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Cannabis Cactus

Camp Ruderalis – Autoflower Cup 2021


We all… ok ok, most of us all love and use cannabis and well, most of us know about sativa, indica, and even hybrid strains. So what other type of cannabis strain is there you may ask. Well, there is a type of cannabis known as cannabis ruderalis. This type of cannabis was more commonly known to grow wild in Asia and Russia, but now is being used by more and more breeders and growers because of some of its special features. This less known type of cannabis was classified in 1924 by a Russian botanist by the name of D.E Janischewsky. When he was studying cannabis, he noticed this particular type grew much smaller yet more hardy. Ruderalis is also what they call an auto-flowering type of cannabis. Your typical sativa and indica strains start flowering when the light cycle changes, but not ruderalis. This autoflower type goes from vegetation state to flowering state without the light cycle being changed. (AND NOW EVEN THE RUSSIAN BOTANISTS CLASSIFICATION THEORY HAS BEEN QUESTIONED) But what ruderalis has and is changing is grow rooms and growers cups. It changes the game in a lot of ways and to get the scoop on the ruderalis buzz and happening I went to a guy who has been putting on the Auto-Flower Cup for a while now. So let’s spark up and dig in….

What’s your name and event name?

Chef Sebastian Carosi, better known as the short-order cannabis revolutionary. The event is THE AUTOFLOWER CUP 2021 at Camp Ruderalis.

When was the cup created? Where is it held?

In 2019, Carla and I were part of the first annual Autoflower Cup in Selma, OR. This first cup was produced by James Hastings of Black Hat Genetics and was kind of haphazardly thrown together. Seeing room for improvement in many areas we married our love of the outdoors and outdoor activities and event production experience with The Autoflower Cup award ceremony. COVID kept us cup free in 2020, this year we are back. In 2019 we crowned @firebudz101 the cup winner and @fullduplex_afn second place winner, this year the autoflower sector has grown over 500% and we expect well over the number of entries we received in 2019. This year we’ve also added a category called (anything but autoflower) for all the photoperiod growers and smokable hemp flower growers. Camp Ruderalis is planned for August 6th, 7th and 8th at a rustic 1940’s waterfront lodge in Lilliwaup, WA on the Hood Canal in the legal state of Washington.

Who all attends the cup? Like do people come from all over? Big names?

Autoflower growers, autoflower enthusiasts, commercial cannabis growers, cannabis enthusiasts, those wondering wtf an autoflower is, and a large portion of the home growers movement. Seth Ferranti, Shango Los from Shaping Fire, Robyn Griggs Lawrence, and Liz and Patrick from Growhouse Texas are some friends of ours that will be attending and who knows who else will stop in like local seed breeder Jinx or maybe David Tran, founder of the dope cup and dope magazine.

What type of categories are there?

The categories for the autoflower cup 2021 are:

AUTOFLOWER CATEGORY

  1. open to autoflower growers only (lineage and genetics info due with all entries), indoor, outdoor, indica dom, sativa dom, home-growers, closet cultivators, basement bandits and licensed grows 

  2. 35 gram jar due by July 12th

‘ANYTHING BUT’ AUTOFLOWER CATEGORY

  1. open to photoperiod, low thc (hemp), indoor, outdoor, indica, sativa, home-growers, farmers & licensed cultivators

  2. 35 gram jar due by July 12th

AUTOFLOWER EXTRACTS CATEGORY

  1. open to any extract, hash, bho, pho, cho, bubble, solventless, squish, etc

  2. 8 gram container due by July 12th 

AUTOFLOWER EDIBLES CATEGORY

  1. open to any ingestible infused food products

  2. 12 properly packaged individual pieces due by July 12th

**Entry fees are $200 per entry

How could someone enter the cup? What are the entry rules?

The first prerequisite would be that they are growing true autoflower genetics. All rules and regulations, entry form, and the link to pay the entry fees can be found on our website at campruderalis.com/autoflower-cup.

We all know it’s a cup so judging is important. How is that done?

Winning the cup will do a tremendous amount for somebody’s brand and or genetics. We have teamed up with a local lab to do full screen potency and terpene profile analytics and have also chosen 20 legends and icons in the cannabis industry to help us judge this year’s autoflower cup. We’re hoping that it will help educate more people about autoflowers and ruderalis. We will be using a double blind study format with an online judges portal for entering each judges independent evaluation.

If someone attended the cup what could they expect? What type of experience is it?

Moving a little away from the festival atmosphere and turning to a more education-based format in the kind of outdoor centered environment we feel so many cannabis enthusiasts share our enjoyment of. Highlighting some of this years speakers will be Dan (@fullduplex_afn) of Mandalorian Genetics, Mike (@firebudz101) of Firebudz Genetics, Rob from Seattle Chronic Seeds, and Josh Gonzales of Walden Cannabis (a commercial sun grown autoflower grower), Darrel (@dparnooch) speaking about wild Pacific Northwest psilocybin and several live cooking demonstrations by yours truly. And remember, just think – you are in a very remote location deep in America’s only fjord that is full of wild oysters, clams, and of course the forests are full of wild mushrooms… Itinerary below…

Friday’s Camp Ruderalis activities (day one)

  1. 8am-11am arrival, setup and getting associated with the lay of the land

  2. 12pm marketplace / vendor village opens: invited guests, customers, and industry professionals welcome

  3. 1pm WTF is an autoflower anyways? – speaker Full Duplex AF / Mandalorian Genetics

  4. 1:30pm artisan chocolate shop opens (sponsored by Magical Butter and True Terpenes)

  5. 2:30pm debunking a few autoflower myths – speaker Full Duplex AF / Mandalorian Genetics

  6. 4:20pm waterfront sesh – meet and greet (byob and some to share by trade, I’m sure we will still be limited on the puff, puff pass due to COVID-19 restrictions)

  7. 5:00pm One Tree Planted Auction (seeds, flowers, glass, and other goodies)

  8. 6:00pm music on the waterfront

  9. 8:00pm exploring PNW wild psilocybin speaker (azurescens and cyanescens)

  10. 9:00pm screening of the documentary Fantastic Fungi

  11. 10:30pm cannabis themed s’mores kits available at campfire pits

  12. 11:30pm lights out (just kidding you’re a fucking adult, wear your pajamas around if you want to)

Saturday’s Camp Ruderalis activities (day two)

  1. 8am pancake + waffle breakfast sponsored by Magical Butter, Waffleye, Identity CBD

  2. 9am wild mushroom forage and foray in the Olympic National Forest

  3. 10am wild oyster harvest with Olympic Oyster Company (tides permitting)

  4. 11am artisan chocolate shop opens (sponsored by Magical Butter and True Terpenes), food truck opens for business, marketplace / vendor village opens

  5. 1:00pm One Tree Planted Auction (seeds, clones, glass, and other goodies), joint rolling competition

  6. 2:30pm oyster shucking with the short-order cannabis revolutionary and Olympic Oyster Company

  7. 3:00pm why we chose autos Q&A – speakers FullDuplexAF & Firebudz101

  8. 4:00pm group photo #1

  9. 4:20pm waterfront sesh (byob and some to share, I’m sure we will still be limited on the puff, puff pass due to COVID-19 restrictions)

  10. 4:30pm campfire chili cookoff entries due (chili must be made here at Camp Ruderalis)

  11. 6:00pm closet cultivators + basement bandits – am I still an outlaw? – speaker Capt. Stubing rob, seaseattle chrchronic seeds 

  12. 7:10pm solventless squish demo session (bring your flowers to squish)

  13. 8:00pm music on the waterfront

  14. 12:00am midnight campfire sesh – talkin’ trees + living soil cannabis themed s’mores kits available at campfire pits

Sunday’s Camp Ruderalis activities (day three)

  1. 8am pancake + waffle breakfast sponsored by Magical Butter, Waffleye, Identity CBD

  2. 10am wild mushroom forage and foray in the Olympic National Forest (limited spaces available), wild oyster harvest with Olympic Oyster Company (tides permitting)

  3. 11am marketplace vendor village open for guests

  4. 1:30pm autism awareness auction

  5. 2:30pm clam chowder entries due

  6. 3:00pm hunting wild psilocybin in the Pacific Northwest – speaker D. Parnooch

  7. 4:00pm award ceremony begins, crowing the new autoflower champion

  8. 4:20pm blowing big clouds smoke sesh and winners toast

  9. 4:20pm IG live takeover (everyone goes live at one time during the award ceremony)

  10. 4:30pm group photo #2   

  11. 6:00pm clam chowder and campfire chili winners announced

  12. 8:00pm music on the waterfront

  13. 10:00pm cannabis themed s’mores kits available at campfire pits (if available)

How could some attend as a guest/attendee?

Jump on the website at campruderalis.com/autoflower-cup and purchase one of the mini-bunkhouse dorm packages and let us pick you up at the airport. So you can experience one hell of an event centered around cannabis ruderalis or you can just purchase a 3-day VIP pass and drive in every day but parking is EXTREMELY limited.

How do you see the future of cannabis going in the next 5 to 10 years?

My true opinion will fill more space than we have time and magazine for, but I do see ruderalis aka: autoflowers, becoming a huge part of mainstream cannabis production here in the United States. With that said, not many people in the cannabis space even know what ruderalis is. Hopefully, we will help raise awareness through events like this about clean full spectrum cannabis consumption through food and ruderalis… aka: wild cannabis.

Will the cup ever host multiple events in multiple states? If so, what are some states you are looking at?

Camp Ruderalis, our outdoor event production company, has plans to move the Autoflower Cup to various states and areas of legalization. As an event production company, Carla and I have several other events planned this year… A hemp harvest women’s farm retreat in Palisade, CO sometime in October as well as THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST WILD PSILOCYBIN SYMPOSIUM on the Long Beach Peninsula of Washington State in November among several other smaller events scattered around the Pacific Northwest.

Pretty high, pretty educated… so if I missed anything you’d like to add, please feel free.

Be sure to check out our Instagram pages and give us a follow…

And if you’re an autoflower grower, gear up to get your samples in before July 12th…

I commissioned those bad ass hand drawn posters from Kyle Shold of Freshwater Bay Creative and had them printed on hemp from Hemppress in Eugene, Oregon. Our judges kit containers are recycled ocean plastics from Sana Packaging and recycled glass from Treehugger, placed in hemp paper boxes from Hemppress of course… (p.s. the environment is a big deal to us)

WOW!!! So much to do, see, try, and experience. I guess the big question is are you attending the AutoFlower Cup? If not, I have one more question. WHY NOT? Well I guess there could be a few reasons. If not this year, this sounds like something that should be on every cannabis and outdoors type of person’s bucket list. I know me personally, well I love camping, smoking, learning, educating, and meeting new like minded people. That is why I had to dig deeper into this event and why I have to attend. New, educational, and fun!

What if Cactus were……. Never mind, I’ll leave that for another time!

The Cannabis Cactus Magazine has more great interviews.




Shane Stanford is a dank dad living in New Mexico. Read more of his articles and follow him on Instagram @NMBeardedMan

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