Now that recreational marijuana is the law of the land in Ohio and people are able to home grow their own head stash, we have received countless text messages from friends and family members wondering where they can get seeds and what to grow out.
For many of us, finding the right seed banks have been trial and error. Back in the 90s when I started growing, the only seed banks that were available were in Europe and most of us thought there was a 50/50 chance of getting arrested when the seeds would get to your mailbox. Of course that wasn’t the truth but that is the journey that many of us have been on trying to secure quality genetics over the years. Luckily, we do not have to worry about the law anymore because it is 100% legal to buy cannabis seeds. How is that so you ask? Simple, the U.S. government classifies cannabis seeds as hemp seeds because they contain less than 1% THC when they are seeds…so you can buy as much as your wallet can afford without the worry of getting caught. But getting into legal trouble isn’t what you have to worry about in the seed game. What you have to worry about is buying the right seeds from the right places. So what are the right seeds and what are the right places? Well…it’s probably easier to answer what are the wrong places. Whether it’s seeds that don’t germinate, counterfeit seeds, or not getting anything at all…we have be burned every which way from Sunday from bad seed banks and vendors. But just because that is the way that we learned doesn’t mean that is the way you have to learn. So we decided to ask some of our staff and some of our favorite breeders why they choose to do business with the seed banks that they do and what the average person should know before they buy seeds.
Matt Riot (Riot Seeds)
Matt Riot was one of the first people we thought of for this article because he is a breeder that also owns his own seed bank, but also because a central theme for his podcast The Breeders Syndicate is to advocate for cannabis growers and out the fraudsters in the seed game. When talking about seed buying trends, Matt noted that people are naturally scared to buy seeds for the first time so they tend to find seed banks in magazines like High Times. People can not know anything about cannabis but everybody has heard of High Times magazine so it seems like a natural place to buy seeds for the first time. However, magazines like High Times are paid advertising platforms and tend to attract seed banks that do not care about their quality and instead are looking to get people to buy their seeds that do not know any better. As a result, customers will buy seeds from companies that do not practice rigorous quality & testing programs and often send seeds that do not germinate, do not arrive, or are low quality seeds repackaged & called whatever they want it to be.
To address this problem, Matt said that anybody who is new to cannabis should try educating themselves a bit about cannabis seeds/breeding such as reading Rob Clarke’s, Marijuana Botany. A simple understanding about cannabis seeds and breeding can help even novice growers how to identify obvious scams and poor quality seed sites. The second thing that Matt suggested is to befriend people in the growing community to find out where they purchase their seeds and what kind of luck they have had such as Instagram or Discord. Matt explained that one of the reasons why he started his own discord server was to have a place where people could share their knowledge to become better growers and to bring attention to the bad actors in the cannabis industry as well as lifting up the players who are doing it right.
Recommended Seedbanks :
Mass Medical Strains
Mass Medical is the perfect breeder to interview for this article because he is one of the most principled breeders on the market. Mass is very open about the problems with most seed banks and will only offer up his genetics to a select group of seed banks that pass his rigorous quality standards. When asked what he looks for in a good seed bank, Mass Medical says that good seed banks are very open about their quality & testing procedures. Too many seed banks and breeders are only interested in selling the product and have very little care for the actual quality of their products. Seed banks that do not check the quality of their seeds (i.e. growing them out first hand) or have poor seed storage practices will often sell customers seeds that will never germinate or have countless issues like tapping off and hermaphroditism (i.e. male and female flowers). To help identify whether a seed bank has any quality & testing procedures is to read their website to see what policies they have in place to safeguard their products or to see if they have any seed replacement policies if the seeds do not germinate. Most respectable & quality driven seed banks have a 100% seed replacement policy if your seeds do not germinate or you experience other quality issues.
Another sign of a quality seed bank according to Mass Medical is whether they have their own pictures & descriptions of the strains that they sell on their website. Seed banks that test the products they sell often grow out the seeds themselves, post grow pictures of the strains, and will make their own descriptions of how the seeds turned out. Seed banks that use stock photos and have stock descriptions of how the strain will grow out should be looked at with serious caution.
Recommended Seedbanks:
High & Lonesome
High and Lonesome is a long time grower, who just like Mass Medical, is an extremely principled breeder who only will work with seed banks that he personally knows. So it is no wonder that the first piece of advice that H & L gave us is that new growers should use social media and cannabis friendly forums to ask for advice from people on what seed banks they use and what their experiences were. The second big piece of advice that H & L gave us is that people should do some research on what they want to grow and find out what breeders are known for those particular strains. This is perhaps some of the best advice that is in this article because most of what we have learned, about who is good with certain strains has come from forums and podcasts. This is important to figure out because your seed bank choice will often be the result of a breeder’s work only being offered on a select few seed banks.
One thing that people get too hung up on according to H & L, is that people pay too much attention to whether a seed bank accepts credit cards or not. Many reputable seed banks do offer credit card payments but there are also a ton of shitty seed banks that take credit cards so don’t let that be something that deters you from a particular seed bank. Lastly, H & L said that new seed customers should stick to domestic seed banks for their first orders just in case there are any issues with shipping and currency exchanges.
Recommended Seedbanks:
Santacruz Goatfarm:
Santacruz Goat Farm is one of our friends from the Breeders Syndicate Discord who like the other breeders we interviewed, is very vocal about the right and wrong ways of doing business in the cannabis community. That should make it no surprise that the first thing he said was that while he will give people the benefit of the doubt, he will only give that to people who also have similar beliefs and practices. The first piece of advice that he gave us was that everyone should do their due diligence with the seed banks and breeders that they want to do business with. Whether it is asking your friends or scoping out their social media accounts, see how they present themselves in public and more times than not, you can see just from that whether you want to do business with them. How most people get played according to Pac, is that they fall for the smoke and mirrors of the scammers. Most scammers will talk a big game about all the fire they have and how exclusive their shit is…99% of the time this is bullshit and you should run the opposite direction.
Recommended Seedbanks:
Staff Feedback
When asking our staff what they look for in a good/bad seed bank, one of the biggest things our staff said to look for are seed banks that carry the the products from the top breeders in the industry. The best breeders in the game are very protective of their reputation/customers and often choose selected seed banks to carry their products. Seed banks that have bad reputations have a difficult time sourcing quality genetics so if a seed bank is carrying genetics from all the best breeders, it is a good sign that they have a good reputation
Another piece of advice from our staff is to look for seed banks that fulfill orders quickly and provides several different payment options. Some seed banks only take cash or crypto and while not a sign of being a bad seed bank, it can be difficult for new growers to send cash to a seed bank or navigate crypto payments. Furthermore, some seed banks take forever to fulfill your order because they either are way understaffed or they often sell the seeds before they received them from the breeders and can leave you waiting on your order for weeks.
A big thing to look out for are sites that are just white labeling their products and slapping whatever name they want on the seed pack. Its a well known problem in the industry that several seed banks and breeders will call something OG Kush and it really isn’t OG Kush at all. It might be close enough, but seeds are too expensive to buy something that isn’t authentic. So look for seed banks that sell reputable breeders that are known for their quality and authenticity. For example, if you are wanting to get Chem D seeds, Lucky Dog Seed Company was started by Skunk VA…the originator of Chem D in the 90s and is widely accepted to have some of the best Chem genetics in the industry. What is also important to look for is their customer satisfaction policies. Seeds can be tricky beasts the older they get and so having a seed bank that will replace your order if they don’t germinate is huge. The last piece of advice is to ask people who grow where they get their seeds from and why…the best recommendations are from people who have actually bought and grown out the gear from the seed banks.
Lastly, with cannabis seeds being legal across the USA, breeders now are opting to sell their seeds directly to customers through their websites. Once you find information about a particular breeder you want to buy seeds from, check out their websites to see if they offer seed sales on their website or through their discord servers.
Recommended Seedbanks: