. One of the most common, run-of-the-mill indoor strains available. It is easy to grow and has a good deal of wiggle room with regards to harvest dates. The genetic composition of Afgooey is of very old-school strains ([Maui x Haze] x Afghani). I cannot understand why this is becoming popular with medicinal cannabis collectives as the rest of the cannabis world knows this strain as a cash crop variety due to its high yield.
• Bubba Kush. I’m assuming “pre 98 Bubba” but I could be wrong. This strain is an extremely dense, pungent strain. The clones are widely available in the Humboldt area. Bubba has the typical sub-hypnotic, sleep-inducing effect of other indica phenotype strains such as Pakistani Hashplant or Romulan. It is generally desired due to the unique and complex taste as opposed to any unique medicinal quality.
• Purple Wreck. A DNA genetics (Amsterdam) hybrid of Purple Urple(or /Urkel) x Trainwreck. This is a particularly interesting seed release from DNA genetics. DNA tends to cross elite clone-only strains to combine a strain with very unique medicinal characteristics (Trainwreck, in this case) with a strain with a different, desirable, and compatible phenotype (Purple Urkel). They have done the same with other phenotype/medicinal crosses such as Snowcap x Romulan which tastes much better than ordinary Romulan and has a more pronounced effect than ordinary Snowcap. Purple Wreck is an excellent strain for those who need the pain-killing properties but don’t want to deal with the inconsistencies of Trainwreck. The tricky-harvest Trainwreck traits are eliminated by the 10-11 week, purple ripeness trait of the Purple Urkel phenotype.
• East Coast Headband. ‘91 Chemdawg x (Mass Super Skunk x Sensi’s Northern Lights). This strain was referred to as simply “Headband” and “Diesel” before 707 Headband and Sour Diesel became common varieties. ECHB should have an anti-opiate dependence and anti-nausea effect similar to other Chemdawg variants.
• U.K. Cheese. A clone-only strain originating in the United Kingdom. This is a Skunk #1 strain with a unique phenotype in that it smells like fine cheese as opposed to a dead skunk. The effect is practically identical to Skunk #1 with a much more palatable taste/aroma.