From Chef to Breeder: An Earnest Conversation with Clay from Alebrije Genetics

Marge (00:00:01) - Introducing the Bite Me Cannabis Club. The Bite Me Cannabis Club aims to be an inclusive online space for cannabis lovers. Whether you're simply curious about how cannabis can improve your life or you're fully seasoned, there's always more to learn when you join the Bite Me Cannabis Club, you'll have access to like minded people interested in cannabis, monthly workshops, live Q&A recipes and recipe swaps, digital cookbooks, a fully functional chat feature, and a whole lot more. For a limited time. It's only $5 a month with a 30 day free trial, so you can try it out and see if it's right for you. This isn't just another Facebook group or confusing Discord Channel. I carefully chose a platform that offers a clear, uncluttered and seamless community experience. See for yourself. Join today. Say hello. I can't wait to connect with you there. Join the Bite Me Cannabis Club Today link in your podcast app. Welcome back, friends, to another fun episode of Bite Me. And this week we're doing a Faces of Cannabis interview where I sit down with clay from Algebra genetics, an auto flower breeder and former professional chef.

Marge (00:01:20) - Stay tuned. Welcome to the Faces of Cannabis Interview series, where we take a break from talking about edibles and focus on the people behind the plant, whether it's fellow podcasters, bud tenders, gangsters, advocates, cultivators, cannabis lovers all have their stories to share, and I want to share them with you. Regardless of how long you've been listening to the show, you probably know that I often use olive oil in my cooking and in my infusions. When I discovered McEvoy Ranch Olive Oil, I knew I needed to give them a try. I love everything about these oils and the company. The oils come from a family owned farm that's both female, founded and led God to love that they produce these organic olive oils sustainably at their Northern Californian ranch. They've just released a delicious signature olive oil collection that includes organic blood, Orange award winning Chai Spice and my favorite ginger turmeric oils. The collection brings together flavors from multiple cultures to create new ways to enjoy olive oil. With this in mind, they include cards with the samples, the detail, the tasting profiles, and ways to use the oils so you can try them with any meal or with your edibles and never lack fresh ideas.

Marge (00:02:37) - McEvoy Ranch is committed to creating the highest quality, healthy, fresh olive oils that will enhance your cooking in unexpected ways. Enjoy the unique flavors and the well known health benefits of olive oil by heading over to McEvoy Ranch and enter promo code. Bite Me 15 at checkout to receive 15% off your order today. And welcome back, friends. If you're just joining me for the first time today, you're in for a treat because this conversation with Clay was pretty enlightening. And if you've been with me for a while, thank you. I appreciate your support. And of course, you'll learn something new, I'm sure, from this conversation. And Clay has been involved in the auto flower breeding business for a while, but he came to that after a career in professional cooking, which he managed to do all over the world. So he has some pretty interesting insights on cannabis and food, which of course we all love here. So without further ado, please enjoy this wide ranging conversation with clay of bridge genetics. All right.

Marge (00:03:53) - I think we're live. Yes, we are. So, everyone, I'm really excited to be joined today by Clay of Allah Bridge Genetics. Did I say that correctly? Because I feel like is quite likely that I did not pronounce it properly.

Clay (00:04:08) - No, you nailed it. That's perfect. Allah genetics. That's us.

Marge (00:04:12) - Perfect. So maybe you can take a second clay and just introduce the listeners of Bite Me the show about edibles. Introduce yourself and let us know what it is that you do.

Clay (00:04:21) - Well, first off, thanks for having me. It's awesome to be here. Um, love the show. I come from a background as a chef and I've been a long time cannabis user pushing 20 years now as a daily user almost. And so edibles have always been, you know, close to my heart and food in general. I find such a medicine on its own that combine the two, it's, it's really the perfect, the perfect medicine. But algebra genetics is all about auto flower seeds.

Clay (00:04:57) - We do small craft batch breeding, um, working on new fun auto flower strains For those that don't know, auto flowers are different from the conventional photo period of cannabis. That requires a light cycle change in nature when it turns into from summer to fall, the plants naturally start flowering indoors. You turn your light to 12 hours on 12 hours off per day to get a normal plant to start flowering. But auto flowers are unique and they they flower. They can flower under 24 hours of light per day. And it's a gene that comes from the plant native to the northern Siberia area. So it had to learn to, you know, produce seed and complete its life cycle, you know, at times under 24 hours of sun. So it's really fascinating genetic trait and yeah, we work on new, more modern versions using that trait.

Marge (00:06:01) - Right? And I think auto flowers are definitely becoming more popular. I know that there was a time in history when they were not really seen as something that was a viable option for growers.

Marge (00:06:11) - So we'll touch on all of that in a bit. And of course your background as a chef. But before we do, perhaps you can talk a little bit about the concept and the branding behind algebra. Again, think just say it for us, please.

Clay (00:06:26) - Hey, yeah, the J is just pronounced like H for, you know, English speakers and often kind of as an a sound. So, um, yeah. So first to note is the other partner on my brand is my wife. She is from Mexico City. And so our bridges are actually an artistic cultural thing from Mexico. It started in the 1930. This guy, Pedro Linares, was an artist in Mexico City and he had some wild fever dreams and dreamt up these creatures that are basically animals with mixed body parts from different species combined into one. And they're now throughout Mexico, they're making these different creatures and they paint them with very intricately little designs, bright colors, and it just has this really Mexican vibe when you see them.

Clay (00:07:28) - So we wanted to kind of use that in our branding and in the same thought that these animals are, you know, different combinations of creatures. We are also hybridizing different plants and creating this new creature, our new species. So each one of our plants is named after a different animal combination and we use the Spanish names of the animals. And then we'll throw in an English descriptor word to the strain name. But it's essentially supposed to sort of embody these these creatures and their traits. So if, for example, we have one, the Blues or Rosso and it's a Fox bear and so it's got a lot of berry, blueberry, woodsy, earthy notes to it. It's kind of a sleeper strain. So, you know, makes you think about hibernating in a cave. And so the traits of the plant and the terpenes and the effects that come from that strain are somewhat related to the to the animals we've chosen. And the name.

Marge (00:08:33) - That's really cool because they really do stand out. I love the the art that you're using for your for your seeds and everything.

Marge (00:08:40) - And you put a lot of attention to detail in that. And I think that just speaks to what you're trying to create with your business. So well done. And I really like that description. Now, we will get into that a little bit more in a second. But you mentioned. That you were previously a chef before you got into this business. And of course, I have to pick your brain about that. But what made you first off, decide to leave the culinary world for developing genetics?

Clay (00:09:08) - So cannabis has always been since 17 to 18 years old. It's always been a, you know, a side passion, a parallel. And it's not. It was only until more recently that as the world starts to accept it more and we push closer towards legalization here in the US and obviously are envious of your status there in Canada, you know that it became a more realistic option. But food is also near and dear to my heart. I've always been a gardener. I've always been cooking food since I was a teenager.

Clay (00:09:42) - I like to cook all the dinners for my family, the restaurant world. Honestly, I worked in, you know, a range of restaurants from a small barbecue place to three Michelin stars and everything in between. So I have seen the gauntlet of restaurants and I worked in an array of countries as well. I kind of kicked off things in New York City and then moved on to Singapore, then Australia, then London and Spain and Mexico. And so I've seen a wide variety of professional kitchens from all different levels and all different angles. I've done, you know, all sorts of jobs within restaurants. But honestly, it was the pace, the stress, the low pay, the you know, there it was a lot of things that aren't in favour of chefs. And it's sort of sad watching the restaurant industry, you know, lose valuable creative resources because it just doesn't pay enough. And the stress is so high. And, you know, I didn't see, you know, the ultimate goal, I guess, was opening my own restaurant.

Clay (00:10:49) - And I didn't really see that as an enjoyable option and just stuck in one kitchen for the rest of my life trying to, you know, find ways to make it interesting and, you know, always stay at the front of the curve. But so I eventually sort of left it in favour of beverage development. I got into distilling and I created a lot of whiskey and gin formulas. And I then got into other beverages and I was a founder of sparkling water company called Waterloo, based out of Austin, Texas, and just took that food and beverage. My knowledge from all those years in restaurants and started my own little consulting company, I would call it research and development, just working on formulations of food and beverage for people whenever they reached out. So that's technically still my day job, though Alegria is actually taking up way more of my time these days.

Marge (00:11:53) - Right, Which is what tends to happen when something becomes successful. But so you've worked in a ton of different restaurants all over the world. That's really cool.

Marge (00:12:00) - But I do understand what you're saying when you know how stressful it is, because one of my daughters actually owned a restaurant and stresses she's always stressed out. She's always call me up, stressed out about stuff. And it's a lot of evenings and weekends too. And if you have a family or anything, then you know, you can pretty much kiss those kids goodbye, basically, because that's when people want to go out and eat this evenings and weekends.

Clay (00:12:23) - So I found myself missing all the holidays with my family and, you know, just watching life pass me by, stuck in the kitchen all the time. And, you know, I love the hands on aspect and working with food. But these days with pop ups and other things, there's there's ways to still, you know, release that creative energy without having to commit my entire life and every single day to it, which is nice. It's nice to find that balance right now.

Marge (00:12:53) - Did you work with cannabis as a culinary ingredient at any point during your time as a chef?

Clay (00:12:58) - Um, again, probably post like the professional world and more in my own pop ups and things.

Clay (00:13:05) - Back in 2017, a friend and I, another chef from a restaurant we worked in together. Um, we did a pop up. Both of our fathers have Parkinson's disease and we did a full eight course cannabis pairing tasting menu that had both vaporizers with different terpene profiles and it was mostly CBD oriented. But then we had really low levels of infused pairings and it was a lot of terpene aroma pairings that went with each course. And so in my own was, yeah, never actually like in a, you know, a full on professional restaurant. No, but I always had it going on in the side back at home. It was something I've always been interested in, the different infusion methods and obviously a lot more science has come out lately in the last handful of years that I feel like we're able to do a much better job with our infusions.

Marge (00:14:02) - Oh yeah. It's a pretty exciting time to be in the in the world of edibles. But now you weren't really working with cannabis as a culinary ingredient in a professional setting, but were you mentioned you're kind of sort of always doing it on the side wherever you were? Were you doing that in other places around the world too? Then? Like you mentioned, you're cooking in Singapore and Spain's all these really exotic sounding places.

Clay (00:14:24) - Singapore was the only maybe not, it was the only exception where the only country I've traveled to, where I haven't used cannabis. And it was that fear of these like ridiculous laws.

Marge (00:14:35) - 100%.

Clay (00:14:36) - Yeah. Besides that, yeah. Australia. Yes. I was using all the time good friends in Melbourne who I was able to source from, and Spain, most notably a good friend of mine at the restaurant we worked in. We were working at Mehndi, a three Michelin star restaurant in just outside Bilbao in the Basque country, and we would go over on our weekends to San Sebastian, where there were a lot of cannabis clubs, and my buddy's cousin lived there and was a member of the Cannabis Club or one of them and would source material for us. We would take it back, use it at the restaurant. But a lot of times it was easy to just make tinctures and infusions. Was the like stretched out the material a lot more? Um, you know, a good strong edible goes a lot longer than, you know, the material at the same material smoking might just be an afternoon wear.

Clay (00:15:35) - So yeah I remember we were lived in dormitories below the restaurant and I remember, you know, in the middle of the night having to carb the flour and things so that when it smelled too much and the chef himself wasn't there and present, um, one girl ended up getting arrested or I don't know. I don't know that she went to prison, but there was a lot of cannabis use going on among the chefs at that restaurant. And half of us lived in dormitories beneath the restaurant. And I remember one girl getting taken away and getting kicked out for smoking one evening. But fortunately I wasn't in the group, so it was rare that I wasn't in the smoke group. So it was a good time to not be.

Marge (00:16:19) - Did you have any, like, favorite places that you were making edibles while working around the world?

Clay (00:16:26) - Yeah, there in Spain was probably one of them. We would, you know, we would make. It was also where I happened to start dating my wife, my she also worked at the restaurant.

Clay (00:16:36) - And so we would spend our weekends traveling around San Sebastian and Rioja and Barcelona and things like that. And so just having some edibles and enjoying the sights of Spain and the amazing food was awesome. Probably my my favorite place. But Mexico is still is somewhere I always travel with edibles to. And we do a lot of little trips to different states and different cities and things. And I love having edibles down there. I feel like totally at ease and really helps me enjoy my vacation more.

Marge (00:17:12) - Well, that's interesting that you mention that because, of course, you mentioned your wife is from Mexico. And I think it's really cool that you both met cooking in a kitchen in Spain, like totally across the other side of the world. But sometimes just a nice reminder of how small the world really is sometimes. And cannabis can help bring people together. But can you talk about the state of like cannabis and cannabis use culinary cannabis in Mexico from your own personal experience?

Clay (00:17:36) - Yeah. So Mexico is in such an odd gray area at the moment where they have stated that it's decriminalized and there have plans to legalize.

Clay (00:17:48) - And I believe that they're looking to Canada as the model and have been working with, you know, Canadian legislators on, you know, how to set things up. But it's been going really slow. That happened back in like 2016, 17, I think. And ever since it's just been in this gray area where you are starting to see a lot of events pop up. What we were just down there a week ago and the extracts cup was going on in Mexico City. And so there's a lot of rosin communities already down there and things are happening. There's cannabis clubs popping up joint with us is like the big premiere one in Mexico City and it's just like hidden locations, speakeasy style. So it's interesting to see the culture that's coming with it. The state of Oaxaca, my favorite state, by the way, is full on adult use, legal and has has now like designated consumption zones in the in Oaxaca City. As of last year, Mexico City. We were there in October of last year.

Clay (00:18:59) - And Mexico City had five consumption zones, one of which the biggest was right outside the Supreme Court building, or literally, literally hundreds of people were out there smoking like 50 plants, large plants out there growing. And it was sort of under the protection of the you know, the Supreme Court is the one who decided that it was decriminalized and there were police there watching it all happen. I was out there smoking with friends. But as of this year, those are gone. And so I'm not sure what happened or this was just eight months later we were back and all this changes are going on. So it's I don't know I don't know what direction they're going in. And I'm not close enough, you know, with anyone that works in the law making down there. But yeah, it's honestly they're such an interesting producing country that is going to have a major impact on the the global scale when it becomes a, you know, globally traded commodity that I can't wait to see where Mexico ends up. But yeah, interesting times for sure.

Marge (00:20:08) - And Oaxaca is still like total adult use There they are.

Clay (00:20:14) - Yeah. As far as I know. Um, yeah. Which is great. You know, they're very, very forward thinking and, you know, look out for their people, which is great. It's an awesome state. The best food. I highly recommend traveling to Wagga.

Marge (00:20:28) - Yeah, I've been to Mexico, Mexico a couple of times in the last two years and Oaxaca is definitely on my list. I have a whole trip planned already. I just have to get down there and I keep hearing from people how beautiful it is, how great the people are and the food, food and yeah. So I hope to make it down there. Knowing that it's a legal for adult use is kind of cool too. So hopefully that remains the same as time moves forward and they sort of get their act together. I guess the federal government on what they're doing, they're looking to Canada. That's kind of interesting because, you know, people have opinions on how Canada rolled out their own legalization, but it is legal.

Marge (00:21:04) - So, you know, no one's being thrown in jail for it anymore, which is. Obviously one of the goals. But now switching gears back to the auto flower. Can you tell me a bit more about your journey that you got into like developing auto flower seeds and the process that you go through to select? Specific traits for your cultivars?

Clay (00:21:28) - Yeah, for sure. I got into autos. I've been growing off and on here, and they're usually in apartments or like random little guerrilla grows out in the woods. Since I was 17, honestly, and finally about five years ago, I became a homeowner and that gave me a little more freedom. And in 2019, I started hearing more about auto flowers and got into them a little bit more. And I was lucky to just happen across a company called Mephisto Genetics, which is from Spain. It's actually two English guys, but I went on their side the day I heard about them and their seeds were available. I bought like three different strains. Uh, I grew out one in particular.

Clay (00:22:21) - They called the Skywalker and had amazing success. It was very easy. I found it a lot easier and more successful than my former photo period grows. So I like it's also they finish very quickly. That one finished in like 70 days from seed to finish. So just like two months and change. And honestly, it's for younger generations, it's great because you get this instant satisfaction of every single day. You're seeing like vigorous growth on these plants. And it's just more fun to watch than a photo period, in my opinion. So I also happen to have this star dog photo period cutting from a friend. I don't really do much with photo periods anymore other than trying to turn them into auto flowers. But I don't I don't hang on to photo period mothers or other things like people do to take clones. But I had a clone of this amazing star dog that a friend had found and I wanted to hang on to it in some way, shape or form without having to keep the actual plant alive.

Clay (00:23:28) - So I wanted to try feminizing an auto flower. I tried feminizing photo periods before with colloidal silver and hadn't had any success, so I'd been reading more about that process in general, and I wanted to try what's called STS, which is a silver sulfate. It's you just make a solution of sodium sulfate and silver nitrate. You combine those and you essentially spray the plant and it blocks ethylene the female hormone from spreading. And it essentially the plant already has both the male and the female chromosomes within it. So when you block that female hormone, it expresses male, but at the same time it has those female chromosomes. So the pollen that it makes is feminized. And with that hits other female plants, you get feminized seeds, which is awesome because, you know, 99.9, nine, 9% of the time you're going to get a female plant when you grow those seeds, which is what everyone is looking for. And so I decided to reverse is the process of making a feminized pollen. So I decided to reverse one of those skywalkers after I had grown a few and had some success and I used that pollen on my dog and made seeds.

Clay (00:24:55) - That first generation is still a photo period, so it took several more generations of looking and selecting for the auto flower trait. But by the third F3 generation I had a fully auto flowering plant that I had made from scratch that I called the dog walker and it showed up in a lot of our projects. So far. I'm about to sort of let it take a break for a while. It's been it's been a the forefront of what we've done to this point, but we have a lot of other projects in the works and excited to to work more more photos into autos as we go.

Marge (00:25:33) - So developing these auto flower strains then it's a pretty it's a pretty it's something you have to be pretty patient with. It sounds like it just doesn't happen.

Clay (00:25:43) - Yeah. The convert the conversion process from a photo period to a full auto flower and especially one that's good where you're looking for nice traits is, you know, takes it like minimum a year and a half or so with, you know, time in between.

Clay (00:25:59) - And to drive the plan, you know, let the seeds, you know, dry out and mature and then you pop them again. You know, it takes three generations to essentially convert. But as you mentioned before, the auto flower world has been popping lately and a lot of breeders are working on these. And, you know, there's great auto flowering genetics out there now that you don't. Always have to convert convert a photo period anymore. A lot of our crosses these days are using other great auto flower breeders work and, you know, combining with some of ours to make new new strains. But they already had the art of flowering trade. So it's it's less work, but it's still just as much, you know, breeding in my opinion. It's the same amount of work any photo period breeders putting in, just crossing a photo to a photo. So there's there's some really amazing creations going on in the auto flower world.

Marge (00:26:57) - Now. What would you say sets the genetics apart from other breeders in terms of your approach to cultivation and genetics?

Clay (00:27:05) - Um, as far as a company goes, we release a lot less than other people.

Clay (00:27:11) - We only we do only four drops a year. We're now doing seasonal drops. So we have a winter, spring, summer and fall drop. Always lands on a full moon. Um, and we're usually only releasing 1 or 2 strains per drop, whereas most breeders will kind of release a whole line from a single pollen donor. Ours might be from the same pollen donor if we even have to. It might just be. It just depends on what we have in the works, what we make sure everything we've done is well tested and well documented. Once we decide on the strain that we're going to be dropping in the next drop. I'll pretty much spend like two months on Instagram showing pictures and talking about it and describing it in great detail. I feel like most breeders you see out these days, you just see the cross names and that's about all the information you get when the seeds come out. So we like to make sure you know what you're going to get from us. And we take a lot of time and effort to, you know, let that be known.

Marge (00:28:12) - So it sounds a little bit like it's it's quality over quantity, for one thing. But you also mentioned something interesting about you only release seasonally and on a full moon. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Clay (00:28:26) - Uh, yeah, that just just started happening, happening naturally. I think we had two where we just chose dates and then as it drew near, I was like, Oh, that's on the full moon. And I just kind of liked it. There's always, there's a certain energy going on on full moon days and nights, and I just enjoyed that and wanted to keep it rolling. And as far as doing the seasonal drops, yeah, we just we're a small, small breeder. I have five tents that I work with for breeding projects and I maxed them out to full capacity every time as far as what we can do and what we're testing. We also have two other sort of projects, one that's more medicinally focused called miracle plant genetics. So these also take up some space as well.

Clay (00:29:15) - But um, yeah, that's why we can only release a couple at a time because we just want to make sure we're releasing what we're really happy with and what's been well tested and what we enjoyed, you know, consuming ourselves. Otherwise it doesn't, it doesn't make the cutting room floor. We have we make way more than ever. We'll see the light of day. So we just want to release what we really enjoy.

Marge (00:29:39) - Well, I like that because it must also be really satisfying when you see home growers like growing out some of your genetics and seeing some beautiful flower, right? So that must also be really satisfying. And the full moon thing, that's another piece that I think just goes back to your attention to detail, which is kind of nice. It's just a, you know, a fun little thing that you do. So, um, now it seems like auto flowers are definitely growing in popularity. I know I've grown lots of well, not I wouldn't say lots, but I've grown grown quite a few auto flowers over the last few years because I personally find in Canada where I am for outdoor, they work a lot better just because of my climate, my growing seasons shorter than than other people.

Marge (00:30:18) - But can you talk about the advantages of cultivating and consuming auto flower compared to traditional photo period strains?

Clay (00:30:25) - Yeah, you just hit on one of the big ones, which is indeed for people. I have a lot of friends up that are growers up in Alaska who say that auto flowers are the only way that they can, you know, fathom growing outdoors because nothing else will finish fast enough. And so that's their their primary advantage, I would say, is the the seed to harvest time. Most will land within a 90 day range. So from the time it sprouts to the time you're chopping it down is like three months at most. A lot come in a little under that, but I'd say around 90 days is pretty average. Whereas, you know, a traditional photo period, you're usually vegging it, you know, from seed at least two months, you know, so you got 60 days there. Plus they actually have somewhat similar flowering times as auto flowers, which would be, you know, typically another 60 days or so, 60 plus, depending on, you know, if it's more narrow leaf sativa style leaning, it could take a good bit longer.

Clay (00:31:28) - But yeah, the speed oftentimes there are some monster sized auto flowers and a couple of hours have been pretty big ones. But in general they stay smaller because they just start flowering on their own. It's really by day between day 20 and day 30 of its life is pretty much when you're going to start to see it putting out some pre flowers and begin that process and it'll stretch a little bit more in those next coming weeks. But in general, they stay smaller. And for that reason they're great for home growers because you don't necessarily need a ton of monster plants and you can also use that to your advantage as well. If you've got the tent space instead of just growing one variety of a big Ole, you know, monster photo period, maybe use that space and grow four different auto flowers and then you've got four different strands in your, you know, vault there as you're smoking. And it's just nice to change every day what you're smoking or something for the different times of day. I always like to have some mixed ratio CBD cultivars on hand for when I'm not looking to get very high.

Clay (00:32:40) - But I just need to, you know, take the edge off a little bit. So the turnaround time, the size is great. And then the other thing that's awesome for, you know, especially newer growers and home growers is just the fact that they don't require that light schedule change and they can handle up to 24 hours of light. I don't necessarily recommend that most of mine grow around 20 hours of light per day with four hours off. But anyway, the average grower doesn't necessarily need to do that. You can just leave the lights on 24 hours until they finish so you don't have to mess with timers or worrying about lighting schedules or anything. And they're also a little more resistant to lighting stress. I know some photo periods can be sensitive and if they see any light during their dark period, they might, you know, stress out and throw out a pollen sack and be a hermaphrodite. So they're good for lighting stress as well. So and they're becoming just as potent as as photo periods. The terpenes, the high.

Clay (00:33:44) - They you know, it's not all THC percentage isn't really that crucial. It's really 100% the terpene profile and you know a nice honestly a mixed ratio with you know 18% THC and 1% CBD, 1% CBD. And like a nice high terpene profile is going to get you much higher than these claims of a 35% THC photo period from some big farm. You know, yeah, there's just homegrown. You can't beat the quality. You'll never after it's passed through so many other hands and you finally gets to your dispensary. It's just not the same as what I just hand trimmed myself right before I'm about to smoke it. And, you know, watch that plant every day and babysit. And, you know, it just means a lot more and you enjoy it more. So I'm a huge advocate of home growing your own.

Marge (00:34:39) - Well, yeah. I mean, you're taking control of your own high life, I guess, which is what I like to say in the show when I'm encouraging people to make their own edibles too, because you know what inputs are going in and what outputs are coming out.

Marge (00:34:52) - And you can trust your own process and develop your own process. And it sounds like when it comes to auto flowers, I mean, they sound relatively forgiving when it comes to lighting and that kind of thing. They're they're going to mature faster. You don't have to worry about, you know, monster plants in your backyard because for me that, you know, I have neighbors and I have heard of people getting their plants ripped off to not really in my neighborhood, but around town. And I don't I'm not really looking to grow the nine foot plant that's three feet wide or anything like that because that's just going to annoy my neighbors, for one thing. But and just the advantage of being able to grow multiples, like you said, and if you have a tent going or something like that. So it sounds like there's a ton of advantages to using auto flowers. Are there any misconceptions about auto flowers that you'd like to clear up? Because I know there was a like I mentioned earlier, there was a period of time where they were kind of I guess people didn't really trust them as much as a photo period or they just didn't have the same reputation.

Marge (00:35:50) - I do think that's changing probably in large part because of people like yourself. So what are any misconceptions about them that that you think need to be addressed?

Clay (00:35:59) - Yeah, that's often one just in general that they're they're weaker. Where? Not in my opinion, lately. Yeah. People like myself, I'm, you know, riding on the shoulders of other giants like Mephisto, I mentioned. And Night Owl is another one. And there's other breeders out there who have been like taking the time and working in really good photo periods into the auto flower gene pool. And that's what's going to change things and is changing. And they're only going to get better and better. So it's fun to watch the evolution of them. Yeah, I think ten years ago they had a really terrible reputation and it was all based on this low rider was the strain and a few crosses of it, and it was just really small. Didn't have much chemistry as far as the try to come has going on. So yeah, they've just come a long way and it's thanks to a lot of breeder effort and it'll be fun to watch them continue to get better.

Marge (00:37:00) - Yeah, absolutely. Now, you already talked about how you advocate for home growing, which I totally agree with. I think if anybody has the interest, they should try it out at least once anyway, because it's pretty fun. But any advice you would give to somebody who's new to growing cannabis and maybe interested in incorporating auto flowers into their garden?

Clay (00:37:17) - Yeah. And one thing I was going to touch on just now was that, yeah, they are. There are some little quirks to growing them. As I mentioned, they start flowering on their own within the first 30 days. And so that first 30 days is it's nice. If you cannot stress them out much, then if your temperature and lighting and the soil doesn't have too much nutrients. I see that one a lot where someone thinks, oh, the more nutrients, the better it's going to be. But actually the plant finds that stressful. And what happens when you stress them in the first 30 days is you often stunt them and you'll just get a very small plant, which is sad, but it can still produce really nice flowers.

Clay (00:38:05) - You're just not going to get very much. So if you can be easy on them in that first 30 days, they like medium lighting in that period and I'd say less nutrients is more in the early, you know, first ten days or so. They don't really need much at all in the way of nutrients. They carry a lot of that just in their own seed. They have what they need to get started. But but, you know, after day seven or so, you're into the first week, you can start adding some nutrients or depending on what your methods are. If you're a soil grower, you might already have a mixed in, but just don't go too much. That'll help out a lot. And yeah, I like to give them a short period of the day. Four hours is what I do with the lights off. I feel like that reduces stress on them. Um, and yeah, just not too hot, not too cold in an environment they like in the, you know, 60 to 80 range, they'll be okay.

Clay (00:39:05) - But definitely research vpd your vapor pressure deficit and that will also help you kind of dial in your environment. But yeah also researcher genetics. There are a handful of just white label auto flowers out there. So starting with the right genetics is also very crucial. Um, the ones I've mentioned on this show, my own, I stand behind that. You're going to find some nice plants.

Marge (00:39:33) - Right? So basically you want to baby them a little bit in the first, first 30 days and less is more when it comes to nutrients, which I think is often the case, because if you follow the manufacturer recommendations, you're probably overfeeding them a little bit, generally speaking, but less is more applies to a lot of things. But part of what you're doing with genetics is you have a charity that you've incorporated into part of your your business plan, I guess Save the Pedros, which my Spanish is awful, but.

Clay (00:40:02) - No, that's great.

Marge (00:40:04) - Okay. Can you talk a little bit about that? And for those who are listening who don't know what a pet hose is, that would be like a dog.

Marge (00:40:09) - And yeah, the whole idea is that you are working to help save street dogs in Mexico because they have a street dog problem.

Clay (00:40:20) - They do? Yeah. You see. So we go down every year to visit my wife's family. We just got back a week ago. Um, yeah, you do see a lot of street dogs and they're the worst country, apparently statistically in Latin America for this problem. And it's really sad when I when we say save, probably the primary thing we're doing is actually just feeding them. It's difficult just doing it from a distance and not living down there. You know, it's something we're we're saving towards. We would like to be able to do more and one day start a facility which could help bring some in and help find homes and things. But but for now, it's while we're down there, we will buy up a bunch of food and snacks and treats and water, water bowls, etcetera. And as we're just driving wherever we're going and we see dogs on the road, we'll pull over and put out bowls of food and water.

Clay (00:41:13) - Um, we have tried to facilitate a few adoptions on our first trip last year, we were able to we found a little cute little Chihuahua Chichi, who is now been living with our my brother in law and his family. And this last trip, someone I won't say we've facilitated the adoption. I'm not trying to take credit where it's not due, but someone in our old apartment building where we were staying had just adopted a street dog and we were able to help contribute to getting it spayed or neutered. I forget which one the male is.

Marge (00:41:51) - Male is neutered, but yeah.

Clay (00:41:53) - Yeah. Um, so we contributed to getting neutered, which is another rampant part of the problem is all these wild street dogs out there just mating with each other is just sort of making it worse. So the more they fix the, the more it'll help kind of tamper down on the problem. But it's. It's very small what we do but wish we could do. More. But it's really it comes from the heart.

Clay (00:42:19) - And, you know, a lot of our yeah, we use 15% of our profits from from the sales go towards that to a special fund and we you know we take from that each time but at the same time we're saving for to do more in the future.

Marge (00:42:37) - Well that's pretty awesome though. And I don't think you should discount what you mentioned. You think it's just a little thing. But sometimes these little things cause ripple effects to create bigger things, and 15% of your of your revenue is no is no joke when it comes to putting it aside for a cause that you think is important and just feeding those dogs and saving them honestly, probably a lot of the time because who knows where they get their meals from Now You mentioned that you're eventually one day would like to build a facility of some kind. Is that something that how are you kind of working towards that goal?

Clay (00:43:12) - I mean, again, it's mainly for the fact that when we go down there, we're our customers are also very generous and donate extra on top of the 15% we're contributing and we're just not able to spend it on the trips.

Clay (00:43:26) - You know, we buy a few bags of food, but the money is accumulating. And so that's where, you know, we've always talked about one day we'd like to have a second home in Mexico just to see my wife's family and our nieces and nephews more often. Um, it's just easy living down there, good food, very affordable. So it's something totally within the realm of possibility. We got to kind of take care of things on our own in here first. But so this is, you know, much in the future, I'd say. But it is a goal of ours. And yeah, I think one of the things we'd like to do if we were down there more often and spending time more often is set up, you know, a shelter like facility, hire some folks that hire a veterinarian to, you know, run the thing. And yeah, just try to bring in the dogs off the street. There are, you know, sadly, some that need some vet attention.

Clay (00:44:25) - Broken legs we see often. And so yeah, having a place to take them to do that and then you know, also being a resource for families that are looking for a dog would be great to I hate to see people out buying the cutest breeds when there's a lot out there on the street. They're really just need a loving home and they're so sweet. Then they they clearly have some issues as far as humans go. I don't I see a lot of them very timid and don't like to get near, you know, even close to humans. So I'm not sure what's happened in their paths, but they could certainly use some love.

Marge (00:45:06) - Right? Well, that's such an admirable goal. Goal. And it sounds like you have a lot of big plans ahead of you. A second home and in Mexico, which might help facilitate, you know, your further work with your your charity. So that's that's really wonderful. Um, now this is again, switching gears a little bit, but is there anything that would surprise people about you? And you can't say that you love dogs, because I think that's pretty clear.

Clay (00:45:34) - Um, I don't know. I'm a very easygoing hippie at heart, but you might be surprised by where I'm from. Honestly. I come from a very conservative area of the Deep South, and I like to find myself an outlier where I live. And yeah, I don't you know, I think people often tend to look at a region and judge it very harshly and just assume everyone is similar minded in that area. But where I come from, I'm certainly an outlier. But there's a lot like me, you know, there's a lot of artists out there and there's another breeder, Terp fiend who's kind of out there and he actually happens to come from the same city that I do, but I'd rather not say where. But yeah, probably my location would be the surprise for you where I'm from.

Marge (00:46:32) - Right? Right. Well, yeah. Sometimes it can be really hard when you're grow up in a certain area and people think a certain way, it can be really hard to sort of get out of that mindset and go out and forge your own life.

Marge (00:46:43) - So that would surprise probably a lot of people. But do you have a Oh, sorry. I was just.

Clay (00:46:49) - Going to say, yeah, I've chosen to not let the laws dictate my life. I guess that's what I in my opinion, the difference between a criminal and an outlaw is an outlaw doesn't believe in the law. And, you know, I have no moral issue with what I'm doing. In fact, quite the opposite. I think I'm the good in the world who's spreading, you know, healthy medicine compared to, you know, the big pharmaceuticals and the big, you know, food companies. And yeah, there's a lot of things that are bad for you out there. And I like to think that I'm spreading one of the few good ones.

Marge (00:47:27) - Yeah, absolutely. And having had lost a couple of friends to opiates and that sort of thing, anytime somebody can find some relief or solace or relaxation or whatever the case might be through cannabis, then that's always the preferred route. So yeah, I would definitely agree with that.

Marge (00:47:43) - Now, do you have this was sort of a question I put in the last minute because it's it's interesting the answer sometimes, but do you have a purchase of $100 or less that has most positively impacted your life maybe within the last six months or so?

Clay (00:47:59) - Ooh, that's a tough one. Um. I have one that's more that has more than $100, that it's an espresso machine that has changed my life. I'm drinking more coffee now than ever, right. I'm trying to think under 100. I don't buy a lot outside of Seeds these days, so it would probably be something within my seed collection. I did. I picked up some, uh, some seeds from a breeder up in Washington state called Hoku and they are a semi-auto flowering high CBD, the cannabinoid cannabidiol variant strain, which is really exciting to me. And the research coming out on the versions of THC and CBD are fascinating and I have it growing outdoors, and one of those little guerrilla style runs I mentioned with some of my favorite other auto flowering strains.

Clay (00:49:09) - So in my other sister project, Miracle Plant Genetics, I'm really looking forward to working with the CBD. I think it's something that's going to be interesting the way it has the potential to help people.

Marge (00:49:25) - That's very interesting that you mentioned that. I mean, it's probably no surprise that you spend money on seeds and that's sort of what's most impacted your life in the last six months. Coffee, too, of course. I think you can never discount good coffee, but why would somebody be interested in CBD? Can you talk about a little bit about what's interesting about that particular cannabinoid?

Clay (00:49:46) - Well, to start, there's a lot more research need to be done. I think we're only just scratching the surface. It's showing a lot of the same properties as CBD, just anti-anxiety anti-inflammatory properties. The variant notably showed I think it was Harvard or Princeton or atop a top university, did research on the Covid 19 virus and the variant. I believe it was a THC variant. To be honest, I don't think it was the CBD one, but just the variant strain in particular showed great promise in stopping the virus and or eliminating the virus or in some helping.

Clay (00:50:34) - And so that really that was the first time I had even heard of it. This was a couple of years ago now, but I had always been on the lookout since then. It clearly has, you know, more unique properties than just the non variant strain. So I don't know, you're, you know, there's a lot of surprises to come and I feel this way about CBD as well. CPGs one I'm working with and very interested in and it's shown great relief for, you know, more nerve pain and some, you know, sharp pains, I would say. Right. That's interesting. And so, yeah, there's a couple cannabinoids out there that I just there need to be more studies and more trials done. But in the meantime, I definitely plan to, you know, trial them on myself and others in the community who are interested in trying some new medicinal strains and mixed ratios of these things. And our miracle plant is all about a we're releasing just these random mixed ratios. But with each we send out a questionnaire to the Health and Grow questionnaire about how the the patient went with growing the strain, what it worked well with in their consumption of the strain.

Clay (00:51:52) - And then we're going to compile all that data, get lab tests on each strain, and then we'll dial in the direction we want to go with each. And hopefully in 5 to 10 years of collecting data, we might have wound up with 3 to 5 strains that are really specifically focused on certain, you know, medicinal applications for for home growers.

Marge (00:52:16) - Right. That's that's really cool. It sounds like a very worthwhile project. And it's interesting you mentioned CBD because I've heard of THC. I think I've read that it has potential for helping people with weight loss. I'm not really sure how that the mechanism of action would be for that, but you mentioned that more research is needed and there's so many different compounds in this cannabis plant that is that we still don't know. There's still so much we don't know, and that is why prohibition is so bad, I guess, I mean, for a lot of reasons, but it just means that it also shuts down so much research. How farther ahead would be if we haven't experienced 100 years of prohibition? Same with, you know, mushrooms and all kinds of stuff.

Marge (00:52:57) - Right. So it's unfortunate in a way, but we can't change the past. But it does mean we have a pretty exciting future ahead of us when it comes to what the potential could be. And you're just touching on a little bit of that yourself and getting involved in it yourself, which I think is really cool too, being like, I'm going to guinea pig myself and and try this out and see who wants to join me on these experiments. So I think that's really cool. Now, do you have anything, any other projects, whether personal work or whatever, that you're excited about right now?

Clay (00:53:29) - Yeah. So we have Al Barry has been our mainstay then Miracle Plant Genetics is our mixed ratio projects. And then I'm working on a third still in the genetics world, it's going to be called the Automatic Washer Company. Okay. And it's all about working in specific photo period cuttings that have proven really well as washing strains, which is another word for extracting. Um, so specifically geared at live resin.

Clay (00:54:03) - And I'm working with a partner, a guy who goes on Instagram by Mr. Auto Grow and he grows a lot. Mainly Bloom Seed Company is his preferred but he grows a lot of specifically hash washing strains. He hunts down the best. He's getting really big numbers on certain specific strands and he's sent me cuttings to work them into auto flowers, basically. So the idea just being a we're trying to continually improve the auto flowering gene pool. But B, I neglected to mention earlier one of the big complaints on auto flowers. And the big difference between that and photo periods is they just aren't hitting the the yields as far as extracts go that photo periods are. And I don't think it's anything other than the fact that just specific high yielding strains just haven't really been worked into the auto flowering gene pool yet. It's just that hasn't been a huge focus. I'm not saying I'm the only one. I'm sure there's a handful of others out there who might have some hash washing photo periods. They're trying to work in the autos, but this side project is specifically geared for that.

Clay (00:55:16) - That's going to be the only thing we work towards. And some will be auto flower to auto flower. I have found some auto flowers that do yield well for extracts and have great terpene profiles. So those will be some side projects in between the photo period conversions. But that's a fun one where we're excited for again, probably a year or so plus before anything is going to be ready, but definitely something in the pipeline I'm looking forward to. Also coffee, we've touched on it, but it's a big thing I'm into. And just this past year, in 2022, I started like diving into home, roasting my own. I think it's very much like growing your own cannabis where you start to realize that, Oh, hey, wait a second, for just like a little initial investment up front, I can all of a sudden get better quality, you know, coffee for way cheaper if I just start to like, do it myself, that's that. It is also like cannabis in that it's a wormhole that you dive into and have a lot to learn and a lot to practice and dial in before you might be making something really good.

Clay (00:56:28) - But once you you do have your process and your equipment, it's something that you'll probably enjoy for years and it's just makes it a little more fun to enjoy that cup of coffee in the morning when you yourself roasted the bean and did it all from scratch.

Marge (00:56:45) - So you're you're roasting your own beans and then making it in this new espresso machine that you have. So it sounds like your morning routine is pretty, pretty good.

Clay (00:56:54) - It often comes with like a little sometimes some CBD butter in my coffee or sometimes it's a little puff of some CBD rosin or something. But yeah, I like to start off with a very chill morning, read a book while I have my coffee and just relax. I think it's nice to start your day with like a very clear, chill headspace.

Marge (00:57:16) - Yeah, I like that too. I'm very similar myself. I like to read or just relax in the mornings. I like to get up a little extra little earlier so I can have that time before I start my day for sure with a nice cup of coffee.

Marge (00:57:27) - But the automatic automatic washer genetics, that's something you're saying that you're working on, but that's not currently available. But people can look forward to that because I guess there are certain traits that you would select for as well with some of the cultivars if you're going if you're going to be washing it, right?

Clay (00:57:44) - Yeah, exactly. I mean, wheel like size would be important just for, you know, the size will greatly affect the overall yield. But you know, mostly we're going to be looking at terpene profile and you know good wash percentage numbers um mainly because you know there's a lot of home extractors out there looking for great stuff. But the commercial side of things has also really pushed towards extracts in the, you know, in all the legal areas and auto flowers, as we've mentioned, the huge benefit of, you know, seed to finish in 90 days and probably for cash, even a little less, it's usually going to be 70, 80. Does that think that, you know, it's going to lean well towards the commercial sector and, you know, people are going to want to be you can basically fit in a whole extra harvest each year running autos versus photos.

Clay (00:58:42) - So I think those numbers and those harvest numbers will, you know, push in that direction that they're going to be interested in these type of cultivars.

Marge (00:58:52) - Right? That's very exciting. Clay, it sounds like you have a lot of interesting stuff going on, and I will be sure to link to your stuff in the show notes so people can find your website and all the other projects that you're working on. Where can people find you online?

Clay (00:59:08) - Um, yeah, we just our main website is waller-bridge genetics.com. We're also on Instagram at Bridgehead dot Genetics and all our other pages are tagged on that main page. We also have a Discord page. It's linked on our website if you're interested in finding that. Um, and yeah, we're, we also have an email newsletter that goes out once a month that's you can also find on our website. So if you're looking to stay in the know with what we got going on, that's probably a good a good resource there.

Marge (00:59:48) - Awesome. I'll be sure to link to all that in the show notes, like I said, because you also have, I think, some Instagram accounts around the coffee that you're roasting, some other little projects like that.

Marge (00:59:57) - So I think that's really cool. And I just want to say thank you, Clay, for your time today because you are busy. You've got a lot of stuff going on and I'm sure the listeners have Bite Me will really appreciate hearing from you today.

Clay (01:00:09) - Thank you so much for having me. This is a blast and great, great conversation. So I thank you for what you do and spreading the good word about the plant and edibles.

Marge (01:00:20) - Awesome. Thank you. Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did having it. And as always, I'll put all the relevant items in the show notes so you can find them easily if you want to check out his web page and perhaps support his business, then you'll be able to find that there too. And if you enjoyed this and you know someone else, you might be interested in the subjects that we spoke about today. Please consider sharing with a friend or leave a great review over on your favorite podcasting platform, because those reviews really do help spread the word about the show and what is better than word of mouth, may I ask? Not too much.

Marge (01:00:59) - So of course you can also support the show by using the links that I have in the comments page for the products and services that I personally use. And as always, I'm your host, Marge, and until next week, my friends stay high. Are you tired of trying edibles that are inconsistent and strength and flavor, attempting to figure out your tolerance? Do you want to take control of your edibles experience and find the optimum combination of factors that results in the best outcome? If so, this edibles journal is perfect for you. The Bite Me Edibles Journal provides a convenient and organized way for you to track and record your edibles experience, whether it's homemade edibles or store bought. It includes 48 fillable pages. It sized eight and a half by 11 for plenty of writing space includes information on calculating the potency of homemade edibles, and it was created by an edibles expert. Whether you're a seasoned edibles enthusiast or just starting out on your cannabis journey, the Bite Me Edibles journal is an essential tool for anyone interested in enjoying their edibles to the fullest.

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