Recently I've been wondering things about strains I don't grow, and I'm wondering if anyone has information. The reason I'm asking in this thread is because I'm wondering how they respond to LEDs, but I would also like to know if they were grown under or thrive beneath monochromatic LEDs.
1) Has anyone grown any strains that seem to love the blurple/pink lighting?
2) Any strains that seem to hate monochromatic LEDs?
3) What the hell happened to Bubblegum and Bubblicious?
4) Know anyone breeding/growing Bubblegum/crosses?
5) What would you consider your favorite smelling/tasting strain available on the market in seed form?
6) Why aren't people stabilizing genetics anymore? It seems like IBL, F1, F2 and F3 are off of seed descriptions.
Basically these questions are rising up out of my current experience with the ever changing cannabis market in Colorado and abroad. 5 years ago I could ask around and find; blueberry, strawberry, pinapple, lemon, lime, grape, and even tangerine strains. They never looked as good as the Kush, Haze, or Chemdawg but I always assumed that people would interbreed them with modern high trichome coverage strains and select the (insert fruit here) phenotype and recross to solidify the new genotype. I can still find them but they look shitty compared to modern strains and the hybridized strains available don't seem to pack the same flavor as the oldschool flavor strains.
It seems like we as growers and breeders have stopped caring about perfecting a strain. It seems like everyone ditches an old established line in search of that new super strain. Is it just growers pandering to an ever more casual inexperienced market? I personally feel that it is due to the gold rush mentality that many in the industry seem to have. It seems like TGA still cares, but I worry about the fact that they never seems to inbreed lines. To my knowledge all of his "strains" are F1's and some of the strains you could debate are F2 or F3 simply because he's crossing F1's that are 75% genetically similar. I did a poll at the beginning of the thread to determine roughly what the community feels is the dankest of the dank. It backs up my thoughts on the industry. I think growers are getting sick of the quick cross "strain" establishment of the modern cannabis consuming generation. There was a time, the same time all of the old school classics came out, that people wouldn't or couldn't call something a strain without inbreeding it to F2, most people would call F1 a cross since there is no knowing which alleles are dominant, partially dominant, co dominant, or recessive without growing out the seeds and selecting the phenotype. I think that feminized seeds are the best thing for the grower and consumer, but the worst things when it comes to breeding cannabis. Why interbreed when you can "clone" a super plant with your favorite alleles and sell the seeds?
The whole reason that I wrote all of this is because I miss the classic strains, but I know that they were never taken to their potential in the past when knowledge and technology limited our results. Most of all I miss getting an awesome batch of Bubblegum because it seemed to have it all, smell, taste, and bag appeal. These strains are few and far between, but though they come and go they are the only ones capable of standing the test of time. I don't care if it has 19% THC or 25% THC if the 25% tastes horrible and the 19% tastes just like blueberry pie I'm going with the 19% every time.
Grandaddy Purps has consistently blown me away on quality, color, taste, and effect. My club carries a 24% THC pheno that also has intense purpy flavor. I have never seen an uncrossed Blueberry at a club with a THC profile over 15%, and anytime I get BlueDream it seems to dominate on the SSH side. Does anyone know of any companies with a goal like this? Consistent generationally stabilized genetics with a full flavor profile? I'm not saying we need to breed Blueberry over and over hoping that it will mutate into what we want, I'm more saying that if you are going to cross two plants to establish a "strain", you should be able to know that 95/100 females will be displaying the alleles you selected. Anyway I guess I started ranting but...
IlovePlants