Mendo grown is top of the line

[Removed from Ukiah Daily Journal's website.]

Mendo grown is top of the line

http://www.allbusiness.com/crime-law/controlled-substances-cannabis/13276083-1.html

By K.C. Meadows The Ukiah Daily Journal, Calif.
Publication: The Ukiah Daily Journal (California)
Date: Thursday, October 22 2009

Oct. 22--MENDOCINO COUNTY'S MARIJUANA -- legal or illegal -- is
considered by the experts as some of the best in the world, which is
one reason why it sells so well and why our county is a magnet for growers.

"There's been a long tradition back to the '60s -- generation after
generation," said

Danny Danko, the pen name of the senior cultivation editor of High
Times magazine.

Danko said he believes that there is also a "higher quality of
connoisseur-ship" and people who really know how to grow marijuana,
handing down and refining good strains year after year over decades.

Danko says that's really what defines the Emerald Triangle --
Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties -- not any soil or weather
conditions that are particularly good here.

People are growing more and more marijuana all over the state but,
says Danko, "Mendocino has that lore" of being among the earliest
California counties to allow marijauna growing to thrive.

Danko would place Mendocino County marijuana in the top three worldwide.

Danko, who comes to Mendocino County a couple times a year and was
just in town this fall to shoot a DVD for High Times on the 2009
crop, says he believes marijuana is a huge part of the economy here,
something anyone walking into town can see from the abundance of grow
shops and hydroponics outlets.

Also, he says, "the local town's electric company needs armored cars
to pick up all the cash" generated by indoor grows.

On his latest visit, Danko said he was picking up on some tension --
what he called "a low level war" -- between indoor and outdoor
growers over indoor growers' use of generators and the reports of
environmental damage caused by some growing operations. The outdoor
growers generally consider themselves as more natural, many of them
growing organic marijuana which gets full sun and is fed with compost
teas -- conditions Danko said are optimum for high quality marijuana.

Strains from this area are often simply named after the town they
were grown in; Ukiah, Laytonville, Willits are three that come to
mind, Danko said.

"Mendocino' is just shorthand for good," he said, adding that this
area is also getting a reputation for organic growing and strains
that burn particularly smoothly.

The 2009 harvest appears to be bigger than ever, Danko said, mostly
because people are no longer having to hide their plants if they are
adhering to cultivation rules and are able to grow more in full sun.

And this area's marijuana is abundant. Danko said a decent marijuana
plant grown "lovingly" in full sun in this county should produce five
to 10 pounds of marijuana.

As for legalization, which High Times and Danko promote, having
full-scale marijuana growing up and down the state is not likely to
change Mendocino County's high quality branding success, mainly
because we've been at it so long.

"They're going to be known for their pot -- legal or not," he said.
--

K.C. Meadows can be reached at udjkcm@pacific.net , or at 468-3526.

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