Are Older Cannabis Strains Making a Comeback?

Dear Stoner: Are older strains making a comeback? I saw Sour Diesel and Grapefruit in a Denver dispensary yesterday, and it felt like 2014 again.
Garden Groover

Dear Garden Groover: Don't call it a comeback; they've been here for years. Well, actually, maybe you can call it a comeback in evolved legal markets. Commercial demands and growing schedules pushed out Colorado's weed genetics from the 2010s, like Cough and a very long list of Hazes, which didn't bloom fast enough or had subpar THC potency for today's inflated expectations. Not only that, but the legal pot industry quickly faced trend issues similar to that of craft beer, which spiraled out of control with elaborate pastry stouts and milkshake IPAs. Today's dispensary shoppers want weed that smells like candy or Fruity Pebbles instead of anything gassy.
“No one is bragging about breeding with Sour Diesel," Veritas Fine Cannabis co-founder and longtime grower Mike Leibowitz once told us, "because that’s what they did eight years ago. If you’re coming out of the gate as your own flower company right now, you’re probably not leading the news with Sour Diesel at this point.”

Leibowitz was right, but he also pointed out that real growers never stop loving their OGs and Diesels. Most of them have been patiently breeding and pheno-hunting with different genetics that combine older sensory qualities with more modern yields; some growers simply hold on to older strains for when the time is right. We're now seeing Blue Dream, Sour Diesel and Durban Poison return to the flower shelf as a result, and it's largely paying off.

I'm still waiting to see Hazes again, though. Fingers crossed.

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