It was sick with powdery mildew.
Gotcha. Thank you.
Don't really think that should affect the cannabinoid ratios, for what that's worth.
And I don't have much reason to doubt him, it's not like he's using it.
If he's not growing it, using it or working with it, then why would he have it tested? If he hasn't had it tested, how does he know the numbers?
Anyway, the reason I doubt the 10% number has nothing to do with his personal credibility; I'm not calling the guy a liar, and I agree that there should be no reason why he would deliberately be deceptive about this. There could be any number of reasons why an honest mistake could have been made here (ie someone else fed him a wrong number, he mis-read or misspoke, etc).
The reason I doubt is just that the number contradicts everything I know and have seen about this strain, and by itself doesn't make "sense".
10% CBD strains are scarce. There are only a few of them out there, they've only been developed as commercial drug strains relatively recently in just the past few years, and all of them required somewhat specialized breeding with parallel lab testing for selection.
Even harlequin and cannatonic, which are probably the top two specially bred CBD strains out there now don't typically get that high. Cannatonic usually runs 7% THC/7% CBD. Harlequin is usually about the same, though individual cuts of it can run a little higher to nearly 10% THC/CBD. Maybe Subcool mistakenly confused herijuana and Harlequin here? Harlequin also has a "non-interesting" taste, and that could explain this. . . one of the lines it was bred from is a Swiss hemp line used as cattle feed!
In the meantime, herijuana has been conventionally bred from conventional drug strains, and has been around since the early 1990s. If this 20 year old strain could yield 10% CBD, then why would anyone even bother breeding something like Harlequin or Cannatonic?
Given the massive demand for them now, if 10% CBD phenos of this were common (or even scarce) every one of the multiple breeders/sellers of this would be crowing about that. Its not happening. When harlequin and cannatonic ceeds are unavailable (which is most of the time), people would be using this as a reasonable substitute. So far as I know, that's not happening either. If any cuts of these really yielded 10% CBD, they'd be showing up at dispensaries as high CBD buds (and top shelf ones at that). . .again, not happening.
If this strain could test out at 8-10% CBD, there would be other reports of it. Haven't seen any (and I've looked). I've now seen at least 5 separate published test reports on this, and none of them show anywhere NEAR 10% CBD. The highest I can remember has been that one at 1.6% CBD.
Bottom line, while I can't say for sure that a worked/clone only cut of this with 10% CBD doesn't exist, I can't seem to find any documentation of something like that anywhere, and the bulk of the evidence suggests it isn't so. Anyone who thinks they're going to crack open a pack of heri beans from Sannie or any of the other breeders listed above and come up with a cannatonic-like 10% CBD plant is probably mistaken.
I realize numbers and tests are sort of a joke, but to me, based on the effects I felt, I'd say there was a high amount of CBD in my cut. How high? I don't know. But I do know the old folks love it (favorite). It's not my favorite (not an indica guy, but it would be one of the first ones I'd reach for). The flavor does improve with a long cure.
Well, to be clear, CBD binds to cannabinoid receptors with much higher affinity than THC, and it really doesn't take much to cause a significant subjective effect. Even 1.6% CBD makes herijuana one of the highest THC/CBD ratio conventional strains around, and I have absolutely no doubt that this explains the effects you're describing, and why this one is so prized as a medical strain.
On testing, I wouldn't call it a "joke", at least not if done by a good lab. If done right and reported honestly, it does have its uses to sort of normalize between strains, get some sense of freshness/degradation, etc. I do agree that even with good testing, you have to take the numbers with a big grain of salt, for a lot of reasons.
Obviously, how a plant is grown matters, and individual phenos can affect things. Not so much with inbred lines like herijuana, but with some commercial lines even two different plants from the same pack might have significantly different numbers. Even within the exact same plant, different buds can have different absolute amounts of cannabinoids. The testing is typically done on the best buds from the best phenos. If you're talking about dispensaries, "bait and switch" where what's written in the report is different that what's in the jar is not unheard of.
The point is, there can be lots of reasons why what's on the paper and whats in your joint are different.