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Overview
The San Fernando Valley has given us many things – Encino Man, the house party from Clueless, and the Under-18 All-Valley Karate Tournament, to name just a few. It’s also the home of the Cali Connection, a world-renowned seed house that brought the chemovar SFV OG to the world. This marijuana strain is a potent hybrid that originates from the legendary king of West Coast cannabis OG Kush, and is known for its happy and euphoric high, and citrusy aroma. It has won a host of awards, including Best Indica at the High Times Cannabis Cup in Denver in 2012, and a 3rd place finish in the Indica Cup at the 2012 High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. It has also been used to breed no shortage of well-known strains.
Lineage and general info
SFV OG was first created by the grower Swerve at Cali Connection Farms in the San Fernando Valley. Here’s how Cali Connection describes the chemovar:
“The famed San Fernando Valley OG. This is the one everybody knows about. This is what made the SFV famous and made OG Kush famous. Hailing originally from Tahoe coming to the SFV from the OC and worked into the SFV and introduced to the world by Swerve.”
The strain is most commonly described as a phenotype of OG Kush, which can be felt in its relaxing, sedative effects. SFV OG is known for producing a tranquil and euphoric high that speaks to its strong indica makeup, and it has become a popular strain for people looking to wind down, ease stress and pain, or just enjoy the potent high and powerful citrus aroma and flavor of this memorable strain. That said, many users have described it as a more uplifting, sativa-esque high, though scientifically speaking, there is no indication that the indica or sativa characterization of a strain should be the determining factor for how it makes you feel.
SFV OG is often confused with the strain SFV OG Kush, which was bred by Swerve by crossing SFV OG with Afghan #1.
Cannabinoids and terpenes in SFV OG
There are hundreds of compounds in the chemical profile of any cannabis strain, but the most important (and studied) ones are the cannabinoids and terpenes. The best way to find out what’s in your weed is to look for a certificate of analysis (CoA) and examine its content.
So why are CoA’s so important? In short, choosing your cannabis product by its sativa/indica origin or the name of the strain is ineffective. We now know that sativa and indica are botanical names that can’t predict the chemical composition of a plant — much less its effects. And strain names aren’t standardized, meaning that anyone can name any cannabis variety whatever they want, regardless of what’s in it. No one ever defined how much THC is there in SFV OG, nor CBD, limonene, myrcene or any other compound.
In order to choose your weed according to what’s in it you need to understand the different compounds in marijuana, particularly the main cannabinoids and terpenes, and choose chemical variations (chemovars) rather than strains. It doesn’t matter if the product you end up getting is named SFV OG or “Donald Trump Kush” if their chemical profiles are identical. This is why we gathered test results from a variety of third party laboratories and from websites such as Leafly and Wikileaf, and came up with the following chemical profile. The aim here is not to define the exact chemical profile in SFV OG, but rather to give you an approximation of what you could get and how this kind of profile could affect you.
One thing that stands out about the cannabinoids and terpenes in SFV OG is the high concentrations of the terpene limonene. Though the average concentration is 0.7%, the highest we found was almost 7%.
How SFV OG affects you
Science is striding forward rapidly in terms of cannabis research, still, the majority of information we have about cannabinoids and terpenes is based on preliminary research. That being said, the cannabinoids and terpenes in SFV OG show a lot of potential as treatment for a variety of conditions and the entourage effect theory has some suggestions about how the interaction between different cannabinoids and terpenes can influence the type of high you can expect from this chemovar.
When it comes to the type of high of SFV OG, it’s a little bit hard to say, as myrcene and BCP are both considered to be sedative agents while limonene is thought of as more energizing. The average THC content is 17% (but the maximum we identified was 25%), so regardless whether your SFV is going to produce a sedative or energizing high, that much THC is probably going to make it intense.
The array of medicinal applications that could benefit from these cannabinoids and terpenes includes dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, obesity, and particularly pain and inflammation. To learn more about the best marijuana chemovars for a particular condition, check out The Cannigma’s condition pages.
SFV OG growing tips
SFV OG is often described as an easy-to-grow plant that is well-suited to new growers. It can flourish both indoors and outdoors and has a moderately-high yield of dense, beautiful buds. That said, it has also been described as a potentially problematic grow, and Leafly in 2017 named it as one of “5 of the Hardest Cannabis Strains to Grow,” largely because it “has specific feeding needs and a flowering period that extends longer than normal.” Mainly, it requires heavy feeding, including large amounts of calcium and magnesium, according to Leafly.
Related Strains
SFV OG is very similar to — and often confused with — SFV OG Kush. Overall, it may even be less famous than some of the strains that it was used to breed — namely Tahoe OG, Larry OG, and SFV OG Kush — the latter being a cross of SF OG and Afghani. In fact, Afghani as a potent indica landrace can produce a high that is similar to the strongly tranquil SFV OG, though a little more on the couchlock end of the scale.
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