Holck began studying the plant in high school, sneaking away to read High Times articles and guides on growing. He expanded on that knowledge at the University of Montana, taking classes in marketing and botany while growing on the black market.
Raised in Castle Rock, Holck returned to Colorado in 2008, right around the time that the state’s medical marijuana program was blooming. But as he browsed the selection at dispensaries, he thought his product was superior.
“That's when I decided to start Delta 9 Alternative Medicine, which, I want to say, was one of the first fifteen dispensaries in all of the state," he says. "We were on Broadway before it was the Green Mile."
Delta 9 made a name for itself in the medical-only days for growing strong cannabis strains, one in particular.
“I would say things really took off with the creation of the strain that I made in college, Bruce Banner, which is named after myself,” explains Holck, whose nicknames were "Hulk" or "Incredible Hulk" growing up.
A cross between Coal Creek Kush and Strawberry Diesel, Bruce Banner spread like wildfire in the Denver dispensary scene and beyond, but it helped Delta 9 build a cult following, too. New drops of the strain drew lines around the block and a good amount of media attention, including a segment on The Daily Show that also included former Westword cannabis critic, William Breathes.
But a state law passed in 2010 reined in the Wild West days of the weed industry. Among other regulations, the measure required that dispensaries like Delta 9 grow 70 percent of the cannabis they sell, which led to what Holck describes as “shotgun marriages." He wasn't immune, either.
Verbal agreements between him and his Delta 9 didn’t pan out on paperwork, according to Holck, and he lost ownership of the business he had helped build.
Discouraged, he took a two-year hiatus from the burgeoning industry and moved to Hawaii, but the plant kept pulling him back in — and so did a friend and former investor in the original project. “He told me he always wanted a horse in this race. So I told him, ‘Sure, I'll be the horse in the race and if you fund me, we'll call it Dark Horse Genetics.’”
In 2013, High Times’ Denver Cannabis Cup named Bruce Banner the “strongest weed strain on Earth” after testing at a then-unheard-of 28.35 percent THC. Using the accolade as a springboard, Dark Horse launched a wholesale cultivation facility and marijuana-infused product manufacturing site the following year.
For more than a decade, Dark Horse Genetics has also sold seeds to global distributors in Europe and Canada, as well as in other states. Legally, Holck calls this sector of the business, one of many murky aspects in the relatively new industry, “a gray area." A new law expanded genetic cannabis sourcing earlier this year, but Dark Horse Genetics already figured out compliance with few logistics, he says.
According to Holck, all seeds sold in Colorado are developed within in-state operations and recorded in METRC, an inventory tracking system. Meanwhile, seeds sold internationally or online are made in a separate facility via a hemp license.
Either way, Holck affirms that the seeds are “basically the same,” as pollen is not a THC product and therefore, not tracked by METRC. “We utilize the exact same male [plants] on the crosses,” he says.
A Grower's Dispensary
Wholesaling seeds internationally, as well as hash and flower in-state, successfully funded the business for a decade. But across the Colorado marijuana industry, sales numbers have steadily plummeted and hit a seven-year low last year.“To be honest, the wholesale market dipped so hard that it became really hard to grow [and sell] cannabis for above cost. So we decided, out of necessity, that we had to go to a retail store again.”
This past June, Dark Horse Genetics moved into the former Laughing Grass Dispensary space at 1110 West Virginia Avenue in the Athmar Park neighborhood. The surrounding industrial area sees little foot traffic but sales have steadily increased thanks to a range of clientele, from people who work nearby to cannabis connoisseurs and home growers.
Holck hopes to create a destination dispensary in Denver by building a reputation as a genetics company with hype around upcoming harvests.
In addition to Bruce Banner, Holck's favorites in the Dark Horse stable include the strain’s mother, Coal Creek Kush, as well as Purple Starburst. The dispensary also has a major harvest approaching with classic and pillar strains like Zkittlez (which Holck describes as “the best in the state”), Ghost Train Haze, Blue Dream and Ghost OG.
Dark Horse continues selling seeds in other dispensaries, but its flower is now exclusively sold in house. Concentrates, edibles, etcetera add to the dispensary’s variety, which Holck hopes will be made entirely with Dark Horse Genetics’ plants by 4/20 this April.
According to Holck, every budtender has more than twenty years of growing experience, which comes in handy for shoppers while perusing Dark Horse's specialty: seeds.
At Dark Horse Genetics, all seeds are sold as six-packs. While six plants is the legal limit per Colorado resident over the age of 21, households with more than one adult could potentially have a larger home grow, although some counties and municipalities, like Denver and Pueblo, maintain stricter laws. For example, twelve plants is the limit in Denver, even if three or more adults occupy a residence.
Other legal nuances apply to growing at home, such as privacy and security, but the undertaking isn't exhaustive. The greater challenge is learning how to grow quality buds — but even that is easier in this day and age.
According to Holck, Dark Horse Genetics offers autoflower seeds in partnership with Night Owl Seeds. Autoflowering cannabis plants don't require a strict twelve-hour cycle of light and darkness, he adds.
“[Even] on your windowsill at home, it will go into flower. The amount of flower that you get off it is directly correlated to the size of pot that you use. So if you put it in a three-inch pot, you'll get an eighth or a quarter of weed. But if you put it in a five-gallon bucket, you'll get half a pound of weed," Holck says.
Holck believes that autoflower seeds are the future, but feminized seeds are in heavy demand, he notes. However, the longtime grower's personal favorites are naturally-occurring seeds that provide the ability to cross plants and create new cultivars.
Dark Horse Genetics offers all of the above seed types in-store via its own bank and through “the world's best breeders,” including High Times hall of famer La Plata Labs. Soon, the dispensary will also sell plant clones, allowing growers to get a head start on the vegetation stage.
“We've done a lot of research with TUMI [Genomics] on hop latent viroid and other cannabis pathogens and diseases to make sure they're eradicated from our facility, so that we can become a trusted source for not only the home grower, but also wholesale to other growers in the state,” Holck says. “We've gone as far as breeding custom strains for stores and customers when they have a specific need. Back in the day, we used to just throw pollen on something and see what happens. Whereas now, through the benefit of testing, I can take a look at terpene contents, THC levels, CBD levels, CBA or CBG levels. We can create strains and more accurately predict the outcome.”
Despite advances in science and technology, Holck admits that times are tough for the Colorado cannabis industry. A large number of business licenses have been recently surrendered, and the state's cannabis tourism draw has all but dried up as more states pass legalization measures.
But Holck isn't ready to quit this race any time soon. He founded and named Dark Horse under that principle, after all.
"Huge brands have come in and knocked that wholesale price down. It really makes it hard for the smaller businesses to sustain or compete," he says. “With that said, I have confidence in what we're doing and what we're rolling out.”
