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I'm not a fan of seed companies who sell beans of strains that are not the original clone only. Examples are Trainwreck, Jack Herer, ect. Cali Connection has some stuff I like but it bugs me they came out with Chem 91, it's not Chem 91, it's a cross with Chem 91. You know how many times I have tried to find the original Tahoe, only to find out it was grown from a seed and not the original. It just bugs and makes for a lot of fake clone only's. Unlike Ken's atleast CC uses the original dank moms.
Just to be clear, Jack Herer isn't "clone only" and never has been. That one was bred specifically as a commercial line by Sensi and ceeds have been continuously available from Sensi for years now.
Apart from that minor bit, I agree with you. Nobody likes a seller of anything who is dishonest. Unfortunately, cannabis ceed selling occurs largely in a black market, and that allows for some shady characters are poor business practices, that might be "weeded" out in other lines of business.
On the rest of this, by definition, if a strain is "clone only" you CAN'T buy ceeds of it, right? (IE if you could, it wouldn't be "clone only").
In my opinion, the issue isn't people making ceeds from "clone only" strains, its how they represent what they are selling. Are they using the parent lines they say they are using, and if they are, are they telling you the truth about how their line was created? Are they telling you at all?
Typically the reason these strains are "clone only" is because the "strain" itself isn't really a strain at all; its a selected pheno that is itself an unstabilized hybrid. This means that the genetics in question may not even be able to be stabilized, since hybrid vigor/heterozygosity may be at play in making the clone in question special. Its also typically not feasible to try and recreate the "clone only" pheno from the parents, because they're either unknown, unavailable, or the process would require massive amount of selection (and usually all three things).
Furthermore, if you try to self-pollinate these clone-only plants to create S1 ceeds, what you end up with are ceeds that put out various phenotypes, maybe few if ANY of them like the original "clone only" strain. Its relatively easy to self-pollinate a line, and if it were possible to recreate a "clone only" line just by selfing it, there would be no such thing as a "clone only" line. Even backcrossing other similar plants to the original clone only parent won't necessarily recreate it exactly, though with luck you may end up with some phenos that are somewhat similar.
Bottom line is, in the vast majority of cases, its simply not possible/practical to create ceeded versions identical to "clone only" strains, again explaining why they are "clone only". Even assuming the best good faith effort by reputable breeders who know what they are doing, the best they're going to be able to do in most cases is some up with some line that puts off some proportion of phenos close to the original.
In practice, now, you have less than perfectly forthright "breeders" selling selfed, backcrossed, or even outcrossed lines named after a clone-only line, that aren't exactly the same thing.
I don't have a problem with this sort of thing **IF** the breeder at least starts with the appropriate clone-only line for a parent, and specifies exactly what they're selling. Some do. . .some don't.
If, for example, someone tells me they're selling "Tahoe OG S1" I don't think I can really fault them if most of the plants grown out don't turn out exactly the same as the clone only line, because that is what you expect (or should expect) from true S1 ceeds. If none of them turn out that way, or none of them are even close, then I'll at the very least question their integrity in selling me a line unlike its provenance.
If the same seller wants to sell me "JoGro Tahoe OG", I'm OK with that, so long as the ad copy states that these ceeds were created by crossing a select Tahoe OG clone only mom with a select Jack Herer male (for example), and then backcrossing the offspring twice more with the original Tahoe mom. Again, with something like that, I'd expect that this won't be "exactly" the same as the original, but it should either be close or throw off some phenos that are.
But if some seller is listing "Tahoe OG" touting it as a "clone only" line in ceed form, but neglects to tell me that what he's selling is actually an F1 of Tahoe OG x something else (which by definition cannot be exactly the same as the parent). . .well, see above about less than honest business practices. If a seller does that with ONE line in their lineup, personally, I'm disinclined to buy ANYTHING from them. There are plenty of other sellers out there with outstanding product and better ethics I'd rather support.
One contributing problem here is that the average grower simply isn't sophisticated enough about breeding and genetics to understand the distinctions here, and its not in the sellers interest to make this clear.
Lots of growers, even experienced ones who probably should know better, think that the offspring of a selfed plant are going to be identical to the mother. Simply not true (see above). Or they think that you can reproduce a given hybrid pheno with enough backcrossing (again, you can't, though you *might* be able to generate some similar phenos). Or they generally trust sellers to tell the truth, when its plain lots of them either shade the truth, or are downright dishonest.
It comes down to knowing what you're after, knowing what breeders can and can't do, and being able to trust the ones selling the ceeds.
Personally, I don't "need" to have exact copies of "clone only" strains; I just want what I have to be excellent in its own right. If I can happen to get a clone or ceed of something "clone only" that's great, so bet it, but if not. . .eh. There are plenty of great strains out there, and life is too short to obsess over brand names!
