Cannabis Strains

OG Kush is a strain that every grower has heard of and one that every grower should try at least once. It is definitely not the easiest plant to grow. Yields aren’t that great and branches flop all over without support but the high THC levels, the high itself and the unique taste keep people coming back for more.

OG Kush genetics are popping up everywhere. Every day there seems to be a new cut or cross popping up. Even people who don’t smoke know the name. I don’t think any other strain has ever gotten so much attention.

Yet the truth is very little is actually known about this strain. Yes growers have learned to dial it in but the origins of OG Kush seem to be shrouded in history. No one can even agree on what OG actually stands for. Add to that the fact that the plant grows like a sativa and nothing like a kush and it’s no wonder things are confusing.

What’s Does OG Stand For?

Most of us have read the Ocean Grown vs mountain grown story about the 2 guys who met in a bar. It’s a great story, but really, Ocean Grown? It just doesn’t make sense. But this story puts the lineage of OG as ChemDawg x (Lemon Thai x Old World Paki Kush) which may not be far from the truth.

The Old Gangster version isn’t really much better because I’m pretty sure it was already being called OG before anyone started singing about it. OverGrow is another one that gets mentioned and has some plausibility but the time it was on Overgrow doesn’t really match up.

I personally think OG stands for original genetics. We are dealing with growers and breeders remember. This was a tightly held cut and anyone getting it would want to make sure they had the Original Genetics or just OG for short.

When this cut got to Cali it started to spread and it was bringing about $8500 a pound. B-Real and his crew got their hands on the cut and started singing about it making it even more popular. So naturally imitations started showing up. OG became tacked on to the name at that time to differentiate it from the copy cats.

If you listen to the first video about 27 minutes into it, Josh, who was Bubba’s partner describes the scene in Cali when they brought it in and how they had to add Original to the Kush name. So I think it was already being called OG Kush before anyone sang about it.

When you are paying 5 grand for a flat of cuts you definitely want to know you are getting the original genetics. I can’t see a breeder buying cuts calling it Original Gangster, it makes no sense, but it does make sense for them to ask if its the original genetics.

Some Early OG Kush History

This strain has likely been around since 1991 but was not called OG Kush back then. That is when Chemdog cuts started being made. Many believe Chemdawg is either related or part of the OG genetics and there are definite similarities between the two. The Chem cuts came from bagseed in a Colorado strain known as Dog Bud which originally came there from California. More on this in my Chemdawg article.

The original OG Kush cut was found in an ounce of bagseed in Florida by a group of guys including Matt “Bubba” Berger (he bred the original Bubba Kush) and a guy named Josh. It was also found in 1991 and brought to California in 1996.  Originally they called it Kush because they liked the name and not because it was one. The term OG Kush didn’t start getting thrown around until later in 1998.

It was then sold and spread as Oger by Orgnkid on the Overgrow.com and he sold some to Ghost which became known as the Ghost Cut. He also started selling S1 seeds from it. But the theory of the OG standing for OverGrow doesn’t really work because that forum didn’t really start rolling until about 2000 and it was already being called OG about 1998. I think the name Oger was a take off on original genetics to let people know it was the real deal.

The True History of OG Kush

The Adam Dunn Show did a series investigating the origins of the OG Kush strain which I think provides a lot of valuable inside information from the actual players in this game. If you want to learn more about this amazing strain it is definitely worth listening to.

The mystery will be eventually solved by tracking chemotypes. They have launched the OGenome project to do just that. The original completion date will be 4/20/15 and it would be cool if they can do it that fast.

A lot of people have renamed cuts and it may all be from the same cut unless it was selfed or hermied and got crossed with something else. So they will be able to track the terpine and resin profiles to find which are the same, which are fakes and which are hybrids. It will tell us if the Chemdog is a parent or a sister too.

Adam & Mitch talk to Matt “Bubba” Berger who found a bagseed in Florida that would later become known as OG Kush. Bubba is joined on the air by Josh, who ran the clone in California and eventually passed it to B-Real’s crew and OrgnKid (who popularized OG Kush to the world on the internet). Then they speak with Dave Richards aka Dave Mann who reveals for the first-time ever the huge underground bunker complex in which the predecessors of OG Kush, Chemdog, and most of the other popular strains were bred in secret and sold all over the country.

Dave Richards aka Dave Mann delivers some outstanding information on a huge grow op that may have been the source for Chemdog and OG genetics. You really don’t want to miss his story. It starts about 55 minutes into the show.

I was totally blown away with his story because I believe all this killer 20%+ weed didn’t just happen by accident.  According to Dave OG genetics are made up from a 3 way cross of Thai, Hashplant and Afgan. Someone had to breed it and I truly believe it came out of these bunkers. So I did a bit of research to see if any of this could be true and found this article:

Pot Bunker : Massive Marijuana Farm Is Discovered in Underground Vault North of Lancaster
November 17, 1990|JOHN CHANDLER | TIMES STAFF WRITER

Three men were arrested and more than 6,000 marijuana plants seized from a massive underground bunker north of Lancaster in what authorities Friday said was the largest such operation ever uncovered in the county.

“It’s the most incredible thing you’ll ever see in your life,” said Capt. Larry Waldie, commander of the sheriff’s narcotics bureau. “We’ve never seen anything quite as sophisticated as this.” Waldie estimated that the site on Avenue E near 40th Street East had been operating for two years. http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-17/local/me-3949_1_massive-marijuana-farm

 Adam & Mitch continue the conversation with Dave Mann aka Dave Richards, who reveals more details about the massive breeding projects conducted in the 1980s that led, by Dave’s account, to the bagseeds that would turn into OG Kush and Chemdog.

This video continues the story of where the OG Kush came from and how Orgnkid spread clones and seeds of OG on Overgrow.com. It seems many of these cuts are from the same plant. OG Kush seems like a strain can grow differently in different environments, feeding schedules and media. It is very adaptable and could easily make growers think they have a different cut.

OGenome Project Is Under Way

Finally, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for OG lovers and growers. After testing the chemotypes of all the various cuts we will finally be able to sort out what is what with OG Kush genetics. The testing will create a genetic profile of the resin. The cuts will be provided by verified sources, so don’t rush to send your favorite cut in.  We will know what is true OG, what’s a cross and also how the Chemdog and Diesel fits into the picture. To me this is very exciting.

If my guess is right we will find that many people who keep multiple OG cuts will find they only have 1 cut instead of a bunch of different cuts. Some people may actually find they don’t have an OG at all but something similar.

If you grow weed or even if you just smoke it you have probably heard of the Chemdawg or Chemdog strain.

This stain is believed to be one of the parents of OG Kush and indeed they do look very similar and have similar smells and flavors.

It is also the same plant as Diesel and Sour Diesel although most are not aware of this.

I am kind of a marijuana history buff and also interested in  strains and their origins. I think the more we know about a strain the better job we can do growing it.

I guess I am just a weed geek because I find strain history fascinating.

By the way, according to Chemdog himself, this strain is called Chemdog and not Chemdawg.

Anyway I think I can help fill in some of the blanks and help unravel some of the Chem Dog mystery.

Below is a description of this clone only strain which for the most part is accurate.

Unknown or Legendary – Chem Dawg

Aka: Chemdawg
Breeder: Chemdog

Heritage (no serious source known):
Speculation 1: unknown indica strain (Kush, HP or NL?)
Speculation 2: Nepali x Thai

At a Grateful Dead show at Deer Creek Amphitheatre, joebrand (aka wonkanobe) and pbud met chemdog and sold him an ounce of very high quality pot for $500. Joe and Chemdog exchanged numbers and they later arranged for two ounces to be shipped to chemdog on the east coast. According to chemdog, one ounce was seedless and the other had 13 seeds.

In ’91, chemdog popped the first 4 seeds. From these seeds, one male was found and disposed of (chemdog was young, you can’t blame him). The 3 females were labeled “chemdawg” (now ’91 chemdawg), “chemdawg a” (now chemdawg’s sister), and “chemdawg b”. In 2001, chemdog and his girlfriend attempted to germ 3 more seeds, labeled “c”, “d”, and “e”. the “e” seed never germinated, “c” turned out to be junk (according to chemdog), and chemdawg “d” was the keeper. In 2006, chemdog and joebrand reunited and joe was given 4 of the last 6 beans: Chemdawg phenos 1-4, “4” being the chosen keeper. Joe thought the “4” was the best representation of the original and thus dubbed it the “reunion pheno”. Chemdog still has two seeds left in his stash. http://en.seedfinder.eu/strain-info/Chem_Dawg/Unknown_or_Legendary/

Chemdog Interview With PBud And AJ(Asshole Joe)

This video appeared on the Adam Dunn Show. YouTube flagged it and took it down but luckily someone put it up again so don’t know how long it will stay up. The video starts at the 1 hour point with PBud. The strain he sold Chem Dog was called Dog Bud because it was so strong you rolled over like a dog after smoking it. It was nicknamed Chem or Chemy because of its taste. PBud said it was from California and that they never saw anything like it before. I have some ideas about where it came from though based on another interview that I will share later.

Also in the video is Asshole Joe of Sour Diesel fame. It is confirmed that Diesel and Chemdawg are the same cut and that Sour Diesel is also the same cut grown by the “Sour Crew” and not a different strain.

Chemdog Weed Where Did It Come From?

Chemdawg genetics come from a mysterious Colorado strain called Dog Bud. It was a tightly held cut that came from California and unfortunately the plant no longer exists according to PBud.

Here is where I am going to speculate on the origins of dog bud, OG Kush and the Chemdog strain. First, the chem was not a selfed or S1 cut because there was a male in the bag seed but foolishly it was thrown away. But hey, Chem was only 17 and young and foolish and I know he wishes he kept it. Also each of the plants were different. It’s funny that Chemdog got any seeds because the guys who sold it to him had looked for seeds before and never found any.

I believe this bud came from a grow outside LA by a smuggler and breeder named Frank Gigax. They were busted in 1990 and had been sending tons of weed all over the US. They grew in a huge underground bunker with 280 lights in one location and there were several other bunkers. It was probably the biggest pot bust in US history.

This guy was a contractor and figured out you could grow under HPS lights. Without the need to smuggle these guys started breeding and they had gunny sacks of seed they had saved from the best of the best. The reason this weed looked so different to P Bud  is because it was grown underground and under lights.

These guys were breeding and made 3 way crosses. They used Thai weed, hashplant and skunk. They would grow thousands of seedlings and only keep the best. They brought in genetics from Afghanistan that were over 20% THC which was unheard of back then. That’s probably why when you smoked it you fell over like a dog. With thousands of plants you have the large population needed for serious breeding and with Thai in the genetic mix there will be hermies because its prone to this.

They had a strain called Kryptonite(because it could even put Superman on his ass) they sent to Florida and people there still say good weed is krippy there even today. It was in a bag of this weed that the seeds that became OG Kush were from. There were no males and it wasn’t called OG, just Kush and became known as Triangle Kush which is at least a sister if not identical to todays OG Kush.

It is interesting that Chemdog’s first seeds were popped in 1991 and that the guys in Florida that supposedly had the real OG Kush popped their seeds in 1991 also. I don’t think it is a coincidence these strains are similar and I don’t believe they were ordinary bag seeds either. I think these strains were engineered by someones breeding program and spread across the US.

My guess is dog bud came from this grow operation as did Triangle and OG Kush. The triangle became known as the Oger on Overgrow and made its way to California. My guess is that the legendary G13 came from this grow op too(supposedly the strongest strain ever tested by the feds at 28%.) Sources say Frank had an offer to get set free if he would turn his genetics over to the feds. But he didn’t, did his time and now lives outside the US under an assumed name.

I believe the genetics that came out of there will be with us forever because their signature trait is 20%+ THC. I may be wrong about this but it seems to all make sense and the story about Frank Gigax is verifiable if you want to Google it.

As far as the diesel goes it is Chemdog straight up. Both Chemdog and AJ agree. No mystery about where it came from. The thing is stuff gets renamed all the time. That’s what happened with Sour Diesel, ECSD, NYSD and so on. That’s why there are so many OG strains too. This plant also has the ability to express different phenos under different growing conditions which only adds to the confusion.

Here we see a beautiful picture of White Widow that looks like its been dipped in sugar.

Looking at this it is quite easy to understand why the White Widow strain is still one of the most popular and successful hybrids out there.

White Widow is known for being both extremely potent and extremely resinous. It is a 60/40 indica/sativa cross displaying the indica’s ability to help with pain and the sativa side that helps enhance mood.

Just about every breeder has their own version of the White Widow weed. It is hard to trace the origins of this strain because so many seed companies claim to have the original.

White Widow Strain Origins

However, after a lot of digging around, I found what seems to be the best account of where the White Widow plant actually came from.

The name White Widow is usually linked with several different breeders and today almost every seed bank offers its own version of the plant. The battle over who actually invented the strain has turned into a political struggle, dividing the public into two camps. Some believe that the White Widow was discovered by a man named Ingemar, while others take the side of another skillful breeder known as Shantibaba. Although the history of this plant is complicated and shrouded by doubt and misinformed opinions, the truth must be that only one person can be accredited with bringing White Widow into the world. My research has lead me to believe that this person is indeed Shantibaba, the former co-owner of Green House Seeds and current founder of The Mr Nice Seedbank, for reasons that I will explain in this article. http://blog.seedsman.com/the-origins-of-white-widow-marijuana-strain/

The White Widow strain has been crossed to make many hybrid substrains including.

• El Nino – Haze x Super Skunk x White Widow
• Great White Shark – Super Skunk x White Widow
• White Rhino – White Widow x Afghanistan
• Black Widow – White Widow
• Alaskan Ice – White Widow x Haze

But because of White Widow’s potency and complex high and its short 60 day flowering cycle, I believe that the original White Widow is a strain every grower should try at least once before growing its hybrids.