From Sacramento backyards to multi-state oceans of fire, David Polley built Preferred the same way sneakerheads build grails—one obsession at a time. His daily mission? “If I couldn’t breed and pheno hunt and see new things all the time, I would not be doing this.”

The Kid from Sac Who Wouldn’t Quit

The story doesn’t start in a lab—it starts in a smoky living room. “My parents were hippies,” Polley laughs. “We’d have all the kids at my house, almost like a foster home, and we would always just smoke crazy tough.”

His older cousin handed him his first hit in elementary school. “He made me smoke weed,” he says, half-grinning. “Then my sister’s boyfriends would pull up with packs, and I’d sell for them.”

Soon he was planting random seeds in closets with Miracle-Gro. “We didn’t know what the hell we were doing. We just wanted to see it sprout.” Real cultivation came later—outdoors in Yuba County with his boy Tony. “He built the boxes, I read the grow bibles. He was construction, I was cultivation. That’s where Preferred started, even if we didn’t know it.”

Sacramento became his dojo. “It’s the hub for the highest quality weed in the world,” he says. “People here really care about quality. Humboldt had the legend, the Bay had the name, but Sac—Sac actually grows it.”

The early grind was lawless. “You could have all your medical paperwork, but the county could still raid you and fine you a million dollars the next day.” He shrugs. “Dave yesterday couldn’t predict today. I didn’t think I was gonna live this long, for sure. Doing all this? Insane.”

Infrastructure Over Image

In a culture addicted to hype, Polley is addicted to control. “I’m a farmer. That’s what I do. Even if it’s smarter to buy from someone else and bag it, I want to grow it. If I didn’t grow the plant, the brand wouldn’t exist.”

Preferred runs like a Formula 1 team—spreadsheets, sensors, irrigation tweaks, every strain tracked like a VIN number. “I still run cultivation. I know what week every room is in,” he says. “But it’s never perfect. Power goes out, timers fail—never in my life has it ever been perfect.”

Why keep pushing? “Seeing the team win. Seeing everybody grow. That’s number one for sure.”

Then he grins. “But if I couldn’t pheno hunt, I would not grow. Seeing new stuff, nose-popping a new bag, praying we find something that’ll go down in history—that’s what keeps me doing it.”

Rewriting the Genetics Playbook

Preferred’s next chapter splits clean: Preferred is the lifestyle; The Gardens is genetics. “People don’t necessarily know me as a breeder,” he says. “But now 90 percent of our genetics will be ours—bred, grown, pheno-hunted, smoked, R&D’d, and sold by us.”

The seed company dropped at Mary Jane Berlin, marking Preferred’s European arrival. “Seeds are for growers—and that’s me. I’m a grower first.”

The 1% vs. the 99%

Polley calls it like it is. “The one-percenters are the real culture—the heady people who live and breathe it. The 99 percent just want the highest THC or fruity flavor. You can educate them, but most just want to chill. So how do we merge those two worlds? That’s the code we’re trying to crack.”

Preferred’s mix-light line hits that sweet spot: premium quality without gatekeeping prices. “The 21-to-35 crowd buys the most—it’s hype and quality. Older buyers lean budget. But flower’s still king. THC numbers are all over the place. It’s not just percentage—it’s the feel. I just smoke flower.”

Culture Checks

Between harvests and drops, Preferred still feeds the scene. This season: a PuffCon collab with Amsterdam’s TERPs Army. “He came by the grow, just so excited about the plants,” Polley says. “I was like, damn, I want that energy around. So when he hit me to share a booth, I said hell yeah. It’s gonna open up more Europe talk too.”

The Brand That Outlives the Moment

Polley’s long game is clear. “Nike—that type of brand. For cannabis and beyond. Restaurants, merch, lifestyle. Preferred can live anywhere the culture lives.”

Still, he keeps it grounded. “We carry this rock uphill every day. It gets easier, even when it’s heavy. We keep moving, and it keeps getting bigger and better.”

Preferred is both a brand and a belief—quality over clout, plants over polish. “We’re taking The Gardens out of Preferred,” he says. “Preferred is the house. The Gardens is the library.”

And the mission stays the same: chase the next strain that stops the room cold.“When we’re breeding and pheno hunting, we’re gonna find that unicorn. No doubt about it.”

Preferred. Not perfect. Still chasing.

Read all about Dave and Preferred Gardens online and in print!