strains that are like the old days? (70s & 80s)

[bushweed]

Zoidfuel fromWizards of Oz - contains PNG Gold and old Australian bush saliva - has that old school strength, with a balanced uplifting high that lasts for hours.

 

[djingo]

70-80´s in holland most weed imports came from asia & africa.
due to infos by some old friends in the us, most weed came from mexico "Oaxaca", Jamaica "Lambsbread", vietnam (like thaisticks and maybe you remeber the prerolled in zigi packs), thailand (thaisticks) and for sure the local skunk. lots of these commercial crops have been harvested early, so the high has not been ripened to the fully potential.

 

[Mtn. Nectar]

The Pablos says it well......"can't bring back the locations where it was grown".....as it's not only the genetics, but where and how it was grown......unless your tending at the equator with altitude ya prolly only get close to the real deal.......

with that said If I was a lookin' Charlie @ Cannabiogen could surely fit the bill genetically...or dubi @ ACE.......Congo, Guatemalan, Panama, and Malawai are a few that may do ya......


ganj on........

 

[Clive]

So how do we move forward then ? I refuse to believe that we cant get those old school highs that really old people talk about. Their must be a way lol

 

[bruceinpacifica]

I remember the strains from the 60's that you had to clean before you smoked and you only had one choice of rolling papers.
Was it ever as good as we remember it? Memory is a funny thing.
Cheers,
bruce

 

[THE PABLOS]

The Pablos says it well......"can't bring back the locations where it was grown".....as it's not only the genetics, but where and how it was grown......unless your tending at the equator with altitude ya prolly only get close to the real deal.......

with that said If I was a lookin' Charlie @ Cannabiogen could surely fit the bill genetically...or dubi @ ACE.......Congo, Guatemalan, Panama, and Malawai are a few that may do ya......


ganj on........

I'll vouch for Ace's Congo...very interesting sativa hybrid...I'm still working with it in my own crosses.

An observation....I've smoked weed since the very late 70's (when there were still sacks of gold weed everywhere)...into the 80's where we tripped out (and desired... because it was different) on all the green bud....into the 90's when more hybrids were made....into the 00's when many smokers (older ones that could remember) started their desire for the "old skool" strains....to where we are now in the progression of cultivated drug cannabis....and:

It's like any other trend....what was old is now new and desired again. What was once looked on as seedy....poorly cured (often grown poorly as well).....but mostly cheap ass weed...is now a standard for what was once "great" memories of a time and place. Peeps age...they like to revisit their perception of the past.

True...there were great smokes...but it wasn't acid. There were plenty of strains that induced paranoid delusions....only a few strains (if any) that gave every smoker a some kind of fantasy land psychedelic experience. Many highs are based on one's state of mind /situation anyway.

The genetics are still there...I don't really think you can lose genetics that easily...if you really want something you can find it....but you will have to do it yourself in some cases.

Location Location Location....Haw weed is always better because of where it is grown....HOG was great because of where it was grown...Thai because of where it was grown....the Gold (Santa Marta) Columbians because of where it was grown....Panama Red because of where it was grown...etc etc etc

Grow in those locations...keep breeding within a pool year after year for probably 5-6 seasons....grow it and cure it like it used to be grown....I'll wager you find the "old skool" highs. My belief in genetics being guided by environment...along with a farmer's selection needs....gives me a sense that the only thing that gets lost are the times.

EDIT: as far as trippy creative highs...relaxed without paranoia...they still exist. A lot of stuff that I smoke provides me with that kind of experience. Some people you will never be able to please however....some people don't want to pleased. In my mind....that is what drives some to seek out what they have no chance of finding. Even replications of the strains and locations would not satisfy. I generally see it in those who live in the past. There is plenty of interesting stuff being grown right now...thirty years from now...there will be smokers who will reminiscence about how great the strains and times were....I promise you.

 

[Clive]

Brilliant post Pablos, so would you say that their is no point in new youngish growers trying to seek out those old highs that past tokers talk so fondly of. And also would tolerance come into play? iv noticed with allot of modern strains their seems to be a real tolerance factor that comes into play. However with the older strains people talk like their was no ceiling and you could get higher and higher with every toke is this true or is it just nostalgia. Cheers.

 

[THE PABLOS]

Brilliant post Pablos, so would you say that their is no point in new youngish growers trying to seek out those old highs that past tokers talk so fondly of. And also would tolerance come into play? iv noticed with allot of modern strains their seems to be a real tolerance factor that comes into play. However with the older strains people talk like their was no ceiling and you could get higher and higher with every toke is this true or is it just nostalgia. Cheers.

Be hard for to say on the no ceiling thing....I smoked that stuff when I was 14-16 yrs old...then it was gone (right around when Reagan took office it started shifting to green sinse)...but yeah...I remember sitting in front of a bowling alley with a friend....and not being able to stop laughing after smoking a couple bowls. Of course I was a kid...and hadn't developed a tolerance. We used to smoke it constantly...as long as someone had a bag...we were smoking it. Highs depend on more than the weed though.

I'm attempting to point out that seeking the genetics is one thing...but growing them indoor or anywhere outside of their origin is probably going to produce different results....and that even after all these years of smoking...and my high tolerance...

...I can still smoke weed that has the same kind of highs as the old stuff. I really can't say I miss any given variety....there are so many others now. I don't find everything "modern" to be generic or all of it to be overwhelmingly strong. Just depends on your preference...but my god...look at all the choices. If you can't find someone making beans with the stuff you want...they can at least get you close...

And ceilings? I don't want to sit around and blaze all day anyway. If you need to get that high...there are alternatives. No ceiling weed doesn't sound all that necessary to me. Not a selling point for me anyway.

Yes....I'd enjoy smoking some old skool HOG...Lums...Reds...Thai...straight from the source. Who wouldn't? But growing it indoor or even with a greenhouse in California is not going to be the same imo. Environmental factors mean we must make do with hybrids...or buy land somewhere very close to the equator, in those mountain ranges, in those valleys, in those jungles or whatnot. It's not like the hybrids suck...or are really any lesser a weed. I mean...the old stuff was more open pollinated than heavily worked. It just happened that the environments and several years of plant adaptations to those spots worked well together.

The genetics are in there. I don't think the "Indica Revolution" and politics could have totally wiped them away....

 

[Rinse]

Pablos good post, I agree you cannot reproduce the old sativas indoors and expect the same product, would be naive to think so.
Greenhouse/cool climate you have it closer, then outdoors in tropical climate your on the right track, then the curing, eg. all import tropical weed has been at least a little fermented what Ive smoked.

I agree the environment plays a bigger role and many people think its all genetics.

For the 70's effect, which would anyone vouch for,
Landrace Thai grown indoors,
or white widow/skunk grown in Thailand?

I know I would pick the latter.

Most of the indoor landrace grows I see - the plant is too green through flower and even after cure, coz the growers are pampering the plants too much, nutrients, water etc. I am guilty myself.
Look at a sun scorched Moroccan field at harvest and you are closer to the reality...

Im sure older smokers have some degree of nostalgia however I do think these were special smokes, anyone who is sensitive to the stone and tentative to detail will tell you the same, modern hybrids don't have the same natural stonage of the landrace strains.

 

[THE PABLOS]

Pablos good post, I agree you cannot reproduce the old sativas indoors and expect the same product, would be naive to think so.
Greenhouse/cool climate you have it closer, then outdoors in tropical climate your on the right track, then the curing, eg. all import tropical weed has been at least a little fermented what Ive smoked.

I agree the environment plays a bigger role and many people think its all genetics.

For the 70's effect, which would anyone vouch for,
Landrace Thai grown indoors,
or white widow/skunk grown in Thailand?

I know I would pick the latter.

Most of the indoor landrace grows I see - the plant is too green through flower and even after cure, coz the growers are pampering the plants too much, nutrients, water etc. I am guilty myself.
Look at a sun scorched Moroccan field at harvest and you are closer to the reality...

Im sure older smokers have some degree of nostalgia however I do think these were special smokes, anyone who is sensitive to the stone and tentative to detail will tell you the same, modern hybrids don't have the same natural stonage of the landrace strains.

I can not argue with you. I'm not sure what "natural stonage" is...but totally agree some strains (or batches of those strains) were/are better than others. I'm not sold on landraces as a whole. I am sold on locations....or "location landraces" lol

I'd gladly take some hybrids to some of those sweet spots....let them adapt to the environment....do open pollinations for several seasons....then begin selecting the best plants from each generation and progressing them on. I'd guess once the plants started adapting I'd be tapping into similar effects...traditional of the weed grown in that location. I believe light angles, spectrums, elevations, humidities, length of day/night etc...would transform the hybrids into "location landraces."

Especially if using sativa dominant hybrids....I don't think it would take very long to make the transformation into something unique to that region.

The genetics of HOG (or any Mex/central/south american) variety for example....were bastard genetics to begin with. Did they breed true?...I doubt it. The location is what made them great. Take them away from their origin....and they'll start to slip.

The genetics didn't go away. Why can't people seeking "old skool" type highs not find satisfaction?.....I rarely....out of all the threads on the old skool genetics...see people satisfied with those genetics today. I rarely read of some dude jumping up and down that he found the smoke he had in '74. It's not that those genetics are extinct or lost....it's that they are not grown on location.

Yeah man...I'd love to grow in a sweet spot....I'd love to take my collection and see what happens. I don't think I'd be longing much for what I smoked in '79 or '09....I honestly do not.

 

[Mtn. Nectar]

I've been successful tendin' some old school sat's here at 36+deg. nl outdoors close to 3000' ele....usually try a few each season....just finished up the Santa Maria....and is very nice am high with great clarity and no burnout......keeps one motivated.......have tended more than one of charlies gear and always found what is described........Congo has some great phenos.....

ganj on......

 

[motaco]

I'm not old enough to personally comment on strains from the 70s and 80s but I will say from my own experiences, as well as my mom still looking for the same weed as she smoked in 1969 I'd have to say its really moot point.

There is lots of great grass with many different effects out there, and they are worth trying. But specifically trying to find an old strain from your youth is a fruitless quest IMHO.

My opinion is that even with a time machine the strain would not be how you remembered it because of set and setting. There is no premium you can put on being young. No strain is going to make you feel like you are 17 again, and in an after school smoke circle with your old buddies. It was at least as much the moment, as the marijuana. And there is nothing you can do to replicate that.

Its a bit crass but I always use this example. The first blowjob you ever got probably lasted about 15 seconds. Was that girl the BJ queen of the world? Or were you 16 and someone put their mouth on your dick for the first time? You're never going to relive that experience. Even if you found that same girl it wouldn't be the same. Its because it was all new and exciting to you when you were a kid. But you get used to experiences, and they don't carry the same gravitas as when you were younger.

If you are serious about that experience what I'd recommend is doing what you did when you were younger. Make new friends, pass a joint to a stranger, and don't take shit too serious.

The problem is when you are a grower and an adult that isn't always the greatest advice. Again part of my point. You were free when you were a kid. Nothing really mattered. As an adult with responsibilities its hard to feel that level of freedom you did when you were younger. And the weed alone isn't going to do it.

 

[xmobotx]

No strain is going to make you feel like you are 17 again, and in an after school smoke circle with your old buddies. It was at least as much the moment, as the marijuana. And there is nothing you can do to replicate that.

some time in '88 or so i remember one such after school smoke ring~
then we're all kicking back on the couch in the living room and there's a record player going in some room down the hall and it was the first time i heard "diary of a madman" /whatever side of the album has diary as the last song; there isnt a way to describe that and it prob has nothing to do with the strain or much other than the time place and experience on some pretty good canna that we probably smoked too much of

similarly on another occasion; we watched a beta video of rush doing moving pictures live and neil peart laying down all those famous fills like it was live

hell, that shits cliche now; but then it was like this amazing euphoria ~nothing can make that time happen again

who knows; more good times are surely coming just so we have a little canna to go with em who cares if its maui wowie or madamusca valley thunder fuck

be nice if there was some freedom to go with it though

 

[growbie1]

hey, just read through the thread, and besides all the true statements about time/space, i still think that there was a change in the genetics that where spread. The commercial influence changed a lot of the favored plant-aspects. Commercialization always changes a buisness like growing plants,
The selection made by people trying to maximize their proffit, changed the nature of the plantz we smoke/grow today, but the genes are still out there!!!
Just my 2 cents

That said, i read a testgrow last year i think, about mehkong-high from Dutch-Passion.
Growers name was "the doc" i think, and he claimed the mehkong to be as close to some of the "old" stuff as he had ever experienced from a commercial strain. I guess i still got a pic of a budshot, that looked quite oldschool to me. If i find it, i'll edit it in here.
Although it's not recommended for my lat. i'll still give it a try next outdoor season. Maybe the 70s are in there

 

[motaco]

Its true that the genetics have changed, to some degree. There are still plenty of nearly pure mexican sativas floating around in anonymous bags of brick weed. I had some not long ago.

But in general I think people over emphasize that point. One thing that is certainly true back then is that there was lots of shit grass. I'm not going to dispute the potency of the legends, but on average the stuff that was coming in by twenty ton loads and what was available on the corner was of much lower quality than today. Unimpressive genetics that were harvested too early, cured poorly, and grown inattentively.

They had great grass, but on a day to day basis its hardly what anybody was smoking. The regular grass wasn't too good, but people still had fun on it. I can think back to really fun nights and one of the things I can specifically remember is how shaky and seedy the bags were. If I was sitting alone, smoking and analyzing the high it probably wouldn't have been fun at all. I don't think it was the grass as much as it was just the moment, and honestly I don't think it really matters that much what strain it is as long as you are having fun with friends. I'm just saying its more than the grass that makes the experience and trying to replicate it with weed alone isn't going to work. It won't be how you remember it.

who knows; more good times are surely coming just so we have a little canna to go with em who cares if its maui wowie or madamusca valley thunder fuck

be nice if there was some freedom to go with it though

That is the way to be. As they say there is no future in living in the past. Instead of trying to find a specific strain just find a good one and use it as a catalyst for the experience instead of the sole thing. Instead of getting high and watching a documentary, get high and go for a walk in nature. Roll up a nice joint, and go have a few beers at a dive bar or where ever. We have little hole in the wall performance art theaters here. They have BYOB stand up comedy shows. Its a great place to meet bored people looking to have some fun.

Its harder to meet friends as you get older. But its important to remember there are lots of other people who are bored, have phony relationships with co workers, and lost contact with a lot of friends through the years. Sometimes all it takes is someone to reach out of the bubble. The past is gone but the future is yet to be decided. Might as well try to have some fun.

Rather than trying to find that strain of your youth, your time is much better spent trying to find that spirit of your youth.

 

[Mtn. Nectar]

what I can say from having experience of yr's ago is that with all the polyhybridization thats gone on ... the highs reflect as well...cloudy, unclear, which side can it reflect in a genepool of clusterfuc potentials or what ones synthetic perception of reality... ..one doesn't get the clean unadulterated highs that was attained through LR-IBL lines yet untainted by so called wizard breeders.....as with most things man intervenes with he fuc's 'em up.......



ganj on.......

 

[numberguy]

What man does man can undo, nothing is lost that is remembered. Unless the place of a landrace is actually destroyed all you have to do is go to that place and grow and breed as it was done before. We can repeat time. Pining for what was should be replaced for pining for what could be.

 

[THE PABLOS]

What man does man can undo, nothing is lost that is remembered. Unless the place of a landrace is actually destroyed all you have to do is go to that place and grow and breed as it was done before. We can repeat time. Pining for what was should be replaced for pining for what could be.

Yup. Nothing is lost. That's the attitude that should prevail. Realism not Escapism. Present not Past. I grow weary of hearing how great stuff was. It's a 1/2 truth at best.

 

[420ganjaman420]

I think Sour Diesel is a good sativa strain that is an actual pure sativa similar to the oldschool ones. Also I don't see many people selling these in dispensaries but if your into growing you can still buy seeds for some strains like Acapulco Gold, Maui Waui, or Panama Red online. And those strains are some real oldschool legends that will give you that nice trippy high and as a plus you save money growing your own weed so its worth checking out.

 

[The Revolution]

Many of the old school sativas are still around, thankfully, many have and are continuing to preserve these old varieties. They're out there, just gta do some hunting. Do your best to find it and help us preserve these old lines, non hybridized. If current trends continue, were gna up with just a bunch of kush,cookie,glue hybrids ibls.

I personally took on the task from my very first garden, to collect and preserve any, and all varieties I could get. Sadly, a few years ago I lost a massive seed collection, of which many are irreplaceable, or now instinct. Im doing my part to recollect what I can, preserve and share what is allowable. ITs the least I can do, and I owe it to the plant, and future growers of the plant.