Oregon Origins
In the 1970s, West Coast weed was wild—spicy Colombian, earthy Afghan, raw and unpredictable. In Oregon, DJ Short chased something softer: color, calm, and fruit. The Thai seeds that started it all came from imported Thai weed he scored in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in 1972. Those, joined later by Acapulco Gold, Highland Oaxacan, and early Afghan sinse, became the palette that rewired cannabis flavor.
The Mothers
DJ was deep in tropical sativas—Thai Stick, Highland Oaxacan, Acapulco Gold, and seeded Hawaiian. He sprouted Hawaiian buds in a cereal-box seed kit and ran them under fluorescents—16–18 week plants of pure color, aroma, and chaos. This obsession with expression and structure would define his career.
The Afghan Arrival
In late 1978, a manicurist passed him seeds from a pure Afghan indica: short, fast, resinous, and skunky. While most growers hit Afghan females with sativa pollen, DJ reversed it—indica pollen on tropical moms. That flip tightened bloom time while keeping fruit and clarity. It was the foundation of his entire breeding philosophy.
Flo Formation
Early Thai × Afghan work produced Flo—DJ’s first balanced keeper. It proved Afghan structure could frame sativa spirit, creating a new harmony of color, energy, and calm. It also cleared the path for his next pursuit: the berry line.
Berry Lane
The first generation (F1) grew uniform—medium Lebanese-like spears with mixed terps. Crossing F1 × F1 opened the F2 chaos: berries, citrus, woods, florals. One phenotype screamed fruit and sweetness. DJ followed that scent, selecting a berry mother and father to lock the lane.
The Kind
Those F2 parents made F3s where half carried the fruit. Another berry-focused round into the F4s pushed it to three-quarters—colorful, calm, aromatic, and distinct from the hashy indicas flooding the market. By 1980, customers didn’t call it Blueberry yet—they just came back asking for “the kind.”
From Hand to History
Through the 1980s and ’90s, DJ passed Blueberry, Blue Velvet, and Blue Moonshine cuts hand-to-hand across the Pacific Northwest—long before seed packs or branding. The “blue funk” spread through basements and hill farms, becoming local legend before the world ever knew the name.
The Cup Era
In the early 1990s, DJ released his first seed stock. By 1998, he selected the father that powered his 2000 High Times Cannabis Cup win, securing global recognition. That same berry lineage became the backbone of modern cultivars like Blue Dream in California and Blue Cheese in the UK. For many smokers, Blueberry was the first weed that truly tasted like fruit—a sensory shift that changed cannabis forever.
YOUTUBE VIDEO
— Nugg Notes
SOURCES:
• Short, DJ. “25 Years Growing Indoors—1999.” THCFarmer Forums, 27 Mar. 2008. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025.  • Short, DJ. “Origins of Blueberry, Flo and Others.” International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums (ICMag), 9 Aug. 2008. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025.  • Cizmar, Martin. “We Talked to JD Short, Son of Legendary Eugene Breeder DJ Short, About the Origins of Blueberry.” Willamette Week, 17 Apr. 2017. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025.  • Fagone, Jason. “The Willy Wonka of Pot.” Grantland, 15 Oct. 2013. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025.  • “Cannabis Cup.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025. (Lists 2000 overall winner as “Blueberry.”)  • Short, DJ. Cultivating Exceptional Cannabis: An Expert Breeder Shares His Secrets. Quick American Archives, 2004. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025.  • “Flo.” DJ Genetics (Old World Genetics). Accessed 13 Nov. 2025. (Strain overview corroborating the line.)  • “Blue Dream (Clone Only Strains) — Basic Infos.” SeedFinder. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025. (Notes Blue Dream as Blueberry × Haze.)  • “Blue Cheese (Big Buddha Seeds) — Basic Infos.” SeedFinder. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025. (Notes Blue Cheese as Blueberry × Cheese.)  • “Blue Cheese (Barney’s Farm) — Strain Info (PDF).” Hackteria Wiki (hosted spec sheet), 2021. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025. (Confirms Blue Cheese parentage.)  Notes on coverage: • The THCFarmer + ICMag posts by DJ cover the cereal-box sprouter, fluorescent starts, late-’78/’79 Afghan arrival, P1 set (Highland Thai/Juicy Fruit Thai, Purple Thai, Afghani), F1 uniformity → F2 segregation, and the emergence of Flo, Blue Velvet, and Blue Moonshine.  • The 2000 Cup credit is documented via Wikipedia’s winners list; High Times’ older archives are sparse online.  • Blue Dream (Blueberry × Haze) and Blue Cheese (Blueberry × Cheese) lineage are widely recorded in breeder databases; SeedFinder and the spec sheet corroborate those pairings. 
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