THE GARDENS OF THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS
by Dharma Clement
At Synergy Wellness the majority of our flowers come from a wonderful garden on the southern end of the Klamath Mountain Range, that overlooks the snow capped Marble Mountains at a 3,600 foot elevation, the local flora enjoys a particular micro climate of the Klamath River water basin.
Some of the rocks that built these Klamath mountains traveled thousands of miles across the Pacific, often as chains of volcanic islands that were formed in the tropics. Today’s limestones and marbles in the range began as coral reefs. The land was repeatedly uplifted, folded, and sheared by faults that brought peridotite and serpentine from Earth’s mantle to the surface.
Where the garden is in particular, we have beautiful mountains consisting of a single long crest that runs over 20 miles east to west. Much of the range is composed of reddish peridotite, giving it a distinct appearance. This mix of volcanic soil and serpentine soil provides a particular soil environment of clay and silt and loam that a variety of cannabis plants can thrive in.
While other gardeners might prefer the ease of cultivating in sandy loam soil of a river bed, the minerals and natural nutrients in the clay and sand of ancient soils provide that extra character to the flowers grown in this particular geographical area.
Another attribute of cultivating cannabis in the northern mountains of California is with the higher elevation, there is additional UV exposure to botanical plants, those UV-A and UV-B rays that give us a great tan which we avoid because of the risk of skin cancer, are meanwhile being happily absorbed by the wild flowers, the evergreens, and cannabis plants of the area.
Many cannabis varietals thrive with this higher intensity of Ultraviolet rays, increasing their rate of photosynthesis and accelerating their conversion of sugars into trichomes, which ironically, they do so to protect themselves from those same UV rays, a natural sunscreen of sorts, and pleasantly provide us humans with a better herb.
In the Klamath mountains, the UV rating starts at 3 in March, the spring season, and goes as high as 7 during the summer months before it settles back down to 3 in October, the harvest season. Gardeners beware, these UV ratings match the tropics so be vigilant to wear sunscreen if you're out in the sun for more than 30 minutes.
But unlike the tropics, the cannabis grown in the Klamath mountains of California enjoy hot summer days and cool summer nights, with the dew drops on the leaves and early morning tully fog in the valley. Along with this daily baptism of water from the rolling clouds, the natural springs on the land are derived from snowmelt, slowly filtering through the serpentine soil, enriched with natural minerals and absent of any toxins, waiting for us in the natural granite aquifers.
The terroir of these Klamath mountains ; with its ancient oceanbeds , volcanic rocks, snowmelt waters and tropical sunshine is something special for any human to enjoy and creates something unique when it comes to the botanical characteristics of the cannabis varietals ☺
