Cuttings are selling for up to $1,566 each. Three California events in May are drawing international growers, hashmakers and breeders for the elite genetics they need to stay competitive in a $60 billion U.S. market with $9 billion in new European demand on the horizon.
The cannabis genetics arms race has gotten spring fever this May.
At least three events in California are drawing international growers, big and small, for the top-tier strains they need to stay competitive in the legal cannabis era.
Hendrx Nursery releases 100 clones of Tire Fire OG for $1,566 each at the first Clonetopia, a CANNA nutrients-powered clone release festival, May 16-17 at 7 Stars dispensary in Richmond, California, and Solful on Irving Street in San Francisco.
Joining Hendrx, Purple City Genetics will release their closely held Habibi (Z x Moroccan Peaches) for $500. Plus, a fast-flowering sativa called Lemon Cherry Congo (Red Congo x Lemon Cherry Gelato x Z).
Also, Haze Valley Nursery releases a $1,000 Tom Hill Haze 3-pack for vintage sativa breeders and lovers. Plus, $32 cuts of Grape Lobster, Hash Burger, Modified Mule, and Bodhi’s Strawberry Headband.
Down in Southern California on May 17, Green Dragon releases the most hype strain of 2026, Toad Venom, for $1,000 for three cuttings.
And Green Dragon’s former collaborator turned rival Ronin Seeds preempts Green Dragon with a May 9 drop of (alleged) Toad Venom cuts at GOAT Global for $500 each.
The May 2026 drops
$1,566
Tire Fire OG — Hendrx Nursery (Clonetopia, May 16-17)
$1,000
Tom Hill Haze 3-pack — Haze Valley Nursery (Clonetopia)
$1,000
Toad Venom — Green Dragon, three cuts (LA, May 17)
$500
Habibi — Purple City Genetics (Clonetopia)
Plus dozens of mid-range cuts from $25 to $50 at all three events.
The events evoke memories of Seed Junky’s $1,000 Cap Junky clone drop at the 2021 Emerald Cup. Why the hype?
Because elite clones are blueprints for money trees in the $60 billion U.S. cannabis market, as well as globally. New international markets like Germany and Czechia are forecast to add $9 billion in revenue in the coming years.
It’s like buying Prada patterns in Milan, Italy, to go make your own new bag.
Buying a ‘golden ticket’
New genetics are a capital expense for a large cannabis business. Businesses are spending $1,500 on one plant to make their money back many times over. They turn the clone into a mother plant, then make more clones, grow those out, and sell the bud. They use them in new breeding projects.
“I spent $10,000 on a tray of OG back in the day,” said Green Dragon’s co-owner and operator Glen. “They put me on something that gave people something different than what was out there. I didn’t know how else to get it, and that’s what you did. I never regretted it because I made more than my money back. That’s for sure.”
Grabbing an elite clone is way cheaper than a licensing deal from a nursery, or popping packs and finding and testing a pheno.
Daniel Hendricks of Hendrx Nursery said he is fueling the next big OG Kush wave. Tire Fire OG is (OG Kush x Triangle Kush) x SFV OG. It combines selections from CSI Humboldt, CHA Genetics, Kevin Jodrey, and Hendrx Nursery.
“It’s got all the legends of the game,” said Hendricks. “This thing stood up against all the other OGs I could find.”
“OG is a fucking huge market. Everybody needs an OG that can commercially produce and then is going to keep its nose. This is like a business-to-business golden ticket.”
Daniel Hendricks, Hendrx Nursery
The 100 buyers of the Tire Fire OG get exclusive access to further work on the line, he said.
“It’s an invitation to sit down at the big table,” he said. “Everybody at the table is a professional commercial farmer who buys clones and understands commodities and is jumping at the opportunity.”
Dropping in on the Peach and Lemon Cherry Gelato waves
PCG’s Habibi release (Z x Moroccan Peaches) puts buyers in the middle of the 2026 peach strain wave. Moroccan Peaches is a flower and hash all-star right now, and the current center of a lineup of new seed crosses from PCG for 2026.
Still, PCG has held back Habibi for their own use, and the strain predates the rest of the Moroccan Peaches work. “It’s a really beautiful one. We run it for in-house consumption,” said Auryn McCafferty.
“Hashmakers are going to win with this,” said McCafferty. “It’s mixing two kings of the hash market. This is the all-star of our El Krem work, one of our favorites personally, and the community is going to be like, ‘Wow.’”
PCG’s other release Lemon Cherry Congo takes the current top flavor in weed, LCG, into sativa country, with a super-fast 8-week finish. It’s candy for the young adults who’ve never had a sativa, let alone one that finishes in eight weeks.
“The Congolese is an amazing Mount Rushmore strain for effect. This is landrace work but more palatable for the consumer and grower,” said McCafferty.
The $1,000 three-pack of Tom Hill Haze cuts from Haze Valley Nursery are akin to buying the same gear used to record The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” or Nirvana’s “Nevermind.”
Haze Valley Nursery’s Sjoerd Broeks obtained the three phenos from the legendary, reclusive Humboldt breeder Tom Hill himself. Tom Hill has rabid fans of his pure Haze sativa work.
“It’s really about the power of that high,” Broeks said.
The Tom Hill Hazes are a straight, pure, original Haze from Dave Watson, refined for the last three years by Tom Hill. They’re tall but manageable, with 11- to 13-week flowering times as opposed to 16-20 weeks. You’re going to taste vintage Thai, southern India and Colombia weed with notes of pepper or metal.
You can mom them, take cuts, flower some pure Hazes, plus mess around and make something else. Remake a Blue Dream, the best-selling strain ever. The drop allows you to own a benchmark reference standard for what we mean when we say “Haze.”
“If you’re working with the original Haze, you’ll be making similar seeds that I was making in the late ’90s,” Broeks said.
Broeks said the Tom Hill Hazes are pretty stable and true-breeding. “If you cross them to something else that’s pretty stable, and [the cross] works, the stuff is going to be pretty close to an F1 already.”
Authentic access in an era of ‘cutfishing’
Frugal home growers might get some heartburn at the steep price for such rarities. The average clone price in California is about $25.
Both Clonetopia and the Green Dragon event will have plenty of regular-priced clones for the masses. Talking Trees | Rootimentrees offers $47 GDP x Urkles, and Strawberry Pops with a dealer’s choice, buy one get one plant deal.
Glen said $1,000 for three Toad Venom cuts is drawing customers from as far as Spain who want to avoid getting “cutfished.” That’s a term for being sold a counterfeited strain variety in clone form. Ronin Seeds has reportedly muddied Toad’s waters once before with a fake Toad release.
Similarly, you can meet all the actual nursery operators at Clonetopia to get grow help.
“It’s so easy to get cutfished. To get it from the person where it’s 100%, never been out of their facility, never been a mix-up, it’s worth it.”
Glen, co-owner, Green Dragon
There are so many online nurseries these days selling unverified cuts, said PCG’s McCafferty.
“We’ll really validate the genetics. We’ll grow them out. This is what we say it is,” said McCafferty. “You could try to get those trays for that high price online, but are you sure it is what they say it is?”
After this raft of genetics events this spring, get ready for a terpy fall full of Toad Venom, Tire Fire, peaches, Haze, Hash Burger, and more.
Where to upgrade your garden
Clonetopia powered by CANNA nutrients NorCal Clone Release Festival, May 16-17, 7 Stars, Richmond, California, 3219 Pierce St. and Solful, 900 Irving St., San Francisco.
Green Dragon Toad Venom Release, May 17, 7235 Fulton Ave., North Hollywood.
GOAT Global Westwood Toad Venom Drop, May 9, 2299 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles.
