Breeding Denver’s Nuggets – Part 1

My first breeding experiments involved a few clones I had been given by a mentor and fellow grower, as well as some Mexican sativa males. I noticed early on that the hybrids outperformed both parents in all growing conditions. They were more vigorous than either parent, produced more resin and flowers, and didn’t seem bothered by pests.

In 1995, I purchased my first professionally grown seeds: Haze from Positronics and Northern Lights from Sensi Seeds. They were both amazing and miles apart in every aspect. For my first crop, I made F2s and hybrids of both plants. This very first hybrid was the starting point of many hybrids and inline crosses to come. I worked these lines and a few others and purchased a few more seeds in the coming years. I gave seed to everyone I knew and encouraged them to grow!

In 1997, I discovered DJ Short and his wonderful Blue Velvet. I also purchased many other seeds and continue to work them to this day. Blue Velvet was a wonder plant to me – a perfect marriage of indica and sativa expression in a blue, very “berry-coffee” mind-expanding package. I let all 10 seeds cross-pollinate and made a few hundred seeds to sift through. I didn’t make another seed for over a year due to the fact that the BV F2s were so fascinating to grow. They exhibited every expression I could imagine out of a hybrid – some plants looking 100% indica, some 100% sativa, and every combination in between.

I was also growing the NL-Haze hybrid, which showed the same variance. Two years later, I purchased 50 more Blue Velvet seeds and chose the best males and best females to once again make seed. Only this time, I had a real goal in mind: I wanted to create two distinct seed lines out of the plant, one that was the best indica expression and one with the highest sativa expression. My goals were reached after a couple of years, and I had two polar-opposite lines out of one amazing plant. They are opposite in structure, finishing time and type of high, but very similar in the “berry-coffee-chocolate” aspect of their smell and flavor.

In the following years, I made several inline crosses and hybrids of the Blue Velvet, and it’s still my go-to pollen source for learning what another plant has to offer in a cross. I know what it brings to the table due to the fact that I have such a personal relationship with it.

Blue Velvet, Haze, Northern Lights, Mexican sativas and hybrids of the lot were my starting point. In the following years, I continued to grow on many levels while collecting as many elite cuttings and seed lines as I could get my hands on. This was no easy task in the unforgiving social climate of Texas. I met very few growers in the early days, and security was a big concern. My only saving grace was the Internet: With the help of growing and seed forums, I made friends from all over globe who had similar interests and goals.

We all know how the events of September 11, 2001 changed our lives and freedoms forever. What people don’t know, however, is how much those same events would alter the lives of cannabis growers and breeders for years to come. In an odd way, it opened the door to new travel and seed-collecting destinations that many breeders had only dreamed of. America’s new role as global policeman and “nation-builder” gave many adventure-seeking people the chance to travel to far-off lands while answering the call of duty, or to help build or rebuild the infrastructure and commerce in those places.

In my case, this led to a new frontier in agriculture. Land-of-origin seeds from places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central and East Africa, India and South America soon found their way into my quiver of varieties. The best thing I learned from Rob Connell Clarke is the importance of a deep, pure and clean gene pool to swim in, and the best thing I learned from the great Luther Burbank is the importance of running large numbers of plants. But the “running numbers” part quickly got to be a big issue in Texas, so it was time for a move.

I knew that if I was going to continue my work on any scale, I had to move to a more hospitable climate. Amsterdam wasn’t even an option, and Cali seemed a little too Wild West, so my best and only real option was Colorado. I didn’t think I could ever love a place as much as Texas, but CO is now home, and love it I do.

In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve met and become friends with some of the best people and growers anywhere. The attitude of the people here – a.k.a. voters – has made it possible for the state to become the new mecca for cannabis genetics. There are so many people doing so many things to make it possible for the medical community to have access to high-quality genetics, which is paramount to growing the best plants, so making good seed available to the medical community is our goal, and I’m working with a small group of fine growers to help make this a reality.

I’m currently working on infusing Old World genetics into the elite, clone-only hybrid plants that so many of us have grown to love. I don’t consider the plants I work with to be true landrace plants; I do, however, consider them to be true-breeding, well-worked stock from land-of-origin sources. Very few have been collected from wild populations; they were mostly given to me by farmers who’ve held and selected the plants for generations. The Lashgar Gah Afghani I run was reportedly kept in the same family for over a century. I’ve grown many plants collected from the wild and found them to be very unpredictable; the worked plants are much more reliable and have already been selected for resin production and vigor.

We’re currently planning a summer release of a few well-worked lines such as the Blue Velvet, Hanis, NL x Haze and P-Phunk, as well as a few one-off hybrids and some starting points for new lines. Females such as Ghost OG, Chem 91, Chem D, ECSD, LVPK, Kunduz Afghani, Pre-’98 Bubba, Ace’s Purple Pakistani Citral Kush, the great Steele Savage’s Mob Bossand a few other surprises.

The males in the mix are Blue Velvet, Tom Hill’s Haze, PPCK, Lashkar Gah, Chem IC3 and a couple of others. I use non-dominant males when crossing with elite females if I’m trying to keep the desirable traits of the females; I use dominant males to decrease flowering times.