On Koh Tao, KD has spent decades preserving landrace genetics, sharing seeds across generations, and treating cannabis less like a product than a living inheritance.
There are growers, and then there are keepers of lineage. Aram Limsakul, known as KD, belongs to the latter. In Thailand, where cannabis has long had medicinal and local cultural roots, KD cultivates something more valuable than flower: continuity.
For those unfamiliar with his name, KD is one of Thailand’s most respected cannabis cultivators and preservers of original Thai landrace genetics, a quiet legend who has spent decades collecting and protecting strains from around the world.
His earliest memory of cannabis reaches back to age five or six, watching his grandmother tend plants growing alongside rice in the family fields. “I remember the smell of cannabis plants,” he says. “Actually, it’s something special for me at that time. So I never forget the smell of cannabis.” His father smoked openly every day, never hiding it from the children because there was no law against it yet. “I get used to cannabis and I never get negative thinking or negative mind about cannabis.”
KD’s collection was built through travel, family, and the relationships that shaped his life. “I’m traveling around. It’s not just because of cannabis, because of my family or my wife from different countries,” he explains. In that wandering, he found seeds in places like Nepal, India, and Jamaica. “Whenever I go, I try to find cannabis in that country. I find a local who grow cannabis and we had a good talk and they gave me some seeds.”
Now, those seeds grow on Koh Tao, where his son Kevin Limsakul has taken charge of the business and cultivator Daniel Dolch tends plants with the passion KD recognizes from his own youth.
The Island That Traded Fish for Flowers
Koh Tao’s relationship with cannabis runs deeper than any modern dispensary could understand. “This island always have cannabis,” KD remembers. “Because the fishermen, they need to work in the sea, in the ocean. They go out for two or three days. They can stay on and work because they have cannabis on the boat.”
The exchange was simple: fishermen would come to shore looking for cannabis, and island residents would trade it for fresh fish. “People from land, from the island trade cannabis with fish.” KD says he still continues the tradition. “Fisher boat come into the shore and then they come to our house and we trade, they bring fish, I get my cannabis.”
“For me, it made me happy,” KD says simply.
The island shaped the genetics, too. “Koh Tao has own landrace at that time, so I always grow Koh Tao landrace.” When he began traveling and collecting seeds from around the globe, he always crossed them back with Thai genetics. “I believe in Thai genetics that is strong and healthy and whatever weather, they can stand it.”
Now, on terraces and in greenhouses surrounded by papaya, mango, passion fruit, and basil, around 180 plants grow in various stages. The permaculture approach reflects KD’s understanding that cannabis does not exist in isolation. “We try to have a lot of good pollinators and good insects around,” he explains. Flowers, herbs, fruit trees. Everything supports everything else.
“For me, cannabis and the island is paradise,” KD says.
Passing the Torch While Tending the Flame
Kevin did not return to Koh Tao because of ambition. He returned because his father needed him. The younger generation now runs KD Genetics, with Kevin handling business and marketing while Daniel brings fresh passion to the grow.
“My son, Kevin, is the boss,” KD explains. “I give him all control of marketing because he’s new generation. He’s better.”
KD’s role has shifted from operator to mentor. “I’m not really businessman. I only do it for fun, for love, to share and help. But my son is good at business.” He supports from the back now, a position he seems not just comfortable with but actively seeking. “I’m getting old. I plan to go to monastery in the future.”
That transition carries its own meaning. After decades of cultivation, teaching, and preservation, KD is thinking about a different kind of life. But before that, he still has knowledge to pass on.
“This is what I want to tell people: cannabis can help you a lot. I mean, if you know how to use properly, it helps you from suffering.”
The lesson he emphasizes most to the new generation is not about cultivation technique or market strategy. It is about intention. “I really hope that one day people can understand that cannabis is human friendly. It’s no harm to a human race.” His voice carries weight when he talks about doing business without greed. “Don’t do it with greed, do it more with passion, with belief, with trust, with good karma. Don’t cheat. And cannabis will help this world.”
Seeds of Peace
Twenty years ago, KD began making his own cannabis oil and sharing it with people suffering from cancer, diabetes, pain, and insomnia. “Many people come to me to get cannabis to help their life.” This was never a side business. It was the point.
“I never think about business on cannabis,” he says. “I always think this is the plant of the planet. So everyone should share actually.”
His travels were not strain-hunting expeditions so much as accidents of connection. “I’m not a strain hunter. Just by accident, I met locals and they gave me some seeds.” He recalls Jamaica feeling like home because of the latitude, the island energy, and the similar climate. The genetics there made sense crossed with Thai strains because the environments that shaped them shared so much.
Now, KD Genetics spreads those crosses throughout Thailand. “I already spread out all the KD genetics across Thailand. So I hope the future we will have more developed Thai strains.” It is preservation through proliferation, keeping genetics alive by putting them in as many hands as possible.
When asked what he hopes people understand about his life with this plant, KD’s answer reaches beyond cultivation, beyond business, and beyond medicine. “I really hope that one day people can understand that cannabis is human friendly. It will also help us get peace, stop the war, and give good health.”
He envisions cannabis as a path to something larger. “I hope cannabis will help to heal this world from the war, from the people who are bad to each other, steal from each other, and kill each other. I want the world in peace with cannabis help.”
On Koh Tao, surrounded by ocean and tropical fruit trees, KD tends a garden that holds more than plants. It holds memories of his grandmother in the rice fields, his father smoking openly with no shame, and fishermen trading their catch for relief at the end of long days at sea. It holds connection to the growers in Nepal, India, and Jamaica who shared seeds with a stranger who loved the plant as much as they did. It holds a future in Kevin taking charge of the business, Daniel learning with passion, and genetics spreading across Thailand so these landrace strains survive another generation.
In the end, that is what preservation looks like here: not a museum exhibit behind glass, but a living practice passed hand to hand, generation to generation. KD learned from his elders. Now he is the elder, mentoring the next generation while preparing for monastic life. The work continues. So do the seeds.
Photos courtesy of KD Genetics
