Haze varieties are without a doubt the most hystorically famous and popular 100% sativa hybrids.
This crossbreed first saw the light of day in the United States in the early 1970s. 20 years. century, although the varieties from which it comes have been cultivated in South Asia and South America for centuries.
V 19. century, countries such as India, Burma and Thailand, where recreational cannabis cultivation was common, were under the control of the British Empire. Around 1930, some seeds from these countries began to reach the USA. It was these seeds that 40 years later served as the key genetics for the breeding of the original Haze variety.
V 50. years, cannabis was an ideal complement to the beat (jazz, blues), in the 60s. years, an integral part of the hippie movement, and when the 1970s came, its popularity got so high that a lot of emphasis began to be placed on increasing quality and yield.
California in the 1960s. a 70. has become the cradle of American cannabis culture, and many exotic genetics from all over the world, especially from Mexico, Colombia and the Caribbean, have arrived on its shores.
Legend has it that there were people living in Santa Cruz in the early 1970s. years, two brothers, R. Haze and J. Haze, known as the Haze Brothers, were passionate about Colombian and Mexican genetics, which later gave birth to the legendary Haze. This legend is said to be a hybrid bred from two Colombian varieties (probably Colombian Gold and Colombian Red) and a Mexican variety (supposedly Acapulco Gold). To this day, there are debates about Mexican sativa and its presence in the original Haze breeding project, as many deny it and others confirm it.
It is said that the brothers developed a good relationship with Sam Skunkman, who lived in the same neighborhood at the time. Sam and the Sacred Seed collective have worked for years to maintain and stabilize Haze. They crossed haze with Thai genetics and seeds from South India, resulting in what we know today as Original Haze. It was a very unstable plant that even after many generations still produces huge differences between phenotypes. It gave rise to varieties such as Root Beer, Purple Haze, Light Silver Green, Silver Blue Haze, Lime Green Haze and other phenotypes that can no longer be found today. In 1976, Sacred Seed began selling the Original Haze variety. This first California Haze was a hybrid 100% sativa, with a sweet taste and aroma, energetic effects, so popular with growers that even its slow flowering didn’t deter them.
Rumor has it that the Haze Brothers gave up their growing hobby during those times, one of them going to Mexico while the other found God in the San Francisco hills. Some members of Sacred Seed still claim that these brothers never existed, but who knows…
At the end of the 80. years, Sam closed Cultivator’s Choice, the company he had founded a few months after arriving in Holland, and sold his genetics to several individuals who became a key part of stabilizing these hybrids. Some of these were acquired by Wernard Bruining, founder of Positronics, who was one of the first to sell classic varieties like Skunk #1 and Original Haze. When the company went bankrupt in 1996, some of its employees took some of the company’s material and started their own seed banks (which gave birth to Nirvana Seeds, The Super Sativa Seed Club and Homegrown Fantaseed). Also, Eddy, the founder of The Flying Dutchmen, bought some of the seeds from Sam Skunkman (they worked together at Cultivator’s Choice) and made a huge effort to stabilize these pure strains, becoming the only company selling Original Haze and Original Skunk #1 after Positronics went bankrupt.
However, the most important step forward for Haze genetics was when it came into the hands of Neville Schoenmaker, a young Australian heroin addict who was eventually dubbed the “King of Cannabis” by High Times magazine. An Australian with roots in the Netherlands was a marijuana dealer in his native country. At a young age, he began working in a laboratory with illegal substances, experimenting with all kinds of drugs, from marijuana to heroin, to which he became addicted. After numerous arrests and rehabs, he ended up in Holland, where a rehab program helped him raise funds for a seed company. With grant money, he bought an estate near the German border, where he installed large greenhouses with industrial lighting so he could grow cannabis under roof (a place he named Cannabis Castle). Eventually, in 84, he opened the legendary The Seedbank of Holland, the first seed company to send seeds by mail, which allowed him to distribute seeds literally all over the world.
In the 1988 catalogue of The Seed Bank we find the following description of Haze:
“The scent is complex and deep, with a floral aroma with notes reminiscent of the smell of processed leather. When used for crossbreeding, it delivers fascinating notes of deep and complex flavour as well as a unique characteristic effect. Although not for everyone, for cannaiseurs this Haze variety is irresistible.”
Neville germinated the seeds he obtained from Sam and kept five different plants, which he named A, B, C, D and E; three females (B, D and E) and two males (A and C) that would become the fathers of some of the most popular hybrids around the world. In 1989, his hybrid Early Pear x Skunk #1 x Northern Lights #5 x Haze won the second Cannabis Cup, which Seeds Bank repeated the following year. As the years go by, crosses like Northern Light #5 x Haze or Jack Herer (Northern Light #5 x Haze C x Skunk x Haze A) will become legendary.
Yet, by trading seeds around the world, Neville Schoenmaker became an object of interest to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). After being arrested by the DEA in 1990, Neville decided to sell Cannabis Castle along with his geneticists to Ben Dronkers, owner of Sensi Seed Club, and from this merger Sensi Seeds Bank was born.
After some time, when Neville was retired, he became co-owner of Greenhouse Coffeshop, where in 1995, in collaboration with Australian grower Shantibaba, the seedbank Greenhouse Seeds was born. Many new Haze hybrids have come out of this collaboration. Super Silver Haze was probably the most significant, as it won the Cannabis Cup in the following three years (97, 98 and 99). After leaving Greenhouse Seeds, Neville made a few more collabs with Mr. Nice.
It’s been over 30 years since Sam came to Holland to revolutionise the cannabis scene, and it seems that even after all this time, Neville and Sam’s Haze legacy is still alive. Nowadays, almost all seed banks offer Haze hybrids, whether or not they are derived from the original ones, and we can find endless varieties. Rumour has it that in some Amsterdam cafes, if one knows which door to knock on, one can still find descendants of those early Neville Haze plants, such as A5.
Genetics:
Colombian Gold
Colombian Red
Mexican Sativa
Thai sativa
Medicinal value: anti-inflammatory, anti-stress.
Haze’s origin story to date is a mixture of different versions. Where the original Haze came from, or who the Haze Brothers were; whether Sam was the actual owner of the seeds that Neville started with, or how he always said the seeds came from the Haze Brothers, we will never know.
Terpenes, which dominate in the so-called. “Haze” varieties:
Caryophyllene (black cumin, cloves, hops, basil, oregano, black pepper, lavender, rosemary, cinnamon, Kannaga fragrance, Copaiba tree oil)
Humulene (pine, tobacco, sage, clove, basil, ginseng, ginger, black pepper)
Limonene (red and silver maple, aspen, sycamore, spruce, larch, fir, citrus, rosemary, juniper, peppermint, pine needles)
Linalool (coriander, orange blossom, lavender, bay laurel, lemongrass, basil, mint, birch, goldenrod, black wormwood)
Ocimene (mint, orchid, basil, hops, kumquat, mango, bergamot, lavender, pepper, tarragon, parsley, bitter orange, orange blossom)
Myrcene (rotary hops, wild thyme, quince, lemongrass, mango, various types of myrtle, Argentine vervain, cardamom, pimento)
Pinene (pine, Greek mountain tea, sage, terebinth, pine nuts)
Varieties containing Haze genetics available on Phenomen Collection:
Barney’s Farm – TROPICANNA BANANA
Dutch Passion –
AUTO CINDERELLA JACK
Sweet Seeds –
JACK 47
Sweet Seeds –
SWEET CHEESE