http://hightimes.com/news/the-high-times-interview-top-dawg-seeds/
When it comes to high quality cannabis and elite cannabis genetics, Top Dawg Seeds is the first to come to mind. Founder of the ever so popular “Star Dawg,” this seed bank has everything I look for when it comes to the highest quality genetics, with something for just about every grower out there to enjoy. It doesn’t matter if you like Haze, Chem, Sour Diesel,
OG,
Girl Scout Cookies, Bubba or Cheese, Top Dawg has something that will pique your interest. Prepare yourself and your grow for some primo bud!
I was given the opportunity of a lifetime to interview one of the best breeders in the cannabis world right now, and was incredibly humbled to do so as the cannabis community has renowned his name for the past 20 years. I had to pick his brain to see what this cannabis mastermind has to say. We talked about some of the breeding he has done, New York City’s cannabis scene ‘back in the day’ and the impact he has left on our culture. Prepare yourself for this epic interview with one of the biggest names in cannabis right now, Top Dawg Seeds.
Photo Courtesy of @MymarijuanaLife
HIGH TIMES: When did you get into cannabis? When did you start growing?
Top Dawg Seeds: I first started growing in 1999. That was in New York City at the time. One of the very first strains I grew was a
Jack Herer cut that my friend gave me; there was some other Amsterdam strains that were also given to me.
HT: When did you have access to the Chem Dog strain?
TDS: I was always in the loop since around ’92. I was getting the flower since 1992, but I didn’t start growing it until I got the Chem D cut from Chem Dog himself. I got the Sour Diesel sometime in around 2000-2001 then traded it to Chem Dog for the Chem D.
HT: Were you on the forums back in the day?
TDS: Yes. I started on Overgrow. After that, I went to IC Mag then THC Farmer.
HT: Do you still keep in contact with people on the forums?
TDS: Most of those people moved over into the industry, and most of the people are on IG now, or Facebook, everyone has slowly moved away from the forums now it seems.
HT: When did you do the Nigerian Haze?
TDS: The Nigerian Silk cut was passed to me sometime in early 200’s in New York City. Right around that time, I moved upstate, and I had another project in the city quite some time later on though. I was upstate for most of my breeding. When the Nigerian Silk got passed to me, I just got the NL# 5 x Haze off of seed credit from IC Mag. When I first started selling some of my seeds, I put them up on IC Mag. Instead of cash, they gave you seed credit back then. I had about $1000-$1500 in seed credit, so I wound up getting a bunch of different Hazes. The NL5/Haze was one of the ones I got from Sensi Seeds. I thought that would be a good match to go into the Nigerian Silk. I then back crossed it, and selected a pheno I liked and the one I have now that’s floating around is known as ‘JJ’s Nigerian Haze.’ It was the one I originally found from the backcross. There were other phenotypes before the backcross that other people, like Swamp Boys, use.
HT: How do you feel about other companies using a Star Dawg male to breed with?
TDS: I don’t mind if they outcross to different strains. I think that is a good thing. It makes the strain more popular, but when people try to copy me and try and profit off of it, that’s what I don’t like; anything to do with the Chem stuff really because Star Dawg is a Chem Dog. It’s a Chem 4 x Tres Dawg cross. And Tres Dawg is Afghan X Chem D. Its basically two different Chems crossed to Chem 4. It’s a staple strain, very easy for anyone to throw it into a Chem Dog strain, and for them to claim it as theirs. I don’t mind people crossing it to Lemon G, Girl Scout Cookies or anything like that. When you try to copy the strain, and cross it back into the family that it came from, it is basically copying and ripping me off, and trying to undercut me on pricing too.
HT: Where did Tre Dawg come from?
TDS: That was me. I had originally got the Chem D, then I got the Afghan #1 from Sensi Seeds. I also had Hindu Kush. I was going to cross one of those two strains into the Chem. After growing out the Hindu Kush and the Afghan #1 side-by-side, I decided to go with the Afghan because it was not as leafy and it had a thicker stem. I just thought it was a better overall plant than the Kush to throw into the Chem. I then backcrossed it twice it to make the Tres Dawg.
HT: What’s your relation to Money Mike?
TDS: We originally met on the forums. He came up to NYC and invited me to a party. We started trading clones and genetics, he had sourced the Malawi Gold, the Chem ’91, and a few other cuttings that were hard to get. This was probably late 2000’s maybe.
HT: How much was your weed selling in the city for at the time?
TDS: Most of the time, ounces went from $450-$600 in the 2000’s, maybe even a little bit farther back, but leading up into 2010. Pretty much the demise of the New York City black market was the rise of the California legal scene. Before that, it was the Canadian market. The Canadian market got knocked out by the California medical marijuana scene, and the California market started to grow and grow, you could no longer get $600 an ounce. $450-$500 is the most you can get now. Back in the day, some even went up to $800 an ounce. Some of AJ’s Sour Diesel went for $800-$1000 an ounce back in the mid 90’s to the early 2000’s. There weren’t as many growers back then. You gotta remember back in the mid ’90s when we really were making our mark, there weren’t many growers back then. To find a grower, and then to find a grower who had super-dank shit, it was a rare find. That’s where we capitalized and dominated in the New York City market for such a long time until people started to catch up. Once some clones started getting passed around, and other people started growing, the forums popped up, anyone could get on the forum and learn how to grow, and more hydro stores were opening up. Back then, it used to be just Staten Island you could go to if you needed grow equipment in the city. Now, there are more places opening up around the city.
HT: Do you prefer back in the day when the prices, profits and risk were higher, or today’s market with its prices, profits and lower risks?
TDS: It depends on who you are I guess; I adapted. It went from one market to another. I’m going fine with seeds right now, but if you ask other people, they might tell you something different.
HT: What are some of your highest in-demand seeds?
TDS: Mostly anything to do with Chem Dog; anything to do with the ’91, Chem D, Star Dawg, Sour Diesel, some OG crosses… breeds from that family of Chem/Sour/OG is just a no-brainer.
HT: How would you market and recommend some of your Hazes to people who usually go after the Chem/Sour/OG stuff?
It really depends on your own personal preference. Everyone has his or her own preferences of highs. When you go from a heavy indica Chem, to a
high-flying sativa, some people don’t get it, or can’t handle the speediness of the sativa high. It depends on your intellectual level of being a connoisseur.
HT: What is your favorite haze? What’s your opinion on the Piff?
TDS: I love the Piff! Shit was crazy! I really prefer the Neville’s, A5, Cat Pissy Colombian, NYC Piff kind of Haze. I had a reputation. People had claimed of it being sprayed, or laced, or somehow contaminated with some other kind of drug. I had one guy who claimed he smoked some and took a piss test and tested positive for opiates. Most of the time it was wet, it was not flushed, it was really chemical-like in smell and taste, so the highs on it would be a little crazy sometimes. Then on top of that, the high from the strain itself made it more complex.”
HT: For those who might not know what “Piff” is, could you describe the look, smell, taste and effect for the world?
TDS: It was more of a cat piss, frankincense, church kind of smell. There were different types. The green Haze and the yellow/brown Haze is what we called it. The brown was always more chunky. It always had more of that cat piss aroma to it; compared to the green, it was more stringy. I believe the green is the black Haze. I had a cut of that. It has similarities to the cat piss Haze, but not as strong as the brown/yellow one. That was the one you wanted. It was stronger. I have not seen that in years, that yellow Haze. The green was pretty common.