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STRAIN GUIDE
Chem Dawg: the legend comes to Europe Chem Dawg first made history on the United States market, from the royal New York underground to the dispensaries in California, and has several awards and mentions in High Times magazine to its name. Dinafem has been working hard to create a version of this strain! Ganjah Selecta We’ve already talked about the historic Chem Dawg dynasty several times. Originally selected by Chemdawg from seeds found in an ounce of sinsemilla grass, the plants soon began to be shared and hybridised, which led to the appearance of renowned genetics such as: Original Diesel, Headband, Daywreck Diesel, Underdawg Diesel, East Coast Sour Diesel, Sour Diesel, Giesel, OG Kush, Bubba Kush or New York City Diesel. Examples of Spanish genetics are Juanita La Lagrimosa and Cannatonic. It’s important to highlight that these plants earned their fame for their special flavour, characterised by its oily, fruity accents and reminiscent of Marsala wine. It’s truly unique. Another claim to fame is their intense effect, which you can appreciate from the first drags. Later, when medicinal cannabis and analyses came to the forefront, high CBD levels were detected in several examples of these lines, both in Europe and in the United States, in some cases with a 1:1 THC-to-CBD. All the original Kush strains stemming from this wave present the same merits as well as the same defects. We’ve already described the good points: sweet and typical flavour, high potency, medicinal effect. As for the inconveniences, it’s a plant for expert growers, because of its slow growth and susceptibility to pests and diseases,
as well as to an excessive fertilisation. Although the plant does represent a challenge for novice growers, it was
amongst the ten most popular strains on the US market, with means that its merits definitely exceed its defects. We must bear in mind that the US market is the most mature in the world, as it’s been using weed since the second half of the previous century, thanks to the presence of strains from all over the world that have been expertly hybridised and selected. In the past few years, the experience
of medicinal cannabis clubs has allowed users to choose from a wide range of strains. When it comes to choosing favourites, Chem Dawg definitely holds a privileged position in the immense offer of strains available on the US market. While certain details of Chem Dawg’s genealogy remain obscure or even surreal, one thing is clear by now: the interest that this strain arouses, both in experts and in medical users. After researching the original sources of the Chem Dawg genealogy, the Dinafem seedbank is ready to create an elite hybrid from the most often selected part of this renowned strain. For this labour of selection and crossing, Dinachem has been able to rely on genetics from the original source, Chemdawg in person – a living legend – with all the problems encountered while conducting the selection (after a raid in his apartment, where he was selecting the definitive elite Kush in seed form). On one hand, Dinafem is using the original Chem Dawg as mother plant, while the pollinating plant was selected from a batch of Guava Chem seeds – another Chemdawg strain. Dinafem explains that the age of the original clone gives it signs of strength that disappear in its descendants, but that would complicate the selection, as it is a sybarite plant, that requires lots of care and attention to yield good results. Guava Chem makes up the lost strength, maintaining the original features while noticeably increasing vigour, as it’s in seed form. Studying the Guava Chem family tree, we find that Chemdawg’s selection process of the strain concentrated on specimens as similar as possible to Chem Dawg.
This allowed several reproductions and hybridisations between these related plants, with the presence of other strains while still selecting the most similar descendants to Chem Dawg, and then backcrossing the selected strains with the original. Chemdawg’s aim was to reproduce the renowned Chem Dawg genetic in seed form, thus giving new strength to the legend, which has been kept alive as a clone for too many years. The result is an extremely homogeneous strain, much more vigorous than the original ancient cutting, although a slight weakness remains due to the inbreeding which characterised the process. Dinafem is currently performing the first hybridisation tests between the original Chem Dawg and several Guava Chem specimens, selected for their strong resemblance to the original strain – the very same selection process followed with Guava Chem. The aim is to launch a new strain, as close as possible to the legendary Chem Dawg standards, on the market. Here at Soft Secrets, we were lucky enough to get to try the first selections, during a recent visit to one of Dinafem’s selection centres. They’re definitely on the right track. The first samples show a homogeneous lineage, which maintains the features that made the original Chem Dawg legendary, including the oily flavour with its combination of gas and fruit, with a predominance of citrus petroleum. Another important feature is the high potency, with its intense effect on all the senses. The medicinal aspect can be sensed from the first taste, although a lot still depends on the definitive hybrids and respective analyses for a final confirmation.
