Shaping Fire

20/07/2024

20/07/2024

We know that cannabis saves lives. And cannabis makes our lives so much better. But for those working in indoor, scaled cannabis growing environments, cannabis bioaerosols can be deadly. On this episode of Shaping Fire , host Shango Los talks with Tess Eidem PhD about the new science regarding fungal, bacterial, and viral bioaerosols that are produced in a cultivation environment, their impact on human health, how they are being ignored, and what we can do to make cannabis working environments safer for all of us.

Click the link to listen on the website, or listen wherever you get podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube -> https://www.shapingfire.com/podcast-feed/episode-115-cannabis-plant-bioaerosols-can-threaten-cannabis-workers-with-guest-tess-eidem-phd

01/07/2024

I recently picked up an eighth from . The flower I picked up was such a complete product design experience that I’ve got to share it with with you.

1. This is some of the best that California has to offer. Northern California, regeneratively grown, outdoor. Huge taste, wide-ranging sun-kissed aroma, well-developed high. Clean flowers without synthetics. Both and certified. Perfect. Only a small number of California farms are releasing this level of quality.

2. They went back into the archives to grow Mother’s Milk originally bred by the great Bodhi . The cross is truly beautiful hybrid of Nepali OG crossed to an Appalachia male (Green crack x Tres dawg). Many of the expressions have a very unique aroma of powdered milk, some with very delicate fruit accents like the smell of candy hearts, but an undeniable head of sweet powdery milk. This is a very subtle and complex variety that opens up and tastes different at various parts of the session.

3. Old school high! This flower captures much of the joy that is found in many of the great 90s strains we all miss so much. There is a lot to taste and the terps that are there really sculpt the buzz in a way that causes excited joy, with a grounded wholeness feeling. Truly extraordinary.

4. Look at this packaging! The entire thing is compostable! The hand-folded box, the ink, the sticker and even the “plastic” jar, which is actually just starch. This is the true standard of cannabis packaging in the industry. I have seen nothing better. Smoke your flower and then compost the entire thing. This is how it should be with every. single. purchase.

5. Also, look at all the fun personality that comes through the packaging. A photo of Judi and Walter who grew your flower. The box unfolds into a rolling tray! Easy links for the Bodhi strain info. Hand-numbered box of only 1420 units reinforces the small batch and craft quality. Poetry and inspirational quotes.

Judi and Walter, While we haven’t met yet, we are birds of a feather. Massive respect for you, your flower, your motives and your result.

Pick up some if you find it!

31/05/2024

We are stoked to have **pdotcom as an advertiser on ! I used Fish P**p mixed into my irrigation to start all my veggies and flower this year and things sure took off. Fish P**p is made from fish manure. The fish poo from the Fish P**p aquaponics cannabis grow is collected from their filters and bottled just for you! This is not fish carcass. This is fish p**p, packed with microorganisms and nutrients.

For the new giveaway, Fish P**p is giving away one gallon bottle plus some swag to 5 subscribers of the Shaping Fire newsletter. That’s all you have to do to enter. Just subscribe to the Shaping Fire newsletter to be entered, and respond if I email you that you have won.

You can sign up easily at ShapingFire.com or by following the profile link.

Be sure to jump over to **pdotcom for a tour of the facility and to check out their other offerings!

11/05/2024

No matter whether you are an experienced or new cannabis cultivator, establishing a new location to cultivate cannabis using regenerative growing techniques deserves some forethought. On this episode of Shaping Fire, host Shango Los talks with Humboldt County-born regenerative farmer Daniel Stein of Briceland Forest Farm about building soil, placement of structures, using soil inputs found on your property, water sequestration, cover crops and companion planting, animal husbandry and animal fertilizers, and whether or not cannabis crops should be rotated with the vegetables.

Click the link to listen on the website, or listen wherever you get podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube -> https://www.shapingfire.com/podcast-feed/114-planning-ahead-for-regenerative-cannabis-cultivation-with-guest-daniel-stein

24/02/2024

Some of the most potent psilocybin mushrooms have proven very difficult to cultivate indoors. These mushrooms love growing on hardwoods. On episode 113 of Shaping Fire, host Shango Los talks with mycologist Christian Kaelin about the attributes and personalities of wood-loving hallucinogenic mushrooms, how to find and wildcraft them, and how to build your own inoculated hardwood chip beds to cultivate them outdoors at home.

Click the profile link to listen on the website, or listen wherever you get podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube -> https://www.shapingfire.com/podcast-feed/episode-113-wood-loving-psilocybin-mushrooms-with-guest-christian-kaelin

05/02/2024

Regulatory capture, much? What a waste of an opportunity to do good. I’m looking at you California DCC and Legislature. Though we could be talking about really any state. California has been co-opted by nefarious interests since the beginning of Prop 64, but there was no doubt after the unexplained removal of the one acre cap in the middle of the night that regulatory capture was now complete.

Preserve the last of America’s Cannabis Heartland!

20/01/2024

Incredible cannabis plants start with soil diversity and thriving microbiology. During this episode of Shaping Fire, host Shango Los talks with microbiologist Michael DiLegge about natural biostimulants, the care and feeding of microbe life in your soil, choosing companion plants to encourage root zone diversity, and an indictment of the 24-hour light cycle theory.

Click the profile link to listen on the website, or listen wherever you get podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube -> https://www.shapingfire.com/podcast-feed/episode-112-super-charging-soil-microbiology-with-guest-michael-dilegge

09/12/2023

Long Live Landraces! In this delightful introduction to cannabis landrace plant varieties, Shaping Fire host Shango Los talks with Santa Cruz landrace specialist Jade Nectar aka Jeff Nordahl about the differences between landrace, wild and feral varieties of cannabis, their unique attributes that attract connoisseurs, and the importance of conscious landrace breeding techniques and preservation.

Click the profile link to listen on the website, or listen wherever you get podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube -> https://www.shapingfire.com/podcast-feed/episode-111-cannabis-landraces-in-practice-with-guest-jeff-nordahl

29/11/2023

The December Shaping Fire giveaway will have 200 winners! Thanks to Dynomyco mycorrhizal inoculant, the first 200 people to follow this link https://bit.ly/DYNOMYCO and fill out the form will receive a 20gram pack of DYNOMYCO absolutely free. You don’t even have to pay for shipping!

I have used DYNOMYCO for five seasons now and it clearly drastically improves root growth. Young plants grow faster and more efficiently! New soil matures more swiftly! Mycorrhizal networks expand and thicken!

The link is up now. Get yours while supplies last.

(This giveaway is for folks who live in the US and Canada and have not already received a free 20gram package and/or purchased products from DYNOMYCO previously.)

07/11/2023

This is a fun milestone. 15,000 subscribers on the Shaping Fire channel. And 162 million minutes watched! It’s funny too, because the YouTube was just something I created as a lark. I attend so many cannabis conventions and other events where I video record speakers because I have to be doing other things at the event, but I also want to hear those speakers. So I record them to watch later at home. Five years ago, I figured since I had these recordings, might as well upload them somewhere online so others could see them too. And now, 1.5 million people have viewed videos on my channel. Wow!

The YouTube channel isn't really part of Shaping Fire. They definitely bleed together sometimes but Shaping Fire is specifically the numbered interview episodes at www.ShapingFire.com. The YouTube is just something extra, for fun. And clearly, others find it fun too! If you have not checked it out, I invite you to go to YouTube.com/ShangoLos or just search Shaping Fire.

The most popular video on the channel is talking about "The Lost Terpene Profiles of 80s Skunk Strains". That video has over 150,000 views and so many comments from peopel sharing their favorite memories of authentic skunk.

If you have checked it out, what is your favorite video on the YouTube channel?

03/11/2023

This Marathon OG autoflower from ’s Dark Owl sublabel was a real champ this summer. She was in a location that experienced a ripped greenhouse during a storm. The plants on either side of her molded from being sopping wet, but not this lady. She toughed it out with no botrytis and ended up smelling great with a fun and uplifting high! Daz can always be relied upon to produce something tasty. 👍

14/10/2023

Shaping Fire Episode 110 - Out Now!

Delta-8 THC: The Troublesome Cannabinoid with guest Dr. Ethan Russo

Delta-8 THC is everywhere, but the scientific understanding of it is not. On this episode of Shaping Fire, host Shango Los welcomes back neuroscientist and renown cannabis researcher Dr. Ethan Russo to discuss the medicinal benefits of Delta-8 THC, its history, the challenges of synthesizing clean Delta-8 THC, and the negative impacts that synthetic Delta-8 THC is having throughout the cannabis community.

Click the profile link to listen on the website, or listen wherever you get podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube -> https://www.shapingfire.com/podcast-feed/episode-110-delta-8-thc-the-troublesome-cannabinoid-with-guest-dr-ethan-russo

And the companion video with Lauren Rudick regarding the legality of Delta-8 THC can be found here! https://youtu.be/Qrjii25ZGAw

12/10/2023

Such a pair of lovelies. Here you see two of the expressions to come from Pope Banner III seeds when grown outdoors in a 50/50 blend of my matured living soil and new only-water BioBloom coco blend from . Pope Banner III was released by .owl.seeds and is a collaboration between Daz at Night Owl and Dan Jimmie of fame. This cross of Bruce Banner III auto and Purple Pope has really great bud structure in both expressions I saw, being dense enough to feel chunky in the hand and high yielding on the scale, with just enough flower openness to help preserve it from bud rot when grown outdoors. The purple version smells of metallic grape talcum. The green version is super spicy smelling strongly of acetone and incense. I really like them both. Thanks to Dan at for sending them my way.

08/10/2023

I was very happy to connect with Chris Trump and Cuauhtémoc Villa this morning at . It’s a funny thing that I sometimes have guests on that I’ve not met in person. I’ve hung out with Chris many times, but Cuauhtémoc and I finally got to meet. And I got to meet his partner Rae too. Such a delightful gathering Myceliate was. A heartfelt thanks to Cassandra for the invitation to swing by. Thank you.

01/10/2023

Brain cells die, and our body has the ability to make new ones. But as we age, the ability to make new brain cells slows, and sometimes even slows so much that dementia arises. On this episode of , host , talks with cannabinoid researcher Staton Laws about the mechanics of neurogenesis, how cannabis medicine can stimulate the creation of vital neurons, and specific nootropic dosing protocols for those interested in sustaining their brain health and longevity, as well as cannabis patients who are already facing dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Click the profile link to listen on the website, or listen wherever you get podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube -> https://www.shapingfire.com/podcast-feed/episode-109-encouraging-neurogenesis-with-phytocannabinoids-with-guest-staton-laws

28/09/2023

I’m trying something different this year with fish p**p. Just about now, the temps are getting down to 50-52F nightly. The microbe life in the soil starts to cyst-up or get outcompeted, and the pot more or less gets sleepy. But! I need 2-3 weeks more of microbe activity so that the plants finish. Well, this year I’m switching up the compost tea with the idea that, by adding water food web microbes and nutrients from **pdotcom, the rhizosphere will get charged up by the nutrient change and sustain activity for just awhile longer. My hope is that the concentrated mulm and microbes add diversity and an extra breathe of life for these last two weeks. I’ll let ya know how it goes. 👍

**p

25/09/2023

Last week, a journalist asked me the difference between craft and commodity cannabis, and this is what I said…

28/08/2023

Those of us who are interested in the rise of autoflowers have long been aware of the ALF #5 bred by Dan Jimmie of . I probably have had the luck of interacting with her more than most simply because Dan lives a close ferry away, and because he has been a member of the VIMEA patient outreach group here on Vashon Island for years. Dan has been donating seeds to patients in VIMEA going back years to when ALF #5 was originally released. So I have seen them in lots of patient gardens. And I've smoked a lot of it with those patients.

It wasn't until I joined The Autoflower Network forum that I realized how many people cherished this variety, and in later years, how many were trying to find the seeds. That is what created the impetus for this little conversation about ALF #5. I was already over at Dan's house to record video of his home garden, and while I was there, I asked him if we could record this too.

There are lots of new tidbits about the ALF line in this interview, including where the name came from, which I always thought was after the 1980's TV show Alf. I was very wrong. 😂🤷🏻‍♂️

We hope you enjoy this conversation. You can find it on the Shaping Fire YouTube Channel. YouTube.com/ShangoLos

16/08/2023

The photos and stories coming from Hawaii are so desperate. Naturally, it brings out our drive to help. But there are some sketchy organizations suddenly collecting money, which understandably makes us hesitate. If you want to make a donation that will go directly to feeding locals and helping them with basics like a toothbrush and a phone charge etc, please consider donating to the . You can be sure that your donation won’t be going to pay for some non-profit CEO’s jet. Your donation will be used to help real people. 👍

www.MauiFoodBank.org/donate

25/07/2023

I’ve been relying on to protect my garden from pests for five seasons now. I did a lot of guessing before that point, and bought a lot of random sauces to spray hoping to prevent or kill pests, depending on the time of season. Once I had a Koppert rep to send photos to and make recommendations, everything calmed down and I haven’t had a bad season since. If you’d like support like that, reach out to Koppert in your country.

With beneficial insects, the key isn’t zero pest pressure, it is keeping it just about zero. That way, no pest gets a footing in the garden, and the defender pests stay fed. I like seeing them in the greenhouse too, especially lacewings and predatory wasps.

The new package design has looks really good. Sharp design. Informative label. And my favorite part is the QR code that takes me right to detailed application rate and other info that might not fit on the label.

I appreciate Koppert advertising on Shaping Fire, and I look forward to our continued partnership, for the good of ourselves and Shaping Fire audience cultivators everywhere.

08/07/2023

Wow! What are all you Arizona cultivators doing to preserve your outdoor grows through this coming extended intense heat spell? Are y’all even able to grow outside in Arizona? I guess which part of the state would make a big difference. 110 will even sweat the indoor folks, but if you’re in a home greenhouse or growing naked to the sky, I can see 10 days of 110 burning all your plants irreparably! What say you desert dwellers?! I’m super curious!