Blueberry Origins

In this article we’re going to talk about one of the most famous strains in the world and how it came to be; DJ Short’s Blueberry. This strain has its origins some 50 years ago in Canada, where DJ Short grew up. Here is the story of Blueberry origins.

DJ Short comes from a humble family, with quite a lot of mixed blood; his father was polish and a WWII veteran, and his mother has Romanian-gypsy origins and was very into medicinal plants; she would grow many plants in the back of their garden such as poppies for opium, tobacco, lavender and cannabis, foreshadowing what her son would accomplish.

When his parents divorced, Short went through quite a rough period in which he was depressed. One day, he tried a low quality strain of cannabis from Mexico and he started feeling better. That’s when his life-long relationship with cannabis was born; he was only 13 years old. He began smoking every day and hiding it from his mother, and his health improved notably. Keep in mind that the only strain available to him was a really low quality Mexican bud.

Little by little he began to meet people that gave him access to better quality cannabis and strains that were just becoming popular around the world. He managed to get his hands on some Colombian Gold, a strain that was famous for its incensed but varied tastes and aromas. Oaxaca Highland Gold was another strain that he tried, and Highland Thai was a strain that Short said was absolutely mind-blowing in effect. He began gaining experience in different strains and acquired a certain taste for both flavor and effect at this stage.

As soon as he turned 21 he moved to Oregon, where the hippie movement was in full swing; he found a job at a night club, volunteered as a fire fighter for forest fires all the while he was smoking ridiculous amounts of bud. In 1976 he began a project with some low-energy fluorescent lights with mainly sativa plants that took 16 weeks to flower. As you can imagine, his first ever attempt at growing most likely didn’t go as planned. As luck would have it, the first HPS bulbs were coming on to the market and the first Afghan indica plants reached America. Thanks to this he was able to produce a more balanced grow thanks to the new powerful bulbs and the rapid flowering of the indica strains. However, the effect of the indica plants wasn’t exactly what he was looking for and he wanted something similar to the Oaxaca Gold and Thai strains he was used to, with their sativa effects and flavors.

This is where it gets interesting. He decided that he wanted to create hybrids. He was looking for the sweetness aroma and effect of his favorite sativa strains, with the structure, speed and efficiency of the indica afghan strains. Unfortunately, he embarked on this adventure just as Regan began his war on drugs. DJ didn’t need too much to get an amazing yield, all he needed was some guano and he was off to a start. The result of his first hybrid was a mixture of flavors and smells that reminded him of Christmas when he was a young boy; he called this strain Ethnic Holiday.

He gained even more experience to the point where just smelling the strains he could tell if they were going to be good or not. Thanks to the help of a Terpene Analysis Center in California, he managed to work even faster, until 1981 when a strain with an amazing blueberry/honey flavor was born; DJ Short’s Blueberry had arrived. This strain has a mix of indica and sativa effects with a relaxing sensation as well as a nice mental stimulation that helps imagination and creativity. After Blueberry, he created Flo, another strain from the Blue family but completely different than Blueberry in as far as effect, flavor and growth. In fact, this strain was so different that Short didn’t even understand how it happened; it has a stimulating, long-lasting effect but it flowers in just 7 weeks. He began giving out Flo clones and they soon took root in Oregon, California and Europe. If you see a strain out there nowadays with the words Blue or Berry in them, then they’re mostly likely hybrids that come from the original Blueberry that was born in Oregon over 35 years ago.

Between 1995 and 1996, DJ Short sold an enormous amount of seeds which was less risky although it was still illegal to sell seeds. Once of his clients was Marc Emery, who actually did a few years in prison due to selling seeds via the internet.

As a side note and maybe something you didn’t know, DJ doesn’t actually stand for the typical “disc jockey” term; his name is Daniel John, and Short is just a nickname. Any strain that you can find with similar characteristics or names to Short’s strains are all thanks to the effort this man made by living on the edge of the law for most of his life.

The Blueberry strain wasn’t created due to its amazing production level, its vigor or its THC content; it was created for the most demanding of palates and in search of effects that no other strains can offer. In 2000 Blueberry won the High Times Cup with its extremely hard buds. These buds have an amazing distinctive smell that undergoes a transformation when it goes from full bud to dry buds, with an earthy hummus like smell, with some citric touches to it when ground up. DJ Short collaborated with various seed banks, like Dutch Passion, who still sells DJ Short’s original Blueberry.

Ever since the creation of this strain you can find it and versions of it in the best seed banks that have managed to get their hands on DJ Short’s strains; obviously almost all of them have different effects and flavors than the original strain, but it’s worth stating that the original strain was extremely easy to over-fertilize and was pretty much only growable for expert, experienced growers. These new strains are much easier to grow and you can still find strains that are extremely similar to the original.

Author: Fabio Inga
Translation: Ciara Murphy