Whether you choose to grow your own, tend to a garden with a friend or just like to hang out and enjoy the benefits of our favorite plant, we can all learn a little something from each other
For as long as I can remember, the cannabis subculture has always been a place of friendship and camaraderie. People share experiences and help each other out and I’ve rarely found that people are unwilling to share their top tips when it comes to lending a hand to a less experienced smoker or grower. One of the reasons I used to love going to Amsterdam back in the day was because it gave me a chance to openly socialize without fear of criminal repercussions and many of the people I have befriended through an initial weed connection remain some of the closest friends I have to this day. Whether you choose to grow your own, tend to a garden with a friend or just like to hang out and enjoy the benefits of our favorite plant, we can all learn a little something from each other and help to ensure that everyone can get along that little bit more smoothly. The best part is that sometimes, just sometimes, we can take what others give to us and turn it into something entirely our own.
The man behind Doobies’ genetics, Jeff Scheetz, is best known for his stunning photography skills but he first began breeding almost 20 years ago. Having made a name for himself as an outstandingly talented and outside-the-box photographer, he was often asked to work with some of the biggest names in cannabis breeding and cultivation. Having worked with some of the worlds most recognized and elite breeders at the time (such as DJ Short, H3ad Seed, Tom Hill, Kryptonite and many, many others) he established solid connections with people who certainly knew more than just how to identify the sex of a plant. In some cases the breeders sought his help after of seeing his photography online while others were sought out by him so that he could capture the majesty of their strains. In both cases Doobie sometimes offered to help them by promoting their genetics in exchange for them giving him various varieties of seed. In doing so he got original seeds directly from the breeder which he could then document through the lens as he grew them for himself.
Looking back, he considers himself so very fortunate to have met some great friends on-line and built solid friendships with a range of breeders. He is in awe of their dedication and hard work when it comes to the constant development of the medicinal potential of such a range of strains and has keen eye for what he considers to be the connoisseur properties of it. Unlike the main breeders, most of whom use large quantities of specimens in their breeding projects and follow strict guidelines in their scientific breeding process, Doobie instead focuses on documenting isolated breeding work with small numbers of plants at a time. In his own words he is a proud ‘hobby breeder’, but that doesn’t prevent him from creating some fantastic cross-strains all of his own.
Having been a long-time defender of cannabis as a medicine (and a medicinal marijuana patient himself), Doobie set out with a simple goal: to create something special-something that helps improve someone’s quality of life. His own suffering allowed him to empathize with those who are use cannabis to alleviate their conditions and he knew that cannabis could provide immense relief to countless people. Whilst working on his hobby, he also hoped to create unique or unusual varieties that would make for interesting subject matter for his photography work at the same time. It was a wonderful marriage of his two passions and made perfect sense. Despite his efforts, Doobie had no plans of releasing his genetics at first as the laws were very restrictive and, as he told the hundreds of people who began asking for his varieties, “I have a home and a wife and I don’t want to lose either.” To him it was more about concentrating on preserving the genetics he had acquired on his travels, so he turned his focus towards that more than anything else. Doobie enjoyed nothing more than finding rare, hard to find land-race varieties that he could combine with elite breeder varieties in his unique projects. However, he is quick to dismiss much of the credit he receives as he feels it is only fair that the original breeders get their fair dues. Doobie keeps breeders informed of his work and has reached out to some of these breeders asking permission to release the genetics he has created, which shows a huge amount of respect for their efforts (something we should see much more of). Many of the original breeders and their strains are featured on his website as a way of paying homage to them and also as a way of giving thanks to some the ones that have helped him along the way as well as others whose varieties he has grown out over the years. Furthermore, he always provide links to breeder’s websites where available to make sure that all the relevant information about them or their genetics can be found. Sadly, not everyone who uses other people’s genetics are so considerate and Doobie notes that, “Many new breeders nowadays purchase a couple packs of great breeding work, breed them once, and release those as their own. I completely disagree with this type of behavior – it’s pure plagiarism.”
In the (hopefully) not-too-distant future, Doobie’s plan is to release some of his varieties for others to enjoy, but, rest assured, when he does choose to do it everything will be done properly and everything will have to be legit. Currently he is working on making F2s and F3s of varieties like Tom Hills Deep Chunk and Kryptonite seed Trainwreck x Bluemoonshine with Deep Chunk being considered a great breeding variety which many people have requested Doobie to work with. The TWxBM, Doobies’ Stratocaster as he likes to refer to it is an F3 of the original… is one of the hardest hitting favorites of patients who have tried it. But that’s not all and he is always looking into mixing in other hybrids he creates with them when he is ready to release. No matter what happens though, Doobies only maintains a small medical grow so he is unlikely to ever put out vast quantities of seeds for others to get hold of. When it comes to the time of release they will be in very small batches, so keep your eyes peeled and your ear to the ground so that you don’t miss out!
By Psy-23
Images courtesy of DoobieDuck.com
Originally published in Weed World Magazine issue 131
