Just as a reference if it helps anybody,
The last 2 years I've grown more than 200 seeds from at least 4-5 known breeders maybe more, sure they weren't the top top breeders but known breeders.
I Got only 1 kinda good nothing special pheno outta all of that, really.
Now, 4 months ago I got some outdoor bud the Arabs here grow, wasn't special because the flowers were harvested at April so kinda winter grow..
Anyways, I sifted some buds to get a more true feel of the effect behind that weed as the flowers were low on resin on their own
I was surprised, it actually was kinda nice, and I'm a heavy heavy more than 20 years of purple zombie kush smoker haha
I got some seeds from that bud so I put 40 of them and got 6 fems
Outta the 6 fems 2 were crazy !
Took me back to 2005 haha
Needless to say I got the highest price Ive got in the last 5 years for that bud...
What am I trying to say here...
In the old pheno hunts people went everywhere, smoked plants outdoor in India, Pakistan, marocoo, everywhere.. they filtered the best and took their seeds home to work on and create stabilized lines.
We seed buyers don't use or have that luxury, we are 100% dependent on breeders and seed sellers fullfiling their words and claims in order to get to a worthy finished product.
That was exactly the case in 2000-2018, in 2005 I grew 5 cheese seeds I bought in AMS and they all came out THE SAME.
Same smoke, same looks, even same like the mother they came from (I know cuz I smoked it in ams before and after that)
What has changed ?
At least the pheno variation is forgiving, I can accept that, but no matter where my pheno drifts in those breeder pack, the end product is not good.
Wtf ? The only conclusion, is either
A. The mother/mothers (if it's fem seeds) are not fire, end of story.
B. The mother/s are fire but it's an F1 and not a worked line to create consistent good smoke traits phenos, aka pollen chuck aka hit or miss
C. Reg seeds... Miss or miss, aka easier pollen chuck, you need to work the line harder with male breeding, but they sell again F1s, all bets are off.
Happy hunting !