The evolution of the Brunch, Dirty Bird’s flagship strain

Take a look behind the scenes at the evolution of Dirty Bird Genetics signature strain, The Brunch.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers here at NASC + Dirty Bird, to our own mothers, and to all of the beautiful mothers who have supported us over the years. We LOVE you! Today though, I’d like to talk about the evolution of one particular mother that really started it all for Dirty Bird Genetics: The Brunch (Peanut Butter Breath x Mimosa).

The mother of mothers, and the launching point for Dirty Bird Genetics back in the early 2020’s, The Brunch was the first breeding project that our team tested and unanimously, conclusively felt really good about: her apple terps, her gorgeous purple and maroon coloring, and her high-test, top shelf cannabis flower. She was more than the sum of her parts. The Peanut Butter Breath mother and the Mimosa father had come together in unexpected ways.

This original creation of The Brunch f1 will never be recreated because we’ve lost the Peanut Butter Breath mother that was used in the project. It was a mother I had preserved for many years, selected from a pack of Peanut Butter Breath by Thug Pug Genetics. These seeds were gold back in the day, and this cut was a favorite of many clone customers we worked with. She created incredibly dense, striking flowers with vibrant greens, purples, and oranges. Her bud was as top shelf as it comes, but her morphology left a few things to be desired. While she wasn’t tall, per se, she had very long internodal spacing and was prone to growing vertically much more than laterally. She wasn’t the best yielder, but the flower she did produce was phenomenal. Her terps could be best described by her name: nutty and earthy, but we knew there was more to draw out here. 

The Peanut Butter Breath cut #3 by Thug Pug used to create the Brunch F1

The Mimosa father, chosen from a pack of Mimosa by Symbiotic, had beautiful morphology and strong, tangy terps that came through even on the vegetative plant. He was vigorous, sturdy, and perfectly proportioned. 

In our test run of the PBB x Mimosa (Brunch F1) progeny, we selected two keeper phenotypes: the Brunch F1 #5 and the Brunch F1 #8. They weren’t perfect, but they were special. They were dripping in trichomes, testing between 25-30% THC and 1-3% CBG, and they had a wonderfully unique apple terpene profile with eye-stopping coloration and fade. We knew there was still work to do: we needed to bulk her flower up a bit, and we needed to tighten her internodal spacing, but she provided a great palette to work from. 

The Brunch F1 #5

The Brunch F1 #8

The Brunch s1 - Feminized iteration

In order to create our first release, we took the Brunch F1 #5 and the Brunch F1 #8 and we crossed them and selfed them in various ways, testing the progeny of each to determine who was the strongest, and which genetics we would move forward. When all was said and done, we chose two cuts: The Dark Horse cut (#8 x #8) and the Lover’s Cut (#5 x #8) to continue the line with:

The Brunch 88 #3: Dark Horse cut

The Brunch 58 #5: Lover’s Cut 

Crossing and feminizing our winning phenotypes of the Brunch f1 created some gorgeous feminized Brunch s1 genetics. The coloration had darkened from purple to almost black, and the yield and morphology was beginning to trend in the right direction. It was very hard to choose our keepers, but that was a good problem to have, and we decided that we would launch this version of the Brunch in our first Dirty Bird Genetics - Volume 1 release. These are seeds you’ll find on our current menu, and the genetics you’ll find in several of our earliest crosses, including the staff favorite, outdoor champion, and breeding powerhouse: Dirty Mimosa.

Dirty Mimosa outdoor in a local Maine garden.

Dirty Mimosa Bx2 Indoor Selection

Volume and Tester strains featuring Brunch genetics!

The Brunch F2, F3 and Beyond: 

We didn’t stop here with the Brunch. We knew early on that this was a project that we wanted to fully realize the potential of by creating a fully stabilized IBL (in-bred line). As of this writing in April 2025, we are currently working on our F4 iteration of the Brunch. As we’ve worked the Brunch, we’ve been able to completely eliminate the 1-in-10 scraggly phenotypes that appeared in its earlier iterations, and we’ve been able to improve on its yield and morphology significantly. The traits we are selecting for are as follows: 

1. Terps: The Apple terpene profile. It’s unique to the Brunch and we love it. 
2. Yield: We are trying to improve the yield of the brunch by selecting winning phenotypes that put on the most weight in flower, while recognizing it’ll always be a boutique strain and quality comes before quantity.
3. Time: A flowering time under 60 days, and this has never been an issue with the Brunch. 
4. Color: we want to preserve the dark purples and maroons that dominate the Brunch. 
5. Effect: The incredible, social, happy effect that we love so much about the Brunch genetic line.
6. Homogeneity: While this comes with an IBL, it is our goal to produce a Brunch that is reliably colorful, reliably apple, and has reliable quality while not sacrificing yields too greatly. 

The Brunch F2 

*Don’t mind the leaf burn on the tips

The Brunch F3 

In testing the Brunch F3 genetics, we saw the biggest strides forward thus far. To create the F3, we worked two different lines of Brunch F2 females, crossing them both with a single F2 male, in order to find out which line had the most potential for the F4 generation. The two lines we phenohunted were dubbed the Brunch F3 v139 and the Brunch F3 v79. After observing each of their progeny, we chose to move the Brunch F3 139 line forward because its yield and stacking were superior to anything we’d seen thus far, while also maintaining great apple terps and some beautiful maroons and purples. Pictured below is the winning F3 cut that we are currently using to create the Brunch F4:

The Brunch F3 v139 #3:

And that brings us to the Brunch F4, which is in the works as I write this. In the next two generations, we hope to fully stabilize the Brunch, locking in all of the great qualities we love so much about the Brunch. 

Thank you so much for reading about the journey we’ve gone on to create the Brunch, one of our most beloved plant-mothers, and I’d like to wish all the mothers out there a very Happy Mother’s Day, and happy growing!
- Beth

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