Who Started the First Cannabis Seed Bank?

Have you ever wondered who started the first cannabis seed bank? The cannabis pioneer Nevil Martin Schoenmakers is the man behind The Seed Bank of Holland, the first cannabis seed bank in the world. Keep reading to learn more about Schoenmakers and the incredible legacy he left behind.

The First Modern-Age Cannabis Cultivation Specialist

Nevil Martin Martin Schoenmakers was born to Dutch parents in Perth, Western Australia, in February 1956 and emigrated to the Netherlands in 1976. Here, he began cultivating cannabis for his own consumption. After dabbling with different landrace, he became frustrated with how poorly the Colombian, Thai, and African cultivars were growing in the colder climate of Northern Europe. He also tried a Mexican Sativa, which he enjoyed the most.

He concluded that the only way to get the perfect cannabis hardy enough for the cooler region of Europe was to develop it himself. It’s easy to say today’s growers can thank Schoenmakers for the popular modern hybrids of today, such as Durban Poison—an African Sativa named for the city with the same title in South Africa. This extra-frosty hybrid, bred by Greenpoint Seeds, offers a unique black licorice aroma and an excellent head/body response that keeps consumers functional and happy.

Because of Schoenmakers’ passion for landrace genetics, we have a ton of new hybrids that descend from these classic.

The First Cannabis Seed Bank

In the early 1980s, Schoenmakers founded The Seed Bank of Holland, the first cannabis seed bank in the world. Now that’s an exciting story. How did he get the money to start the seed bank?

The Dutch government was offering loans to drug addicts to get them started doing something useful with their lives. As a result, Schoenmakers obtained a loan to construct an indoor grow to produce seeds. As he was quoted in Times, “I told them I wanted to grow cannabis indoors. They weren’t thrilled with the idea, but they gave me the money anyway.”

Nevil Martin Schoenmakers became a cannabis seed and cultivator and changed the cannabis world forever.

When Did the First Cannabis Seed Bank Open Its Doors?

The Holland Seed Bank was established in July 1984, but it didn’t have a very comprehensive catalog. It was just a list of cannabis seeds Schoenmakers had collected from local coffee shops around Holland. He sold the seeds for $0.25 each and stated that he couldn’t guarantee their purity since he didn’t breed them himself.

The first cannabis seed bank catalog included Jamaica, Colombia, Indonesia, India, Malawi, and Mexico. However, Schoenmakers quickly realized that many of these equatorial genetics couldn’t thrive in the cooler European climate.

With the help of another breeder from America, Greg, Schoenmakers was able to take his next catalog in 1987 to the next level and the legend was official—The Seed Bank of Holland was the first cannabis seed bank in the world, and Schoenmakers was the man behind it.

At Greenpoint Seeds, we do our best to continue the legacy of Nevil Martin Schoenmakers by preserving rare, clone-only and creating new and unique hybrids. Like Schoenmakers, we have a passion for improving and expanding the cannabis gene pool, and producing hardy, healthy, and reliable cannabis seeds.

Are you ready to be a pioneer in the cannabis community? Check out our selection at Greenpoint Seeds. We offer a wide selection of premium regular and feminized cannabis seeds. Contact us to learn more!

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