Long before The Kaleidoscope Collective was winning High Times trophies, Dave Bavlnka was growing Sour Diesel in a homemade plywood box.

He was 16. The box was painted white, lit under the hot orange glow of old-school lamps and his supposedly magnificent first plant yielded roughly three-quarters of an ounce. Nearly three decades later, the equipment has changed considerably. The obsession hasn’t.

“I started growing when I was 16 years old and I supplied most of my junior high school and high school with cannabis.”

Dave is New York born and raised, and unlike generations of East Coast cultivators who headed west when California became the center of American grow culture, he stayed here. He grew here. He learned here. Today, Kaleidoscope has indoor grows all around the state.

That doesn’t mean he ignores what California contributed.

“I really have to pay homage to the West Coast because without the West Coast, the East Coast wouldn't know a lot about the growing techniques now. But again, New Yorker through and through, born and raised.”

Now Dave and the Kaleidoscope team are applying those lessons to an expanding genetic library. Kaleidoscope is currently working Blue Zushi, Sub Zero and Cereal Milk, along with Toad Venom genetics sourced from Green Dragon. The team is also hunting a new cross of Sherb Cream Pie and Blue Nerds that Dave is calling Hawaiian Punch.

For Dave, acquiring genetics is just the starting gun. When he pheno hunts, he may pop a hundred seeds, take cuts and flower them all out, narrowing the field by structure — what he calls the “stack” — and terpene profile. He sources beans from breeders around the country, including Nick Bryan’s Golden State Banana and Detroit-based 4 Fathers Genetics, among others.

Then there’s personal taste. The grower’s eye reveals itself: after 25 years, he still gets excited when a plant looks spectacular.

“I tend to lean towards, I love stuff with orange hairs in it, me personally.”

New York seems to be responding. The Kaleidoscope Collective’s Permanent Marker took First Place for Best Hybrid Flower at the 2026 High Times New York Cannabis Cup. High Times described the winner as “small-batch craft done the right way.”

The win makes sense when you hear how Dave talks about scale. He says he’s still in the garden almost every day — defoliating, hand-watering, walking the plants and pulling anything that doesn’t meet his standard. But he’s quick to emphasize that Kaleidoscope is a team effort. Dave may be the person out front, but there’s a crew behind the flower, and he sees the recognition as shared success.

For a team that spent years cultivating in New York before there was a legal spotlight to stand beneath, the recognition seems less like an invitation to leave than proof that hard work is paying off.

“I'm so blessed and so honored to be part of such a great community in New York and New York City that I just want to thank everybody from the heart, man, for the love and support out there. Me and my team are going to keep doing our best for everybody and ourselves to put the best product we possibly can onto the market. And thank you again from the heart and soul, man. I really appreciate the love and support and the response I've gotten from New York.”

New York raised him. Now Dave and his team are raising the bar.

Read more about Dave and Kaleidoscope in our current print edition found here!

Learn more about Kaleidoscope here https://kfwny.com and Instagram