Something I DO want to say, though, so there are no disappointments or unreasonable expectations... the 91’ NL5 x Nevilles Haze f-5’s ABSOLUTELY contain some real deal, high powered genes & traits. I PROMISE you. But... this is not for the novice, first time grower who just wants to grow some decent herb & stop paying exorbitant prices for their medicine.
In my mind, this strain is for the BREEDER. It has some very, very desirable traits, some of which are nearly gone from the modern, wide-spread genome. The trend is to select for ONE thing (a certain taste, or smell or yield), to the detriment of several others. Im sure most/all of the older members especially, can verify that there are a LOT of strains that just dont seem to be as good as they used to... or at least most versions of certain strains arent as good as they used to be. Strawberry Cough - FIRE when i first came across it... still good herb now, but I just cant seem to find the POTENT version of it, I was originally introduced to. I can say the same about GDP, MANY hazes/haze crosses (Super silver, Nevilles, Mullumbimby Madness, etc), a ton of dif OG phenos... it sucks.
I ABSOLUTELY bow to the growing expertise of most seed banks & breeders. But Im sorry... Breeding 2 plants, just because the prospective mom, “plant X” is badass & has this, that & the other thing, does NOT mean it will be a good cross to a given stud male. The average grower basically just guesses, and often only uses subjective data (smells/tastes like “x”, looks like “x”, feels like “x”, etc) without knowing what genes are involved in the creation of which traits. A breeder KNOWS, %-wise, what they are likely to get from a pairing, before even doing it. A cartain momma plant may have EVERYTHING youre looking for. But if the male u breed her to carries opposing double dominant traits, in one or more areas, you could very well be breeding the line into the ground, eliminating the specialness of the momma female, through successive generations of breeding. The problem, aside from lack of education, is that most genetics are shrouded in all sorts of mystery. And growers often do not keep proper records, or the critical information needed to determine the dominance or recessiveness of given traits, as figured by expressions of successive generations. Most so called “breeders” are just throwing shit against the wall and seeing what sticks. “This momma is DANK! This male smells AWESOME! Lets breed em & make our own strain!” Now there IS value in these types of totally random, subjective breedings. Shoot, Kyle Kushman said that was exactly how the Strawberry Cough was created... just luck, an accident. But to PERPETUATE a highly desirable strain, keeping the quality equally good or better with each successive generation... THAT is the mark of a good breeder. Also much respect for those like Ken Estes, who INTENTIONALLY bred a strain into a corner, because he was a good enuf breeder, that the traits he was losing each gen, were undesirables. The result, was a highly stable Granddaddy Purple. But now that the strain is out of Estes’ hands? Seeing a TON of diluted, lower quality GDP. Still good, but just not the same.
My point, is that the ‘91 Nl5haze, allows us to go back to BEFORE a shit-ton of the goodness was bred out of it. But to me- the excitement comes in knowing the value of these NL5 Haze keepers as breeding stock. Keep that in mind, and you’ll never be disappointed
