Netherlands · founded 1995

Soma Seeds

Soma Seeds is the Amsterdam-based breeding program founded in the mid-1990s by American expat Soma, an organic-cultivation advocate who relocated to the Netherlands after early run-ins with U.S. cannabis law and built one of the longest-running organic seed catalogues in Europe. The bank is known for NYC Diesel — a long-running selection out of Diesel and Mexican-Afghani stock that became one of the canonical East Coast sativa-leaning hybrids — and for Soma's Cookies and Lavender, which remain in continuous production. Soma's breeding work emphasizes hand-pollinated regular seed lines grown without synthetic nutrients, and the catalogue documentation includes unusually detailed cultivation notes drawn from the breeder's organic-grow writing. The program has stayed deliberately small in catalogue size compared to commercial Dutch banks, with new releases averaging only one or two strains per year. Soma himself has remained the public face of the bank rather than franchising the brand, which has kept the program tightly identified with one breeder's selection criteria.

Reviewed 2026-05-23