In 2010, Sensi Seeds Bank celebrated its 25th anniversary. Throughout the first quarter century of Sensi’s existence, the collecting of the original cannabis genotypes, the expansion of the company, the evolution of its hybrid cannabis strains and the growth of the Dronkers family are all interwoven to form the cannabis empire that exists today.
Many people are curious about the beginnings and breeding history of the Sensi Seeds cannabis strains. Below, we present a three-part retrospective on how the Sensi Seeds genetic library was created and allowed Sensi to become the world’s leading seed-bank.
Ben in afghanistan in the 1970s
Sensi Seeds cannabis breeding history - Origins of Sensi Seeds cannabis strains
Ben Dronkers, the founder of Sensi Seeds, has a passion for cannabis which dates back decades. By 1975 he was growing his first plants, and began saving any seeds he found in good quality weed. This soon became a dedicated effort to collect and categorise all cannabis seeds that came into his possession.
By 1978, Ben was working and studying with farmers, botanists and plant researchers in order to expand his knowledge of cannabis. One of his central conclusions was that genetic makeup is the most important part of any crop, even more fundamental than cultivation methods and land-use.
From the end of the Seventies until the mid-Eighties, Ben travelled the world, seeking out the best genetics, focusing on regions famous for their ancient cannabis traditions. His travels took him from Central Asia and the Hindu Kush to the Himalayas, down through the Subcontinent to Southeast Asia and around the tropics. In this period, Ben collected seeds from many superb genotypes – prized cultivars representing the best in Indica and Sativa.
It was around 1984 that Ben’s passion for ganja moved from collecting to breeding. Using his extensive collection of Indica and Sativa seeds as a starting point, he began several cross-breeding programs in order to combine the genes of different cultivars into new cannabis hybrids.
In the early Eighties, the first examples of innovative, stabilised hybrids from the US were arriving in Europe. Ben was able to obtain these original genetics – including Haze and Skunk – making Sensi’s founder one of only three Dutch grower-breeders who had access to this first wave of US hybrids. The new genetics further strengthened and expanded the gene-libraries of all three breeders and also served as excellent templates for the cross-breeding process. In many ways, this influx of new genetic material was the final step required for the creation of new, world-class hybrids in Europe.
In 1985, the first incarnation of Sensi Seeds was founded – the Sensi Seed Club, also known as the Sensi Connoisseurs’ Club. The existing breeding programs were expanded and centralised, with enormous effort put into standardising the process of creating hybrids as well as keeping meticulous records of plant genealogy and interrelations.
Making stable hybrids relies on the ability to test-grow as many offspring as possible in each new generation, in order to assess how desired qualities are passed on and decide whether a strain is ready or needs more fine-tuning. Facilities which would allow this kind of testing were a priority and so 1985, when suitable premises were acquired, marks the true beginning of Sensi Seeds
Sensi Seeds cannabis breeding history - From Sensi Seed club to Sensi Seed Bank
Between 1985 and 1990, the breeding programs of Sensi Seed Club continued at a brisk pace. Most of the work was done indoors using grow-lights to simulate the changing of seasons, allowing many generations of breeding to be accomplished within a single year.
These early hybrids were most commonly made from strains which displayed their own unique physical features while having roughly similar geographical origins. Afghani hash plants from the countless valleys of the Hindu Kush, each one bred according to local tastes, were brought together into multiple hybrids which were even greater than the sum of their parts. The same process was applied to African and Asian Sativas with great success.
In 1986, the Sensi Seed Club shop opened in Amsterdam. Seeds from both the SSC and the Seed Bank were sold at this store, as well as growing equipment and books on cannabis culture and cultivation, making it the first all-in-one seed and grow-shop in the Netherlands.
In 1991, Ben bought the Seed Bank from its owner (another breeder who received the US genetics in the Eighties) and the gene-stock of the two companies was merged to form the Sensi Seed Bank we know today. The last decade of the 20th Century was a time of non-stop growth for the Sensi Seeds family.
Sensi Seeds’ gene library and the creation of new hybrids continued to expand, and within the space of ten years the twenty or so strains offered in the first Sensi Seed Bank catalogue had increased to almost forty. The best of the original hybrids, such as Northern Lights #5 x Haze and Skunk #1, were preserved in their original state, and many long-term breeding programs were completed.
Other hybrids, including Big Bud and Super Skunk, were re-worked into more desirable forms. New Sensi hybrids appeared regularly in this period, and strains like Black Domina, Fruity Juice and the world-famous Jack Herer became legendary almost as soon as they were released. Sensi hybrids won countless awards in the various cannabis competitions during this golden age of Dutch breeding.
Sensi Seeds cannabis breeding history - Sensi Seeds in the 21st century
The law-changes of the late Nineties seriously impeded the breeding of new strains and the production of seeds, but did not put a complete stop to either activity. Sensi Seeds was able to release five new varieties in the new millennium, including Mother’s Finest (winner of First Prize in the Sativa category at the 2002 Cannabis Cup) and Ed Rosenthal Super Bud.
In 2006, Eddie, the founder and owner of the Flying Dutchmen seed company decided to retire from the forefront of the cannabis industry and sell his business. Sensi Seeds was the most obvious candidate to take charge of the Flying Dutchmen and maintain the quality of its seed lines, so the company became part of the Sensi family.
There was a curiously fitting result of this incorporation. When the new US hybrids such as Skunk #1 and Haze arrived in Europe in the early Eighties, Ben and Eddie were two of the three dedicated Dutch breeders to receive them directly from the source. All three breeders subsequently took the US hybrids in different directions by crossing them with their own collections of cannabis cultivars. Ben had already acquired the genetics of the Seed Bank back in 1991. When the Flying Dutchmen became part of the Sensi Seed Bank, the three branches of that vast family tree of cannabis genotypes were reunited under one banner.
The Feminized selection, the most recent addition to the Sensi Seed Bank range, gives growers the option of original Sensi Seeds genetics in a feminized form. New strains are currently in development.