Why the interest in the origin of Chem ’91? Because it claims to be the closest ancestor of both OG Kush and Sour Diesel, two of the most popular cannabis varieties to appear in the last 20 years. The legend of the origin of Chem ’91 is complex and begins in Montana, where the variety first appeared in the 1980s, supposedly under the name Chemdawg. Chemdawg was popular in Montana because of its unique aroma and profusion of trichomes. A grower brought Chemdawg to Colorado where it became popular in the same circles as another legendary Colorado variety, the Paonia Purple Paralyzer, also known as P Bud. Chemdawg was supposedly seized in a raid in Montana and the variety is said to have survived within a small group of cultivators in Colorado. In 1988, two members of the Colorado Chemdawg circle went to a Grateful Dead concert in Noblesville, Indiana. There, they met a cannabis aficionado from Massachusetts who was extremely smitten with Chemdawg and secured an ounce from the Colorado boys for the lofty price of $500. The Massachusetts lad liked the Chemdawg so much that he later arranged to have more of it shipped home. In that shipment he discovered 13 seeds. Three years later, four of those seeds were germinated. Three females were found among those four seeds: Chemdawg ’91, the Sister, and a third variety that was not kept. Chem ’91 and the Sister were subsequently used as breeding stock for over a dozen varieties. OG Kush was initially supposed to have been grown from some Chem ’91 seeds found in a bag of Chemdawg buds in Lake Tahoe, California, in 1996. Sour Diesel is supposed to have originated when a Northern Lights/Hawaiian cross accidentally pollinated a cross of Chem ’91 and Massachusetts Super Skunk. It is a surprisingly complex tale for a story involving an ultra-potent marijuana that tends to impair memory.
CHEM ’91, also known as CHEMDAWG
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