Learn / Strain guides

Sour Diesel strain: what the lab panels show

Sour Diesel is widely told as a 1990s New York strain, credited to a grower known as AJ and usually given as Chemdawg crossed with Super Skunk. Among the products on the Las Vegas superstore's shelf that carry a lab panel, Sour Diesel comes as two infused pre-rolls and two vapes from Stiiizy and Brass Knuckles.

What it is

In High Times' 2016 history of the Chemdawg line, it began as an accidental cross: a Chemdawg plant pollinated by stray pollen from another plant, and AJ named the result Diesel. Which plant is disputed: Super Skunk in most strain listings, a plant called DNL in that history, and Skunk #1 or Northern Lights in other accounts. It spread in New York in the 1990s, and has also been called East Coast Sour Diesel.

High Times ranked it third in its 2014 list of the greatest strains of all time. Sour Jack, its cross with Jack Herer, has its own guide. All of that is the circulated history, not a lab fact.

What is on our shelf now

Among the products on the Las Vegas superstore's shelf that carry a lab panel, Sour Diesel comes as two infused pre-rolls and two vapes from Stiiizy and Brass Knuckles. The infused pre-rolls test 3.3% to 29.5% THC and the vapes test 85.1% to 91.4% THC. Vapes are extracts, so their THC reads far higher than plain flower's. Caryophyllene leads three of its four panels (warm and peppery, clove and black pepper, in the terpene guide's words). Our per-batch grade, set by each panel rather than by the name, calls the batches on our shelf indica, indica-hybrid, hybrid or sativa-hybrid.

ProductFormatTHCLeading terpenesOur grade
Stiiizy 40's Sour Diesel .5g Infused Preroll 4pk Infused pre-roll 29.5% caryophyllene 0.69%, linalool 0.47%, limonene 0.42% Indica-Hybrid
Stiiizy 40's Sour Diesel .5g Infused Blunt 4pk Infused pre-roll 3.3% caryophyllene 0.77%, linalool 0.53%, humulene 0.41% Indica
Brass Knuckles Sour Diesel 1g All In One Vape 91.4% limonene 0.62%, caryophyllene 0.43%, myrcene 0.23% Hybrid
Stiiizy X Sour Diesel 2g All In One Vape 85.1% caryophyllene 1.16%, limonene 1.08%, myrcene 0.40% Sativa-Hybrid

From our latest menu update. The grade is the five-class spectrum, read from each batch's own panel; the product page always shows the current batch. Search Sour Diesel on the live menu.

What that means for you

A name this famous is grown by many hands, and its parentage was never settled, so two products called Sour Diesel can differ. Read the panel, then the grade: the five-class spectrum sets each batch by its own terpenes rather than by the name.

Questions people ask about Sour Diesel

Is Sour Diesel indica or sativa?

Sour Diesel is described as a hybrid or as sativa-dominant, depending on the listing. That is its reputation, not a lab fact. Our per-batch grade, set by each panel rather than by the name, calls the batches on our shelf indica, indica-hybrid, hybrid or sativa-hybrid.

How strong is Sour Diesel?

The infused pre-rolls test 3.3% to 29.5% THC and the vapes test 85.1% to 91.4% THC. Vapes are extracts, so their THC reads far higher than plain flower's. THC is a batch figure, not a property of the name, so the next batch can differ.

What does Sour Diesel smell and taste like?

Caryophyllene leads three of its four panels (warm and peppery, clove and black pepper, in the terpene guide's words). Terpenes are a large part of a strain's smell and flavor, which is why we read the panel rather than the name; sulfur compounds a terpene panel does not measure add the skunky note some strains carry.

What effects does Sour Diesel have?

Effects vary from person to person and from batch to batch, so we do not promise any. What a panel tells you is the chemistry: which terpenes lead, and the grade it earns on the five-class spectrum, shown in this page's shelf table for each batch whose panel carries them.

Why is it called Sour Diesel?

AJ, the grower usually credited with it, called it Diesel; by one account friends in Albany added the Sour, and another story, told as hearsay, says the Sour is for the business relationships it soured as cuts changed hands.

Where can I buy Sour Diesel in Las Vegas?

At Planet 13's Las Vegas superstore, where today's shelf includes two infused pre-rolls and two vapes of it with a lab panel. The shelf changes batch to batch, so search the live menu before you visit.

Lab figures, when a batch is on our shelf, come from its panel and change batch to batch; the product page always shows the current panel. Effects vary by person; nothing here is medical advice. For use only by adults 21 and older.