Greetings,
Thanks to everyone for all the great postings. I especially love pictures of beautiful plants and reading about stories of intense experiences with particular strains of weed.
What is on my mind is how much people associate their own experiences with a name, and judge by the name against what others may have experienced. I even judge one experience with undue priority over multiple contrary experiences. Let me explain by relating a story.
Back in the mid 80's, I had been told that I should try a strain called Skunk #1. This was probably the first seeds I ever purchased from a seed company. I grew about a dozen of these plants, and never found one worth growing a second time. I figured the person who told me about them really did not know what good weed was. A few years later, he found a Skunk #1 that he liked, and shared the cut with me. While it vaguely had a morphological resemblance, the effect had no resemblance with the others that I had been trying.
I consider that cut a great example of the early success of crossing a Sativa strain with an Indica strain to get good quality bud that grows easily in one of the more favorable climates in California. Actually, I believe it was a Sativa crossed with an Indica, then backcrossed to another Sativa, but I'm not positive about that. It wasn't top tier weed, but solid good quality, similar to good Colombian. It was as good as my current best strain, SAGE x (Purple Haze x Thai). It was good enough to wish I still had that cut. When I shared that weed with others, they swooned over it, because of the combination of effect and real good flavor and aroma, I presume.
So, when I judge the weed named Skunk #1 I think of it as good weed with great flavor that reminds me of good Colombian, with a nice dreamy high. I chose to ignore that I grew so many of them looking for that excellent example of the strain. If people tell me that Skunk #1 is crap, my first reaction would be to think that they might not know what they are talking about, even though I had experiences similar to theirs. Crazy world, huh? Also, I have come to consider the constant crossing of Sativa to Indica as a tragedy even though I have experienced some that were a great success. Somehow it all got way too homogenized, and now I dismiss it all. I am probably categorizing too much.
Same type of thing with Jamaican. I have never smoked anything I would consider world class that was named Lambsbread. The top tier weed I smoked from Jamaica was called Jamaican Ganja. I have a couple of plants from some seeds that are called Jamaican Lambsbread from the 1960s that look like the Jamaican Ganja I had. We grew the Ganja way back then. They look nothing like the J. Blue Mountain that I have seen floating around today, that I have also heard referred to as Lambsbread. I have trouble getting myself to call the plants I have Lambsbread. I most often refer to them as Ganja. Possibly in the hopes that it is like the Jamaican Ganja I had back in the early 70s.
The point is, it is not the name that we smoke, it is the bud from the particular plant that we grew. It is totally understandable to use names, and classifications, especially when communicating with people that we often cannot share examples with. But we should always keep in mind that different people can have very different experiences with a bud that may have the same name. In fact, I believe that peoples mood or brain chemistry can cause one person to have very different experiences with even the exact same bud.
Just some thoughts,
ThaiBliss
P.S. - If I have some time, I'll try and post some updates to the trip weed hopefuls I have growing. They are getting close to being done.
Thanks to everyone for all the great postings. I especially love pictures of beautiful plants and reading about stories of intense experiences with particular strains of weed.
What is on my mind is how much people associate their own experiences with a name, and judge by the name against what others may have experienced. I even judge one experience with undue priority over multiple contrary experiences. Let me explain by relating a story.
Back in the mid 80's, I had been told that I should try a strain called Skunk #1. This was probably the first seeds I ever purchased from a seed company. I grew about a dozen of these plants, and never found one worth growing a second time. I figured the person who told me about them really did not know what good weed was. A few years later, he found a Skunk #1 that he liked, and shared the cut with me. While it vaguely had a morphological resemblance, the effect had no resemblance with the others that I had been trying.
I consider that cut a great example of the early success of crossing a Sativa strain with an Indica strain to get good quality bud that grows easily in one of the more favorable climates in California. Actually, I believe it was a Sativa crossed with an Indica, then backcrossed to another Sativa, but I'm not positive about that. It wasn't top tier weed, but solid good quality, similar to good Colombian. It was as good as my current best strain, SAGE x (Purple Haze x Thai). It was good enough to wish I still had that cut. When I shared that weed with others, they swooned over it, because of the combination of effect and real good flavor and aroma, I presume.
So, when I judge the weed named Skunk #1 I think of it as good weed with great flavor that reminds me of good Colombian, with a nice dreamy high. I chose to ignore that I grew so many of them looking for that excellent example of the strain. If people tell me that Skunk #1 is crap, my first reaction would be to think that they might not know what they are talking about, even though I had experiences similar to theirs. Crazy world, huh? Also, I have come to consider the constant crossing of Sativa to Indica as a tragedy even though I have experienced some that were a great success. Somehow it all got way too homogenized, and now I dismiss it all. I am probably categorizing too much.
Same type of thing with Jamaican. I have never smoked anything I would consider world class that was named Lambsbread. The top tier weed I smoked from Jamaica was called Jamaican Ganja. I have a couple of plants from some seeds that are called Jamaican Lambsbread from the 1960s that look like the Jamaican Ganja I had. We grew the Ganja way back then. They look nothing like the J. Blue Mountain that I have seen floating around today, that I have also heard referred to as Lambsbread. I have trouble getting myself to call the plants I have Lambsbread. I most often refer to them as Ganja. Possibly in the hopes that it is like the Jamaican Ganja I had back in the early 70s.
The point is, it is not the name that we smoke, it is the bud from the particular plant that we grew. It is totally understandable to use names, and classifications, especially when communicating with people that we often cannot share examples with. But we should always keep in mind that different people can have very different experiences with a bud that may have the same name. In fact, I believe that peoples mood or brain chemistry can cause one person to have very different experiences with even the exact same bud.
Just some thoughts,
ThaiBliss
P.S. - If I have some time, I'll try and post some updates to the trip weed hopefuls I have growing. They are getting close to being done.
