Magus Genetics

There is no special “hemp apprenticeship” that would directly pave the way into marijuana plant breeding.

Magus Genetics's Gerrit is a “patchwork guy”. The list of jobs he went through before falling for hemp is long and manifold. Gerrit reports: “I had a shipload of different jobs, varying from working in the flower bulb industry, to being an electrician, maintenance engineer, industrial paint sprayer, grease monkey (car repair moonlighter), steel caster, and bartender/porter, just to name a few.”

Gerrit says: “Cannabis has enriched my life”.

With his small, but fine marijuana seed collection Gerrit has been very successful. He opened a hemp shop in Enkhuizen/NL in Juli 2002 (Magus Genetics Hemp Store).

The way in which Gerrit attained his marijuana seeds and how he happened to open a marijuana seed bank is very uncommon. At the beginning of the 90ies, he started home growing, choosing an outdoor location. He used Afghani and Skunk? marijuana bag seeds that he had selected out of Amsterdam coffeeshop marijuana in 1989. Because he was not familiar with female and male cannabis flowers, he did not realize that the Afghani plants were male and pollinated a female skunk, resulting in a lot of F1 marijuana seeds.

Warlock

In the following winter, Gerrit opted for indoor marijuana growing mainly making use of clones that he had bought from a friend. But he also took some seedlings and clones of his own material, both his self-F1 hybrid Skunk/Afghani and once again the supposedly pure, but commercial Skunk bag seeds. He noticed that his own F1 hybrids of Skunk/Afghani clearly were more vigorous than the pure Skunk plants, but could not match them in terms of smell and taste.

With his Skunk marijuana seed supply nearly exhausted, Gerrit decided to hybridize his last female Skunk specimens (he had taken several cuttings of the best plant), with the pollen of some male Skunk/Afghani F1s. The resulting generation proved to be very vigorous and even superior to the Skunk mother in terms of aroma and potency, but did not yield as much as the bought cuttings.

Gerrit kept buying them and only grew a few of his own pedigree in the shaded corners of the room. Until spring 2003, then suddenly his friend got into troubles and Gerrit was forced to fill out the whole cultivation space with his own hybrids. Thanks to this accident, he determined the reason why his own hybrids had always yielded lower than the bought cuttings.

They were in the shade!

Too far away from the light source.

But he also had another incentive to grow his own.

Warlock

He had gotten into contact with the “Bluebird”, one of Amsterdam`s most popular coffeeshops, and the Bluebird guys sold Gerrit`s own creation under the name Warlock enthusing a steadily increasing circle of customers. Who cried for more.

Gerrit managed to further improve his hybrid`s marijuana yield by optimizing the growing factors. He did not continue the marijuana breeding process. He kept on reproducing one single superb mother plant by taking cutting from cutting over years. However, in 1997 he got worried about the germination power of his original hybrid seeds which were several years old now. He also was afraid that in case of being busted or stolen, his mother plants would disappear forever.

So Gerrit decided to make a cut in production and put the whole matter on a more professional basis. He also felt inspired by the fact that the Bluebird had taken 3rd place in the bio category of the High Times Cannabis Cup? 1997 with his Warlock He sowed all original seeds that were left, still obtaining a good germination rate.

Warlock

Between 1997 and 1998, Gerrit worked with 50 different breeding lines that he had created out of 25 female individuals and 2 different males. He made sure to have numerous safety copies of the respective parents and selected the best line for creating Warlock as commercially available marijuana seed strain for the first time. Introducing it to the market at the High Times Cannabis Cup 1998 with great response.

Warlock proved to be a true lucky punch.

It is especially remarkable that a marijuana breeder has created something outstanding and unique out of completely regular and commercial strains like Afghani and Skunk. In the following years, Gerrit experimented within the original gene pool. Resulted in a new father plant for Warlock.

The marijuana plant was also used to create new varieties like:

• Exile? x White-Widow / Northern Lights
• Starwarz? x Sensi Star)
• Double Dutch x pre-2000 Chronic?

Gerrit himself prefers Warlock, when it comes to the quality of marijuana high? but recommends the Double Dutch for optimum yields. He says that the 1999 ban on marijuana seeds production in Holland actually was irrelevant to him, because he used to work in the underground. He had already decided to move to a slightly smaller grow room at the end of 1998.

Double Dutch also became most popular within short period of time. Gerrit`s latest hit, the outdoor marijuana strain Biddy Early? (Early Pearl/Skunk x Warlock)

He grows his marijuana plants on a regular peat-moss/perlite medium, pH 5.8 and EC 0.8 in the beginning. For the plants to reach a height of up to 60 cm in the course of their life cycle, he uses 7.5 litre pots.

In the summer of 2002, he opened his Magus Genetics Hemp Store in Enkhuizen.