Autoflower.org Interviews: Meet the Breeders

[Son of Hobbes]

Good morning everyone!

We are putting together a new interview series for the forum, where we are going to offer a few different formats:

• A magazine-style, article-style Q&A, where questions are selected and posed and they reply at their leisure, then formatted for publication here on the forum.
  
  
• An audio-only recorded interview, where it's a Q&A over the phone or a recorded program online (not live,) then published on the forum.
  
  
• An audio-video recorded interview, where it's potentially live-streamed (potentially embedded on a page here for easy viewing) or pre-recorded and published on the the forum.

The goal is to keep these shorter, to around 8-10 minutes in length at max. Easier reading, content you can read on your work breaks or lunch break, while diving into the background and key issues surrounding the topic.

I have reached out to every breeder on the forum and I want to say virtually every single one of them already agreed to our "introductory series," which is going to focus on origins, the basics of their companies or breeding work, and letting growers get to know them, know them better, or to discover them if they haven't even heard the name before.

I have several interview question sets already sent out to several breeders on here and the ball is rolling!

I also want to extend this invitation to companies that are NOT on the forum, which I think would be a wonderful way to introduce them to what we do, our growers here, and as a soft invite to take part in what we do as a community!

I hope this will be a fun and educational bit for the site and looking forward to getting to know our breeders and vendors better!

@Cultivators
@Global Moderators
@Admin
@Vendors

Appreciated everyone,


Jordan (Son of Hobbes)

 

[BII]

I and likely others are more interested in learning new info. and perspectives vs. "getting to know our breeders and vendors better" (doesn't help me grow better). I suggest also providing text of the audio and audio-video files, which can be computer-generated transcriptions. I generally avoid playing audio and video interviews. I find it much quicker, easier, etc. to scan/read text for what I want to know vs. having to sit through slow-in-comparison audio and video files (but maybe I'm old and this could now be dated, no longer how most want to consume info. online).

Also search engines, including AFN's own content database, and AI training file-sucking programs can more easily extract what they want directly from text. AI-generated summaries could also be provided for those needing/wanting these.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

I suggest also providing text of the audio and audio-video files, which can be computer-generated transcriptions. I generally avoid playing audio and video interviews. I find it much quicker, easier, etc. to scan/read text vs. having to sit through slow-in-comparison audio and video files (but maybe I'm just old and that's now dated, no longer how most want to consume info. online). Also search engines, including AFN's own content database, and AI training file-sucking programs can more easily extract what they want directly from text. AI-generated summaries could also be provided for those needing/wanting these.

I will make sure transcriptions and subtitles are available as part of the SOP for those types of formats. Thank you for your feedback!

 

[Qbgrower]

This sounds good @Son of Hobbes

I enjoy watching the James Loud Podcast on Youtube. Good format.

Qb

 

[BII]

In their limited time, interviews will need to balance entertainment, providing info. about the breeder and letting them present themselves for public consumption vs. providing useful or at least interesting grow-related information/content. I favor hard-core content/information, but I realize many (if not most?) are more interested in stories, personalities and being entertained by interviews.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

In their limited time, interviews will need to balance entertainment, providing info. about the breeder and letting them present themselves for public consumption vs. providing useful or at least interesting grow-related information/content. I favor hard-core content/information, but I realize many (if not most?) are more interested in stories, personalities and being entertained by interviews.

Appreciated. We've run interviews in the past so this isn't totally foreign territory for us, but we will have to find our flow for sure. Even in the interview questions I've already sent out to a few breeders, there is some variety in the questions depending on how long they've been doing it, size of operation, etc.

These initial interviews are strictly meant as a brief introduction into the breeders and their genetic work (kind of a "20 questions" kind of thing.) Once we get through the introduction series, we can start to focus and hammer on more specific genetic questions (including the hard questions and deeper dives into specific topics.) One of the soft goals of this is to be able to provide these questions to not one, but any of the breeders that would want to participate, so we can get a multitude of answers on a single question from a variety of breeders.

Would be very interesting to see where breeders are in agreement on certain topics and where they differ!

 

[Son of Hobbes]

We will probably NOT be doing another radio broadcast channel though. Wink wink.

lol

 

[BII]

Also please consider going outside the community of AFN-familar "breeders" and cannabis seed companies and seek out cannabis 'breeding' experts from other communities, particularly industry and science/academia, whose views and input we just don't get here on AFN. This includes cannabis breeding/genetics/growing experts from the largest scale dispensary-supplying growers and now also 'hemp' growers for bulk CBD manufacture; companies doing genuine high tech and novel plant breeding and R&D; from leading cannabinoid pharmaceutical developers, such as GW Pharm. (now Jazz); academic-based cannabis 'breeders,' etc.

Has "The Smoking Question" been adopted as the title? Catchy, but does AFN really want to needlessly associate itself with smoking, which is just bad, unhealthy (vs. avoiding combustion, such as dry bud vaping)? Do most AFNers, presumably more knowledgeable about consuming cannabis than the general user population, even smoke nowadays? [I've been only vaping (using dry bud vaporizers) for about 35 years now]. Rather than smoking, perhaps consider a catchy title using "auto."

 

[tobe]

@Son of Hobbes
We talked about that topic and I really like the idea of a interview series. I remember the old interviews in the live stoner chat was much fun. A video podcast is also a nice idea for sure.

To get other breeders on board for interview is also a great idea. If you need help to ask around feel free to ask me.

This sounds good @Son of Hobbes

I enjoy watching the James Loud Podcast on Youtube. Good format.

Qb

I also enjoy the jamesloud podcast, I talked to him two times a very friendly and open minded guy for sure.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Also please consider going outside the community of AFN-familar "breeders" and cannabis seed companies and seek out cannabis 'breeding' experts from other communities, particularly industry and science/academia, whose views and input we just don't get here on AFN. This includes cannabis breeding/genetics/growing experts from the largest scale dispensary-supplying growers and now also 'hemp' growers for bulk CBD manufacture; companies doing genuine high tech and novel plant breeding and R&D; from leading cannabinoid pharmaceutical developers, such as GW Pharm. (now Jazz); academic-based cannabis 'breeders,' etc.

I'm more than fine with this, but I have a personal ask on this:

It would be incredibly helpful if you guys could help make me a list of companies, breeders, or people that you would like for us to invite for an interview. Post them in here or PM me if you'd like.

I find suggestions to hold more weight when the people suggesting them are invested into their own ideas. If you can help facilitate the process so I don't have to start from scratch in every direction, that would help us keep the momentum! Names, websites, e-mails, telephone numbers, socials, etc.

Has "The Smoking Question" been adopted as the title? Catchy, but does AFN really want to needlessly associate itself with smoking, which is just bad, unhealthy (vs. avoiding combustion, such as dry bud vaping)? Do most AFNers, presumably more knowledgeable about consuming cannabis than the general user population, even smoke nowadays? [I've been only vaping (using dry bud vaporizers) for about 35 years now]. Rather than smoking, perhaps consider a catchy title using "auto."

Smoking is still the #1 consumption method of cannabis in 2025. And it's a play on "the burning question."

It's not set in stone but that is hardly where I want to spend my energy brother lol.