Hi all, cool conversation and input from oldschoolers. Brick top, great post's man. Good to read.
Herb today is devoid of many of the terpenes and complexity of Cannabinoids. This is mostly explainable by modern techniques such as growing pure Equatorial Sativas under lights. The plant receives nothing like the length of time it would normally have to mature, and throughout its life receives totally different light spectrums to the environment it came from and gave rise to these legend's. To cap it off, most pump them up full of Nitrogen with little thought given to their home conditions. It is easy to see why this wont work to select these rare qualities some of us seek.
Another thing, most of these 'Sativas' mentioned are not at all, they are 90% Indica. A F1 50% Sativa/Indica hybrid creates massive plants and so does 75% equatorial Sativa x Indica short flowering. What I see is mostly Indica. So there is not even many reference points any more.
The potency of Cannabis is not derived solely from how many resin heads it has. Honestly, in comparison to the latest ''super sativa #1'' our pure Colombian's will take you to another dimension entirely. The people who have maintained these lines over many generations are not unskilled plant breeders, those forefathers of ours who created these poly hybrid Sativas like Haze had amazing skills. I'm not talking Dutch hazes here, and we have plenty of evidence of seed importations from around the globe in the 50's to back this up.
A customers quote, post his grow of the purple Colombian x Colombian gold pictured above:
''I would say for quality of high, these buds were the best for a introspective, psychedelic experience with various stages of euphoria followed by transcending 3 dimensional wormhole. yeah well its hard to describe a really good high which keeps changing form. Clarity, color and euphoria with a shift in self deity..''
Of course, these lines are pure Sativas and they take a long time in flower, circa 20 weeks indoors. A full year (or more) outside is common. For the majority, this is too much, that is understandable. However, unless some folks are prepared to go there and work with these true legendary lines then there is no way to go forward. You cannot put in a line what you took out. So if you can recollect unmolested genetics you can work with these very special traits and create truly incredible hybrids using modern plant breeding knowledge (all the knowledge our forefathers have left) along with a whole lotta love.
I have a Dutch wife, spent years of my life in Amsterdam, I have every major name cut from the States and Europe, I have done before most where named on boards. They do not compare. Yes some of them are 'potent' but for me they neither have any depth and I have NEVER found truly Psychedelic Cannabis outside of the pure lines, or very, very carefully worked hybrids thereof. You will never find these traits in 20th generation re hacks.
What they do have is the ability to produce big fat cola's under basic conditions and this is what most want, hence a market driven by nothing more than rehack's of existing hybrids or S1's of selected clones. Not many really want to breed with this plant in its true context, they simply want to sell you seed a closet and some elite clones and wham, another Cannabis breeder is born. None of that will or can lead to Cannabis improvement or protection of the gene-pools.
Bring back the Wormholes! I want to take a another ride.
Peace! HHF
- attached some Colombians growing in Colombia around 2000 when a team member was testing out some of our collections in the area. Some of our Mexican and Oaxacan lines. Some Panama Red, Thai 76 and others, some are work in progress some finished.
