Sensi Seeds - still good or are the rumors true??

[Gantz]

hehe... Yep.
I just wanted to give the heads up to some of my neighbours here, and also let people know that there are 5+ packs in some cases

Look at my threads. There's one regarding the contents of our seedstash. Mine is mostly Canamo and Cannabis Magazine.

Come 26 every month i go see the newsagent and get both of them, wrap them in Marca or the county's newspaper and go home for some Reading and Bake

 

[hard rain]

This is how the NL5 x Haze turned out at just over 10 weeks harvest. Sorry photo is under LED. This turned out quite good. I grew OT Haze along side of this, and although I am reaching for the OT more often, this has a nice haze high.

 

[Fuel]

The rumors are partially true for those wich was used to play the pre-2000 "one pack shots" game with them. Today it cost me a dozen of packs if i want to revisit a classic.

In a way it became more elitist because the total cost of the nostalgy, in another hand i consider that they are below the average quality that offer a fews "private breeders" today for half the price (at the condition to like the actual trends).

It's complicated to evaluate finally, it will depend both on the background and the tastes wich are in the equation.

 

[medman225]

Thanks everyone for your input...
One thing I'd like to clear up...
and I'm not sure on the timeline but going off what Nev said when he came back to the forums a few years ago,
Nev did most of the breeding for sensi even after Ben bought the castle. Like 90% +
If you don't believe me read the Neville threads where he answered questions on the Mr nice forum.

What I would be very interested in is the fem versions of these long lost strains, and what pheno they decided best represents the strain.

 

[bigbadbiddy]

Afaik neither Nevil nor Shanti were involved in fem breeding.

That came after they left and Ben and the other hacks basically started feminizing all the existing classics in order to milk their cash cows as much as possible.
They must have made several mistakes regarding strain preservation during those days leading to the eventual decline of quality in their seed stock.

I obviously wasn't there but I imagine it somewhat like this:
1) Nevil and Shanti do breeding work, leave Sensi
2) Leftover personnel spearheaded by Ben are not good at the whole breeding thing but very good at the marketing and sales aspect of the game
3) Marketing and sales only gets you so far, at some point you need fresh products to advertise etc. - They are bailed out when the feminization trend starts to gain traction. The method is simple enough to replicate so they can do it. You don't need a Masters in economics to know that feminizing ("adding value to") all your classic lines, paired with solid marketing and sales will yield big $$$.
4) They do just that and for the next years all is Gucci
5) Along the way they must have discarded or otherwise lost a lot of parent stock and not kept it "intact". This is explained rather simply: When you focus on feminizing all your lines, you loose track of everything but "the one female". You don't need anything else after all when feminizing, or so they thought at least. You just need that one special/stellar female. It is very easy to tunnel vision in that regard, especially when economics/greed play a role in the equation. Then, years later, your lines loose vigor, become shitty and you can't explain why but you also can't go back to retrace your steps because you eliminated everything except for the one mother and she is sick now and not producing what she used to. So you select an F2 male or something and try to do a backcross but you are Ben, not Shanti or Nevil, so you select shit and cross shit with a sick, mutated, feminized motherplant and surprise surprise, what comes out of it is no comparison to what it used to be before you started feminizing.
You cross and cross again, select this and that male but you simply have to concede that you have no clue what you are doing because the results remain the same: shit.

So you go dark, you stop being so agressive in your marketing, you show up less and less on boards and expos etc. etc. and simply ride it out while it lasts.
You maybe pay some shills and do some astroturfing in order to ride out the wave a little longer but you just wait until the lest skeptics, nostalgics and naive newbies shell out their last bills for the last pack before you call it a day.

Something along the lines...

 

[hard rain]

@bigbadbiddy, that's just speculation. Maybe you are right, maybe not.

I am no paid Sensi shill. What I post is genuine. Although I have been growing for nearly 40 years, I didn't grow the original Sensi varieties so I don't know if they are the same. I do know that the Jack Herer looks exactly like it does in the pic and I wish I still had it. The NL5 x haze is good and stacks up really well against many other varieties I have grown, Dutch, US and local varieties. Not sure if it is a keeper as I prefer a more pure sativa and have limited space.

NL5 x haze grown in winter. It went purple but as it dried it lost most of it.

Sensi please send money!!

 

[otzicore]

Hey all,

I grew some NL5xHaze last grow in soil and was very impressed with the density of the buds and the stone. Decided to run it in hydro for this grow. So far so good, didn't anticipate the extreme stretch (like 500%) but nice dense sticky buds coming along.

Only my 4th grow, can't speak for their gear in the 90's, but this beats the WWxBB I tried last grow hands down.

Attached picture taken in Week 9 of flower

 

[bigbadbiddy]

@bigbadbiddy, that's just speculation. Maybe you are right, maybe not.

I am no paid Sensi shill. What I post is genuine. Although I have been growing for nearly 40 years, I didn't grow the original Sensi varieties so I don't know if they are the same. I do know that the Jack Herer looks exactly like it does in the pic and I wish I still had it. The NL5 x haze is good and stacks up really well against many other varieties I have grown, Dutch, US and local varieties. Not sure if it is a keeper as I prefer a more pure sativa and have limited space.

By no means meant to accuse everyone who says something positive about Sensi of being a shill. Apologies if it came across like that.
Sensi and Serious Seeds just both rub me the wrong way and I am particularly angry with them because they both had genetics that peaked my interest but are reportedly no longer nearly as good as they used to and that left me frustrated/blue-balled and I tend to rant a bit too much when I talk about either.

To clarify:
The breeding work done on their classic lines is absolutely exceptional and at one point I am convinced they deserved all the praise they received.
But that doesn't change the fact that they engaged in very shady and plain stupid/short-sighted business strategies over the years (same as serious).
Now we can talk about dishonesty, false advertising and what have you all day but that is not even at the core of it all.

To me at least, at the core, is the fact that they let these strains/lines decay over time and become less than they were. And that is evident. Maybe not for the Jack Herrer in particular (the bedrocan involvement plays a major role in its better preservation, I am sure). But most other "classics" are by all accounts if not dead or crap, at least no more than a shadow of what they once were.

And that begs questions and explanations. Some of which I have asked myself and to some of which I have developed (imho) solid theories (albeit no answers).

Sensi, Serious and GH can all be thrown in a pot imho. Could throw lesser knowns like Sagarmatha etc. in there but who cares?

These are no breeders. They are marketers/businessmen who by one way or another got their hands on genetic treasures of the cannabis culture and marketed and sold the shit out of them.
During that process they managed to (all but) ruin these genetic treasures out of base greed and capitalism.

I am continuously surprised how the cannabis community of all people could support such obvious and base human motives, having been so massively wronged over such a long time by people acting on exactly those same instincts/motives...

 

[TOKING TOKOLOSH]

1 word - DINAFEM

 

[bigtacofarmer]

1 word - DINAFEM

LOL!

 

[therevverend]

At some I point I posted in this thread about how Sensi's hashplant isn't the same strain anymore. I bought one of their overpriced packs and it wasn't close to being a hash plant.
Grew Bodhi's Old School Hashplant (PNW Hashplant x 88G13 x Hashplant). It was the real thing, exactly the same plant I grew in the 90s. It's one of my favorite strains very happy to have it back. Same skunky smell and fat Indica colas.

 

[zachrockbadenof]

years ago we grew some 'jock horror' , a jack herer knockoff- and one of the pheno's was KICK-ASS... the best weed we have ever grown.. unfort being old and stupid, we did not take any cuttings ... after buying 2 add packs, and not finding that pheno, we bought a pack of jack herer hunting for that pheno... no luck... actually there were much better pheno's in the 10buck pack of jock then the 175buck pack of jack herer...

also grew out their black dominca- found their 'ortega' pheno, at least we think it was, as it was tall/lanky.... and was again very disappointed...

 

[bigbadbiddy]

years ago we grew some 'jock horror' , a jack herer knockoff- and one of the pheno's was KICK-ASS... the best weed we have ever grown.. unfort being old and stupid, we did not take any cuttings ... after buying 2 add packs, and not finding that pheno, we bought a pack of jack herer hunting for that pheno... no luck... actually there were much better pheno's in the 10buck pack of jock then the 175buck pack of jack herer...

also grew out their black dominca- found their 'ortega' pheno, at least we think it was, as it was tall/lanky.... and was again very disappointed...

We had the exact same thing happen with Serious Seeds AK47 and Nirvana's AK47.
Nirvana's AK47 was grrrreat but we were young, foolish and inexperienced and didn't preserve anything, nor did we have a cabinet to keep a mum or clones in, we had just 1 room for veg and flower.

Anyway, years later a friend tried the AK47 from Serious and didn't find a single plant in a 10pack that held up to the 3 AK47 we flowered from Nirvana back then. (I later found out through research that apparently one parent of AK47 was lost in a police raid and that Serious just replaced it with a "the chronic" specimen, the strain they had just brought out back then and were trying to hype. Chronic was based on the AK47 itself and was being marketed as a "new and improved AK47" before it bombed among growers. I guess they believed themselves when they chose it as a replacement and ruined AK47 forever.)

I also heard great things about the Nirvana Jock Horror back then.


It seems all but a fact that there were certain times in the late 90s/early 2000s when the Nirvana version of certain Serious Seeds and Sensi Seed strains were actually way better than the "originals".

Remember all Nirvana ever did back then was buy packs from Sensi, Serious etc. and grow and select themselves and create F2 seeds and sell those on the market.
That's it. Nothing more.

But evidently at Nirvana they just understand cannabis waaaaay better than the marketing/sales bros over at Sensi and Serious.
While these guys HAD THE ORIGINAL DAMN GENETICS, within the shortest time, the F2 knockoffs of THEIR OWN DAMN GENETICS were better than the actual originals that cost up to 10 times as much.

Just think about how ridiculous that is! Especially considering how Nirvana was bashed as thieves and no good copycats by the very same marketing/sales bros on online boards and at conventions!
They were trying to make us believe these guys are essentially like the black dudes at the beach selling us fake rolexes from china while they actually had the superior stuff.

This is all kinds of messed up if you ask me and I won't be part of that.

 

[bestothebest]

So is Nirvana still good to get strains from today? Or no

 

[Elmer Bud]

We had the exact same thing happen with Serious Seeds AK47 and Nirvana's AK47.
Nirvana's AK47 was grrrreat but we were young, foolish and inexperienced and didn't preserve anything, nor did we have a cabinet to keep a mum or clones in, we had just 1 room for veg and flower.

Anyway, years later a friend tried the AK47 from Serious and didn't find a single plant in a 10pack that held up to the 3 AK47 we flowered from Nirvana back then. (I later found out through research that apparently one parent of AK47 was lost in a police raid and that Serious just replaced it with a "the chronic" specimen, the strain they had just brought out back then and were trying to hype. Chronic was based on the AK47 itself and was being marketed as a "new and improved AK47" before it bombed among growers. I guess they believed themselves when they chose it as a replacement and ruined AK47 forever.)

I also heard great things about the Nirvana Jock Horror back then.


It seems all but a fact that there were certain times in the late 90s/early 2000s when the Nirvana version of certain Serious Seeds and Sensi Seed strains were actually way better than the "originals".

Remember all Nirvana ever did back then was buy packs from Sensi, Serious etc. and grow and select themselves and create F2 seeds and sell those on the market.
That's it. Nothing more.

But evidently at Nirvana they just understand cannabis waaaaay better than the marketing/sales bros over at Sensi and Serious.
While these guys HAD THE ORIGINAL DAMN GENETICS, within the shortest time, the F2 knockoffs of THEIR OWN DAMN GENETICS were better than the actual originals that cost up to 10 times as much.

Just think about how ridiculous that is! Especially considering how Nirvana was bashed as thieves and no good copycats by the very same marketing/sales bros on online boards and at conventions!
They were trying to make us believe these guys are essentially like the black dudes at the beach selling us fake rolexes from china while they actually had the superior stuff.

This is all kinds of messed up if you ask me and I won't be part of that.

G `day 3x B

I think you will find Nirvana seeds was set up by some folks from Positronics Seed bank .

They had a lot of old SK Man gear too .

Thanks for sharin

EB .

 

[zachrockbadenof]

So is Nirvana still good to get strains from today? Or no

not sure.. we havent bought seeds from them in 10years... been buyin $$$ seeds from 'breeders' ( some would call em pollen-chuckers)...
i would like to try some seeds from bodhi, some others, but at 150/200 bucks a pack... they are NUTS...

 

[DesertFarmers]

I got ahold of a Nirvana "Black Berry" cut released in 2011, the mom was purchased from Attitude as a seed... To this day it's a top 3 for me. I wish I could get that pheno back.

I have purchased so many "Black Berry "such n such"" looking for something similar, it's just not there.

 

[aquavitae]

the papaya crosses from oni came from a Nirvana Papaya think. another example is Nirvanas snow white from around 2010+ not sure, sweet medium sized nugs, low potency imo very easy to cultivate but the finished product is nothing to write home about.

AV

 

[bigbadbiddy]

G `day 3x B

I think you will find Nirvana seeds was set up by some folks from Positronics Seed bank .

They had a lot of old SK Man gear too .

Thanks for sharin

EB .

If I am not mistaken, Positronics was very highly regarded back then, one of the pioneers if memory serves.

Anyway my impression was never that people doubted the personnel at Nirvana, the discussion was always more along the lines of "is this ethical?" or "is this thievery?".
The result obviously depended on where you stood but Sensi, Serious and the likes along with their fans/patrons were definitely sharpening their pitchforks on Nirvana.

The customers on the other hand loved them. Through Nirvana they had access to varieties otherwise impossible to obtain. Many people would not have been able to grow any but the cheapest varieties, like Skunk#1, if it wasn't for Nirvana.


A solid decade later, I am pleasantly surprised by how this all shaked out but a bit unpleasantly surprised that most seem to have forgotten the roots of Nirvana and what they stand for. Which is nothing bad or good, it is just what it is.


And coming back to this thread, I am definitely shocked that companies like Sensi and Serious have done such a poor job preserving their strains while the "discount breeders" over at Nirvana have done such an excellent job.

This however, does not fit the price structure of both.

 

[Gantz]

I think this talk about nirvana is interesting but a bit offtopic.

There's nothing wrong with talking about how awesome of a job one company does, but maybe that information should be included more in depth in a thread dedicated to that particular company?