WOW!!! Just WOW!!!
What a great, fun, exciting time that was had at the LA Grow Club event that happened on November 20th at the Artist Tree Lounge in West Hollywood Los Angeles. Listen, I know that there are a lot of people here on the forums that are not super excited about most people overall, and don’t really like to mingle with the public. I’m telling you now, these events are not like that. You are in a room full of people that are all interested in growing, consuming, and talking about the very same thing as we do here in the forums. How many posts in here have people said that they wished they could meet and hang out? Dozens at least. Some people have met in person and now have good friendships. @Lightbrightt2010 @low @MadamCalamity @plumbdand @T-ray and others have met or sent candles, jams, and other goodies to one another. This event was just like that but on steroids. I’m not saying that I became immediate friends with everyone in the place (over 75 or so), but there was meaningful connections, offers of help and exchanges, and just some very cool people to hang out with while having a little smoke session and some free pizza. It was insanely fun and I wished that you all could have been there. I ended up bringing my adult daughter with me at the last minute and she also had a super fun time. There was so much stuff going on, all centered around this wonderful plant that we talk about in here.
Arrived at the beginning of the smoke session at 5:30 before the main event at 6:00pm. Was met by the friendly smiling face of Jake @kuczeruk. It was terrific to see him again from the last event and we talked for a bit and introduced him to my daughter. He got us checked in, gave us a TON of swag (pictures to follow) and sent us to the inside of the lounge. My daughter and I grabbed some chairs for the educational part and put some of our stuff down and then went exploring. First, let me talk about what a cool space and venue that the Artist Tree Lounge really is. The entire downstairs is a very clean, open, curated display of a whole range of products. From everyday affordable to ultra-premium. Staff was nice and very accommodating. Had to check in at the bottom floor dispensary with I/D to get entrance to go upstairs to the second floor to the lounge.
The lounge is an incredible open space with several coffee making machines as well as the ability to make infused mocktails. No alcohol, but craft drinks that you can then get 10mg tinctures to add to your mocktail. Had the Blue Dragon again because it was so tasty last time. They also had a cooler of the Pabst Blue Ribbon line of cannabis infused seltzers for sale there as well. People at our learning table had a Espresso Martini (again, no real alcohol just an added infusion} and it was really very good as well. Walked up to the espresso bar and the first thing that we were asked, besides how we were doing, was “Would you like a free dab?” The wonderful woman then went on to explain who made it, what all the particulars were about that dab and then loaded us both up separately on two very cool portable dab rigs, a hit of Peach Dab. The rigs were portable hand held ones (that they were also selling new, boxed ones at a discount at the event) that preheats once turned on, and then vibrates when ready. It allows you a few minutes to hit the dab until it runs out and then auto shuts off. It was called the Dr. Dabber rig. They had the portable on the go one and a larger, tabletop style one and we could try either type. And I could not believe it, but the dab tasted EXACTLY like peach and guava combined. The hit was smooth and clean. I’m not a dabber at all, but even I really enjoyed that. My daughter dabs very occasionally, maybe once or twice a year, and she was raving about how good and smooth it was. That one dab and we were both HIGH AF! I mean like right away, you could feel it. The woman who helped us told us to come back to the bar anytime and they would dab us up all night for free. After that, we wandered over to the Storz and Bickel table. They are the makers of the Volcano device. I almost bought one about 20 years ago and always thought that they are a very useful device for not wasting your weed. For those of you who haven’t done it or seen one, they load some flower into the top of a Volcano looking device, and using a similar technology to an air popper for popcorn, heat up the flower to right before it burns but it releases the smoke without burning. The device is used to fill up a long, clear plastic bag (think of like an oven roasting bag for chicken or roasts) up with the smoke and then put a one-way valve on it. Once the bag is filled and the mouthpiece attached, you can carry the bag with you (and we did) and hit it when it’s convenient. This is a great product that you could fill up before bed, hit it while reading in bed, put it on the nightstand, wake up in the morning and hit it again with no loss of flavor or effect. Really made me think about getting one again, I just don’t smoke that much. They now have the old analog style and a new digital display one for more precise temp control. Definitely check it out if you have never done it, pretty wild.
Then went over to talk to the Maven Genetics guys who were the presenters and they had a table of their products out. Flower, all in one vape pens, concentrates, and other stuff. It’s sold in my local dispensary and we have all known the quality of their products beforehand. But listening to them talk about their grow process and facility, you can tell that these guys really care about what they do and how it’s done. They also talked about how they might do 800 plants at a time looking for the right kind of phenotype, and if they don’t like any of them, they chuck the whole harvest and start again. Can you imagine?
Next up was the guy from Solomon Nutrients. Had his display up. He brought his Veg nutrients but didn’t happen to bring any of his Bloom nutrients. I got an A&B Veg nutrient bags, but no bloom. He said to email him and remind him and he would try to get some out to me. Nice guy. Then we met the Koa rep. They do really good infused pre-rolls. I turned them onto the contact at my local dispensary and am hoping that they can start selling there, their stuff is really good.
The main presenter was Christina Wong (@fruitand flower) and Jake @kuczeruk was the MC. Christina talked a bit about growing, had the Maven Genetics guys come up and explain how they did things. I could tell that the Maven guys were a little surprised as they were talking in a lot of tech speak, and Christina would then have to “translate” some of that for people that are new growers. Let’s be honest, if we were not doing what we do, or were not a lighting technician or a photographer, how many of us would know what PPFD is? PH? EC? Growing in coco as opposed to soil? Light spectrums? These guys are living and breathing the commercial grow stuff, and there were some people in the room and their story was “my friend just gave me some pot seeds, what do I do now?” Right? we all had top start and learn. So Christina and Jake were great about trying to not lose anybodys attention in the room when it got too technical. There was a question about autoflowers vs photoperiods and since we were doing audience participation, and the Maven Genetics guys didn’t know, I raised my hand and was called on to answer the question. I also had an opportunity to do a shout out and really talk up the forums here and encouraged everyone to join, either to ask questions or to help with answers if experienced growers. I got 4 people to sign up to the forums that night and had several people come up and talk to us about it afterwards. I hope that I did us proud as it seemed to generate a lot of interest. It seemed a little easier to have women come up and talk as I had my adult daughter with me. And I expressed that women growers are one of the fastest growing segments in the community, they were shocked to hear that. But really ready to participate. Right on! I probably spoke to and engaged in conversations, male and female, with 40 people that night. Absolutely incredible overall to say the least.
As we were leaving at about 9pm as we still had a 2 hour drive back, we also met the owner of the Artist Tree Lounge. I thought he was an ILGM guy but he told us that the lounge is his and he knows Jake and wanted to make his place available for educational offerings like this. Such a genuinely nice guy. He invited my daughter and I to come back, bring our laptops, have coffee, smoke weed and hang out for the day anytime we are in the area. Imagine if you had a super premium Starbucks that you could stop in, smoke some weed, do some work, have a coffee drink, and let it be your temporary office for a couple of hours. It was outstanding, if I lived closer, I would be there a lot!
As a side note, because it is not why I go, but I came back with so much swag from the event! We got T-Shirts, CannaVaults, free seeds, free weed, nutrients, grinders, papers, stickers, etc… I also won some Northern Lights Auto seeds for participating in the group discussion. Way too much fun. Now I feel that I am just rambling, but thank you for sticking with me through this post. I highly recommend that if you get a chance to go, try to make it and spend a really fun evening with your people. Don’t tell anyone, but I brought a little gift to give to the presenters from my Audrey plant on the GFOG Community Grow Off. We got to smoke some there, got some good feedback, and tried some of their stuff as well. I also brought a little of the hash that I made just as a show and tell and a lot of people really dug it. I had one guy try to buy it from me and I had to tell him absolutely not, I don’t sell at all but I’m happy to share some while we are together. SO MUCH FUN!
Thanks @kuczeruk @dbrn32 @Olaf.ILGM @AfgVet for all that you do for us.
Part of the inside:
Some of the SWAG from the event:
Some of my now cured GFOG that I brought and shared:
