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The
Story of Magus Genetics
Magus
Genetics – How a "grease monkey"
made its way into the cannabis jungle
Not
everybody succeeds in finding his destination
at first go. Many people pass through several
jobs before finally discovering – often by
chance – that special thing that they like
the most and want to do forever. This often
applies to people who are active in the field
of hemp business, here lateral hires are more
rule than exception. There is no special
“hemp apprenticeship” that would directly
pave the way into the branch, so many people
have a different approach, making use of
something that they`ve learnt in their former
jobs or by self-made education.
Gerrit
Slot (39) exactly is that kind of
"patchwork guy". The list of jobs he
went through before falling for hemp is long
and manifold. Gerrit reports: “I had a
shipload of different jobs, varying from
working in the flower bulb industry, to being
an electrician, maintenance engineer,
industrial paint sprayer, grease monkey (car
repair moonlighter), steel caster, and
bartender/porter, just to name a few.” But
he openly admits that he “did not like
working for a boss”, “I'm not very good
with authorities”, as he puts it.
Discovering the drug cannabis should not only
lead to the end of his job odyssey, but also
serve as an act of deliverance to him: Gerrit
managed to turn away from alcohol. While not
having been a typical alcoholic, he used to
drink a lot quite often, afterwards turning
aggressive and erratic. At the early age of
eleven already, Gerrit had smoked cannabis for
the first time, but not noticed anything else
than nausea. It wasn`t until he became 17 or
18 that he tried it again, however, always in
the state of drunkenness so that cannabis
would have a sedative, sleepy effect on him
every time. Sometimes later, when he had
decided to stop boozing, he sensed that
“cannabis could do a lot more than just
putting me asleep”. Amongst other things,
helping him to become laidback and peaceable,
ceasing his “jumpy neurotic behaviour”,
but most important of it all: It supported him
in keeping his hands away from alcohol. Hence
it`s no surprise that Gerrit says: “Cannabis
has enriched my life”.
And
that not only mentally. Because with his
small, but fine seed collection, Gerrit has
been very successful for years already, in
addition, he opened a hemp shop in Enkhuizen/NL
in Juli 2002 („Magus Genetics Hemp Store“)
which also gains much resonance. But one thing
after another. Because the way in which Gerrit
attained his seed strains, and how he happened
to open a seed bank, is very uncommon. At the
beginning of the 90ies, he started home
growing, choosing an outdoor location. He used
Afghani and Skunk bag seeds that he had
selected out of coffeeshop weed in 1989.
Because he was not familiar with female and
male cannabis flowers, he did not realize that
the Afghani plants were male and pollinated a
female skunk, resulting in a lot of F1 seeds.
In the following winter, Gerrit also practised
indoor cultivation, mainly making use of
clones that he had bought from a friend. But
he also took some seedlings and clones of his
own material, both his self-F1 hybrid
Skunk/Afghani and once again the supposedly
pure, but commercial Skunk bag seeds. He
noticed that his own F1 hybrids of
Skunk/Afghani clearly were more vigorous than
the pure Skunk plants, but could not match
them in terms of smell and taste. Because his
Skunk seed supply was exhausted, Gerrit
decided to hybridize his last female Skunk
specimens (he had taken several cuttings of
the best plant), with the pollen of some male
Skunk/Afghani F1s. The resulting generation
proved to be very vigorous and even superior
to the Skunk mother in terms of aroma and
potency, but did not yield as much as the
bought cuttings so that Gerrit kept buying
them and only grew a few of his own pedigree
in the shaded corners of the room. Until
spring 2003, he left it with that, but then
suddenly his friend got into troubles and
Gerrit was forced to fill out the whole
cultivation space with his own hybrids. Thanks
to this accident, he realised that the reason
why his own hybrids had always yielded lower
than the bought cuttings simply was that they
had to stand in the shade, far away from the
light source. From now on, they received
optimum light intensities, what made them
yield very well, too, and Gerrit made up his
mind to exclusively grow his own genetic
material in the future, instead of “being
dependent on other people”.
But
he also had another incentive to grow his own:
Meanwhile he had gotten into contact with the
“Bluebird”, one of Amsterdam`s most
popular coffeeshops, and the Bluebird guys
sold Gerrit`s own creation under the name
“Warlock”, enthusing a steadily increasing
circle of customers that cried for more. And
they should get more – Gerrit managed to
further improve his hybrid`s yield, by
optimizing the growing factors. He did not
continue the breeding process and kept on
reproducing one single superb mother plant by
taking cutting from cutting over years.
However, in 1997 he got worried about the
germination power of his original hybrid seeds
which were several years old now. He also was
afraid that in case of being busted or stolen,
his mother plants would disappear forever. So
Gerrit decided to make a cut in production and
put the whole matter on a more professional
basis. He also felt inspired by the fact that
the Bluebird had taken 3rd place in the bio
category of the High Times Cannabis Cup 1997
with his “Warlock”. He sowed all original
seeds that were left, still obtaining a good
germination rate. Simultaneously he started
reading a lot of botanical and breeding
literature, what made him realise that he
would need far more growing space in order to
get the best out of the genetic potential of
his hybrid. So he hired a larger grow room, at
the same time letting his seed operation be
regularly registered at the local chamber of
commerce from January 1998. Between 1997 and
1998, Gerrit worked with 50 different breeding
lines that he had created out of 25 female
individuals and 2 different males. He made
sure to have numerous safety copies of the
respective parents and selected the best line
for creating Warlock as commercially available
seed strain for the first time, introducing it
to the market at the High Times Cannabis Cup
1998 with great response.
Warlock
– this strain proved to be a true lucky
punch. It is especially remarkable that a
breeder has created something outstanding and
unique out of completely regular and
commercial strains like Afghani and Skunk. In
the following years, Gerrit experimented
within the original gene pool what resulted in
a new father plant for Warlock. This specimen
was also used to create new varieties like
Exile (x White Widow/Northern Lights),
Starwarz (x Sensi Star), and Double Dutch (x
pre-2000 Chronic), while Starwarz is only
available as weed at the “Bluebird”, not
as seed strain. Gerrit himself prefers
Warlock, when it comes to the quality of the
high, but recommends the Double Dutch for
optimum yields. He says that the 1999 ban on
seed production in Holland actually was
irrelevant to him, because he used to work in
the underground likewise before and after
that. He had already decided to move to a
slightly smaller grow room at the end of 1998,
since the rent had proved to too high for him,
as he had not yet started the professional
sale of seeds. But also now, he has an
adequate facility for ensuring both further
development and maintenance of his strains.
Double Dutch also became most popular within
short, and Gerrit`s latest hit, the outdoor
strain “Biddy Early” (Early Pearl/Skunk x
Warlock, “but there is way too much Early
Pearl influence to call it an outdoor
Warlock”, as Gerrit says), surprised
everybody at the High Times Cup 2003 by taking
second place in the sativa category, beating
numerous indoor strains! Gerrit is also
working on other breeding projects, such as
Sensi Star x Warlock, and an exotic sativa
strain called “Zamal”. He believes that
the seed market will keep on increasing in the
future, but also, that the price dumping, as
practised by certain competitors, will get
even worse. Gerrit for his part wants to keep
his reasonable prices (50-70 Euros for 10
seeds are a fair offer).
He
grows his plants on a regular peat-moss/perlite
medium, pH 5.8 and EC 0.8 in the beginning.
For plants that reach a height of up to 60 cm
in the course of their life cycle, he uses 7.5
litre pots, which is sufficient for most of
his experimental plants. Night and day
temperatures usually amount to 15 resp. 25°C,
at an air humidity of approx. 70% during
vegetative growth, and about 50% in the
flowering stage. For producing seeds for sale,
Gerrit uses two male/female plant pairs
(identical copies) at different locations, out
of safety reasons.
In
the summer of 2002, he opened his “Magus
Genetics Hemp Store“ in Enkhuizen, offering
almost every availabe hemp product to his
customers. Gerrit had the special goal to
create an appealing shop ambience, because he
“wanted to to break up all that common
associations concerning hemp like illegality
and ominousness, and to appeal also to
non-cannabis smokers, with a nice looking and
inviting shop”. And he succeeded in this
goal, according to Gerrit, many people come to
his shop who are curious about the manifold
ways of hemp application and respective
products, like textiles, cosmetics, healthy
foods or hemp paper. The drug aspects are also
frequently discussed thereby, and Gerrit feels
happy then about being in a position to give
competent advice and education. It was
especially important to Gerrit to expand his
business in terms of communication and
customer contact. But his wife Corinna, his
right hand in the company, of course plays the
most important role in his life: “She`s the
only thing in life that has a greater
influence on me than cannabis”, he reveals
– what a nice end to this story.
Gerrit,
Magus Genetics
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