Best way to revive a classic strain.

HenryTheEighth said:

Yeah a few weeks poppin em might not be but an open pollination from ‘whatever’ pops and so forth is likely a total waste of time.

And CSI have it from what I know. You want Northern Lites not lights for the real deal apparently.

Go forth and multiply - but with good stock.
Good luck.

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If I get to a place where I can open pollinate I'll actually be thrilled. If in fact they are what I think they are it would mean that I grew from those very seeds for at least a few years back in the day and they were all pretty great. I knew nothing about cloning back then. just pollinated buds from time to time to keep ahead of my grows. Just 300watts of HID lighting in an old 2x4 metal office closet with tin foil on the walls. Ha ha and for the early to mid 90s they were fire. We shall see.

curious2garden said:

It's definitely worth a try. I had seeds from the 1970s rolling around my underwear drawer pop. You stand a chance and even if they don't you're no worse off. Go for it.

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Sorry but I’m sceptical. The 1970’s is 40-50 years ago if you trying to say you popped em recently?
I’d believe it if you popped em in the 80’s.

What strain was it? Unobtainium?

I mean surely the underwear drawer got a spring clean and some new undies in it in 50 years?…or you keep your undies in a fridge?

Either way I think a bull has gone no2.

Sorry but peeps will be saying they found seeds in the Doc’s DeLorean next.

HenryTheEighth said:

Sorry but I’m sceptical. The 1970’s is 40-50 years ago if you trying to say you popped em recently?
I’d believe it if you popped em in the 80’s.

What strain was it? Unobtainium?

I mean surely the underwear drawer got a spring clean and some new undies in it in 50 years?…or you keep your undies in a fridge?

Either way I think a bull has gone no2.

Sorry but peeps will be saying they found seeds in the Doc’s DeLorean next.

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My first grow was the year CA went legal 1996. It was Mexican brick weed. I flew import/export for awhile.

curious2garden said:

My first grow was the year CA went legal 1996. It was Mexican brick weed. I flew import/export for awhile.

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Yeah ok 1996 sounds more ‘probable’ that they might pop.
I’m still sceptical though when anyone starts crapping on about old beans they found in uncle joes tool box or whatever.

I mean Vermontman has his Mex Oaxaca ‘79 skull line that he has maintained from brick beans but he says that line loses viability at 5 years and he nearly lost it once due to that.

Sam Skunkman was a few years back selling (30 year old?) ancestral skunk beans in 100 packs because the viability was less than 5%.
And they were stored well by Sam. People were lucky to get one to pop and it didn’t mean they were gold, just old.

Not wanting to rain on parades but I think peeps need to keep it a bit more real.

And if there was a strain or strains out there that held viability for 50 years in sock drawers everyone would have already bred it into their stock.

I’d love to cross C99 with ‘Unobtainium’ and only have to do one more reproduction for the rest of my life.

But sadly that’s just dreaming.

I won'tbe killing my first born child. Ha. I'll simply be attempting to pop some 30yo beans. Worst case i waste a couple of weeks. Best case I revive an old school strain with a much more pure genetic line than anything going today. Good or bad it's worth giving it a try.

pegboy said:

I won'tbe killing my first born child. Ha. I'll simply be attempting to pop some 30yo beans. Worst case i waste a couple of weeks. Best case I revive an old school strain with a much more pure genetic line than anything going today. Good or bad it's worth giving it a try.

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no harm in trying. but why not hedge your bet and grab some NL5 from AG or Dinafem or ...
if your ancients decide not to pop you have something that will work.

certainly curious to know f you do get some going.

good luck.

HenryTheEighth said:

Yeah ok 1996 sounds more ‘probable’ that they might pop.
I’m still sceptical though when anyone starts crapping on about old beans they found in uncle joes tool box or whatever.

I mean Vermontman has his Mex Oaxaca ‘79 skull line that he has maintained from brick beans but he says that line loses viability at 5 years and he nearly lost it once due to that.

Sam Skunkman was a few years back selling (30 year old?) ancestral skunk beans in 100 packs because the viability was less than 5%.
And they were stored well by Sam. People were lucky to get one to pop and it didn’t mean they were gold, just old.

Not wanting to rain on parades but I think peeps need to keep it a bit more real.

And if there was a strain or strains out there that held viability for 50 years in sock drawers everyone would have already bred it into their stock.

I’d love to cross C99 with ‘Unobtainium’ and only have to do one more reproduction for the rest of my life.

But sadly that’s just dreaming.

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I agree it never hurts to be sceptical but it is possible to a point id say obviously 50 years old seeds are probably not gonna pop without embryo rescue but quite a few people have managed it with seeds in there 20s and 30s without embryo rescue just down to proper storage skill and a bit of luck i myself have popped a few things about 20+ years old seed not all of em make it but some can with some tlc also look at all the 90s stuff rsc sells thats all legit just they were frozen correctly so they remained with better viability vs however sam stored his ancestral skunk paniks got em listed 80 for 100 seeds hard pass at that price id maybe take a crack at em if they sold em cheaper

conor c said:

I agree it never hurts to be sceptical but it is possible to a point id say obviously 50 years old seeds are probably not gonna pop without embryo rescue but quite a few people have managed it with seeds in there 20s and 30s without embryo rescue just down to proper storage skill and a bit of luck i myself have popped a few things about 20+ years old seed not all of em make it but some can with some tlc also look at all the 90s stuff rsc sells thats all legit just they were frozen correctly so they remained with better viability vs however sam stored his ancestral skunk paniks got em listed 80 for 100 seeds hard pass at that price id maybe take a crack at em if they sold em cheaper

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I just like to keep things in the realms of what’s most probable. For us everyday growers without a genetics freezer.
And that is.
Under 5 years old is fresh seed.
Under 15 years old is likely viable seed.
Everything else is just pot luck and dreaming.

I may not be reviving a classic strain but I am maintaining a couple.

Yeah and the ancestral skunk might be interesting if it was an S1 of a pheno Sam picked from the old beans. But if it’s just old beans and ‘dreaming’ for 80 then yeah nah it’s a hard pass.

As an old timer I smile at the talk of classic strains.
Most of what people are calling classic strains are hybrids.
Skunk, hybrid. Northern lights hybrid.Sour diesel ditto.
When i think of classic strains I think of landraces like Columbian- red bud or gold, Acapulco gold, Oaxacan, Thai sticks, Mexican or Jamaican.

HenryTheEighth said:

I just like to keep things in the realms of what’s most probable. For us everyday growers without a genetics freezer.
And that is.
Under 5 years old is fresh seed.
Under 15 years old is likely viable seed.
Everything else is just pot luck and dreaming.

I may not be reviving a classic strain but I am maintaining a couple.

Yeah and the ancestral skunk might be interesting if it was an S1 of a pheno Sam picked from the old beans. But if it’s just old beans and ‘dreaming’ for 80 then yeah nah it’s a hard pass.

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I get you mate never gonna happen tho cos sam hated skunky skunk so he will never work on it so the ancestral skunk is closest you gonna get from him and even then besides low germ rates alot of em arent very sexually stable or rks or someone woulda popped up with it by now if it was i think

conor c said:

I get you mate never gonna happen tho cos sam hated skunky skunk so he will never work on it so the ancestral skunk is closest you gonna get from him and even then besides low germ rates alot of em arent very sexually stable or rks or someone woulda popped up with it by now if it was i think

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Yeah well I don’t dig on skunky skunk either so I can relate to Sam’s taste. An Ancestral fruity skunk S1 would still sell. Sam should stand firm on his ‘ancestral’ selections and not be put off by the road kill seekers or knockers.

There are peeps doing the filth rks and such, Kropduster has heaps of these lines. Not that I’m interested.
I did grabbed his raspberry rally - that one sounds really good.

HenryTheEighth said:

Yeah well I don’t dig on skunky skunk either so I can relate to Sam’s taste. An Ancestral fruity skunk S1 would still sell. Sam should stand firm on his ‘ancestral’ selections and not be put off by the road kill seekers or knockers.

There are peeps doing the filth rks and such, Kropduster has heaps of these lines. Not that I’m interested.
I did grabbed his raspberry rally - that one sounds really good.

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Thats where we differ i love the full spectrum of cannabis from fruity to what the hell is that i like the loud and strange stuff as well as other flavours also who the hell is kropduster ? Never heard of them i think

pegboy said:

So I've got 25 seeds from what I believe has a great possibility of being NL#5 circa 1993. Although a huge long shot I'm going to try to pop some of those for my next grow as soon as my current grow finishes up (about 6 weeks). In the event that I get some seeds to pop would I be better off to pollinate whatever females and males I get and then pheno hunt after the first grow OR would I be better off pheno hunting the first grow and only pollinating the best males and females? I know its a long shot but I'm really looking forward to giving it the college try. Within this same find theres also about 25 seeds of a completely unknown origin I would also like to try and germinate.. Thanks in advance.

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All right I feel like no one's answering for those old seeds I like using clonex gel I'll put a little bit and like a small plastic vial with a cap little bit of water Shake very well vigorously maybe a tablespoon of warm water and shake shake the hell out of it and then I'll let it sit I'll take the seeds and I'll lightly get a like a woman's nail filer the little sandpaper from the nail filer and I'll run the seeds the outside coating over the Sandpaper just a couple times scratch the surface just scratch the surface it helps the water permeate get in and then throw the seeds in the vial with the rooting hormone gel I like using clonex gel it's what I prefer and let them sit 10 hours usually overnight 10 hours and then I throw it old fashioned fold it up paper towel throw the seeds in sort of squeeze out the ring out the water and then lay flat and stuff that inside of a sandwich bag let out the air and I wood sign date and time germinated should pop it about 3 to 4 days long little roots hope for the best

HenryTheEighth said:

I wouldn’t waste my time, they aren’t gunna pop.
30 years old and 25 beans has no chance at if you ask me.

No offence but the ‘dreaming’ is sometimes a curse.

You really have to narrow down what’s probable from what’s possible in this game or you waste too much time.

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We'll have to agree to disagree on the part that I edited out and the last sentence is sage advice but I'd agree with you that cannabis seeds 30 years old, that have not been stored correctly, will probably _never_ germinate. Drastically varying temps and humidity over that long a period will surely make the seed unviable.

But you never know and there is absolutely no harm whatsoever in popping that seed! Maybe the seeds aren't as old as the OP thought they were

Every time I hear a story about long lost "magic beans" from the Jack and the Beanstalk era being found and turned into a current super weed, my Bullshit Detector pegs over into the deep red. Unless you are lucky enough to be an outdoor grower and have outdoor grown seeds that have been properly stored with regards to temp and humidity, trying to resurrect old seeds is fraught with frustration. The Dutch growing environment of HPS lighting, ultrafast veg and flower times used back then, just in time fertilization methods, etc. was the normal environment back then. The current indoor grow environment is so drastically different from that environment, the seedlings would fucking freak out and not know how to grow.


Unobtainium, I fucking love that!

conor c said:

I get you mate never gonna happen tho cos sam hated skunky skunk so he will never work on it so the ancestral skunk is closest you gonna get from him and even then besides low germ rates alot of em arent very sexually stable or rks or someone woulda popped up with it by now if it was i think

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This is strictly my opinion, but I monitored a lot of threads on ICmag many, many years ago when Mr Watson was participating actively there. Heard all of his stories about how he bred the skunk smell out, blah, blah, blah. Didn't believe one single fable he spun but he convinced me during those various threads that he was an absolute, certifiable asshole, regardless of the Ray Cogo narc out story. Gypsy Nirvana had to shit can _many_ threads because there were too many people that were refuting, with actual _facts_, his various stories.

One thing I know for an absolute fact.. if anyone can actually replicate/duplicate the real honest to God smell of Skunk from back in the '90s (or even come relatively close so it actually stinks instead of smelling fruity), they would make an absolute fucking fortune selling seeds.

Skunk is not a holy grail for me. I was on a month-long tolerance break before a cruise, picked up some Skunk and Northern Lights via the Blunt Bros coffee shop in Vancouver, compared them both in a blind stone test, and the Northern Lights was easily the more intense high, wasn't even close. Skunk smelled better/stronger, Northern Lights actually was.

That's how I boarded the Northern Lights train 25 years ago.

Jimikushking said:

All right I feel like no one's answering for those old seeds I like using clonex gel I'll put a little bit and like a small plastic vial with a cap little bit of water Shake very well vigorously maybe a tablespoon of warm water and shake shake the hell out of it and then I'll let it sit I'll take the seeds and I'll lightly get a like a woman's nail filer the little sandpaper from the nail filer and I'll run the seeds the outside coating over the Sandpaper just a couple times scratch the surface just scratch the surface it helps the water permeate get in and then throw the seeds in the vial with the rooting hormone gel I like using clonex gel it's what I prefer and let them sit 10 hours usually overnight 10 hours and then I throw it old fashioned fold it up paper towel throw the seeds in sort of squeeze out the ring out the water and then lay flat and stuff that inside of a sandwich bag let out the air and I wood sign date and time germinated should pop it about 3 to 4 days long little roots hope for the best

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Damn fine first post here on RIU! That seems to be happening a lot these days and that's a good thing.

If you could do one thing to help an old, blind, speed reader out... try to put a little punctuation in your paragraphs. Not being the grammar police, it just makes it hard as hell for us speed readers to do what we do.

curious2garden said:

Yes, research gibberellins and humidity. There are some good hemp studies out there too. I'd normally have a cite but just dabbed some White Papaya and that might be beyond my ability at the moment.

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Question about the open pollination methods you use...

Do you have any concern or opinion on the concept that the first male to drop pollen doing the bulk of the pollinating, causing the batch of seed to lean heavily towards that males genetic expression? Is there a way of handling this without hand pollinating all the ladies?

Tolerance Break said:

Question about the open pollination methods you use...

Do you have any concern or opinion on the concept that the first male to drop pollen doing the bulk of the pollinating, causing the batch of seed to lean heavily towards that males genetic expression? Is there a way of handling this without hand pollinating all the ladies?

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Idk what he does but id just reccomend you to keep cutting those early males back till the others catch up in that situation then that way they dont contribute more than there fair share

conor c said:

Idk what he does but id just reccomend you to keep cutting those early males back till the others catch up in that situation then that way they dont contribute more than there fair share

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Is there a way to tell when a male is about to drop pollen?

pegboy said:

That's how I'm looking at it. Hell.. wouldn't it be nice at the very least to smoke genetics that you smoked 30+ years before. I'm loving the idea.

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Lets all be honest here the best weed 30 years ago was bottom shelf today…