by Nebula Haze
Every home cannabis grower knows that your strains make the difference between a ‘meh’ harvest and an amazing cannabis harvest that makes your eyes water with pride. At GrowWeedeasy.com, we are constantly growing, so we make sure to keep up with the latest developments when it comes to strains and strain breeders. That’s why I want to highlight a new strain breeder, Happy Valley Genetics, that offers stabilized seed versions of some of my favorite cannabis genetics that were previously only available as unstabilized crosses or clones.
Happy Valley Genetics is a new(ish) cannabis breeder.
Sometimes it’s hard to get information about new breeders, so I put together this page to share my research and experience with this breeder so far.
Happy Valley Genetics offers cannabis seeds that are stabilized and ideal for home growers.
Who is Ethos Genetics, and what do they have to do with Happy Valley Genetics?
Ethos Genetics is a Colorado-based company known for breeding high-quality cannabis seeds which I’ve been growing since around 2015. They offer great genetics, but the one downside (in my opinion) is they tend to release lots of “crosses” but don’t actually stabilize their strains. That means you could get 5 seeds of the same cross, and potentially produce 5 very different plants with different buds. This is amazing from the perspective of “phenotype hunting” and breeding your own strains. You get seeds of amazing genetics with lots of genetic variety to sift through.
However, for a home grower who isn’t planning on breeding seeds, it’s often more convenient to get a stabilized version of a strain when buying seeds. This makes planning a lot easier.
Advantage of using stabilized strains is you know…
- Plant size – Be able to anticipate how big plants get
- Time to harvest – How long they take before they are ready to harvest
- Bud quality – Know how buds look/smell, potency, density, etc.
With a stabilized strain, you can grow 5 seeds and all 5 plants will grow the same as each other, almost as if you were growing clones.
Stabilized strains are usually better for home growers.
That brings me to Happy Valley Genetics. They are located out of Massachusetts and have been collaborating with Ethos Genetics for several years. During this collaboration, Happy Valley Genetics won two High Times Cannabis Cup awards: Best Sativa Flower for Super Lemon Haze and Best Hybrid Flower for White Wedding.
As part of my research on this breeder, I learned that Ethos and Happy Valley Genetics primarily breed with only female plants, stating that the Y chromosome from male plants does not necessarily contribute a lot to female bud development. This unique technique of cutting out male plants lets breeders always choose two “parent” plants that produce excellent buds, and is combined with testing plant genetics to get objective data instead of relying on anecdotal observations.
Happy Valley decided to start stabilizing the best versions of Ethos strains, and entered a formal licensing agreement. Now they offer stabilized strains, based on Ethos genetics, in both feminized photoperiod and feminized auto-flowering form.
Recommended photoperiod strain (so far)
Recommended auto-flowering strain (so far)
See other Happy Valley Genetics.
Let us know your experience with this breeder. If you’ve got pictures, don’t hesitate to submit them and we might feature them on this page!
