History
At what age did you start using cannabis? How long after that did you start growing your own supply?
The funny thing is, I already knew a bit about growing long before I started smoking. As a teen, I remember tending to my father’s weed patch as part of my daily chores, and I certainly didn’t mind, as I found it rewarding to see them grow. My Dad – at the time, a breeder in his own right – never told me any B.S. about marijuana, warning that the worst danger about “grass” was the law. He wanted me to grow up with a healthy relationship with the plant, telling me that if I ever wanted to try cannabis, when I was ready, he wanted us to share my first joint. And that’s how it happened. I was 17 the first time we puffed up. I started growing my own around the same time, and found it quite easy. Living in the country certainly didn’t hurt, since there were plenty of spots to hide plants nearby. Initially, I grew simply to provide myself with good weekend stash. During the summer, I began to smoke weed daily with my fellow farm-hands. Being high made the most tedious field jobs seem much more tolerable, even enjoyable. I only started growing a small number of plants, but I had some real beginner’s luck. The quality of my first homegrown stash was excellent, as we had some great outdoor strains back then, a bit of a rarity at the time. That year I started to show up in town on the week-ends with the craziest weed any of my school buddies had ever tried.
Do you prefer growing indoors or out? Bio or Hydro?
I have no special preference for either one, although I have more experience with outdoor cultivation. That is to say, they both have their pros and cons. For me, the ideal situation for growing would be in a greenhouse, where you could get the best of both worlds. I certainly prefer working with natural, living soils and fresh, black compost that can sustain healthy biological activity and natural predators. When you start organic from the get-go, you don’t really want to go back. That being said, I am amazed by what some people can achieve with hydroponics.
Apart from Lowryder what other strains do you enjoy growing?
I like tasty strains and unusual plants. I love trying out new flavors and exotic types. But the strains I grow – or that I have grown in the past – are usually a function of environmental conditions and other constraints. It depends whether I’m setting up a small indoor grow, planting an outdoor crop, or embarking on a new breeding project. I like many different types of cannabis, ranging from old-school indicas to early-flowering sativas, to exotic landraces. Some of my favorites include William’s Wonder; Mazar-i-Sharif, Big Bud, Haze/NL, and a few other lesser-known brands, many of which have become hard or impossible to find. Of course, I still have limited resources, and in past years I devoted much of my attention to growing and improving my automatic flowering variety, Lowryder. Unfortunately, because of the legal status of cannabis nowadays, I find it difficult to continue growing without unacceptable personal risk. In an attempt to legitimize my operation, it has become necessary to enlist producer(s) who are in a more tolerant environment or country, or who actually hold some kind of growing license.
Creation of Lowryder
Were you aware that cannabis plants could auto-flower before you saw it for yourself? Did you have the idea of Lowryder before you had the genetics to make the strain possible?
Yes, although I didn’t know how this “autoflowering” mechanism worked, genetically speaking. I had heard of ruderalis, and have seen many small-sized plants growing in the wild. Years ago I started trying out short strains like Mighty Mite – I found it all pretty intriguing. I had little doubt that fully automatic plants could be created. Back then, I even came out with my own short strain, unrelated to Lowryder, that I called 6-Way – but it was never commercialized, though I did try and sell some seeds to a certain Canadian seed magnate, to no avail. I also experimented with growing methods that could produce bonsai-like plants, such as delayed planting, growing in small pots and other types of stresses.
How and where did you acquire the auto-flowering genetics?
Many years ago I started trading seed with a new acquaintance, Antonio, who is now sadly passed on. A spry, dreadlocked Mexico expatriate, Antonio had been collecting and growing unusual strains for 30-plus years. We met through mutual acquaintances and became great friends, though he was old enough to be my dad. I learnt a great deal through him, and we shared a passion for collecting rare plants; from blue potatoes to poppies and hemp. Getting to the point, one of the types of cannabis seed I acquired from Antonio was called “Mexican Rudy,” a strain which stayed short and flowered earlier than anything else we had. I didn’t know too much about it. At first the name seemed contradictory: “Rudy” almost certainly stood for ruderalis, a mythical, rare subspecies of wild cannabis from Siberia which has a short growth habit and quick life cycle; but I failed to see the link with Mexico, though it was the country of Antonio’s origin. Was this simply an unrelated ruderalis-like plant from Mexico, or did it have a link to the real thing? Although no-one can be sure until some type of genetic fingerprinting is done, I now believe that the Mexican Rudy was actually an experimental cross of Russian ruderalis and Mexican cannabis, made sometime in the 1970s, possibly at the U. of Mississippi in the U.S. I found obscure references to this very cross in scientific literature circa 1978. In any case, the strain was kept and grown out in Canada for several years before it got to me. The Rudy was indeed a short, quick-flowering strain, with medium potency. To improve its taste, strength, and just to experiment a little, I crossed it first with a Northern Lights #2 female, then a William’s Wonder clone. Out of the second generation of hybrids, a selection of extremely short and quick plants, flowering immediately under 24 hours of daylight, were selected for further multiplication. All the subsequent generations retained this “autoflowering” characteristic. The hybrid, dubbed simply Willy’s Automatic at first, became the basis for Lowryder. I grew the variety out on a small scale, selecting the best specimens for another five or six generations before it became commercialized. Unfortunately, Antonio passed away before Lowryder’s commercial potential was realized. That’s the toughest part for me: I will never be able to properly thank him. At least, we can talk about him now and acknowledge his contribution with no fear of getting him in trouble. Bless you Antonio.
Strain’s Characteristics
What do you think is a realistic outdoor yield for the Original Lowryder?
Outdoors, you can get between 3-7 grams per plant. Indoors, you can double that amount with good lighting. And hydroponics growers can often achieve one ounce on a good plant. However, some plants typically remain smaller – with Original Lowryder (#1), once in a while you get a much smaller plant (the “micro” phenotype, as Lowryder growers have dubbed it). We haven’t had as many grow reports with Lowryder #2, but this new version should yield slightly more, as it has more prolific budding. The quality of the smoke is much improved.
Future
Lowryder makes home breeding projects both easier and quicker, how do you think this will affect your business? And the cannabis seed market in general? Lowryder is changing the seed industry. It makes it extremely easy to grow a few easily concealed plants, a fact that has opened up the market to just about anyone with a healthy curiosity and a desire to grow a little homegrown. It is an ideal plant for beginners to try, as one needs no special knowledge about light cycles and such. It can be grown in a backyard garden, patio, or closet, and harvested when ready, just like a radish! Autoflowering plants including Lowryder are leading to a significant increase in the home breeding and clandestine seed trading phenomenon. As it is very easy to produce one’s own Lowryder seed, many people from around the globe are trying growing for the very first time with success, often crossing Lowryder with local varieties to experiment and come up with their own version. This phenomenon can be observed on my website, where growers are invited to sign up and share their experiences. I struggle to keep up with all the new developments. I am really heartened by all the breeding and experimentation being done with my varieties. When a plant takes on a life of its own in this way, it’s got to be a good one! The whole thing is evolving as we speak. Now, as a seed provider and breeder, you might think that I am losing business to this whole clandestine seed sector. But in fact, more new growers are attracted to Lowryder every day because of its ease to grow, through word-of-mouth. Most gardeners like to start with original seeds, so there will continue to be a health market for original Lowryder seeds for years to come. A key to this is keeping the seed prices affordable, so real Lowryder continues to be accessible to new growers, and also to discourage knock-offs.
The average person buying cannabis seeds in a hemp store or ordering a pack over the Internet is typically an amateur grower. Commercial or experienced growers often already have their own clones or seeds, and are not as preoccupied about trying new varieties, preferring to stick to a proven one. The small-time home grower, medical user or hobby gardener is more likely to experiment with new and different strains. So while Lowryder may never be espoused by commercial growers, it has been a great entry-level purchase for countless ordinary people of all ages, who don’t want to grow a ridiculously huge crop or take unnecessary risks. For this reason, shop owners have told me that Lowryder actually attracts new business, for example, the type of person who may not have tried growing before, and this has helped secure a permanent place for Lowryder in seed-selling shops and websites.
