Preserving outlaw values while going legit is a tricky tightrope to walk, but Dan Pomerantz from Rebel Grown is determined to honor the legacy of Humboldt County while boldly moving into a new era. Located in the historic heart of outlaw country, Dan’s land is perfectly situated for growing connoisseur-quality cannabis. Southern exposures allow for plenty of sun, with the cool air coming up from Chamise Creek tempering the heat. Described as a “sweet spot,” straddling the line between Humboldt’s coastal and inland climates, the Palo Verde farm represents the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for Dan, who grew up in Boston reading about the world’s best weed in counterculture magazines like High Times.
As a rebellious teenager who had a difficult time fitting into society, Dan discovered a role that suited him. He became an underground cannabis grower and dealer. “I loved selling weed, I didn’t care if it was a dime bag or a million pounds,” Dan explained. “Bringing joy to other people brought me peace and happiness.”
Back in the day before search engines and online forums, it was difficult to find origin stories for popular strains or learn about cannabis genetics. But as a burgeoning weed nerd, Dan found that education was the best way to bond with other enthusiasts–and his customers. Devoting his life to researching cannabis, Dan shared the knowledge he accumulated with his network of underground customers in a bid to elevate their buying experience. And this drive for knowledge led him to begin breeding his own strains.
Today, Dan is the creator of more than 100 unique cannabis varieties, a licensed California cultivator and founder of the Rebel Grown brand. With a string of awards from the Emerald Cup, Dan continues to bring an incredible level of attention to his work, creating new strains and producing boutique cannabis flowers. Through our collaboration with Rebel Grown, the farm’s 99 Cookies cultivar has been gently extracted and refined into full-spectrum cannabis oil that preserves the cultivar’s distinctive cannabinoid, terpene and flavonoid profiles for your vaping pleasure.
99 Cookies boasts a complex backstory as the product of a GSC hybrid bred with a cultivar known as 5Gs Red. As a breeder, Dan quickly gets granular when discussing plant lineage, throwing out terms like “five-way polyhybrid” and saying “backcrossed” a lot. It’s a bit esoteric for the average consumer, but for fellow weed nerds, it’s music to their ears. To make a long story short, the 99 Cookies is basically “5Gs Red x GSC backcrossed twice with Sour Diesel as an influence.”
With an encyclopedic memory for genetics, Dan explains how the parent strain of 99 Cookies, 5Gs Red, is descended from a few old-school favorites, including an F-13 x Sour Diesel hybrid known as “Dieselberry,” and Cinderella-99. A popular favorite for indoor growers back in the late ‘90s to early ‘00s, the Cindy-99 has fruity, pineapple and grapefruit flavors along with a short flowering time. The 5Gs Red inherited these flavors, along with characteristics like pinkish-red flowers, huge yields, early finishing time and great pest resistance, which led Dan to keep working with it.
Described as “more vigorous and better yielding than GSC,” as well as being easier to grow, the 99 Cookies was selected as a phenotype due to its Cookie dominant traits and dense Indica flowers, with a balance of uplifting euphoria from the F-13 and Cindy-99.
Dan also brings a level of obsessive detail to his cultivation practices, which have evolved over the years into what he calls “diverse organics.” With a recipe for “cultivating perfection” that’s one part Experience, one part Diversity and one part Attention to Detail, Dan has experimented with a wide variety of techniques and amendments before refining the methods that work best for his plants at the Rebel Grown farm. With experience in creating custom soil mixes, Dan and his team currently fertilize the farm’s living soil with up to 17 different organic amendments for the plants to use as they wish. One of the ingredients alone, Azomite, adds 67 different minerals to the soil. This diversity of nutrients allows the plants to flourish while still building a healthy living soil by feeding microbiological life.
The five pillars of diverse organics include living soil, top dressing, compost teas, foliar feeding sprays and root drenching. Beyond building a complex living soil bursting with minerals, Dan and Rebel Grown’s farm crew also add compost, worm castings and kelp as a top dressing. As the plants are watered, the nutrients from these top dressings seep into the soil, serving as a time-release biological aid to help them get through all stages of growth. Foliar sprays work as preventive pest control while also allowing the plants to absorb nutrients through their leaves. Drenching roots with compost teas feeds microbes, further enriching the soil and contributing to vigorous growth.
With just one acre under cultivation in Palo Verde, the Rebel Grown farm sits between 1,200 to 1,600 feet in elevation, with full southern exposure for maximum solar energy. Dan believes this southeastern corner of Humboldt, encompassing Harris, Bell Springs and Island Mountain, is uniquely capable of producing the best cannabis that this infamous county has to offer.
“I refuse to own land anywhere else,” Dan said. “Palo Verde is the best place on the planet to grow weed!”
From this beautifully rugged, hidden place, Rebel Grown produces top-quality cannabis flowers along with seeds and concentrates, made from rare varieties that you’re unlikely to find anywhere else. And we’re beyond stoked to call them a partner!
Embrace your inner rebel and pick up a 99 Cookies full-spectrum vape cart, it’s like nothing you’ve tried before.
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