Just like GMO’s cross pollinate with every other plant, the cannabis industry is essentially fucked for similar reasons. The idea behind hybridization was to take the best qualities of multiple plants and cross them together, thereby creating better weed. Unfortunately, the result was the most dominant traits simply weeded out (no pun intended) the best qualities of the weaker strain. What’s left is pretty sounding names, but plants that have a similar high across the board. Very heavy, very strong and nearly the same smell. Now that so many growers have played with cross pollinating, the guarantee of what you’re actually smoking is long gone. Pure strains of sativa which produce a more cerebral effect have dominated the pure indica strains which produced a body high. Combined, they simply don’t give you the best of both worlds and now it’s nearly impossible to find seeds that are from original, pure strains of either genetics. Old school growers, like myself, have a stash of seeds from a different time, but eventually even those will be gone. The work behind growing males to produce pollen is fruitless because they don’t carry the psychoactive properties. The game is to produce smokable buds and wasting pistils on female plants to produce seeds would be a fiduciary loss. Sinsemilla is weed without seed which means no lineage. Sometimes the best shit is gone with each batch as there’s no incentive to produce seeds. There are seed companies, but whether or not you’re actually getting what they’re purporting to sell is questionable. I’m not sure most newbies would know either way. The alternative is cloning, but even that begins to weaken over time as genetic malformation usually ramps up in short order. For example, if 1 in 100 show a non welcomed trait, such as hermaphroditism and you clone that plant, you are stuck with a mother that isn’t of value. This is why many grandaddy strains are long gone. Long term growers have been forced to take what they can get for this reason or use up their seed stash from buds that were grown outdoor in an “heirloom” setting with natural, open pollination. Before weed was legal, growing outdoor meant less tending to plants as to stay away from possibly being caught. Male plants would grow right next to females and pollinate naturally which produced buds with seeds. This is not a desirable outcome in the current state of selling cannabis and is the major reason why the plant's traits have funneled into high strength, paranoia inducing buds.
The flip side is buds being grown for only the CBD which doesn’t get you high at all. These strains, dubbed Charlotte’s web, have been produced for pain relief and seizure control. The amount one needs to ingest is ridiculously high so refined oils of nearly pure CBD have to be produced in order to make it feasible. They do work when used early and properly, but only for the most severe cases and in huge daily dosing.
Thank you for the extremely informative reply! It sounds like legalizing cannabis and making it a major industry might not have been a good thing in terms of a reduction in biodiversity and killing the incentive to preserve granddaddy strains. One would like to think a balance could be found, but I am not sure if that is a practical goal at this point.
I suppose it would be possible to get old school seeds from elsewhere in the world where weed still either grows wild or isn't grown with the same commercial goals, maybe.
Thank you again for taking time to explain something of the science to me :-). It's actually very interesting. my only experience with deliberate selective breeding involved heirloom tomato plants and carnations.
Just like GMO’s cross pollinate with every other plant, the cannabis industry is essentially fucked for similar reasons. The idea behind hybridization was to take the best qualities of multiple plants and cross them together, thereby creating better weed. Unfortunately, the result was the most dominant traits simply weeded out (no pun intended) the best qualities of the weaker strain. What’s left is pretty sounding names, but plants that have a similar high across the board. Very heavy, very strong and nearly the same smell. Now that so many growers have played with cross pollinating, the guarantee of what you’re actually smoking is long gone. Pure strains of sativa which produce a more cerebral effect have dominated the pure indica strains which produced a body high. Combined, they simply don’t give you the best of both worlds and now it’s nearly impossible to find seeds that are from original, pure strains of either genetics. Old school growers, like myself, have a stash of seeds from a different time, but eventually even those will be gone. The work behind growing males to produce pollen is fruitless because they don’t carry the psychoactive properties. The game is to produce smokable buds and wasting pistils on female plants to produce seeds would be a fiduciary loss. Sinsemilla is weed without seed which means no lineage. Sometimes the best shit is gone with each batch as there’s no incentive to produce seeds. There are seed companies, but whether or not you’re actually getting what they’re purporting to sell is questionable. I’m not sure most newbies would know either way. The alternative is cloning, but even that begins to weaken over time as genetic malformation usually ramps up in short order. For example, if 1 in 100 show a non welcomed trait, such as hermaphroditism and you clone that plant, you are stuck with a mother that isn’t of value. This is why many grandaddy strains are long gone. Long term growers have been forced to take what they can get for this reason or use up their seed stash from buds that were grown outdoor in an “heirloom” setting with natural, open pollination. Before weed was legal, growing outdoor meant less tending to plants as to stay away from possibly being caught. Male plants would grow right next to females and pollinate naturally which produced buds with seeds. This is not a desirable outcome in the current state of selling cannabis and is the major reason why the plant's traits have funneled into high strength, paranoia inducing buds.
The flip side is buds being grown for only the CBD which doesn’t get you high at all. These strains, dubbed Charlotte’s web, have been produced for pain relief and seizure control. The amount one needs to ingest is ridiculously high so refined oils of nearly pure CBD have to be produced in order to make it feasible. They do work when used early and properly, but only for the most severe cases and in huge daily dosing.
Thank you for the extremely informative reply! It sounds like legalizing cannabis and making it a major industry might not have been a good thing in terms of a reduction in biodiversity and killing the incentive to preserve granddaddy strains. One would like to think a balance could be found, but I am not sure if that is a practical goal at this point.
I suppose it would be possible to get old school seeds from elsewhere in the world where weed still either grows wild or isn't grown with the same commercial goals, maybe.
Thank you again for taking time to explain something of the science to me :-). It's actually very interesting. my only experience with deliberate selective breeding involved heirloom tomato plants and carnations.