I’m a new grower in a newly legal state. It’s fantastic and refreshing to find such a positive thread among so many others filled with negativity.
After my beginning grower shell shock and misdirection wore off, I found that lots of seed banks are full of the same strains grown by many different breeders of varying levels of reliability and respect. As I continued to read everything I could find on growing, I stumbled across references to a breeder named Bodhi who was working to both preserve heritage strains, but also cross them with very specific purposes. After reading about him, listening to Bodhi on potcasts and deciding I really respect what he’s doing, I then found Useful creating super intriguing crosses and f2s and beyond of Bodhi’s gear along with gear from other well-respected breeders. I read the entirety of this thread over a few days and love that he’s in here helping, comparing, and foreshadowing with “the commoners”.
With all that said, I will likely only ever be a very small scale grower. But I’ve already found that I can’t help but buy seeds with both intriguing lineage and respected breeding. Over the last few months I’ve already begun building a backlog of seeds and a possibly unhealthy start to a seed collection. I’ve already made purchases from both JBC and GLG for both Bodhi and Useful gear...including some Sour Strawberry Gelato and Double Dipped Strawberries yesterday and Mint Chocolate Trip a couple weeks ago. I’m really looking forward to growing these out and possibly paying it forward in the future. My only problems at this point are what to grow next after the Solo’s Stash and Superstitious currently in my tent...well, that and how many seeds can I buy before the wife divorces me.
TL;DR - New grower is very enthusiastic about both Bodhi and Useful gear and all the possibilities.