Our team of grower journalists constantly scours the marijuana seeds marketplace to find the world’s best marijuana strain breeders and marijuana seeds.

We’ve tested all major seed brands known worldwide, as well as more than 200 smaller seed companies. Very few cannabis seeds companies meet our rigorous standards. That’s we recommend only a few seed companies here, confident you’ll get flawless genetics, superb plants, exciting yield and high recreational potency.

Humboldt Seed Company (HSC) is one of very few cannabis seeds companies we recommend repeatedly. Their strains are favorites in our grow rooms, and in our heads.

Not only do they offer professional consistency with true-breeding F1s, 100% reliable feminization, and accurate strain descriptions, their strains are often unicorn in scent, genetic origins, and effects.

Earlier this year we told you about HSC’s first 2023 new strain: Blueberry Pancakes. Now HSC has released two more fire strains: California Octane and Guzzurple.

We were fortunate to get data about the strains’ backgrounds and traits from Ben Lind, HSC’s co-founder and Chief Science Officer, and Nat Pennington, HSC’s founder and CEO. These guys are exceptionally busy marijuana seeds moguls, traveling the world looking for rare genetics and networking with elite cannabis scientists and growers, so we appreciate them taking the time to talk to us.

According to Mr. Lind, California Octane came from heritage HSC Dream Queen genetics that have a 10-year breeding history, combined with local “mystery cut” I369 that came from an elite professional cannabis nursery. The mystery cut was described as a “purple gas bomb.”

Another rare strain, Papaya, was added into the mix. After three years of intensive breeding, California Octane is a finished fifth generation cross that gives you remarkable phenotype consistency, with the only significant variation being the amount of purple displayed on the plants.

The plants display mostly Indica traits, meaning vigorous, thick, sturdy, with huge, deeply-colored, fat buds, killer potency, and successful grow ops indoors and outdoors.

They’re resistant to common cannabis pests such as mites, thrips and powdery mildew, but with buds this thick and clogged with gooey resins, gray mold can be a problem during mid-to-late bloom in high humidity conditions.

One thing we love about HSC is they don’t just make claims, they provide science to back them up. Mr. Lind described California Octane as exceptionally potent but not couchlock and sent us a third-party lab analysis showing 30% THC and a vast array of terps, with myrcene and pinene most prominent. Take a look at these fat buds in a California Octane tent grow (click the “watch on YouTube” link)…

Nat Pennington talked to us about another 2023 luscious strain from HSC: Gazzurple.

Mr. Pennington explains this strain combines rare, proprietary genetics such as Macaroon, currently a clone-only strain. Macaroon resulted from HSC breeding experiments with genetics called Junior Mints that came from a remote grower in Humboldt County.

Junior Mints was crossed with HSC’s Vanilla Frosting, producing an unnamed phenotype that was crossed with Humboldt Pound Cake. Out of these crosses with dozens of phenotypes, one was selected and named Macaroon. Macaroon was then crossed with HSC’s Poddy Mouth, another fantastic HSC strain, to create Gazzurple.

Poddy Mouth is itself a new HSC strain, but its genetic origins started decades ago when Pennington first started collecting rare California cannabis seeds.

Poddy Mouth is a cross of two heritage strains: Humboldt Pound Cake and Mountaintop Mint.

Humboldt Pound Cake is a Wedding Cake cross with formative genetics including Sour Diesel, Northern Lights, White Moonshine, Master Kush, Girl Scout Cookies, and Fire OG.

It also includes HSC’s Notorious THC strain, which tested as high as 35% THC and comes with a potency warning for novice users. Notorious THC’s genetics include Ghost of Von Humboldt OG, Caramel Cream, Old School Cookies, Early Girl OG, Trainwreck, and Durban Poison.

And all that is only one half of Poddy Mouth’s parent genetics! The other half is Mountaintop Mint, another HSC heritage strain, which includes Alien Cookies, Humboldt Frost, and Gelato genetics.

Poddy Mouth’s name comes from the fact that its bracts (sometimes called pods) are massive.

Bracts are protective, pod-shaped leafy capsules that enclose ovules. Fertilized ovules become seeds. Bracts have the highest density of stalked resin glands of any marijuana plant part; these glands are the most productive natural factory for cannabinoids and terpenoids.

Potency claims from most seed sellers are little more than hype, but HSC goes beyond subjective evaluations and proves its claims.

HSC has its own liquid chromatograph, a complex scientific device that precisely measures cannabinoid and terpenoid percentages. HSC also sends sample buds to a third-party laboratory for even more detailed analysis, and they provide those reports to me. No other seed company does this!

Poddy Mouth’s lab analysis showed at least 34% THC, a relatively high amount of THCVa, and almost no trace of CBD. Other tests showed 35% THC!

Nat says the strain is a 50-50 Indica/Sativa hybrid with effects that are euphoric and relaxing. Buds are mold-resistant and need approximately 55 days in bloom phase. He also mentioned that the high comes on fast and lasts a long time.

Now…back to Gazzurple! It took HSC nearly five years to perfect this strain, which usually needs only about 50 days in bloom phase to produce Sativa-dominant but thick buds with beautiful colors. Scents include fuel, berries, and cream.

Nat Pennington said Gazzurple is so genetically rare and complex that you may see 2-3 phenotypes, but each pheno will be superb and worth working with as motherplants and breeding partners.

The high is one of the most psychedelic and uplifting on the HSC menu, great for athletics, making music, dancing, and other energetic activities.

To get a trippy, stimulating Sativa high from a plant with such a short bloom phase is very unusual, as Sativa-dominant strains usually take much longer in bloom.

Pennington noted all these new HSC strains are ideal producers for people who make dry sift, kief, ice water hashish, budder, or other cannabis concentrates, because resin gland density is so high.

Humboldt Seed Company is one of the most ethical companies in the cannabis seeds industry. In the rare case that a grower experiences any problems, HSC is quick to help, honest, and fair. Get these new feminized strains today, and in a few months, you will be celebrating what Pennington, Lind and their team have accomplished!

Note: Do not confuse Humboldt Seed Company with a company called Humboldt Seed Organization. They are in no way linked. Humboldt Seed Organization seeds are known for having massive defects such as poor germination and hermies.