stoner owner
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED GROWING IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY?
Well, I’m originally from the East Coast. I’m the son of a preacher man and was born in New York, but grew up in Philadelphia. As soon as I graduated high school at age 18, I moved out to California and started helping out on grows. It was 1995 – still the guerrilla growing days before Prop 215 – and we had to hide the plants from everyone. I learned from a few mentors out in Eastern Humboldt, in the mountains. AND HOW DID THAT EVENTUALLY LEAD TO PRODUCING SEEDS AND STARTING UP A SEED COMPANY?
caliFornialeaf.COM
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To make a long story short, I started by helping growers and within a few years, rented my own place and began a grow of my own. By ‘97-’98, I realized I needed to create my own starting material that was better than the clones I could occasionally get. So I started taking different strains that I could find and crossing them with other varieties that were available at the time, for my own purposes. Breeding my own seeds seemed to me to be more stable and a DIY approach to growing Cannabis. It was 25 years ago and there were still people that were getting locked up all around us. So, my interest was sparked by needing genetics that worked well for Humboldt – and always having access to them. The most secure way to do that at the time was to make them yourself, and out of that necessity sparked a great interest that became a passion and eventually a business. But it happened over time. It wasn’t like a light bulb went on above my head and said ‘I want to start a seed company’ – because back then, the idea of having a formalized business infrastructure based around Cannabis seeds was not a good plan. Keeping records wasn’t a good idea. Of course, if you’ve ever made seeds, oftentimes you get extra and have more than you really need for yourself. So, I would always just share them with friends. And that’s a classic Humboldt thing – we’ve always passed genetics around to each other, so I think I had a little bit of a reputation as someone who had solid genetics. By around ‘98-’99, people had made it their tradition to come see me around December. At the time, I wasn’t charging them for the beans – just bring over a six-pack or something. It was actually my girlfriend at the time who convinced me to start accepting money. The best businesses seem to spring out of an obvious need.
ocT. 2020
NATHANIEL PENNINGTON HUMBOLDT SEED COMPANY
Nathaniel Pennington founded the Humboldt Seed Company in 2001 to produce natural, high quality Cannabis genetics for growers, patients and connoisseurs. Working with heritage varieties from the famed Emerald Triangle of California, he crossed and stabilized local genetics in order to improve terpene profiles, flavors and scents, as well as the allimportant potency levels. We recently sat down with him for a chat about what it takes to breed new strains and his new partnership with California’s largest Native American Tribe to produce CBD-rich seeds for the emerging hemp industry.
HUMBOLDTSEEDCOMPANY.COM
