FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. Where can Freakshow seeds be obtained?

A. Directly through our seed bank! Hielevationgenetics.com , get the latest selections directly from the originator, guaranteed small batch and quality at a very affordable price.

Q. How did you create/breed Freakshow strain?
A. Methodical selection, line breeding, and culling is the short answer. Read our About page for more details.

Q. Is it an indoor or outdoor type?
A. Everything I've ever worked has been outdoors, including of course Freakshow. It has been our experience that outdoor (or sun grown, as it's recently being referred to) cultivars seem to perform extremely well under artificial conditions. This is true of seed starts or clones made from seed starts. The opposite is not always true; indoor clones often give an outdoor grower headaches because they don't always make the transition smoothly. This is due to light spectrum, temperature, and/or photoperiod changes. Yes, Freakshow will do exceedingly well indoors, and will thrive and mature just fine in a wide variety of natural environments as well, so it's definitely both and I think might even prove to be more resilient to those sorts of transitions.

Q. What are the potency and terpenoid levels?
A. Average 18-20% THCa, THC; negligible CBD, CBN with terps variable, averaging 2.5-3.5, primarily limonene and pinene, but this is variable, there was a lot of diversity in terp combinations and compositions in all the prior generations, it's just something that was left "as is" for now. The different parallel lines that we are developing can be directed in a few different pathways flavorwise.

Q. Why are the seeds white?
A. Why is the sky blue? No, the mature seeds are shrouded by a rice paper thin membrane which has coloring and mottling on it, but it's so fragile that it disintegrates in the process of shucking. Stripped of the outer layer the seeds are very pale, nearly white. It came as no surprise that this plant would have abnormal seeds.

Q. Is it a GMO?
A. Wow...? Well, it's seriously "modified" and the modifications are definitely genetic, and it is an organism. (Genuinely Modified Organically!) Uh, no. No radiation, no recombinant DNA, no gene splicing or editing, no TALEN or CRISPR! These biotechnologies don't belong in the food and medicine plant industries. Sadly, in the near future it will become commonplace and widespread in cannabis and other medicinal plants as it is already is with food crops and ornamentals. I'll avoid discussion on this topic for now, but we hope some people enjoy consuming Frankenbud!

Q. What's the floral period length?
A. 8-9 wks, finishes early Oct. at most latitudes and elevations.

Q. Is it a big producer?
A. Freakshow will produce nice, fat, dense colas (see gallery) with remarkable trichome coverage, and you can expect yields according to your veg. time, root space, and general knowledge and expertise as a gardener. The same set of variables apply to expected outcomes regarding cannabinoid levels and terpene profiles.

Q.What is the lineage?
A. (Bigbud x Skunk#1) x (Big Sur Holy Weed x Banana Kush). NLD("Sativa") dominant, but the afghanica influence is apparent. I'm pretty sure that Freakshow contains some Trainwreck and some Maui Wowie based on some research I did on the origins of the Pineapple Express. Interestingly Big Sur Holyweed, OG Kush, Banana, Trainwreck, and Maui Wowie are all of unclear origins. We have to remember that these are all just names and that they don't really mean much. The exact heritage of any cultivar today is impossible to determine accurately. Also, considering the amount of continuous shameless hybridization that has occurred in the last 40 yrs., any modern kind could easily contain over 40 kinds. In the case of Freakshow, it's much more limited because the ancestry is largely older "Sativas" that didn't go through as much outcrossing. In the 70s in Santa Cruz, Haze was a favorite among surfers for the pure energy and I still have (greatly improved) stock of it around, simply because even when I made hybrids with it I always kept the original in pure form for obvious reasons.

Q. What is the psychoactive effect like?
A. Like the flavors, many people have commented that the "buzz" is somewhat different than other mainstream types out there. It's not entirely out of the scope of imagination that given that this strain has new alleles in so many other respects, that it could also contain new, unique cannabinoids, as well as new and unique terpenoids, some of which may not even be among the standard 16 or so that the average lab is testing for. Aside from the up, cerebral, energetic boost, some report a mild time/space warp effect. Creativity and idea induction should be mentioned, for sure. Freakshow has the pure energy effect and greatly alters perception to the positive side, so definitely destroys depression. Appetite suppression is a side effect, but the enjoyment of food is enhanced. I personally will attest to all of the above. We all have different receptor profiles, so these are just generalizations. Couch unlock.

Q. Is it pest and mildew resistant?                                                                                                                  A. Indeed it is. On many occasions in the last few years, it has been observed that when pest and mildew issues were affecting other plants adjacent to in the vicinity of Freakshow plants, for unknown reasons the freaks remained entirely unaffected. This includes 0botritis, PM, various mites and insects, soil fungus, etc. We haven't heard any complaints along those lines so far, so if anyone has any problems, especially with a rigorous IPM regimen in place, we would like to hear about it. And if anyone can attest to the extreme level of resistance it seems to have we'd love to hear about that as well.

Q. Does it contain web-leaf genetics?
A. I thought I better clarify this because there are a few people thinking that because of an article "Growing Marijuana that Doesn't look like Marijuana" that mentions that I had worked web-leaf types years ago and had eventually turned that into Freakshow. This is incorrect and I'm needing to get ahold of the writer to have him change it. When I read the piece and saw the mistake I figured it didn't matter that much, that the actual method of breeding could just remain a "trade secret". Recently, I noticed online that a posting, "Freakshow only exists because of duckfoot" by Curious Cannabis Connoisseur, where he explains how I developed Freakshow using Duckfoot. Let me explain, about 20 yrs. ago a friend gave me a jar of seeds labeled "BC Bigbud" and I sprouted flats of hundreds to look for oddities and had found one web-leaf pheno which we named Webster. It was a female so I bred it to a normal leaf male and began selecting and stabilizing a line of Webster. About 5 or 6 generations later I had nailed it to 100% webs and had also stabilized it for a deep purple color and a nice "gingerbread" terp profile. I was busy working other lines at that point so I put Webster in the library. Also, I was having a hell of a time getting a pheno of it that flowered to my satisfaction. (it seemed to finish with a limited number of calyxes). I knew I would have to outcross it to something with a big tasty bud and restabilize it for web-leaf, and I no longer had the original BC Bigbud. I still have the Webster seeds, and trust me the thought has crossed my mind to make the cross with Freakshow, but why? Why mess around crossing things just to create something even weirder? I have heard that the "Duckfoot" also doesn't bud up well so maybe there's a correlation there. Anyway, people can do what they want to and I will too, but crossing Freakshow with some low-THC crap like ABC is in my opinion idiotic. I worked extremely hard stabilizing and perfecting a beautiful new subspecies and I believe it should be kept pure. I won't go on a rant here about the rampant crossing and the lack of line-breeding in the cannabis world in the last several decades, or where this will eventually lead us, but I will say that it's not in a good direction. Bottom line....Freakshow has no web-leaf genes, it was made using top-grade tropical narrow-leaf drug (NLD) cultivars.

Q.Why is Freakshow patented?
A. Although I and most others believe in and subscribe to the concept of "open sourcing" because sharing in cannabis genetics was always the cultural norm, it was decided that Freakshow should be protected (1) because it is a novel and unique, not a preexisting strain (or even subspecies), (2) To keep the greedy corporate big boys from exploiting it, (3) To maintain control of the genetic refinement of it in all future generations. We really can't wait to share it with the entire collective world of cannabis enthusiasts and invite experimental breeding for personal use and curiosity.