The original seed line is still here, but of course it’s slightly different with continued breeding and selection over the years. Ken had to start over from backup seed stock after some of the raids, but he had it backed up well in the hands of multiple experienced growers and breeders (like Mel) to safeguard the genetics.
One of the old clone variants with dense buds and especially purple coloring may have been lost.
With GDP being a seed line, there have always been multiple cuts help by different people, dispensary clubs, and 215 collectives, so even that would be difficult to pin down.
grandaddy purple has been in circulation pretty consistently. GDP only started to become scarce in 2016.
With legalization, a new recreational demographic suddenly became the primary consumers of cannabis in California. Those people didn’t have the knowledge that experienced smokers and prop 215 medical patients had. They didn’t know anything about the variety of genetics that were available, because they were not part of the cannabis culture.
Girl Scout Cookies was simply the most known cannabis “brand” in the general media culture because of Berner’s shameless promotion of cookies in bay area rap, and probably even more so because of news coverage that was attracted in 2013 or 14 when San Francisco girl scout troops were selling cookies in front of dispensaries.
This had already been going on for at least 3-5 years, but the local news found the girl scout cookies strain name and its connection to rap music to be an easy way to generate controversy about strain names that might attract kids to try weed. It was classic marijuana demonization.
That little wave of puff piece marijuana demonization news coverage is largely responsible for the market saturation that cookies achieved in recent years. A bunch of first time smokers (or first time legal buyers) recognized the name from the news, tried weed / high end product for the first time, and of course they liked it.
Berner’s marketing continued to push out other classic california genetics when his business was licensed for recreational sales.
Because it’s kind of relevant, here’s another post I wrote about how girl scout cookies first showed up on the bay area medical and black market cannabis scene in 2012.
@Enjoi802 hope I’m not distracting too much from the grow. I’m really looking forward to seeing what you find in these beans. I would have bought some of those as well if I found that website while they were still in stock. This stock may have been one of Ken’s off site genetic backups to safeguard the line. Should be a cool chance to see the variety from this isolated genepool, kind of like a grandaddy purple time capsule.
So Basically you will have to pheno hunt when buying gdp seeds. I have never grown it and only smoked a quarter back in the day. What would we be looking for as far as how the cut was back then?
When ever it’s from seeds, expect to have variations between the plants. Landrace and heirloom won’t have many phenotypes, but there will still be slight differences in each plant that can set them apart from another.
I understand that but some lines are stabilized quite a bit. From the sounds of it the gdp has great and distinct variations. I’m just asking what the cut was like as far as characteristics is concerned. Not that I’m growing but was just curious
No distraction here with the wealth of knowledge, I really thought the famous GDP was a seed line. And to be candid I thought it was a landrace offering. Then now I’m reading all types of stuff that are of the complete opposite hahaha. Shows what assumptions can do. I really appreciate the history part as that almost Makes the strain in My eyes. I’d love to speak to Ken but to the point DVG alluded to this maybe one of Ken’s backup supplies that have been let out into the world.
that photo on the seedsman site of GDP is so badly photoshopped it isn’t funny, why not put up pics of the whole plant instead of HDR depth of field stacked photos? that makes me immediately suspect
They have had that same pic for 10 years, I don’t think it’s that photoshopped just maybe increased the contrast a bit or something. I do agree a pic of the full plant would be better.
Can’t remember it too well but I do remember when that brand first was starting
Purple Punch is definitely not a GDP leaning pheno. So I’ll assume you haven’t grown it lol And it definitely isn’t a big bug magnet it’s actually the opposite and more of a bug repellent. A few years ago I had caterpillars on everything except my Purple Punch cut (Larry OG leaner)
I’ve grown Purple Punch from two different sources, may have been same cut but I noticed some differences that may have been epigenetic, Ive also bred with both cuts. I’ve had Purple Punch get spider mites and nearby other strains no spider mites. Catepillars will pretty much eat any bud if they get on there, but spider mites have been known to prefer certain chemical profiles, likely because of the terpenes. Here is Dark Hearts strain of GDP, note that they say it is prone to spider mites.https://darkheartnursery.com/strains/kens-granddaddy-purple/
I’ve grown GDP more times then I can count with No mites EVER. I responded about the purple punch because it’s more of a Larry OG pheno and it’s a known bug repellent
Imagine a huge grow with caterpillar issues. And there’s this one strain that caterpillars hate. That’s the purple punch. At least from my experience
Nice article. I agree you can see the Larry in PP, but Ive noticed the spider mite issue. Purple Punch can get purple from the GDP, which I havent seen from Larry. Most of all, Purple Punch gets it nose from GDP more than Larry OG the sweet berry PP nose is from GDP where Larry OG is more lemon, pine, gas.
I agree its mostly the grow environment, spider mites like it dry and warm. But it is also the strain, read the GDP profile from Dark Heart. Dark Heart has some of the leading scientists in the industry.
