Dawg Daze: Part One

THERE’S A GREAT DEAL OF INTEREST in the strains created by the grower, Chemdog. The story goes like this…

At a Grateful Dead show at Deer Creek Amphitheatre, Joebrand (aka Wonkanobe) and pBud met Chemdog and sold him an ounce of very high quality pot for $500. Joe and Chemdog exchanged numbers and later arranged for two ounces to be shipped to Chemdog on the east coast. According to Chemdog, one ounce was seedless and the other had 13 seeds.

In ’91, Chemdog popped the first four seeds. From these seeds, one male was found and disposed of. The three females were labeled Chemdawg (now 91 Chemdawg), Chemdawg A (now Chemdawg’s Sister) and Chemdawg B. In ‘01, Chemdog and his girlfriend attempted to germ three more seeds, labeled C, D and E. The E seed never germinated; C turned out to be junk (according to Chemdog); Chemdawg D was the keeper.

In ‘06, Chemdog and Joebrand reunited and Joe was given four of the last six beans: Chemdawg phenos 1-4, pheno 4 being the chosen keeper. Joe thought the 4 was the best representation of the original and thus dubbed it the “Reunion Pheno.” Chemdog still has two seeds left in his stash.

Chemdog and his buddies made several other crosses that are held closely amongst the small group. Among them are:

1. Super Snowdawg (Bubble Chem x [Super Skunk x Oregon Sno])
2. Giezel (Chem D x Mass Super Skunk)
3. Bubble Chem (Chemdawg’s Sister x Sag’s Bubbleberry)
4. Dawg Daze aka ChemHaze (Chem D x ’93 Sensi’s NL#5/Haze)
5. Chemdawg D x Pbud (another old school Colorado strain)

 

In August of 2006, Chemdog came out to visit MzJill and myself to swap stories and have a smoke out. It was a fantastic party with late night bubble sessions and everyone got along great—Jill’s cookies worked their magic. Chem is a super nice guy, as is his entire family and we hit if off like old friends. During the festivities, Chem and I slipped upstairs and traded some goodies so that I could do one of my famous “Live Photo/Taste Sessions.”

Chem was more than generous, giving me the largest buds of many of the samples. The quality of each was very good; cured well and not green—even shipped around, these samples were all top shelf. These are the strains he had with him:

• Super Snowdawg
• Sour Diesel
• Giezel
• OG Kush
• Chemdawg’s Sister
• Mass Super Skunk
• Mendo Purps
• Chemdawg D
• Chemdawg
• Genius
• Jacks Cleaner
• Purple Kush
• Master Kush
• Dawg Days
• Head Band

 

Now, we had a proper smoke out, but I’m better at judging at my own speed with a clean bong and some strong coffee, early in the morning. I can test two strains per day properly—any more and the highs just mix together and you can’t tell the slight differences in each bud sample.

 

MY ORIGINAL TOKE NOTES

Snowdawg

First hit… the flavor is not really something I can put a name on, other than I really loved the initial intake. It kind of reminds me of the White Russian sample I had at Ruskia, before WR started sucking. I coughed a few times and then smiled… let me dive into this a bit more… I really like this, but it would be nice if I could describe its flavor to you guys—I’m gonna have to stick with dank for now.

Hit #2… slight skunk on my finger tips; if all the samples are this good, this is going to be a warm up to the Cannabis Cup—except with real cannabis! It’s totally yummy now that my lungs have warmed up, but the delicious taste just came through, in and out. I like this bud a lot and I’m already stoned as hell and considering the amount of THC we consumed last night, that’s pretty impressive.

Hit #3… Sub takes a breath—hey it’s hard work, but it’s my job to bring you the latest cannabis info. The third bowl brought tears to my eyes, so it must be some pretty serious dank. I’m trying to move to the second strain, but I’m gonna enjoy this buzz a while…

 

Chemdawg

The second strain I decided to test was the famous Chemdawg that draws so much attention. It’s the strain on every grower’s to-do list right now. It’s a heavy indica, with a crushing stone. It has a much different smell than the Snowdawg; I can catch traces of pungent funk similar to the Grimm stuff. Sample appears to have been grown a good while ago and leans towards golden, rather than green; a very well cured bud. This smoke is thicker and burned my nose at first, then I coughed really hard.

Okay, either the Chemdawg is considerably stronger than the strains I tried the first day—or it may be the fact I smoked four bowls at 8am. I’m very stoned and even after the 4th bowl, the high kept building. I liked the flavor of the Snowdawg more at this point in the testing, though.

 

Giezel

This is a pheno that has a more pungent smell and taste to me (I taste Cindy99 in it), but that’s just a flavor I now associate with fruity-type, sour strains. Although similar to the Dawg itself, I think I like this one as much, if not more. If I don’t go as in-depth now, it’s because I’m stoned as shit!

Second try… to be honest, this is sourer tasting to me than the Sour Diesel and it has a nice, spicy undertone and I’m going to say that this may be my second favorite. I’m going to have a few bowls of this, as it’s very promising. I was so high this morning by Giezel, I couldn’t tell.

Third hit… although the smoke is super thick, I don’t have any problems holding in a large hit; the buzz is very nice and the exhale is pleasant.

 

Sour Diesel

I found it to be really more Diesel-ish that anything and certainly not that sour-based on my gear, but it left that oily taste on my tongue I heard about and it hit me pretty hard in the back of the head. This is where I had to take a small break. Basically ripped out of my gourd, on everything. After a brief nap, I smoked more of the SD in the afternoon. Later, after a shower and with a clean head, I like the buzz, but it’s not a sweet enough strain for me—so far, the Snowdawg is my favorite.

The SD reminds me of thick old “Shrimp Boat Colombian” from the bilge, but that makes the sample sound shitty and you can see by the pics that that’s far from the case. It’s very hard to judge Chem’s weed, because it keeps fucking me up. By hit three, I find it hard to continue.

 

Chemdawg D

I’d like to again thank Chemdog: it’s been a long time since I had this many samples. It’ll take a few more days to complete this, so don’t bail on me! Some of the more interesting ones I’m saving to do solo.

Excellent, rock hard sample. Now this smells like Diesel big time; like an old, dirty rag in a gas station with a hint of garlic underneath. Very peculiar.

Hit #1 ( First of the Day)… Like many of Chem’s selections, the smoke is thick and oily, instead of light and fruity. A slight burn in my sinuses is present and I’m instantly stoned. It seems Chem’s focus has been on insanely potent strains.

 

If I do a report on everything he brought, it would take up the whole magazine, so I’m focusing on the most well known of his strains, mainly Snowdawg.

Other strains I liked were Head Band and of course, the Genius sample was just amazing. The Sister was very similar to the ChemD and it was getting very hard for me to tell the strains apart by this time. Other than the Head Band and Snodawg, I found most of the samples very similar. The ChemD was so strong we started calling it “Goobers Rag,” as it really did smell like one of those old red rags a station attendant will carry in his back pocket. Over the next year I had the opportunity to grow out several of these crosses, but I’m really a taste guy and the thick, oily flavors of most of this gear just didn’t suit me. But the one strain, Snowdawg, was hard for me to forget. As a grower I’m always curious as to what an elite cut will taste like grown by me, in my soil.

Early this year, I was able to grab a cutting of the Snowdawg and set about growing her out. She grew easily and also cloned very fast. The plant stays short in veg and once topped, she forms a really nice, multi-head bush without much training at all. Once placed into 12/12, her stretch was minimal and she only increased in height about 30%. She has very wide, indica-shaped leaves and I removed the larger ones to allow light to penetrate down to the lower, second shelf buds.

The plant started fading by Day 40, which indicates she’s a heavy feeding plant, as she was placed in my concentrated Super Soil that has plenty of nutrients for most of the varieties I grow. I top-dressed the container with more Super Soil and gave her a feeding to slow down the yellowing and on future runs, I’ll increase the amount of concentrate I use on her.

By Day 60, she had a beautiful red and yellow fade and just a really nice, fruity, indica smell. The buds were full and hard. We harvested her at Day 65 when about 40% of her trichomes had turned amber. The buds were air dried for seven days, then placed in open glass jars until the stems started snapping when bent. This indicated enough moisture had evaporated and it was time to place lids on the jars. After three weeks, the buds had lost all of their green smell and now had a slightly fruity smell that reminded me of White Widow.

The smoke is very thick, oily and strong; just a few bowls and you’re very high. We smoked a joint at Week 4 curing and it was hard to finish between two of us and afterwards we sat still, just staring off into space for a good hour. I still think the cross could use more resin, as it makes very little sugar leaf, but this is common for dense buds.

We plan to pollinate this indica dominant female with our resin-creating male, SpaceDude, and then let regulars on Breedbay grow it out. That’s right: we’re just going to give the strain away to thousands of people, just because I think too many people are making bank of Chem’s gear. Out of all the gear Chem brought for me to test, Snowdawg was the MILF of the lot.

Look online for progress on SnowQueen and details on how you can grab some at www.breedbay.co.uk.

This article appears in Volume 4 – Issue 4 of SKUNK Magazine.