I wonder how many people are claiming strains/seedbanks are a waste of time when in reality it was 100% grower error that fucked the whole thing up...
This thread isn't to be taken seriously to be honest, you can't seperate the noobs from the competent growers so why listen to their opinions on something like the reputation of a strain/bank?
If you for example plant 10 fem seeds and get 8 males you're doing something wrong IMO.
To the contrary, I'd take individual reports by experienced growers actually growing seeds more seriously than ad copy by seed-sellers.
I'd also argue that if you planted 10 so-called fem seeds but got 8 males, you're not the one whose done anything wrong!
I don't think anyone in this thread has claimed that any particular seedbank was a waste of time; people have said that individual strains/seeds were disappointing.
I do agree grower error is probably at fault for some of these bad outcomes, but when you're experienced with lots of different strains, and if you're growing out multiple strains at the same time under the same setup, and some do well, while others consistently tank, the seeds/strains probably are likely responsible to some extent.
Lets face it, lots of commercial seeds aren't what they're cracked up to be.
In some cases, the seeds themselves are weak (low germination) or even not as labelled. Yes, I absolutely do believe that in some cases seed-sellers effectively put "random" seeds in a given pack.
There are also a lot of problematic "strains" out there.
In many cases, the strain itself bears little resemblance to the ad copy or reputation, and I think this is where people get the most disappointed.
Some strains are hermie-prone; this is known. In some cases, the strain itself might be OK, but lets face it, if you have to pick through 5 or 10 plants to find one really good one, then you're not really dealing with a "strain" in the strict sense of the term. By definition, individual members of a plant "strain" should exhibit similar characteristics. An F2-F4 "mutt" generation may well contain excellent individual plants, but until or unless stablized, these things aren't really "strains".