How a tiny seed batch, an accidental pollination and a close-knit group of growers created one of the most influential cannabis cuts of its era.
Before the Glue
By 2009, Don “Joesy Whales” Peabody was already working with genetics that would eventually lead to Gorilla Glue #4.
According to Zoolander’s firsthand account, the exact seed makeup behind the earlier line was Chem Sis × Northern Lights 1×5 × Sour Dubb.
Zoolander says this was the first cross ever made with the Sour Dubb clone.
He traces the Sour Dubb cut through Greyskull’s cousin → Greyskull → Zoolander, making himself the third holder in that chain.
Zoolander also says he nearly discarded the clone before flowering it. Once he saw what it could do, he decided it needed to be used for seedmaking.
The Small Seed Batch
Zoolander says he pollinated selected branches and covered them with Ziploc bags to prevent stray pollen from reaching the rest of the flower room.
He estimates producing only 200 to 300 seeds total, with roughly 50 seeds connected to this particular line.
Those genetics eventually reached Joesy’s room before the accidental pollination that created the future Glue family.
2011: The Accident
In 2011, Joesy’s medical card had lapsed when an emergency scare forced him to move everything out of his grow room overnight.
He moved the plants back roughly a week later.
According to Joesy’s later account, the Sis/Dubb hybrid hermed and pollinated Chocolate Diesel.
Joesy largely discarded the resulting seeds, but Mardogg sprouted some of them during a joint grow.
Joesy remembered 5 plants emerging: GG1, GG2, GG4 and “the runt,” while GG3 did not survive.
GG2 was reportedly sent to a grower in Michigan who later lost the plant.
GG1 and GG4 survived, and the 2 were later crossed to produce GG5.
Naming the Beast
The name reportedly came during trimming.
Joesy grabbed his phone after handling GG4, and it stuck to his resin-covered fingers.
He laughed that the flower was “like Gorilla Glue.”
The name fit both the plant’s extreme resin production and the heavy effect associated with the #4 cut.
2014: The Cut Breaks Out
By 2014, Joesy had reportedly given away roughly 200 GG4 clones, treating them as gifts rather than commercial sales.
The cut spread through ICMag, California grower circles, extractors and hash makers.
Its combination of potency, resin production and extraction performance helped build its reputation quickly.
That same year, GG4 won 1st place at High Times Cannabis Cup events in Los Angeles and Michigan, pushing the clone from forum legend into the wider cannabis market.
Building GG Strains
By 2015, Don “Joesy Whales” Peabody, Ross “Lone Watty” Johnson and Cat Franklin formed GG Strains.
The goal was to protect the line, help consumers identify certified cuts and build a legitimate licensing structure around the name.
According to Cat Franklin’s firsthand account, she was Joesy’s true business partner alongside Ross.
Her work included marketing, operations and the company side of GG Strains, even though she was publicly presented primarily as “the marketing person.”
Why Cat Stayed Quiet
Cat says that separation was intentional.
She was living in Minnesota, where cannabis remained illegal, while Joesy was operating in medically legal Las Vegas.
According to Cat, she and Joesy agreed that keeping her publicly separated from cultivation reduced the legal attention directed toward her.
She says much more was happening behind the scenes than she ever wanted documented publicly.
Her account helps explain why her role can appear smaller in older versions of the GG4 story than she says it actually was.
The Missing Name
Cat also says Mardogg’s role was intentionally left out of older versions of the story.
According to her, the omission was meant to protect him.
After Mardogg died, Cat felt the complete history should finally acknowledge his involvement in sprouting the accidental seeds that produced the early Glue selections.
That helps explain why later podcasts, articles and comment sections sometimes disagree over exactly who was present and who deserves credit during the earliest stages of GG4.
The Gorilla Glue Lawsuit
In 2017, The Gorilla Glue Company sued over the use of the Gorilla Glue name.
The legal dispute forced GG Strains to move officially toward names including Original Glue and GG4.
Cat says she was directly involved in that fight alongside Joesy.
Her account further supports her claim that her role extended well beyond public-facing marketing.
The Glue Family
GG4 became the center of a much larger genetic family.
GG1, GG5 and countless Glue crosses followed as breeders chased the plant’s potency and growers pursued its extraordinary resin production.
What began with a small accidental seed population became one of the defining cannabis genetic stories of the 2010s.
Legacy
Ross “Lone Watty” Johnson died in 2019. Don “Joesy Whales” Peabody died in 2020.
Cat says Joesy had quietly dealt with serious health problems that he rarely wanted discussed publicly.
After his death, she continued protecting the genetics, seeds, text archives, cultivation records and history entrusted to her.
She later worked with Greyskull for a period before he eventually left the cannabis industry.
For Cat, preserving the GG4 story means remembering the people who worked quietly behind the scenes, not only the loudest voices claiming credit after the fact.
The history of Gorilla Glue #4 was never the work of one person.
It was an accidental seed event, a group of growers, a protected clone and a network of people who kept it alive long enough to become a legend.
As Cat puts it, the story will always be:
“2 Breeders & a Cat.”
by Nuggnotes
his article is sponsored by ROSIN EVOLUTION
Visit http://RosinEvolution.com
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