Hello everyone. I want to start a conversation on my favorite subject. Seeds and Genetics. I’ve got seeds from about two dozen breeders, and I definitely have my favorites and my not so favorites. I would love to hear about the seed companies you are all familiar with, both good and bad. What strains are your favorites, and what strains aren’t. What strains produce for commercial growers, and what doesn’t. Dispensary/Retailers, it would also be great to hear what sells and what doesn’t. Anything on this topic is fair game. What are the highest CBD strains, what strains have decent THC:CBD ratios…etc… etc… Let me know your favorite strains to smoke and why.
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I’ll start this topic with a question I guess. What do you feel are the top 5 commercial strains and why?
I know Gorilla Glue#4 is a great strain that does really well under HPS and especially under LED lighting. I see it’s a very popular strain in Oregon and Washington when looking at dispensary menus. I haven’t heard as much about the popularity among users though, so if any Bud Tenders are reading this please let me know what you think. This is one of the strains that I wonder if the popularity is Grower driven as it’s a high yielder, or if there is actually a customer demand.
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I have ordered seeds from Nirvana and Humbolt seed co also from a Canadian company I can’t remember. All those seeds were great Nirvana AK 47, master kush, Aurora Indica, ICE, comes to mind and all strains are great. Humbolt bubba kush, OG kush, they too were fantastic… the canadian company I got BC bud…it was good as well. I ordered from GYO seedbank and ALL there seeds were crap didn’t germinate at all. No customer service either I would not recommend they rip off and I ordered alot of different strains feminized NOTHING. As far as my favorite Bubba Kush just a beautiful lush green with huge buds larger than golf ball diameters. Chemdog and Blue dream are my big producers as well as bubba. My OG Kush is Indica plant has decent buds. The ICE is a sativa which I grew both indoor and outdoor huge output 5 lbs a plant the outdoor was 20’ height and 10’ diameter plant. The test was only 16% THC though. All my Indias had great CBD’s OG had 20.5-23% THC and CBDs .08-1.0 Bubba was high can’t remember CBD but THC was 24% Chemdawg was 27% THC low CBD of .02 My Blue Dream about the same as Chemdawg. I like Blue Dream for daytime stuff and Bubba Kush for nightime co.uch lock relaxing
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Dispensary Perspective
I used to be a manager at the the Green Cross dispensary in SF before I started Growers House and there we always had Blue Dream as the #1. Some weeks it wasn’t on top, but when you normalize the numbers from every strain we sold over a month or more it would always come out on top. I have some speculation as to why:
- It’s a hybrid, so in a way it can be explained to customers to be a little bit of everything. Good for daytime, good for relaxing, good for sleep…whether or not those are true for you, they can be true for others who react differently.
- It’s easy to grow, and it produces better than average in terms of dry weight.
Our number two strain was my personal favorite, Dragon’s Breath. Not a lot of strains truly make me feel euphoric. This one certainly does. It’s a sativa dominant hybrid, so I don’t usually recommend it for sleeping, but I’ve used it plenty of times before going out to dinner with friends and thoroughly enjoyed myself without having any trouble sleeping later that night.
Somehow, I’ve never grown this strain. I don’t grow currently, but will be in about 6 months. When I do, this will be one of the first seeds I’m going to go after. Probably buy it from as many sources as I can, grow them out, see what I like best and then scrap the rest.
Other honorable mentions for most popular strains at the Green Cross: OG Kush, Granddaddy Purple, Sour Diesel, Green Crack, and Jack Herer.
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Thanks for Posting @espx. Great info. I’ve used a couple seed banks
- The Vault - U.K. ( https://www.cannabis-seeds-store.co.uk/ )
- Neptune Seed Bank ( http://www.neptuneseedbank.com/ )
- Oregon Elite Seeds ( http://oregoneliteseeds.com/ )
and I’ve also just bought straight from the breeders, such as;
- Twisty Treat Seeds. ( https://twistytreatseeds.com/ )
The Vault is out of the UK and had Great customer Service, and shipped my order quickly. It was always interesting to see how it arrived. Sometimes the seeds were in a pair of socks, sometimes a kids toy, or a cd case… I enjoyed seeing what they shipped it with almost as much as the seeds arriving. 
Neptune Seed Bank - Customer Service was quick to respond. We had a problem with payment several times. It got sorted out, but it was online payments which made it much more difficult. My Google account got suspended for breach of service trying to purchase from them. It was a little bit of a hassle but it all worked out and I got some great seeds from them.
Oregon Elite Seeds - I ordered from them twice. Once it required me to mail a money order to an address. The second time they got paypal working. Everything was sent and arrived quickly.
My best experience was with Twisty Treat Seeds. The Breeder is in Colorado. Seems to be a legit breeder with an impressive selection of genetics that he works with. I haven’t tried to pop any of his seeds yet as I got my hands full keeping about 11 strains going right now. When I do I’ll let you all know how it goes.
I’m attaching my list of seeds below, with breeder info. The ones with asterisks are the strains I currently have mother plants from. Humboldt Seed Organizations Blue Dream seeds were outstanding. I have two very impressive plants from them with very tight internode spacing and a nice compact bush shaped plant. The Barneys Farm Seeds did really well, and I’ve tried three strains from them. The Jack Herers from Green House seeds were beautiful compact and healthy plants. If anyone has any questions about any of the plants with an asterisk I’d be happy to share my notes with you.
Here’s my list of Seeds I’ve collected so far.
- Tangerine Dream* - Barneys Farm - Indica Dominant Strain with Sativa Dom Phenos
- Sweet Tooth* - Barneys Farm - Indica Dom Strain with Sativa Dom Phenos
- Grandaddy Confidential - Pheno Finder Seeds
- Berry Bomb* - Bomb Seed Co.
- Jack Herer* - Green House Seeds
- Acapulco Gold* - Barneys Farm - Sativa Dom Strain with Sativa Dom Phenos.
- Candy Kush Express* - Royal Queen Seeds - Indica Dom Strain - Indica Dom Phenos
- BCN Diesel* - Kannabia Seed Co. - Sativa Dom Strain w/ Indica Dom Phenos
- Diamond Cookies - Moxie Seeds
- Chocolate Haze* - Royal Queen Seeds - All Sativa
- Blue Dream* - Humboldt Seed Organization. - Mostly Sativa - Indica Pheno
- Blue Mystic* - Royal Queen Seeds - Mostly Indica - Indica Phenos
- Ygriega* - Medical Seeds - Mostly Sativa - Sativa Phenos
- Grape Kush 3F - Cali Connection
- Grapefruit Diesel 2F - Pheno Finder Seeds
- Charlottes Cream - Twist Treat Seeds
- CBD Juliet - Twisty Treat Seeds
- CDB Rainbow Punch - Twisty Treat Seeds
- Afghan Kush - World of Seeds
- Goat Bananas _ Scapegoat Genetics
- White Berry Zinger - Twisty Treat Seeds
- Twisty’s Delight _ Twisty Treat Seeds
- Cotton Candy - Twisty Treat Seeds
- Sweet Tart - Twisty Treat Seeds
- Purple buddha x Starburst - Twisty Treat Seeds
- Florida Lemon Haze - Twisty Treat Seeds
- Galactic Cherries - Andromeda Strains
- Imperial Destroyer - Andromeda Strains
- ATF (Alaskan Thunder F**K) - Twisty Treat Seeds
- Tarantula Dip - Sun Grown Genetics
- Sour 78 - Sun Grown Genetics
- Northern Lights - Local Petersburg Alaska Clone
- White Widow - Local Petersburg Clone
34 Hubbabubbasmelloscope - Mephisto Genetics - Key Lime Pie - Burning Bush
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Thanks @Nate!
I was hoping to hear someone with retail knowledge chime in. I popped a bunch of seeds a few months back with the intention of creating a small library of mother plants. My plan is to choose from these 11 strains for the first couple cycles. I’ve been trying to figure out which 4 or 5 to choose for the first grow. Blue Dream is the only strain that I automatically had a spot reserved for in the first grow and probably several grow cycles after. It just might be the most universally well liked strain overall. You’ve just added to that opinion.
I was happy to see Jack Herer on your honorable mention list too. Jack is another strain I’m growing and while it’s a smaller plant and not an exceptional yielder, it’s a beautiful plant and I’ve heard its an excellent smoke. Of my current mother plants there are three strains that I feel are exceptional phenotypes; Blue Dream, Jack Herer, and Candy Kush Express. Chocolate Haze and Y Griega are two others that are very strong contenders. I want to find some room for Acapulco Gold too, as I’d really like to have a strain that’s just a nice mellow hippie era throwback.
My big problem is I expected to have an easier time deciding which to choose. I’d love to hear some input of what I should start with. My first couple grows I won’t be supplying any local retailers where I live. So far there’s only one business locally planning to open a retail shop, but this person may never make it past the application stage. I have no confidence this person has the follow through to make it a reality. Since I don’t need to grow 6-7 strains to give the local shop some variety I’ll be concentrating on 4-5 strains and pushing them hard to maximize yield.
I’m pretty excited about some of the genetics i picked up for down the road too. I’ve got some Granddaddy Confidential (Grandaddy Purple x LA Confidential). I’m interested in Goat Bananas by Scapegoat genetics, and Galactic Cherries (PlanetPlush x Cherry Sauce). Twisty Treats White Berry Zinger (Watermelon Jolly Rancher x Creamsicle) looks pretty amazing… ahh so many more… I’m addicted to buying seeds
I looked up dragons breath, and was surprised to see its a cross between Jack Herer and Northern Lights. Sounds great. Do you know of any Dragons Breath breeders or is it a clone only strain?
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I have been growing from seed and pheno hunting since I first started my garden. The reason was out of necessity I had no access to reliable or verifiable clones so I had to start somewhere. I started with some dutch brands and feminized seed and was quickly disappointed. This is not to imply there are not good breeders or feminized seed, simply not the ones I had gone with. I then started hitting forums and following up and coming breeders and the trends in the community. This was when I started finding the genetics I was looking for. My first score was a pack of OG Raskal White S1 (Feminized) seeds from his first drop on THC Farmer. I ended up winning that pack in auction, I don’t remember what I paid but I still have that strain in rotation and it is still one of my personal favorites. That was around 7 years ago and I have yet to bring a clone into my garden from and outside source since. I think some of the best breeders are right here in The U.S we don’t have to look far at all. I will give a list of extremely trustworthy breeders and genetics below. I will try to get some pics up to support my post as well. Like they day a picture speaks a thousand words.
Breeders List:
Bodhi Seeds
Hazeman Seeds
Dynasty Genetics
Gage Green Group
Sin City Seeds
Exotic genetics
Cannarado Seeds
Archive Seeds
OG Raskal Genetics
ThugPug Genetics
Dungeon Vault Genetics
Melvanetics Seeds
Top Dawg Seeds
Karma Genetics
Mosca Negro
Seed Junky Seeds
Ocean Grown Seeds
Loompa Farms
Dirt Farmer Genetics
Brothers Grimm Seeds
Garden of Dreams seeds
Motarebel Seeds
Pisces Genetics
I know I am forgetting more than a few great breeders, but I have grown genetics from most every breeder listed and can attest to them beeing good breeders. If you cannot pick a few breeders from that list and find something very special between a few packs of their genetics I would be completely shocked. These are all breeders I feel you can buy 1 pack and find a “keeper” plant no problem. It’ would to be able to pop thousands of seeds and hunt through them to find the most elite of elites, I currently know someone who has popped over 12,000 seeds and is starting another 12-15,000 over the next few month’s. But for the common man I feel a breeder should be shooting to produce genetics that will provide a keeper plant every pack and I don’t think there’s a breeder on my list that wouldn’t meet the challenge. I will be making another post to follow with some strains I have ran and pictures of the genetics as well. Thanks for starting the thread @garymorgan you picked a great subject.
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Here’s a couple pics of My Salmon River OG - Dynasty genetics OG Raskal White S1and a Cookies cross that I lost track of the breeder information on so I refer to them as Mystery Cookies. The Salmon River and Cookies were grown organically with minimal inputs. The White S1 was fed the Veg+Bloom line and a few other additives.
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Those are some Lovely Frosty Buds @satchi ! Great info too about the breeders and strains you’ve been using. This is exactly the kind of info I was hoping would get shared. All the time you’ve spent trying out genetics from these breeders gives me and everyone else reading this some confidence in trying out those companies. We all want to grow strains that are winners for both the growers and consumers. There are plenty of mistakes and time wasted, but if we can all help each other reach a higher standard that should be what this forum is all about. I find the topic of Seeds, Strains and Genetics just fascinating anyway. I’ve always enjoyed strategy games and with all the choices and decisions involved in being a grower it feels like I’m playing a high stakes strategy game. As with all strategy games building a team of experts that can share knowledge is how you can all come out on top.
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I’ll post some pictures of my mother plants tonight. I have 11 different strains and about 40+ plants left (I’ve given away a bunch recently, trying to get down to just 1 or 2 per strain that I want to run with). My mothers I’m currently growing in soil, and using Vegamatrix Nute’s. I’m about to start cutting clones from my top 5 strains, which will all be grown hydroponically (RDWC). I’ll veg the clones in bubble pots then transfer to The Current Culture RDWC system in early February.
I just got some good news yesterday on the Licensing front. The State of Alaska finished reviewing my Application paperwork and have recommended my application for board approval for the Feb 2nd-3rd, 2017 meeting. I should be green lighted and officially be able to move my plants to the Grow Facility after Board approval. I have two other things to finish. The Fire Marshal Full Plan Review and the Department of Environmental Conservation Wastewater Permit. Both are in the process of completion so I’m past the biggest hurdles. It’s full speed downhill now.
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Congrats on the progress on the licensing front! I bet you can’t wait to get started.
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Fire as usual. Nice work.
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Thanks Miles that means a lot coming from you brother.
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The Holiday Season kinda took over all my spare time recently. I’ll try to get some pictures up tonight of some of my mother plants. I’ve shortened my strain list down to Blue Dream, Candy Kush Express, and Chocolate Haze. I think this is the three I’m gonna roll with on the first go.
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Looking forward to seeing the pictures - it’s exciting seeing your operation take shape @garymorgan!
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Nothing too exciting, but I’ve got some cuttings in my Power Cloner. I took the lid off for the pictures.
Strains = Blue Dream, Chocolate Haze, Candy Kush
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Well I just went and bought some more seeds. 
I’m like a woman in a shoe store! I decided not to use clones for my first grow. I want to really give the Main-line training technique an honest effort. The technique works best from seed, so I looked through all my seeds and wasn’t inspired. I ended up getting 3 strains from Exotic Genetics @ www.seedsherenow.com
Kimbo Kush - (Blackberry Kush x Starfighter F2 TA)
The Pink - (Predator Pink x Starfighter F2)
Black Mamba - (Mint Chocolate Chip x The Cube) The Cube = Starfighter IBL !
I also grabbed this from Ocean Grown Seeds;
B-Witched - Witches Weed x Wizards Potion
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Love the colors on those, they are gorgeous.
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I was leaning toward bag appeal and great flavor/terpene content. I’m pretty excited about all the Exotic Genetix and Ocean Grown lineups. Ocean Grown has a strain that I just missed, I’m on the waiting list now. it’s called Ninja Fruit. It’s got amazing color!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BE_9HBGNlVY/?taken-by=oceangrownseeds
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Those are some excellent pictures! I love the purple color on that Ninja Fruit.
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