2024 State of the genepool discussion.

[JetLife175]

Some recent posts on here and elsewhere have brought this question up in my circle.

What do you think of the current state of the cannabis genepool in 2024 on a macro scale? I know there are a lot of people in their own lanes doing new things, some not so much. What's your opinion? Where would you like to see it go? What can be done for more variety?

There's no wrong opinion or answer. Would love to get a consensus here on IC. I feel that this place is one of the best representations of the community, if not the best.

 

[Thcvhunter]

Its declined harshly since the golden era of the 2010's.

The 2010's landraces and heirlooms were opened up to the public. The One and Blue Orca were commanded to be freely accessible to anyone capable of growing them. Pure Hazes, old Skunks, pure Africans and Thais, A5/C5, true F1's, well-planned Bx's and IX's.

Now, many things are being crossed with autos and or femmed lines in order to appeal to rookie Rec companies who are growing as per their investor's suggestions/commandments.
Cant find The One or Blue Orca anywhere (Swami's white-label guy Gascannistan won't release them because $$$). GSC polyhybrids being passed off as OG.
Big companies working on kill genes to make cannabis sterile for everyone but themselves.
Medical cannabis is a thing of the past. Cannatonic and Harlequin have disappeared, as has RSO/FECO. Patients cant afford meds anymore and trim is expensive (and pesticide ridden).
The 2010's were the glory days of organic, chemical free cannabis. Now, everyone is using petrol chemicals to pass lab testing.
Fake cuts are more circulated than the real thing (where's Sour D, pre98 Bubba not from s1's).

Having lost my vault to a fore a few yrs ago, Ive been searching for legit genetics from seedbanks and man, its discouraging.
I miss the days of Seedbay, Cannabiogen, Gypsy's seeds from his safari's, that stellar Dreadbread cut....

Maybe I'm biased?

 

[Lester Beans]

The toolbox is there more than ever, yet it is more of a question why the majority of seed makers only use two of the tools for the last 20 years. OG Kush and it's successor GSC.

Covid hit and we went to judging the quality of cannabis by pretty pictures on the internet.

Dispos I'm told, at least where I am, sell cannabis in lightproof packaging so it can't be seen or smelled.

So if you are under 30, chances of you smoking cannabis that isn't cookies or OG in some way shape or form is slim. Of course there is exceptions to all of this.

If seedmakers start incorporating some old school blood into these modern pin up models maybe we can get back to getting high.

 

[linde]

There is no old school blood anymore. Everything is a Heinz 57. Cousins crossed with cousins. You breed with Frankenstein you get Munster babies. The old classic strains have been gone since the 90s. Ya there are some nice new glamour strains but I sure miss the classic terpenes of the 80s-90s. Real Skunk and Pine terpenes. Flavor for days. Red eye, giggle weed. Cotton mouth. That stuff is a thing of the past. And ya I've been growing since the mid to late 80s so I was around thru the Golden Era.

 

[linde]

And one more thing....I am so sick of reading about how we deliberately bred out the stinky skunk weed. Oh it stunk so bad people were getting busted...bull shit!! Nobody in their right mind would deliberately wreck such a great tasting and smoking strain or strains. Nobody! Hate to say it folks but the mystical skunk weed bred itself out from careless breeding practices. Unfortunately the greatest terpenes were very recessive and lost when bred. I laugh every time when some millennial new age dope grower says that. Ya we got rid of skunk weed. Lol bull shit. Cannabis terpenes are always changing and evolving. I remember in the early 90s there was no purple weed. There was no og kush. There was no diesel. These strain did not exist yet. Unfortunately the dominant diesel and og kush terps washed away and clean skunk or pine terps that we had in the 80s. Gone ..forever. and the Columbian gold and Panama reds? Same deal. All were crossed with the new at the time(late 80s) Dutch genetics for better resin and faster flowering. Gone forever.

 

[Lester Beans]

I think the nutrients, grow style and the fact weed was sold wetter back then added to the skunky skunk aroma.

 

[linde]

I think the nutrients, grow style and the fact weed was sold wetter back then added to the skunky skunk aroma.

No. Anybody who was ever smoked real 80s skunk weed knows. Good genetics will grow itself. The shit is gone bud. It's not yours or my fault. I guess if we can blame anyone let's blame the Dutch. They got the ball rolling with the first round of landrace crosses in the mid 80s. The first seedbanks. They initially caused the downfall of the genepool.

 

[linde]

It's all about dominant and recessive genes. Look at America. 100 yrs ago over 50% of people had blue eyes. Now within 100 yrs less than 10% of people do. Blue eyes are recessive and easily bred out. Skunk and pine terps, pink pistils are recessive and easily bred out. Heck in another 50 yrs everybody in America will be brown. Genes are genes. Plants and animals

 

[420PyRoS]

And this is why i collect.

 

[linde]

And this is why i collect.

Man if I could only invent a time machine. Lol.

 

[Old Piney]

Great thread and already some good discussion. Sadly I believe most of the damage has been done by landraces grown by local farmers worldwide being replaced or contaminated by modern hybrids. You can't blame the farmers , take for example a Moroccan hash farmer, He can grow his traditional Beldia or or some modern hybrid or even just imported Afghani and produce twice the resin. The hash won't be the same so I suppose you could blame the in undiscerning consumer. This scenario is repeating worldwide and not just with cannabis all our crops are in danger. There is an organization called the Seed Savers Exchange that is dedicated to protecting heirloom food crops , it would be nice if we had the same. Fortunately we have companies like TRSC , Khalifa Genetics,Ace and others offering for sale and preserving landraces and heirlooms. The Real Seed Co. Has a crazy amount of landraces collected for sale. I wish I could grow them all lol, but if we all some how collectively could preserve just one we would have it in the bag. I'm partial to my Moroccan Beldia ( Khalifa stock) but every season I grow another landrace and produce seed.

 

[dogzter]

Collect until they are no longer viable is the same as trashing them.
More seeds are dying from time and improper storage from the "collectors" than leo is my bet.

 

[Cannavore]

seed market as we know it is gonna collapse

nearly everything is gonna be tc clones for dirt cheap and most people aren't gonna grow seeds so it'll be even more homogeneous than it is now



what's that old Tom Hill post lol... "weed is gonna go the way of the strawberry"

 

[Steele Savage]

My opinion on the matter... And it's just that, is, to me.. it looks like a bunch of s1's smashed together with no plan except to cash in. Things look watered down so that you can't experience the effects of what is bred into it. Polyhybrids on a massive scale.. Perhaps EVERYTHING is a poly, but getting further and further away from the P1 generations (as we know/knew them) and their hybrids..

Landraces DO need to be protected and thankfully there are companies dedicated to the preservation of these building block lines.. @dubi and his team at Ace Seeds is the first company that comes to mind. That said, I like seeing crosses of heirlooms crossed to "modern" strains, many interesting hybrids..

Steele

 

[Old Piney]

Collect until they are no longer viable is the same as trashing them.
More seeds are dying from time and improper storage from the "collectors" than leo is my bet.

Yes there is a difference between collecting and preserving , a good collector knows has to preserve. What is leo?

 

[Steele Savage]

Yes there is a difference between collecting and preserving , a good collector knows has to preserve. What is leo?

Leo = law enforcement officer

 

[Old Piney]

Leo = law enforcement officer

Thanks

 

[Old Piney]

Plenty of damage has and is being done to the genepool by laws and prohibition by limiting or prohibiting numbers to select from .Man what I could do for selection and preservation if I could just roll out a few 100’ rows in my Earth way seeder! Even in a legal state you can't do that, 6 plants just don't cut it

 

[Nannymouse]

It's all about dominant and recessive genes. Look at America. 100 yrs ago over 50% of people had blue eyes. Now within 100 yrs less than 10% of people do. Blue eyes are recessive and easily bred out. Skunk and pine terps, pink pistils are recessive and easily bred out. Heck in another 50 yrs everybody in America will be brown. Genes are genes. Plants and animals

omg. Recessives are easily bred out? You have obviously not tried to do that in real life. Dominant is easy to breed out, because you can see if it is there, or not. Recessives hide, and they hide for generations...and then pop out so unexpectedly. I come from generations of registered animal raising family, and i've seen this in many circumstances. Have purchased breeding stock that was calculated to be 99+% certain to be free of a certain disease...after importation of my new critter, an overseas sister to this animal turned up with progeny that had the disease. Suddenly, my stock was over 50% risk to carry the gene.
It's sooo much easier to breed out the 'brown eyes'...blue eye to blue eye is VERY rarely going to result in brown. Brown to brown is easily able to produce 25% blue. (We've found that in eye color, it isn't REALLY that simple, but it is the 'go to' for simple explantions.)

There's a phrase that's been in my circles for decades:"Recessives are forever!"

 

[silverhazefiend]

I think it’s layers to the issue it’s not just lost on one thing it’s a chain reaction that started over 15 years ago

I also wanna blame us some of the customers for this demise and this weird place were at with the gene pool.. once we allowed people to copy other work and not bash them to hell like the old days it’s became the norm

Once that avenue opened it became who can make the crosses with the strains first people like copycat went from laughing stock to selling seeds for 200 .. they realized u don’t have to actually do anything just get popular strains and mash them together

Now it’s literally a rat race to see who can mash clones first .. that’s just one layer u also have the breeders who been around forever SWITCH genetics quietly and pass those off as classics .. they are not the same and actually make a worse name for the classic from people who actually know the classics but people will defend them still

U have breeders with FAKE cuts and they don’t come back and say they fucked up I see this happen with that shoreline and crippy strain like 3x ..

I remember when there was a big debate on here about fem seeds and them being terrible most breeders on 2010 only sold regs .. fems was literally a new market now it’s the standard market all of this played into the gene pool being ass rn