The Story of The Flying Dutchman

One of the few people in the world with a Cannabis history of more than 30 years decided to share his experience and knowledge about breeding the highest quality Cannabis seed varieties.

Thousands and thousands of people must have grown his seeds without knowing they were his, as a wholesaler he provided many seed retailers with his seeds.

Now he has given a new dimension to his life of working with Cannabis by opening the Cannabis College Foundation Amsterdam and his first Flying Dutchmen Seed shop.

During the sixties in Holland, all that was available was hashish, and low grade imported grass. During the early seventies, a small number of Dutch enthusiasts started to grow two Dutch strains, known as ‘The Purple’ and ‘The Green Lemon’ types. These were very large plants with small buds and a very average taste and high. In fact during the Second World War this grass was used as a substitute for tobacco.

Eventually a few seeds made it over from Afghanistan so the Dutch started to work with this new variety.

Suddenly this weird character showed up on the scene from America trying to introduce the Dutch enthusiasts to some new varieties of seeds.

He brought over pure true breeding strains like Early California, Thai, Mexican and Silver Haze from Columbia, Afghan and South African seeds. Most importantly he brought over a few crosses that he had already made himself, including the very first Skunk Number One which is a Columbian, Mexican, Afghan cross. This earnt him his present nickname THE SKUNK MAN.

Eddy who worked directly with The Skunk Man was one of the three major players of that time with an interest in superior plants.

The base genetics for almost all the grass that you see in Holland today originates from these three guys work. They were all a little sceptical of The Skunk Man’s bigger and better American ways but Eddy decided to grow out his seeds in greenhouses, using crude methods to simulate day and night cycles and gauge the results for themselves.

In 1984 the first crop was grown out and the results were outstanding, higher yield and better quality, Eddy never looked back.

In order to find ideal genetics (both the male and female) plants were being grown out of seeds, tens of thousands at a time in a green house and the top 50 were selected, then crossed again and grown out thousands at a time, always trying to isolate the best.

Once you have found the best breeding stock by allowing all plants to fully mature (flower).

How do you hold that plant back for future breeding genetics?

There were talks that in America a couple of people had experimented with the concept of cloning.

Eddy chose some mature female flower cuttings and left them under florescent lights in someone’s attic in the hope that they just might take. After 18 weeks only 20% survived, but it was not until a further 6 months had passed that one of the plants ‘sprouted one little leaf’ probably the first successful cloning of flowered cannabis ever.

The moment that little leaf shoot appeared cannabis history changed forever


Snatched from another site posted by Hybridizer

Tex

[mybeans420]

very interesting read there tex,
i always love reading up on the history of cannabis breeding.

peace
beans

Long live The Flying Dutchmen!

Great read. I got all warm and fuzzy inside.

[Hashmasta-Kut]

a good story but some of that is silly, as we recieved skunk in 1980 in B.C. and started cloning it then. much before 1984.

[greenhit]

I could of swore I smoked skunk prior to 84, you don't forget
that taste. Had to be the 70's.

When i was barely a teenager I used to hang out with a band
as a gopher or anything to learn guitar, I learned to play
but also learned at a very young age, killer herb. Jamaican
lambsbread was oooooooohhhhhhhhhh so awesome,
and hte colombian gold and choc thai and thai sticks. I don't remember smoking skunk till late 70's maybe.
but it could be 84 ?

-g

[bartender187]

Gread read tex, thanks for the info

peace

[amsterdammer]

Hello people

I hear people wondering about the Skunk#1 for many years now.

Skunk#1 was once created in the USA, by a now legendary breeder called Sam the skunkman.
This man created a lot of strains that were later used for breeding due to their unique potential not found in most other crosses back then.
Strains were not yet really stabilized as there was not much knowledge about that back in the 70's, this could have resulted in a lot of duifferent "Skunk#1" plants across California, those different phenotype skunk plants were also used by different people again for breeding or growing skunk.
It might very well be that there are hundereds of different skunks availlable today.

Flying Dutchmen used to be known as Cultivators Choice, CC worked close togheter with Sacred Seeds and together they created the Skunk as we sell them these days, and keep in mind that this is one of the few seedbanks that maintain genetics from back then.

Skunk#1 might have been released by us in the 80's, it was around already for many years.....sorta under development.

I hope thing helps out a little.

amsterdammer

[Hashmasta-Kut]

the skunk we had, we grew for well over a decade and hundreds around swore it was pretty much the most potent weed around. most people, if not all who came in contact with it.

my questihn is this: is the skunk you have maintained until now mindblowing, potentially? is there a pheno that is FUCKING AMAZING?????

[amsterdammer]

I must say yes to that....in Amsterdam some coffeeshops sell a strain known as "drietje", this is perhaps the best tasting skunk around, pheno 1.

A "the Pure" motherplant the dutchmen used for breeding tested 25% THC, this one is used for making the FumaConDiablos, pheno 2.

There must be more phenotypes known by people like sam the Skunkman, Eddie or Rober C. Clarke, who have been working with this strain since day one.
Another important factor is the way most skunk is grown these days, back in the seventies there were a lot less indoor growers as today, and much of the skunk was grown outdoors to full maturity and mostly organic fertilizers.

[DankBank]

Originally Posted by amsterdammer

It might very well be that there are hundereds of different skunks availlable today.

Greetings. It may very well be true that there are 100's of skunks out there today, but in the 80's there were also a lot of skunks. And I haven't seen ONE single pheno of skunk come from anyone in the last 10 years that even comes CLOSE... not even within a mile - of the skunks that were all over the place so long ago. Seems like when you do come across anything skunky today it's sweet - the only thing really worth calling "skunk" IMO is the stuff of legend which wasn't sweet at all - it was "somebody hit a skunk and it's rotting" skunky. You could smell a gram in someones pocket 10 feet away. There are not 100's of THAT kind of skunk available today. In fact, shy of "cheese" (which I still haven't even smoked), there may not be any. If there are, they're well kept and nobody's sharing.
It's my belief that breeders in Amsterdam actually ruined those old school skunks by stepping on them and making them become sweet. I don't think they originated there... pretty sure they came from the US. Instead of breeding with those old school skunks, they should have been stablized. A sad thing indeed that they weren't.
This is all based upon lot's of Q&A and reading... I have no proof and I'm only expressing my opinion. I could be wrong. Pretty sure I know why none of those old skunk clones are held by anyone today... the reason is spelled R-E-A-G-A-N.
I'm sure somebody, somewhere has a cut of that old stuff... but he's probably 50+ years old and doesn't even know what the internet IS.
I knew one such man. He's passed away now, sadly. His genetics were the talk of legend. He's gone... but I'll bet there are others like him out there. They survive and still exist because we know not who/where they are.