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How do the 90s and early 2000s elites stack up to today’s hype strains?
- Thread starter JetLife175
- Start date
I also think KIND bud was just all around superb and probably had a lot to do with how amazing the growers were back then
When the beast hit the US, a lot went to shit and many retired or whatever
Early girl, early pearl, super skunk, bubble berry, NL #5, black domina and more from first hand experience were all well into the 20’s in terms of THC and then there were all the biker gang seeded bud strains
The best weed I ever got was from biker genetics-neon lime green with yellow hairs-suspect it was related to cough or other NL hybrid-grew like a cactus and fits of laughter ensued immediately
I dearly miss the good ole daze
I hear many of these are still alive and well on the west coast
Now if someone would only start a tissue culture delivery service
When the beast hit the US, a lot went to shit and many retired or whatever
Early girl, early pearl, super skunk, bubble berry, NL #5, black domina and more from first hand experience were all well into the 20’s in terms of THC and then there were all the biker gang seeded bud strains
The best weed I ever got was from biker genetics-neon lime green with yellow hairs-suspect it was related to cough or other NL hybrid-grew like a cactus and fits of laughter ensued immediately
I dearly miss the good ole daze
I hear many of these are still alive and well on the west coast
Now if someone would only start a tissue culture delivery service
Klompen
Active member
The quest for bag appeal and whatnot has really not done good things for the bud I have seen coming out of the legal markets. I've had a lot of smuggled Colorado bud that sells for 350-400 an ounce around here and is really not better enough than brick weed to justify the costs. In fact, we actually stopped buying it and went back to buying brick instead because we could smoke 4x as much brick weed and get even more high and still have money left over. I can't overstate how disappointing all the Colorado bud we have tried has been.
Over the years the absolute most powerful smokes I've ever had did not have a lot of bag appeal. At least two of them were brick, one was a big chunk of bud my friend found on the floor of a bathroom at a party(it had been stepped on and looked terrible, but oh my god did that stuff hit us like a hammer!), and a few other kinds. One kind looked awful and tasted like dirty old socks or something and yet had a high that was borderline mind-blowing. Also had a strain supposedly called "Cotton Candy" that didn't look that great but literally had me seeing swirling colors.
I've had trouble getting seeds over the years, and haven't had anywhere to grow for a while now, but that will be changing soon. I'm hopefully going to get some good genetics here soon thankfully, but right now all we have is seeds of some midwest outdoor breeding projects that are mostly based in Northern Lights lines. Even that crap is still close to as good as any of the dispensary bud we've tried. Honestly right now though, after a year of not being able to smoke anything, just about any bud would be nice. Hooray for low standards!
Over the years the absolute most powerful smokes I've ever had did not have a lot of bag appeal. At least two of them were brick, one was a big chunk of bud my friend found on the floor of a bathroom at a party(it had been stepped on and looked terrible, but oh my god did that stuff hit us like a hammer!), and a few other kinds. One kind looked awful and tasted like dirty old socks or something and yet had a high that was borderline mind-blowing. Also had a strain supposedly called "Cotton Candy" that didn't look that great but literally had me seeing swirling colors.
I've had trouble getting seeds over the years, and haven't had anywhere to grow for a while now, but that will be changing soon. I'm hopefully going to get some good genetics here soon thankfully, but right now all we have is seeds of some midwest outdoor breeding projects that are mostly based in Northern Lights lines. Even that crap is still close to as good as any of the dispensary bud we've tried. Honestly right now though, after a year of not being able to smoke anything, just about any bud would be nice. Hooray for low standards!
bigbadbiddy
Active member
Let me attempt a summary so far:
To OP's original question: They stack up well. Nothing today is going to "blow the old stuff out of the water" or vice-versa. But there are definitely nuanced differences between that and the current era of bud. Namely, what many mentioned (and I tend to agree), current era leans more towards terpene profiles (flavor/odor) while older era strains seemed to lean more towards potency.
The bottom line though:
Current era strains have been much more bottlenecked than those of the previous era and it might be advisable for many of us to preserve these previous era strains (or even the ones a generation before that) in order to not lock out potentially desirable traits in the future.
I like to mention CBD in that line of thought/argument as well:
During the 80s/90s and before, CBD was not part of the equation. THC was the name of the game and nobody cared about other cannabinoids.
In the 2000s, CBD Crew came out with the CBD Therapy, everybody laughed at them and nobody cared. Flash forward a couple years later and everyone and their mother had THE CBD strain on their menu...
What I am trying to say is:
We only recently discovered other active compounds (probably far from all) in cannabis and only recently discovered that CBD is a major player in this. Even more recently, we just discovered that CBD is not only for "non-drug-variants" that don't get you high but are good pain meds. We discovered that CBD (and other cannabinoids) are very desirable components in our high THC drug variants as well as they lead to a "rounder"/"smoother" or "more complete", overall more desirable profile of the plant in terms of effects (high).
Now imagine if we were, where we are now, 20 years ago. Only lacking the knowledge of CBD and other active compounds.
I am afraid we might have already all but bred CBD out of the genepool in our hunt for the next record breaking THC percentage...
Now we are at a point where we have indications of how little we know about the plant.
And that leads me to the following conclusion:
We should preserve old landrace and 80s/90s strains etc. simply in order to not breed things out of strains that we don't even know are in there and are responsible for making them "special" to us.
I believe this is the underlying question of this thread:
Is it even worth bothering with the Hazes and Skunks or even the Afghans and the Thais? Do they even hold a candle to OG Kush and Glue?
My answer is:
Not only do they hold a candle, they might include genetic markers that have been lost in current era strains and that might be imperative to preserve but we just don't know it yet. So to be on the safe side, I would say preserving the old strains is very important, no matter if most prefer current era strains or not.
When we really figured this thing out in 10 years or so, we can maybe discuss letting some older strains "die out" because they have been "replaced by something better".
Until then, we are playing a dangerous game when we all just grow the current generation poly hybrids and slowly losing potentially game-changing genetic markers for the future.
To OP's original question: They stack up well. Nothing today is going to "blow the old stuff out of the water" or vice-versa. But there are definitely nuanced differences between that and the current era of bud. Namely, what many mentioned (and I tend to agree), current era leans more towards terpene profiles (flavor/odor) while older era strains seemed to lean more towards potency.
The bottom line though:
Current era strains have been much more bottlenecked than those of the previous era and it might be advisable for many of us to preserve these previous era strains (or even the ones a generation before that) in order to not lock out potentially desirable traits in the future.
I like to mention CBD in that line of thought/argument as well:
During the 80s/90s and before, CBD was not part of the equation. THC was the name of the game and nobody cared about other cannabinoids.
In the 2000s, CBD Crew came out with the CBD Therapy, everybody laughed at them and nobody cared. Flash forward a couple years later and everyone and their mother had THE CBD strain on their menu...
What I am trying to say is:
We only recently discovered other active compounds (probably far from all) in cannabis and only recently discovered that CBD is a major player in this. Even more recently, we just discovered that CBD is not only for "non-drug-variants" that don't get you high but are good pain meds. We discovered that CBD (and other cannabinoids) are very desirable components in our high THC drug variants as well as they lead to a "rounder"/"smoother" or "more complete", overall more desirable profile of the plant in terms of effects (high).
Now imagine if we were, where we are now, 20 years ago. Only lacking the knowledge of CBD and other active compounds.
I am afraid we might have already all but bred CBD out of the genepool in our hunt for the next record breaking THC percentage...
Now we are at a point where we have indications of how little we know about the plant.
And that leads me to the following conclusion:
We should preserve old landrace and 80s/90s strains etc. simply in order to not breed things out of strains that we don't even know are in there and are responsible for making them "special" to us.
I believe this is the underlying question of this thread:
Is it even worth bothering with the Hazes and Skunks or even the Afghans and the Thais? Do they even hold a candle to OG Kush and Glue?
My answer is:
Not only do they hold a candle, they might include genetic markers that have been lost in current era strains and that might be imperative to preserve but we just don't know it yet. So to be on the safe side, I would say preserving the old strains is very important, no matter if most prefer current era strains or not.
When we really figured this thing out in 10 years or so, we can maybe discuss letting some older strains "die out" because they have been "replaced by something better".
Until then, we are playing a dangerous game when we all just grow the current generation poly hybrids and slowly losing potentially game-changing genetic markers for the future.
jaypopnseeds
Member
No offense, but it sounds like you’ve been smoking a lot of boof. I’m guessing the smuggled CO weed is probably shit that couldn’t get sold in dispensaries.
I’ve been smoking a long time, and besides a short period in the early 2000s when a friend’s brother hooked us up with Super Skunk, Bubblegum, Chemdog, etc, I’ve never had better stuff than when medical started rolling through.
If you’re looking for good genetics there’s about a dozen seed banks in the US that have great stuff readily available.
Klompen
Active member
None taken. I know we're not getting the best stuff. Here in the Midwest we tend to get the leftover crap other parts of the country don't want. I've had some stellar weed here, but almost all of it was locally grown except for a couple of really standout examples of brick weed. People tend to bash brick(and justifiably so) but now and then some of it is just stunningly good.
That said, I know for a fact that some of what I have smoked came straight from dispensaries and it was not impressive at all. I've smoked upwards of 60 different examples of dispensary weed and none of it impressed me. None of it could touch the aforementioned stand-out bricks or that stellar weed my friend found on the floor of a bathroom. I know I'm harder to impress than the average smoker, but I've noticed that the stuff coming out of Colorado and Cali often looks really amazing and gets sold as top-tier stuff and just isn't worthy of the prices they demand for it.
I'm not saying the good stuff isn't out there. Just saying that these large factory grows are more concerned with yield and appearance than with highs that have character. It worries me a bit that if and when I can afford to order some seeds that I'm going to have to be very careful with what I pick to avoid over-hyped strains with fancy names. Every since legal states started popping up the amount of crazy new strain names that are popping up is hard to track.
Don't buy names then...
Look around at a few breeders and ask some questions about the gear that you find interesting.
If you like OG, Chem, Diesel variants you can't go wrong with Relentless seeds or Karma Genetics. There's a few more breeders out there but those two guys are solid as granite!
I have yet to see a cup where the results aren't bought and paid for. 'Nuff said.
This is a good thread. It makes me wish I still had some of the genetics I was smoking on back in the late 90s so that I could smoke them today and make an accurate assessment. I do think it's probable that many of us are romanticizing the strains from back then... but I honestly, objectively believe that there hasn't been much improvement in genetics since then. At the same time, I don't believe things have backslid either. It's just different now, and everything tastes the same. That's not bullshit... it all tastes like OG and chem now. Then there are all the strains that are still based on the OG and chem genetics, but have been hybridized with some fruity or candy flavors and backcrossed to the OG/chem genetics.
I get it. I know why these genetics are so prevalent. But at the end of the day, it has homogenized a good portion of the genetics that are made available in the industry. I am one of those people who really could take or leave the fruity and sweet flavors. Couldn't care less about those. I like earthy flavors. I miss the cornucopia of earthy aromas and flavors that used to be so common in the 90s. That's why I've decided to limit my genetics purchases to companies like Ace from here on out until further notice. It has brought back those sensations that I miss so much.
Also, since so many other people have said it, I'm going to add to the White Widow mentions... WW was one of my favorite strains of all time, and it's the only strain that actually dropped my blood pressure and made me literally pass out and fall down on several occasions when I smoked too much of it. Looking back, and remembering the listed THC percentage on strains like that, it's clear to me that 20+% THC doesn't make weed stronger. It actually just homogenizes the high, IME.
God I miss White Widow.
I get it. I know why these genetics are so prevalent. But at the end of the day, it has homogenized a good portion of the genetics that are made available in the industry. I am one of those people who really could take or leave the fruity and sweet flavors. Couldn't care less about those. I like earthy flavors. I miss the cornucopia of earthy aromas and flavors that used to be so common in the 90s. That's why I've decided to limit my genetics purchases to companies like Ace from here on out until further notice. It has brought back those sensations that I miss so much.
Also, since so many other people have said it, I'm going to add to the White Widow mentions... WW was one of my favorite strains of all time, and it's the only strain that actually dropped my blood pressure and made me literally pass out and fall down on several occasions when I smoked too much of it. Looking back, and remembering the listed THC percentage on strains like that, it's clear to me that 20+% THC doesn't make weed stronger. It actually just homogenizes the high, IME.
God I miss White Widow.
The Nature Farm Genetics gave a guy a cut of his PRE 1995 Sensi Black Domina and won the 2017 Humboldt Cup.
Another 1 for Old School.
A lot of these old genetics are still around as cuts, and some the full lines, but that is more rare. All kinds are available as hybrids, and really really potent hybrids.
When I ordered seeds from Holland in the mid 80s, the POST MARK THE SEEDS CAME FROM WAS SENT FROM SANTA BARBARA CALIFORNIA. Just Sayin.
The guy from The Nature Farm Genetics has more shit than god, from which he got from his dad, and theyre in the heart of Norcal.
Hes going to be releaseing all kinds of stuff in a few days.
Hes got original Skunk, and has also backcrossed to more isolate the RKS phenos, and chose 4-5 females/Males from over 200 plants to breed. He will also have Open Pollination.
This i the same line that was stolen from Sacred Seeds in the 70s, and was taken to holland, after it had much of the Rank Skunk bred out of it.
Also though there are RKS phenos, nobody claims this to be an RKS LINE.
He will also have a 90s Sensi Super Skunk, bred to his Sk18, and says the Super Skunk isthe rankest, and will give the closest tomore consistent RKS.
THF also has the PURE 90s SENSI Sk1, and will eventually have to for sale as a PURE LINE, and he will also have a cross of his Sk18, and the Sensi Sk1. The Sensi Sk1 is sweeter vs his. Theres no sweet in Sk18. Its all rank, and reeks. There are hints of floral, but its mostly all gas, chemicals, skunk, garlic, and onions
The will also have these elite cuts crossed with the Sk18
Red Lebanese Hashplant. Worked Drug Line.
Nepali Hashplant
Pacific Northwest Hashplant... This is the same cut that was taken to Holland, and given to Nevil to creat HIS Hashplant Strain. It was crossed to Heirloom NL#1. HE got an F2 Male, and then bred that back into the mother PNW HP.
PRE 1995 White Widow.
1989 NL5
89 UK Cheese
PRE 95 Sensi Black Domina.. TNF gave these genes to a friend, and they won the 2017 Humboldt Cup.... TNF also gave this cut to Bob Hemphill... Coastal Seed Company/Eqgenetics
Afghan #7 IBL
79 Romulan... TNF Gave Bob Hemphill the 79 Romulan cut.
Hemphill/Coastal Seed Company use a few cuts from TNF for his Heirloom Male NL1 crosses
Sensi 90s Master Kush
Triabgle Kush
Kerala
Sana Cruz Blue Dream
Santa Marta x Afghan
Pure Columbian Gold
Pre95 WW/NL
Coastal has these NL1 Male crosses with some old genes
UFO.. 79 Romulan x NL1
Black Lights.. Pre95 Black Domina x NL1
Fourora Borealis.. Fairfax 4 Way x NL1
Puck Yeah.. NL1 x Skelly Hashplant.. They say Skelly.. AKA PUCK Cut is the most sought after of all the PNW HP cuts. This comes from Nevils 80s Hashplant genetics. Skelly was found in 1989.
Dominion Seed Company
Dominion Skunk
Chem91 VA x Skelly Hashplan/SSSC Sk1.
SSSC is Super Sativa Seed Club and came from the early/Mid 80s.
Nevil went on to get all of SSSC original gear.
Duke Diamond Va has some killer genetics.
Local Skunk.
( Original Diesel x Cuddlefish Hashplant Female ) x Sour Diesel IBL x Skelly/SSSC Sk1 Male
Granny Skunk...95 VA Afghani x Skelly/SSSC Sk1
Sis Skunk..Chem Sister x Skelly/SSSC Sk1.
Hes also going to release other stuff in a month or so.
Swami Organic Seeds.
Has to many to list.
All of these people have tons of photos on Instagram, and from people who have, and are growing their gear.
Another 1 for Old School.
A lot of these old genetics are still around as cuts, and some the full lines, but that is more rare. All kinds are available as hybrids, and really really potent hybrids.
When I ordered seeds from Holland in the mid 80s, the POST MARK THE SEEDS CAME FROM WAS SENT FROM SANTA BARBARA CALIFORNIA. Just Sayin.
The guy from The Nature Farm Genetics has more shit than god, from which he got from his dad, and theyre in the heart of Norcal.
Hes going to be releaseing all kinds of stuff in a few days.
Hes got original Skunk, and has also backcrossed to more isolate the RKS phenos, and chose 4-5 females/Males from over 200 plants to breed. He will also have Open Pollination.
This i the same line that was stolen from Sacred Seeds in the 70s, and was taken to holland, after it had much of the Rank Skunk bred out of it.
Also though there are RKS phenos, nobody claims this to be an RKS LINE.
He will also have a 90s Sensi Super Skunk, bred to his Sk18, and says the Super Skunk isthe rankest, and will give the closest tomore consistent RKS.
THF also has the PURE 90s SENSI Sk1, and will eventually have to for sale as a PURE LINE, and he will also have a cross of his Sk18, and the Sensi Sk1. The Sensi Sk1 is sweeter vs his. Theres no sweet in Sk18. Its all rank, and reeks. There are hints of floral, but its mostly all gas, chemicals, skunk, garlic, and onions
The will also have these elite cuts crossed with the Sk18
Red Lebanese Hashplant. Worked Drug Line.
Nepali Hashplant
Pacific Northwest Hashplant... This is the same cut that was taken to Holland, and given to Nevil to creat HIS Hashplant Strain. It was crossed to Heirloom NL#1. HE got an F2 Male, and then bred that back into the mother PNW HP.
PRE 1995 White Widow.
1989 NL5
89 UK Cheese
PRE 95 Sensi Black Domina.. TNF gave these genes to a friend, and they won the 2017 Humboldt Cup.... TNF also gave this cut to Bob Hemphill... Coastal Seed Company/Eqgenetics
Afghan #7 IBL
79 Romulan... TNF Gave Bob Hemphill the 79 Romulan cut.
Hemphill/Coastal Seed Company use a few cuts from TNF for his Heirloom Male NL1 crosses
Sensi 90s Master Kush
Triabgle Kush
Kerala
Sana Cruz Blue Dream
Santa Marta x Afghan
Pure Columbian Gold
Pre95 WW/NL
Coastal has these NL1 Male crosses with some old genes
UFO.. 79 Romulan x NL1
Black Lights.. Pre95 Black Domina x NL1
Fourora Borealis.. Fairfax 4 Way x NL1
Puck Yeah.. NL1 x Skelly Hashplant.. They say Skelly.. AKA PUCK Cut is the most sought after of all the PNW HP cuts. This comes from Nevils 80s Hashplant genetics. Skelly was found in 1989.
Dominion Seed Company
Dominion Skunk
Chem91 VA x Skelly Hashplan/SSSC Sk1.
SSSC is Super Sativa Seed Club and came from the early/Mid 80s.
Nevil went on to get all of SSSC original gear.
Duke Diamond Va has some killer genetics.
Local Skunk.
( Original Diesel x Cuddlefish Hashplant Female ) x Sour Diesel IBL x Skelly/SSSC Sk1 Male
Granny Skunk...95 VA Afghani x Skelly/SSSC Sk1
Sis Skunk..Chem Sister x Skelly/SSSC Sk1.
Hes also going to release other stuff in a month or so.
Swami Organic Seeds.
Has to many to list.
All of these people have tons of photos on Instagram, and from people who have, and are growing their gear.
Klompen
Active member
I hear ya! Some of the better smoke I've had were crosses of it. I had some seeds of one cross years ago but the person who gifted them to me had not stored them well and none of them germed. Maybe one of these days I'll be lucky enough to get my hands on a good WW cross!
G `day BBB
CBD was very much a thing in Europe and the UK .
Even if they didn`t know it .
Then there was the Skunk causes psychosis scare . They knew the Skunk had no anti psychotic CBD .
Lots of hash with CBD . Just because only small amounts of hash came to the USA while Europe had an over supply . Doesn`t mean there was no CBD before Jaime and Shanti .
Thanks for sharin
EB .
CBD was never bred out, only rare.In the 80/90s there was not much knowledge about CBD.In the early 80s hemp had CBD and THC, but that changed on demand in Europe by regulations later.
For a short time available as clone only Viking indica variety developed in Holland with the genetics of Old Ed seems to have CBD.That was later discovered with a TLC analyse.
For a short time available as clone only Viking indica variety developed in Holland with the genetics of Old Ed seems to have CBD.That was later discovered with a TLC analyse.
bigbadbiddy
Active member
I didn't mean there was no CBD before.
Obviously those guys didn't magically coax an active compound out of a plant that wasn't there before.
I meant nobody cared about it or paid it any mind.
G `day BBB
Still to this day there are millions of people in the EU , Russia and the UK smoking Maroc or Afghani , Pakistani hash .
Lots of those folks prefer the high from CBD / THC hash than THC flowers alone .
Just aint an Merican thang .
We had hash every summer in Oz when I was a kid . Then indoor growing meant demand could be met locally and the hash just disappeared .
Hash never gave me the head high or paranoia like good ganja .
Like I referred to earlier .
They [hash smokers ] certainly could tell the difference in effect between hash and Skunk .
Some would have converted to being Skunk / ganja smokers depending on availability . Many would have tried and not liked or hash was what was culturally accepted .
Thanks for sharin
EB .
Night crawler
Member
1990s one 10 pack was all you needed to be rich now pack after pack after pack after pack .
