REBEL HISTORY IN EMERALD TRIANGLE BREEDING, PAST/PRESENT/FUTURE.

Photo: Palo Verde Appellation of Southern Humboldt

It’s a blessing to have the opportunity to offer our seeds direct to you.
These days, there are a lot of options for getting seeds.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of people making seeds, breeding, and selling them online.

Between the late 90s and early 2010’s I was an avid seed collector/buyer. I probably spent about 15K on seeds between 2006 and 2009 alone, coincidentally right before moving to California in 2010.

If I were not so busy with my own breeding projects, I don’t know how I would navigate through the countless breeders to choose who to support and what to buy now. There’s literally too much information to sort through, and too many options.

Knowing how hard it is to earn a spot in your garden, your interest in my work, and your support means everything.

We are about to finish strong in our 14th year of selling seeds.

Talking with a friend the other day, he had assumed we’ve been doing direct-to-home grower online sales the whole time. He was surprised to learn about the evolution of our seed business.

Before 2018, my seeds were only available to collective members in California. However, anyone with a medical recommendation from a doctor could sign up to join my collective, or I could sign up for theirs.

From 2011 through 2017, much of our sales were from medical dispensaries, at events in California, the Emerald Cup being the big one, farmers markets like ones held at Area 101, the Solar Living Center in Hopland, and events hosted by Kevin Jodrey in Southern Humboldt.

The majority of my seed sales at that time were from individual farmers who joined my collective and purchased bulk seeds directly, or farmers who ordered bulk seeds from Kevin and his team at Wonderland Nurseries.

It was fun back then working directly with the farmers. Everyone had their favorite they would re-order each year. I remember one SoHum family had three different generations that would purchase my seeds each Spring through Wonderland Nurseries. The grandfather, his daughter, and her son would all argue over which ones to get for their different properties, and they each had their favorites.

Painting: “Ganja-landia” purchased at Flavors in Southern Humboldt

My favorite customers were older folks in their 60s who wanted hundreds of my Rebel Sour & Blue Dream seeds each year. The only online or international sales of my seeds were done by folks who could join my collective in California and purchase seeds, but any resale of them had nothing to do with me.

Back then in Northern California, there were not a ton of seed companies, and the ones that existed did not all have consistent, reliable seed stock for commercial farmers who depended on stable genetics that would be marketable to wholesale buyers.

First, it was just me on the Humboldt medical dispensary menus. My original collective/brand was Ganja Rebel Seeds. text field. Add and edit content here.ld. Add and edit content here.

Photo: First seed menu @ HPRC & Original GRS logo

Then there was CSI on the menus, who was a local and had been breeding much longer than me, and he had fems, respect.

Then Humboldt Seed Company started offering seeds. Originally, they just had Purple Panty Dropper and a few hybrids of it. We both had a seed line named Blueberry Muffins, I still think mine is better and was first, but I stopped offering it for now. They clearly have done well for themselves, and I have nothing but respect for them, especially for the work they do in their community with indigenous tribes in Humboldt and as biologists with wild salmon preservation.

Then I saw Cali Connection pop up, which has also been around longer than me. But, for commercial farmers in Humboldt, most of the genetics were not very consistent from seed. Some people have definitely found some keepers in his stock throughout the years, but better for pheno selecting through to find good production plants, not so great at putting into production from seed.

That was the problem I recognized for Humboldt and NorCal growers. We were the only place in the country with that type of commercial cannabis farming at the time. Real cannabis farmers needed good seeds. Very few seed companies at the time had anything consistent.

Imagine most growers had 25-99 big plants per parcel. Each plant could be 5-10 pounds. Some had multiple grows in different locations, and some of us went way bigger than 99 plants.

Now imagine your buyers coming and showing them 25-99 options due to phenotype variation, but you only have a few pounds of each, or mixed pounds of totally different-looking flowers. It doesn’t work. And so most growers had to grow from clone unless they had reliable, stable, and consistent seeds.

I intended to offer OG, Sour, and Chem dominant hybrid seed plants that could be mixed together without much notice or complaints from the buyers, and Blue Dream, Hazes, and other unique varieties, we had those too.

Equilibrium and South Fork Seeds had some great options for folks. Equilibrium was offering excellent and flavorful Malawi crosses at the time, and is still doing great work today. A kindred spirit and wonderful activist, check him out if you don’t already know.

South Fork used a Chemdog bc3 male that came from 707 Seeds for most of their stuff. It made consistent seed plants, big chunky buds, and well-vetted plants for Emerald Triangle growers. They were one of the first people breeding with Animal, and several popular breeders used their Cherry Chem in their lines. Not sure what happened with them. I had an interesting relationship with one of them. Brilliant guy, but has some mental health issues. The other guy Matt was always super cool.

Aficionado was formed in the winter of 2013 and started collaborating with @meangenefrommendocino (Freeborn Selections) seeds soon after. Long story on that one. Jackson is a super homie and one of the best people I know in this business. I like and get along with Leo as well.

The late Ringo from Sohum Seeds started offering his CBD crosses like Sour Tsunami around that time. Jerry from Savage Farms in Southern Humboldt is carrying on the SoHum Seeds name and his legacy. There’s a lot to that story, and many sick people were helped with these genetics.

Emerald Mtn Legacy had seeds listed only at Wonderland Nursery in 2013 or 14. I remember a white binder with their menu, everything listed in Roman numerals. I recognized they were the only other people doing multi-generational breeding with Headband, OGs, and Sours besides me.

Photo: Wonderland Nursery Menu 2015. So much made possible by Kevin Jodrey

Sub-cool first made an appearance in the Emerald triangle in 2012, visiting the region for the first time and speaking at the Emerald Cup that year. I was pretty surprised and thrown off by his vibe, was way less chill than I expected and very arrogant. His seeds on the menu by 2014 or 15. I don’t condone his behavior or attitude, but lots of people seemed to be happy with plants they found in his Vortex and 9 pound hammer. RIp.

Bog Seeds(also rip), made it to some NorCal dispensary menus around then.

I believe Dying Breed also started offering seeds in 2013 or 2014. Coastal Seeds was offering seeds, working with my brother Bam at the time, NorCal Seeds, MTG (rip), and a few others were in the mix at that point. Shiloh Massive had seeds at the dispensary in Hopland by 2015, maybe earlier. I think Matt Riot had seeds at that shop also, but I’ve never heard anybody talking about him or his genetics in a positive way.

I’m sure there are some great ones I left out.

Back then, between 2011 and 2017, of all the people breeding cannabis and making seeds in California, Colorado, maybe the entire US, I’m pretty sure I was growing, selling, and seeing more weed than almost any of them.

My collective was leasing or managing pretty large grows for that time in Southern Humboldt, and throughout most of that time I had a partnership with Harborside Health Center, the largest dispensary in the state, CCD to grow for over 180,000 of their medical patients.dd and edit content here.

Photo: Collective paperwork & Harborside Cultivation Contract

By 2013, I was doing open pollinations in hoops for each variety, and between 2011 and 2015, I was pollinating as much as 50 pounds of flower each year.

Keep in mind in 2011 the going rate for outdoor was 1500-1800, and I was getting 2400 for pounds from the dispensaries, and in 2015 we were still getting 2100 for deps, so I was committing to a loss of at least $100,000 in potential revenue per year, just to make seeds, then all the cost of materials and labor to grow the plants and make the seeds, separate and sort them, and packaging them. It was a big undertaking while running commercial farm operations at the same time, and still is.

I guess what I’m saying is, I’m honored and amazed to have been able to see and experience a lot, and even more blessed to still be doing it the way I am. I feel like I get to smoke some of the best weed in the world every day, and share it.

Since 2018, when adult-use regs went into effect in California, forcing me to need a Nursery license and use a distributor to sell seeds to stores, and the feds legalized hemp, I’ve been offering seeds online.

I miss all my old Norcal farming friends that I used to get to hang and interact with each year over “seed consultations”, they have all mostly disappeared and had to completely up end their lifestyle at the end of the 215 era due to prop 64 regulations and the market crash in California, but I’m grateful for the growing number of passionate home growers around the world who are supporting my vision and growing our seeds today.

We’ve been going through our 2025 seed harvest, organizing and making selections of what to offer and when.

We will be releasing lots of things this year. Two that I’d like to highlight.

Our best sellers have long been Double OG Chem and Double OG Sour.

As of now, the new versions of those that we are offering are back-crossed to our cup-winning clones.

I can’t say enough about how good-tasting and authentically gassy these are, as well as very strong and high in cannabinoids.

LISTED NOW

Double OG Chem #15 f5 bc3 (1st place 2023, breeders cup winner 2023, 2022, & 2018)
&
Double OG Sour #2 f5 bc1 (1st place and breeders cup winner 2024)

Thank you for following along and for your interest in Rebel Grown. Always feel free to email us and write back if you have any questions or comments.

For our next newsletter, hear about state-wide Rebel drops in Arizona, and, guess how many retailers in Ohio we are in already!

Much Appreciation,

Dan

Photo: Ridgetop, Island Mtn Rd, 2011