New drops from Aficionado Seeds, Biovortex, and Night Owl Seeds
Plus, the exclusive details of ‘Subcool’s the Dank’ preservation project
BY DAVID DOWNS | Oct. 15
Good morning, Fire Followers,
The entire Western US weed scene is crushed with harvest work this week. A squall line is moving through California, slamming the door on Croptober. Drying rooms are full and fragrant. Pack prices have plunged with The Flood. Meanwhile, there is so much new fire waiting for you to grow, there’s really no excuse to have boo-boo.
In this week’s free newsletter:
The definitive, exclusive profile of Subcool’s The Dank
Aficionado Seeds returns with new-new
Biovortex releases Breeders Packs
CAN SUPER-CLASSIC SATIVAS CURE COOKIE OUR BLUES?: Tired of seeing yet another Gelato hybrid on shelves?
Growers across the world can farm a blast from the past this fall and into the foreseeable future: the famous, deceased breeder Subcool’s strains like Slymer, Chernobyl, Cherrygasm, and Querkle. They live on through his understudy ‘Still Will’—under the name “Subcool’s The Dank”; shipping worldwide from major seedbanks like Brothers Grimm Seeds.
Subcool (aka Montgomery Ball, alias David Bowman) specialized in fruity, tasty, uniquely vigorous, high-yield, sativa-dominant plants. Subcool generally eschewed the hype of the ‘90s and ‘00s like OG, Chem, and Diesel. He seemingly never touched Cookies and never saw Zkittlez.
Subcool died in 2020, but ‘Subcool’s the Dank’ has blossomed over the last two years with a mission to keep the influential, celebrity breeder’s name alive forever.
“For a legacy seed company that lost its founder, I’d say it’s going great,” said Will Rouland who goes by ‘Still Will’, age 38 in Oklahoma, head of Subcool’s the Dank.
Many folks complain about a market bottlenecked by indica-hybrid Gelatos. Anyone looking for ‘90s, or ‘00s sativas should start popping these packs. Let’s make weed weird again. … Read the full profile in the Pro edition.
NEW AFICIONADO SEEDS DROP: The legendary Aficionado Seeds has returned with a big release of Sour D-related work.
There’s Uncle Doobie’s Sour Animal F2 (Animal Cookies x Sour Diesel BX2.5) offering 10 regs for $250. It’s got “strong sour and gas on the palette upheld by cream caramel and toffee ice cream on the exhale.”
Also: Sour Diesel BX1.5; Hunter Mountain Sour Diesel BX1; and Chem 91 x Fire On The Mountain. Fire On The Mountain is (Hunter Mountain Sour Diesel x Chem Fuego). Chem Fuego is (Sourband x Chem BX3).
Plus: GAS-GPT (GMO x 30 YEAR DOG) is “one of the very best GMO hybrids we have come across ... bred this hybrid to lean majorly towards the Chemdog expression.”
And: Sour Diesel BX2.5 bred by Uncle Doobie offers a Sour Diesel “A” Cut x (Sour Diesel “A” Cut x (Hunter Mountain Sour Diesel x Chem Fuego).
BIOVORTEX’S BREEDER’S PACKS ARRIVE: Top Northern California breeder Biovortex has released three new ‘breeder’s packs’ for hunting some keepers.
There’s Ice Cream Shop, which is $350 for 60 regs of Banana Halo Halo, IC G-nut, and Sherb-g-nut.
The Fruit Stand Dumpster breeders pack features Papaya Motornut, Mandarin Cream, and Banana Motorboat.
Lastly, Gas Station Dumpster Fire holds Chemmy G, Motor Mob G-43, and G-MOB 392 G-Nut. Each Breeder’s Pack is ‘tree-fitty’, cus of that damn loch ness monster.
3 MORE TOP SEED DROPS
This week, we’d recommend:
Night Owl Seeds: Auto seed game leader Night Owl returns with a new drop of:
Space Station Violet (Marathon OG Auto F3 (Purple Powerade Pheno) × Cosmic Queen F4)
Disappearing Act V2 (Wizard’s Apprentice F5 x Blue Power Auto F3)
and Blue Powerverse (Blue Microverse F5 × Blue Power Auto F3)
More on Night Owl in the Pro edition.
Tiki Madman: “Spooky Pack” is a $300 blind box of something rare, common, or never released. Also, Slurricane x Devil Driver. More new Tiki in the Pro edition.
Freeborn Selections: Mean Gene from Mendocino (aka Freeborn Selections) is back with a new drop from his Hindu line:
Chem 91 x Hindu. ‘These all looked like Chem but were so much easier to keep happy. … a solid look back at some of the best 80s herb.’
Lime 1 x Hindu offers ‘very nice plants all around and the range of individual types is wide so it’s not hard to find things that are new to most people including me.’
Also: PK x Hindu—“Breeding the PK with the Hindu was a no-brainer. … I’d hoped for some good kush combos and that’s what popped out.” $150 for 10 fems.
Reminders:
Grab one of the final early bird free RSVPs to the Terpnami seed show Dec. 6-7 in SF.
Give it up for the vendors so far:
Bloom Seed Co, Bosky, Casa Flor, CHA Genetics, Compound Genetics, Cora Genetics, DNA Genetics with Errl Hill, Dr. Dabber, First Cut Farms, Freeborn Selections, Greenshock Farms, Grove bags with James Loud, Happy Dreams, Huckleberry Hill Farms, Humboldt CCTV, Humboldt Seed Co., Lempire Farmaseed, Luci / Norcal Genetics, Luscious Genetics, Purple Caper, Purple City Genetics, Rebel Grown Seeds, Ridgeline Farms, Sticky Fields, Xeno Grows, Zeed Vault, and Ziplock x Sense.
And look for Fire Follower now syndicated in print editions of Leaf Magazine all around the country.
It’s harvest season, grab my book “Marijuana Harvest – Maximizing Quality & Yield in your Cannabis Garden” and finish like a pro.
More reads from me:
‘5 Ways Cannabis Harvesting Has Changed in the Last 8 Years’ for Ed Rosenthal.
‘6 hash trends coming to your sesh from Puffcon 2025’ for GreenState.
‘Here’s why Cookies put 3 vapes in your vape’ for GreenState.
TOP BUD SHOT OF THE WEEK:
In this week’s 4,960-word Fire Follower Pro for $5
The full Subcool’s the Dank profile
More top seed drops from Tiki Madman, Masonic Seeds, and Walipini Seedbank
Essential buys from Compound Genetics, Rebel Grown, and Preferred
Where to get the latest hottest clones
New Autos of note
Access to back-issues of Fire Follower Pro, featuring dozens more stellar additions for your grow.
Genetics and awards Event Calendar
Fire Follower saves you over 100 hours per year keeping up with genetics news, and you never miss a big drop. It’s for commercial breeders, growers, store buyers, PR people, executives, and pro-am aficionados. Buy this week’s issue for $5. Subscribe to 52 issues and save 30%. (I email you the full genetics intelligence report when you pay.)
Emerald Cup founder Tim Blake, says:
[David Downs is] the best of the best of cannabis journalists!
I’ll see you in the Pro edition.