The Full Story Behind the Legacy of Pacoima Kush

During the initial rise of the famed canna cups back in 2014-15 around the nation, I started noticing a certain OG Kush strain not only being talked about more and more, but I was losing to it in the indica flower category seemingly all the time. Didn’t matter what I entered against it back then; it would always come out on top.

So, I started to educate myself on this amazingly gassy plant. It went by many names at the time. Some owners called it one thing; other owners called it another. The true origin of this strain is still widely unknown to this day. However, I knew one thing at the time: This was the absolute meanest OG I had ever come across. The idea of it constantly kept me wanting to know more.

I was finally introduced to this OG in person through a friend of mine out of a city named Pacoima in San Fernando valley.  I would get little gas bomb jars of the Kush from him and his friends, who just so happened to be some of the few curators of this beloved cut at the time. The way the crystals just shimmered in that southern California sun was something I still remember to this day. Not only were these beautiful, crowned-out green nuggets dripping with frost, but the gas was so pure it was truly insane. It was the most genuine and authentic OG jet fuel gas of that period. There was literally nothing close. 

I spent years competing against this OG in canna cups only to rarely squeak out a victory against it here and there. I spent years trying to acquire this cut to no avail. I wanted to see what I could do with it. I wanted to see what kind of creations could be made from it. I just needed it!  Finally, out of the blue a few years later, that same good friend who initially introduced me to it came to me and said “Hey foo … I got that OG ese … You want it!?!”

Courtesy of Exotic Genetix

I was completely in shock and kind of in disbelief. I thought he was toying with me, but I also knew that this foo carried tons of respect on his name, and he wouldn’t have offered me something that wasn’t the real deal. I said hell yeah faster than I could have even thought about what I just told you. I couldn’t believe it: After all these years, I actually had the cut! 

Now out of respect for where he acquired the cut himself, and to keep the name-game drama off the streets, he told me not to call it any of the names that we knew it by. I gladly agreed and just coined it after my homeboy from Pacoima as Pacoima Kush. I didn’t care what I called it at that point: I had the cut, baby; I had the cut!

Now that I finally had this gassy behemoth, I had to pair it with the first thing that was in rotation to breed with; at the time it was the Red Pop I was reversing. The outcomes of the progeny ranged from red pop strong all the way to red pop with extreme gas. This is where the Ghetto Red was born. She was a solid and super cool cross using that Pacoima however there was no expression from any pheno of solely that pure original. So, I kept it pushing and moved on to the next project!

Now it was the Red Runtz turn to party with Pacoima. This is where Roxanne made her official debut to the show, and I thought for sure I would see something purer, more Pacoima, and maybe even better, to be honest, than the original behemoth. Although Roxanne was great in so many ways, respectfully, to my dismay, it was more of the same as the Ghetto Red: Sour red aromas that ranged anywhere from mild gas to big gas. However, no matter how much gas, they all had the touch of red involved. That was now officially strike two in the journey to get this dang Pacoima in a true representing seed form.

I didn’t give up though, I couldn’t, I had the legendary Pacoima cut baby! I wanted and needed this thing for so many years, how could I give up at this point? I had such a lust to find what I was looking for, I crossed her with both projects I was doing at the time, Bakers Dozen and Scotty 2 Hotty. The Bakers lineup got popped first. Sprouted, vegged, and into the flower room they went. Two months later the Scotty crosses got popped right after. 

I was excited about the Bakers Progeny. See, it didn’t have an overwhelming Red Pop terp that dominated; it had a cakey, donut, fuel smell that I thought would blend quite well with the gas of the Pacoima. I couldn’t wait to see the phenos from the cross and what was going to pop up. Although, to my surprise, it was almost identical to the previous two breeds, but only this time with cakey fuel to cakey rocket fuel, which, again, was super awesome, and just about anyone would be stoked to find, but it just wasn’t what I was after with this damn Pacoima cut, man.

Courtesy of Exotic Genetix

At this point, I couldn’t take it anymore. I called up my homeboy and was like, “Bro, you gave me a boof cut. This thing is cool and all, but I’m never going to get what I’m looking for here. Are you sure you got the right cut, man? It just doesn’t transfer when you breed with it. Come on man, I’m gonna junk this thing,” I told him. He assured me, however, that it was in fact the real deal, and he had no idea why I was having such a hard time finding what I was after with this damn thing.

Now I’m going to say this. I had no intention of tossing this cut. I called my homeboy and was throwing what I like to call a “man fit” over the whole ordeal. Hey, I’m human; man fits happen sometimes, what can I say? Truth be told though, what I had gotten from this cut breeding-wise was actually pretty amazing already.

Roxanne, Ghetto Red, and even the Bakers cut that I never released were all really fire, just not what I was after in my head. When you have something so engraved into your mind, I guess sometimes you overlook the positive things that are cruising by and really dwell more on the negatives. Maybe it’s human nature; maybe it’s OCD; hell, maybe it’s just me; I really don’t know, but it happened, and I’m not proud of it. 

So, a few days go by after having this man fit of mine, and I went in to check out the Scotty Phenos. I remember seeing just tons of color in the offspring—blacks and purples and just drippers left and right. The first green plant I touched I noticed was really gassy. I thought to myself, “Hell yeah, I love this smell, good Kush!” I kept moving along, a few phenos here, a few phenos there, and I come across another green gas monster.

I was like damn, this is that good Kush again, only this time, it was better than the last. Now, just about everything in this Scotty hunt was gassy. Scotty by nature itself is very gassy, but this was a different gas. This was the Pacoima gas, but it hadn’t hit me yet for whatever reason. Maybe because of my man fit, maybe because I didn’t believe anymore; I don’t know what it was to this day, but it just hadn’t even crossed my mind that this was her. 

I started to analyze another green, gassy monster, and this one was huge, Sour Diesely even, very unique, something I really hadn’t seen before in many of my breeds. It was really cool, even had that good Kush smell underneath all the diesel. This is when it happened … I remember getting about three-fourths of the way down the row of phenos when this glitter-frosted plant caught my eye. The dripping wet crowned out nuggets were shimmering hard from the double-ended lights bouncing off her monster trichomes.

Courtesy of Exotic Genetix

As I got closer to this plant, I saw how amazingly colorfully red her leaves were turning, and I started to smell that good Kush again, yet I hadn’t even touched her, nor was my face even close yet. The minute I reached and touched the nugget to get a smell on my fingers, the natural aroma while I was still touching the plant went from a seven straight to a 10 on the gasometer.

As I brought my fingers to my nose, the laser rocket jet fuel got louder, and louder, and by the time it was up to my face it was the most absolute bang your face off laser lusty rocket fuel I have ever smelled to this day. I couldn’t stop smelling my fingers. I found myself paralyzed in this weird vortex of sensory overload. I knew what this smell was, but my mind couldn’t believe it.

I was still in shock to the fact that this was entirely what I had been looking for for so long. This was the absolute next level of that puro OG Kush as I knew it. And low and behold, as if I didn’t even have to look at any of the plant tags, every single one I had come across and noticed that day were none other than the Pacoima Kush cross paired with the Scotty. A true match made in heaven, and I never even saw it coming. Or at least I was too busy throwing a man fit to see it.

I learned a couple things from this experience in all honesty, the first being the true origin of the Pacoima Kush. When I told this story to my homeboy from Pacoima, he in turn told his buddy who was the original curator of the cut, none other than Kushco OG themselves. Yes … Pacoima Kush is really the infamous Kushco OG from SoCal, baby!

Not only were they stoked to hear the story and how everything evolved, but they even wanted to run some seeds. Huge respect to the KushCo OG fellas and what they have done with her. Not only do they have countless cups with the KushCo OG name on it, but they are true curators of this OG Kush plant even as other fads are coming and going. Hats off to you fellas for staying true to the OG and just flat-out being some real ones. Much love fellas!

Another thing I took from this was a teachable moment to myself. Man fits don’t get you anywhere. They just make you look and sound silly. Especially when you gotta make a call three days after your man fit just to tell someone you were wrong, and they were right after all.

Lastly, and most importantly, I learned from this experience to never give up on your goals and aspirations. Dreams are what make us human and keep us striving to get better and greater at what we do. Without those infinite desires, we would all be merely the same and no different than an automated machine. Nothing to differentiate us or make us unique.

I guess the moral of this whole thing for me was a hidden reminder to keep dreaming and setting goals. No matter how many roadblocks arise, or no matter how many times you flat out fail… DO NOT QUIT! Get back up, shake it off, and keep it pushin’. You never know… that next level might just be right around the corner after all!

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