Reviewing the book isn't easy, there's so much information to process here. It is well organized and a joy to read though, and it's an excellent reference. The book is 8" x 8" perfect bound with a laminated soft cover. It's printed on matt stock with gloss inks or varnish and it creates a bit of flash with glossy ink on dull paper. It's well printed and carries substantial ink. Every page has color photos and it's 256 pages. It's a quality printed piece that will look good on coffee tables or next to the clone racks at dispensaries. The paperback edition retails for $22.95 and will be available at bookstores June 1. A hard cover collectors edition will retail at $29.95.
The meat and potatoes of the book are the pictures and the excellent growing information for 80 premium select strains. And they are strains from all over the world. Holland of course is represented with multiple haze entries and other Dutch treats. Africa is represented as well as BC, UK, New Zealand and of course America and other countries too. Of interest to Oakland locals the SR-71 Coffee Shop in Oaksterdam has a 2 page spread on their Purple Kush. With many breeders and coffee shops featured it makes this book a project with true world wide focus.
With 80 strains so completely covered with all the information you'll need to find the seeds, what medium they like, how they like to be fed, how long to flower, what phenos to expect, what size and yield to expect, what the high will be like, what to expect taste wise, and the list goes on and on. There's a danger with a book project like this that it could turn out to be all hype, but to Ed's credit it's not the case here. Here you get the feeling like you are included in each breeder's close circle of friends and you are handed over the experience gained only by growing the selected strain over and over. Every nuance and aspect of growing each strain is handed over in an informative and enticing nature that makes you Jones to grow each one at least once. The book has an amazing `porn for pot heads' aspect that sent every visitor in my living room reaching for it. It was quite fun watching their eyes light up going through the review copy, needless to say everyone that's seen it saw multiple things they liked in it. So it does have that little show piece coffee table thing going on. But the info on growing each strain is what I cherished, along with the side articles, we'll get into those later.
So by now you must be asking, what really looks GOOD? Well I do have my favorites, my A list, my must haves. The Thai strains caught my eye. There's a couple actually. TNR from KC Brains is suitable for stitching on to sticks and making Thai sticks, you got to love that. She's an outdoor runner that's mold resistant. She runs 70 to 84 days or mid October in Holland, or a couple weeks sooner in sunny climates like Spain. Another Thai treat is D-Line (AKA Chocolope) with a chocolate taste not found since the 80's, and this one is an indoor strain, 63 to 70 days. It's from DNA Genetics. If you like the edgy sativas, these 2 fit the bill.
Everyone seemed to comment when paging through the book that B-52 looked good. It's Big bud x Skunk #1 and the pictures are going to pull in some sales for Nirvana. Grand Daddy Grape Ape and her phenos Purple Erkle, Grape Ape, and Grand Daddy Purple from Apothecary catch some long looks. Other's of interest included Spoetnik #1 and Sputnik, two orbiters that look like they leave you spaced out. The Church has an interesting story, Opium, Ice Cream, The Purps, Jack the Ripper, Grape Krush, G-13xDiesel, Hashberry, White Berry, hell they ALL look good. A couple caught my eye as I recently grew them out, the Purple Kush mentioned before and the Mother's Finest we'll do a little side by side with.
Then there's one very freaky girl, the kind you don't take home to mother. Her name is Ed's Super Bud, but you can call her SuperFreak, SuperFreak! Normally, in my neighborhood, extra equipment near the private areas of girls is cause for alarm, but in her case, I'll roll with it!
After entering 1000 strains into the weedbay strain base there are only so many strain descriptions I can read in a row. And Ed knows my threshold, because after every 8 to 10 strains Ed takes the reader down some side alley of the information super highway and you'll end up discovering all sorts of things you never knew about. It's like the local TV broadcast of Bay Area Back Roads, but it's more like a trip down cannabis lane.
The first side alley starts off with the seed. Everything from seed packaging equipment to a longitudinal section of a seed is presented in a refreshing tutorial. There are also sidebars about breeders throughout the book. Without a doubt the production of this book was quite a project and it's all tied up nicely.
The next detour visits variety stability often referred to as how stable or unstable a strain is. It also takes in the way genetics change for environmental reasons. Land races and true breeding strains are examined, as are F-2's and inbreeds. Even the advantages of unstable strains are pointed out.
Perhaps the most educating side road for me was the one on the secret chemistry of cannabis odors and highs. Terpenes run heavy in cannabis resin and we know they create the odor of growing cannabis but can they affect the high also? It goes on to the break down of terpenes, The terpenes in cannabis are similar to other plants, plants like pepper, or the terpenes in citrus fruit rinds. These terpene relatives are used to make perfume and candy, while others smell like road kill. This side road is very informative and will broaden your connoisseurs appreciation of cannabis immensely.
Don't take off the lab coat quite yet because the next side road takes us over to the lab to examine some trichomes. Accordingly this discussion leads to when to harvest but there's more to this tutorial than that. Many different types of trichomes are labeled and identified for the reader.
When we want to spread the seeds of our med club clones there's a special tutorial on feminized seeds on another diversionary detour. It's something I'll probably never try, but it looks like all the info is there.
All in all Ed's Big Book of Buds V3 is a big winner. If you are already familiar with the book series you know what you expect and Ed delivers again. If you happen to pick this up in a book store and start looking through it you're going to want to take it home. It sells itself. I really liked the in depth grow info and the connoisseurs tips in the tutorials and essays. It will make a fine gift and is well worth the money. If you have more than just a passing interest in cannabis, then buy this book. -- Weedbay.net, May 14, 2007, Smoker's Lounge
