Interview with Dutch Passion

Who doesn’t remember smoking Orange Bud in the 90’s, or has never smoked Blueberry? I know we do! These classic strains have been around for ages and came from the stable of Dutch Passion, one of the older seed companies around. Nowadays they are also famous for their outdoor strains such as Frisian Dew and Frisian Duck.

We were lucky enough to talk to Jouke, one of the guys from Dutch Passion, and asked him about the history of these phenomenal strains.

Interview Transcript

Renzo: Jouke, Dutch Passion, How are you doing man? Thank you for having us of CannaConnection at your booth at the moment. Can you please tell us a bit about Dutch Passion? You guys have been around for ages and are one of the “base” companies of the cannabis industry. You have been around since 90’s right?

Jouke: 1987!

Renzo: ’87 even. So even the young people who are growing now were not even born yet! Maybe you can tell us a bit about the history of Dutch Passion and the philosophy behind it?

Jouke: Sure! Dutch Passion was one of the first seed companies around. We started back then with regular seeds because there were no feminized or autoflowering seeds yet. And in the late 90’s we were the first company to discover a method on how to create feminized seeds.

This is when our small company began to become a large seed company. In the following years of course other companies followed us and started to discover their ways of making feminized seeds as well. And this is when the seed market became interesting for a lot of home growers.

During these years we developed best-sellers like Blueberry, Power Plant and Orange Bud. This has been a big part of our work before we started to also focus on the special outdoor genetics for the colder climates like in The Netherlands or even Scandinavia. And of course even later in time we started to work with autoflowering genetics.

We got our base genetics from the Joint Doctor in Canada. He played an important role in the development of autoflowering strains. And with his Lowryders we developed many autoflowering strains which now are selling just as good as our feminized strains.

Like Auto Mazar, Think Different and the Auto Ultimate, which is really good also. And more recently we have been very busy with the introduction of some new CBD genetics and we are working on some new medicinal strains with other cannabinoids then just CBD.

Renzo: Like new terpenes also?

Jouke: Yes, terpenes but mostly different cannabinoids like CBG, THCV and CBDV. So other types of cannabinoids. We don’t have any commercial strains ready to be introduced in the market because it takes a lot of time and work to create them but it’s one of our main focuses at the moment because we know that there is a lot of people who are looking for one special cannabinoid. Terpenes is indeed also something we are looking into but that’s a separate project again.

Renzo: Like you said; Dutch Passion has been around since the 80’s. Can growers and home-growers from any place in the world access your knowledge and your seeds nowadays?

Jouke: Yes. What we’ve seen in the beginning, as we started in Amsterdam, is that people from all over the world came to Amsterdam to buy their seeds. And actually already in the 90’s, when we had our website online, it became a more and more international market.

Now we are providing to all European countries and some countries outside of the EU as well. Also trough some distributors it is already possible to get our seeds in places like Canada, Chile and many other parts of the world.

Renzo: In the USA as well?

Jouke: I think there are some companies selling our seeds in the USA as well, but this is not something we are busy with ourselves.

Renzo: About your genetics. You have a couple of big flagships of course. Maybe you can tell us some more about for instance Orange Bud. Is it an indica, or is it a sativa? It's still one of my personal favorites. When I was young I grew up in the middle of The Netherlands and back in the 90’s, it was my main coffeeshop weed. I loved it. And still do actually.

Jouke: In the early 90’s we received a large batch of Skunk genetics trough a Californian contact who had been breeding them in California and brought them to us in The Netherlands. We then used those genetics to create some of the classic Skunk varieties such as Orange Bud, California Orange, Euforia, Skunk #11 and Skunk #1 for instance.

Orange Bud was a really special one because next to the Orange color, it also has a citrus taste so it really resembles an orange. It was immediately one of the big hits in the coffeeshops in The Netherlands and a lot of breeders started to grow it commercially to supply the coffeeshops. But also in other parts of Europe, like in France, it became very popular.

Still nowadays a big bunch of French growers prefer Orange Bud as their favourite strain to grow. For me it was the same. When I was a kid I was not yet involved in the seed industry, but when I was old enough to go to a coffeeshop I bought Northern Lights, Skunk and of course Orange Bud. It is one of the classics I remember from my first smoking days.

Renzo: Is Orange Bud a mostly indica or sativa strain?

Jouke: It’s actually a hybrid. It has slightly more indica genetics but it’s really a hybrid Skunk selection. It’s really smelly like a typical Skunk and usually it has this nice orange shade on the bud.

Renzo: Is Orange Bud difficult to grow?

Jouke: No, usually it’s a really stable strain. Most of the Skunk are easy to grow, but especially Orange Bud is very stable. The plants all grow the same size so it’s a good strain for indoor growers, but in reasonable climates, like from the centre of France and lower, it’s a good outdoor strain as well.

Renzo: Then of course the Power Plant. It’s been a big hit for many years. It’s your genetics as well right?

Jouke: Yes, the original Power Plant genetics are ours. There are a lot of copies on the market of course, many companies have some kind of version of the Power Plant, but the original Power Plant comes from our stable. Just like with Orange Bud, after its introduction it became a big classic in the coffeeshops.

But even nowadays the commercial growing scene in The Netherlands is next to growing a lot of Amnesia Haze, which is not ours, growing a lot of Power Plant. But in the rest of Europe also a lot of outdoor growers grow Power Plant.

Renzo: Can you tell us a bit about the Power Plant genetics? Is it also a hybrid like the Orange Bud?

Jouke: Power Plant is short flowering strain with a sativa dominance. It has some indica in it, but it has more sativa genetics. It has a bit of a Haze effect but not a Haze taste and there is some Skunk in it as well.

It’s ideal for commercial growers because it’s easy to have a large grow room with only Power Plant in it as it is a stable strain that you can rely on.

Renzo: Do you still smoke the old classics like Power Plant yourself?

Jouke: Sometimes I do because in my job you get samples from everybody so I am lucky to have to try all our genetics. Myself I prefer to grow outdoors and to test new outdoor stains. But in The Netherlands I can’t really grow Power Plant so I don’t grow it at home. But in the end, I try all our genetics so yes, I smoke it.

Renzo: You mention that you prefer to grow outdoors. So if you had to give some advice to outdoor growers from the Northern part of Europe. Which strain would you advice to a beginning grower? Or what do you think would be a great strain to start with?

Jouke: We are the only company that has a special selection for outdoor growers. We have the Dutch Outdoor Selection in our catalogue, which have been developed outdoors in The Netherlands. All of them are really strong and resistant and they work really well in the tougher climates.

Renzo: But this doesn’t mean that they won’t work well in for instance Spain or France right?

Jouke: No they will grow everywhere, but also in the more difficult areas. People who live in the mountains or have a lot of rain or other problems, they can grow these stains without any problems. They finish early. In Europe they finish in the beginning of September so they are really good for outdoor growing. But of course they will also work in countries like Spain.

The thing about these varieties though is that most of them will grow well indoors. This is something really special. Most other seed companies only have indoor varieties. Some of them might work outdoors as well, but they are still indoor varieties. And our outdoor varieties will perform best outdoors. The big star of this collection is Frisian Dew, without any doubt. This is a very large and productive plant.

The Frisian Dew has 2 phenotypes; a green one that is really strong with a high THC level. And a purple one that is a bit less strong but more productive. We chose to keep those 2 different phenotypes because most growers like to have a combination of 2 phenotypes in a plant. The plants get really tall. I have seen them up to 3,5 meters high and producing more than 1 kilo per plant.

Renzo: 1 kilo per plant from Frisian Dew! Wow, that is amazing.

Jouke: Yes it is. When you have the pleasure to see plants like this, it’s beautiful. If you like cannabis plants and you get to see one of those 3 meter high plants with more than a kilo of bud on it, it’s fantastic.

Renzo: Is Frisian Dew mostly indica or sativa?

Jouke: It is a hybrid with a little bit more indica than sativa. This is the purple phenotype.

Renzo: Well, oké Jouke, thank you for having us and telling us a bit about the history and about Dutch Passion. On CannaConnection you guys can find all the information about all the mentioned strains and the company, but if you guys want to buy some strains from them, visit the site of Dutch Passion! Thank you Jouke!

Jouke: You’re welcome. Bye bye!