I often think about the propagation of cannabis genetics through time, especially over the last fifty years or so. I think it’s underappreciated how difficult it is in-practice to preserve genetics long-term. Think about classic genetics, the strains you bought (or thought you bought) back in the day; the Sour Diesel, the OG Kush, the Grand Daddy Purple, or whatever was cool in your nostalgic timeframe. Somebody out there was continuously propagating that plant from clone, over and over and over again, for decades. Some of those original clones still exist in circulation today. Almost all of the grows that kept your favorite weed in the genetic pool were committing felonies merely existing.
Growing weed stayed in that era of tight circles for a really long time. Very few were broadcasting grow information or knowledge, let alone distributing seeds and clones, outside of anonymous, underground channels or through friends. Think about this as time passed: around five decades of time between the late 60s and broad legalization. This era built a market on the backs of growers who were taking massive personal risks to supply your homie’s homie for that 1/8th of whatever.
I started growing individual plants for personal-use in the 2010s and, even then, the seed market was not close to what it is today. I remember wanting to grow for a few years before I actually started, but seed options online were essentially buying seeds from a seedbank in the Netherlands that would come packed with socks to keep it discrete. As more and more states legalized each year, however, more domestic seed makers were coming to market because they were legally allowed to exist. My first seed pack came from Oregon and I remember being nervous for that mail day. I also remember the few friends that I told about it thinking I was crazy back then.
The problem of genetic preservation and propagation gets way deeper than illegal conditions, fortunately or unfortunately. As states have legalized and seeds have become readily available in the United States, thousands of people are growing millions of seeds every year. There are hundreds of YouTube channels in which growers are hunting seed packs for the next “winner”. It leads me to think about the absolute clusterfuck of a family tree it’s amounting to in the world of cannabis breeding.
I’m going to introduce a scenario regarding a current popular strain: Permanent Marker. Permanent Marker is a cross between “(Biscotti x Jealousy) x Sherb Bx” developed by Seed Junky Genetics, and it won Leafly’s Strain of the Year in 2023. Naturally, when something wins Strain of the Year at Leafly, a lot of consumers and businesses are going to covet it. Seed Junky released an S1 seed pack, basically an attempt at a copy of the winning clone in seed form (I’ll write about this topic another day), the original clone became widely available from legal nurseries all over the country, and the races were off to capitalize on the hype. Right now, there are several different seed makers offering S1 versions of Permanent Marker – Lit Farms, Atlas Seed Company, Blimburn, and more. You can find them on white label markets from who-knows-where. There are hundreds of Permanent Marker first-generation crosses available to find the next hype, too.
As I prepare to roll out our own products derived from clones of plants that I originally started from seed, I wonder: what is Permanent Marker? If I had purchased a seed pack from Seed Junky when they originally released the seeds and hunted the pack and found a copy that checked all the boxes for me, is that Permanent Marker? Can I call it Permanent Marker? We know for sure it is not a genetic copy of the original strain called Permanent Marker because it’s not a clone of it.
How about a layer deeper? I can’t even use the name “Permanent Marker S1”, indicating that it’s from seed, because even that leaves ambiguity – which seed stock did this S1 come from and can we confirm those seeds were produced from an original clone? Do we even care? What are the things that make it original to us? Truly, if it wasn’t the original clone in an environment almost identical, it’s not going to look/smell/taste/affect identically, anyways. What the hell are we supposed to name the products we release?
Eventually I can imagine the weed world using intellectual property how it’s used in other agricultural fields. You know it’s a Pinkglow® pineapple or a SnowSweet® apple because the name and genetic makeup of the plant are patented, and propagation of these plants in any way is illegal. That might not matter for the guy who plants an apple tree in his back yard but it matters a lot commercially. As a business, you’re not going to knowingly use a patented clone without a license because you’ll get taken down if you do. But, since weed is federally-illegal, the United States Patent and Trademark Office isn’t going to help Seed Junky with Permanent Marker because, well…
All of this is really just fuel for discussion on the topic and, hopefully, opens a few thoughts in your head about the challenges of the industry. The funny thing to me is that Biscotti and Jealousy and Sherb Bx are all deep-from-landrace hybrids and have these same naming challenges going back generations. Nobody really knows what came together to make Permanent Marker in the first place. We just want to make great products that do what they’re supposed to do in a way that helps people.
Let me know what you think – is the genie out of the proverbial bottle on strain name legitimacy? How should we be naming strains to avoid ambiguity?