Subcool
American cannabis breeder behind TGA Subcool Seeds, known for Querkle, Jack the Ripper, and the Vortex line until his death in 2020.
Subcool was a genuinely influential breeder and a relentless self-promoter, and both things mattered to his legacy. He helped popularize hobbyist breeding through magazine columns and forum posts in the 2000s, and his lines (Querkle, Jack the Ripper, Vortex, Jilly Bean) are real and still grown. He also leaned hard into the 'super soil' brand and made some marketing claims that outran the evidence. Treat him as a colorful, important figure in U.S. craft breeding history, not a scientific authority.
Who he was
Subcool, the pen name of Marc Scialdone, was an American cannabis breeder who co-founded TGA Subcool Seeds (originally 'The Green Avengers') with his wife MzJill. He rose to prominence in the 2000s through grow columns in High Times and Skunk Magazine and through heavy participation on forums like Cannabis.com, Overgrow, and later The Farm and ICMag Strong evidence[1][2].
His public persona was as much a part of his influence as his genetics: he wrote in a chatty, opinionated voice, posted detailed grow logs, and made YouTube videos at a time when most breeders stayed anonymous. That visibility made him one of the first U.S. breeders many home growers could actually name.
Timeline
Late 1990s–early 2000s: Scialdone begins breeding seriously in California, working with cuts circulating in the Bay Area medical scene, including Space Queen (from BC breeder Vic High of BCGA) which became a foundational male in much of his work Strong evidence[2][3].
Mid-2000s: TGA Subcool Seeds launches. Releases include Jack the Ripper (Jack's Cleaner x Space Queen), Vortex (Apollo 13 x Space Queen), Querkle (Purple Urkle x Space Queen), and Jilly Bean (Orange Velvet x Space Queen) [1].
2008–2012: Peak influence. His High Times 'Sub's Super Soil' recipe — a heavily amended no-till-style mix — spreads widely in home-growing communities [4]. He publishes Dank: The Quest for the Very Best Marijuana with Ed Rosenthal's Quick American imprint in 2011 [5].
2015: MzJill and Subcool divorce; she departs TGA. The company continues under Subcool with new partners [2].
2018: Wildfires in Oregon, where he had relocated, destroyed much of his personal seed and mother-plant collection, an event he documented publicly [2].
February 1, 2020: Subcool dies at 54 from complications related to long-standing health problems [1][2].
Breeding work and signature lines
Most TGA releases share a common backbone: the Space Queen / Space Dude male, descended from Romulan x Cinderella 99 lines out of British Columbia Strong evidence[3]. Pollinating popular clone-only female cuts with this male was Subcool's core method, and it produced a recognizable house style — fruity, often purple-tinged, with a fast-onset cerebral effect.
Notable releases include:
- Jack the Ripper — Jack's Cleaner female x Space Queen male; lemon/citrus terpene profile.
- Vortex — Apollo 13 F3 x Space Queen; won 3rd place Sativa at the 2007 High Times Cannabis Cup Weak / limited[1].
- Querkle — Purple Urkle x Space Queen; grape-leaning, indica-dominant.
- Jilly Bean — Orange Velvet x Space Queen; orange/mango terpene profile.
- Chernobyl — Trainwreck x Jack the Ripper.
- Agent Orange, Pennywise, Dairy Queen — later releases.
These are real, documented crosses with verifiable lineage in the TGA catalog and contemporary seedbank listings, though as with most cannabis pedigrees, the parents themselves trace back to informally documented clones Disputed.
Super Soil and the marketing myths
Subcool's 'Super Soil' recipe — a base potting mix amended with bat guano, blood and bone meal, rock dust, Epsom salts, dolomite lime, and more — was published in High Times and became one of the most copied organic recipes in home growing [4]. The core idea (hot-amended soil that feeds the plant through its life cycle with only water) is sound organic horticulture and predates Subcool by decades; his contribution was packaging it for a cannabis audience Strong evidence.
Where the folklore outran the evidence:
- Claims that Super Soil produces categorically 'cleaner' or 'more medicinal' cannabis than other well-run organic or hydroponic systems are not supported by controlled comparisons No data.
- Claims about specific terpene or cannabinoid boosts from the recipe are anecdotal Anecdote.
- The recipe is often presented as proprietary; the individual amendments are standard organic inputs available in any garden center.
Subcool also promoted the indica/sativa effect framework heavily in his writing. That framework is now widely regarded by chemotyping researchers as a poor predictor of effect compared to cannabinoid and terpene content Strong evidence[6].
Legacy
After Subcool's death in 2020, the TGA brand fragmented. MzJill Genetics continued separately, and various growers preserved TGA cuts through clone exchanges and S1 (self-pollinated) reproductions of varying quality Weak / limited[2].
His lasting influence is less about any single strain than about the model he demonstrated: a named, public-facing hobbyist breeder who taught technique openly, sold seeds directly to consumers, and treated home growers as the primary audience. That template — for better and worse — shaped a generation of American craft breeders who came up in the 2010s.
For related history, see Space Queen, Jack the Ripper, and Super Soil.
Sources
- Reported Bienenstock, David. 'Remembering Subcool, Beloved Cannabis Breeder and Cultivator.' Leafly, February 3, 2020. ↗
- Reported Hartsell, Carol. 'Cannabis Breeder Subcool Has Died.' High Times, February 3, 2020. ↗
- Practitioner Subcool. 'The Space Queen Story.' TGA Subcool Seeds grower notes, archived on ICMag breeder threads, 2007–2010. ↗
- Reported Subcool. 'Sub's Super Soil Recipe.' High Times, originally published c. 2009; widely reprinted. ↗
- Book Subcool. Dank: The Quest for the Very Best Marijuana. Quick American Publishing (Ed Rosenthal), 2011. ISBN 978-0932551948.
- Peer-reviewed Smith, Christopher J., et al. 'The Phytochemical Diversity of Commercial Cannabis in the United States.' PLOS ONE, vol. 17, no. 5, 2022, e0267498.
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