I can comment on some of the strains you mentioned...
The Skywalker sounds good, it's supposed to be an easy and "consistent" strain to grow... one of the best things you can look for in a strain is consitancy... my bubba kush is a pain in the Rear in that regard...
I Know a buddy who Had LA Confidential Clones and Skywalker clones, he said the LaConf Hermie'd on him when he let it go too long... not sure if that's why it hermied, but it did hermie... so I really don't care what reason it was...
When anyone he showed the two strains next to each other... everyone always wants the Skywalker over the LA... plain and simple...it smells really good... and looks better...
I Screwed up and forgot to get a clone from him of the Skywalker (I asked but forgot to keep reminding him), and he lost the connection for his clones... (buddy didn't mother a plant out, I hate when people think they'll "just buy more clones") I'm definately going to get a skywalker eventually as I liked it alot...
I did however take a couple seeds from his LA, and Mothered out a plant (made sure it wouldn't hermi either)... I just flowered the small clone, So I'll have an attempt at seeing how it does when I get one bigger... it does look fairly nice though, and with a little effort I'm sure it'll be decent. but not the "winner" that the skywalker was...
I've heard the Tang. Dream is a good one for smell/taste, but I don't know much info on it...
as far as Dutch passion, I'm growing a Dutch Passion blueberry (af,fem) right now... I got the seed from Attitude, and It germ'd with a "good size tail" within two days, I put it in rockwool cube (tail down...lol), and had a decent 2" sprout within 2 more days... (just wanted to see what an auto strain would do under t5's... small but nice) my buddy has a Nebula strain he really loves from them, it looks really kinda "mars'ish" (red and brown), so far I've had no issues with that company...
I think it tells alot about a plant by how fast it's seeds will germinate... if they don't germ in a few days, or if you have more than say 1 in 10 hermi, then it's just bad genetics... course a grower can be at fault for high rate of hermi's on fem seeds...
to give you an example of a hermi grower... a buddy of mine grew over 25+ seeds of a supposed feminized white widow, he ended up with only 1 out of 25+ (and worst of all didn't lable them for the clones (stupid wast of time), now I took 5 seeds from him from the same 50 seeds (he bought them all at the same time and must have spent a fortune...) I got 4 of the 5 as females...
this brings me to the do's and do not's of seeds...
for a beginner, do not take seeds from a "new" company... it's best to stay with a company that's been "established" for many years... that way your end result should be a fairly consitant grow, and should offer plenty of experiance to let you know if "you're doing it right"... if your's looks like everyone elses... your prob right on track...
here's an example of a wast of time I've had growing something from a newer seed...
I got some Og Raskal Seeds from a friend, but so far they suck... first 4 I tryed to germ only 2 popped, the first one was good for about a week with a sprout, but no growth and died (i've never had a plant die after sprouting before)... the other died before it was a sprout... mind you, at that same time I germinated about 10 seeds of other stuff including some Chilipepper plants from seeds that were sitting in a dark corner of a shelf for over a year... and even those sprouted and are doing great... I had him germinate 5 more at his house, but so far all they've done is crack a 2mm tail out of the seed and sit there for about a week... I'll let them stay in the "moist paper towel baggie" until I see some growth, I'd hate to perpetuate the "rez/chem/CC/raskal" garbage here... as my buddy couldn't even tell me if it was "og raskal by CC" or one of the actual Raskal strains... all he could say was "it's Raskal"... so don't take my efforts with those seeds as any indication of that company... just stick with the bigger picture, and grow something good... forget about "whats the best seeds" until you get growning down... then by all means look around and experiment a little...
do I believe in Feminized seeds... You bet ya... unless someone can give me a reason for not doing going that route, as long as it's an established grower, the seeds should be good, and the chance of male or Hermi's would be low... which helps you get started with a good mother with less work... rather than trying to find the male/female, you'll be consentrating on which female you like more...
one more tip... Lable everything... every plant, every clone you take, make sure you know which plant it was cloned from etc... consistency is your best friend...
sweet timer (rp) and sleestack (dna) i highly recommend. has anyone tried the connie chung?
