Let me clarify a misperception - these seeds were reproduced on a 2 acre plot in Europe from the seeds imported from California -these are not the made-In-California seeds! These are a relative open pollination with roguing to remove off-types of both females and males, derived directly from planting the seeds from California. Rob Clarke and Sam walked the fields and pulled the un-selected males and off-type females themselves, if memory serves these were from a project one in 91-93, but I will have to check with Sam and Rob to confirm the exact dates, I wasn't there. As far as scent goes, of course this is not going to be a narrow pool with a single genotype for smell, being an open pollination, there are going to be a range of scents, from skunk to sweet.
Like I said I don't have the exact year, but this project was undertaken at the time Rob and Sam had been involved in helping to preserve accessions from the Vavilov institute, so this work is inline with that same type of thinking- take the last of the Californian Skunk seeds and reproduce them in situ for future use / generations. It's really nothing special I have done on these, but I'm proud that Breeders Retail can bring these out for everyone to collect and preserve; this was after all the intention in the original creation of these seeds in the first place, and when I saw them in Sam's vault while we were cataloguing last year, I knew that these had to get into the hands of growers and collectors everywhere because they are a piece of cannabis history. Get a shwack of these and open pollinate them, and share them, or start your own line, that's what I'm going to do. These are heritage seeds as far as I am concerned, and we're all getting an opportunity to collect something special going back to 30-40 years of history in just a couple of generations.
Gizmo, the extent of the work done at Hortapharm wass o much more than finding the 2 clones that are used to make Epidiolex and Sativex, you are missing the bigger picture of you don't understand the work that was done. There are a few loud and persistent liars that spread nonsense about Sam and his work, but none of these clowns know the real story. Don't beleive everything you read over the internet. Sam preserved dozens and dozens approaching hundreds of pure un-hybridized cannabis accessions, created new hemp varieties, registered more cannabis cultivars that anyone before or since. His work and selections made the determining the Inheritance of chemical chemotype in the species possible, and Sam pioneered the understanding that terpenes play a role in the perception of and coloured the effect of 'the high', I could go on and on and on. If you don't know the story check out the papers on inheritance of Chemical profile in Cannabis sativa L, there are four initial papers and Etienne has since published a more complete picture of how different chemical profiles are inherited. None of this could have been done without Sam's work at Hortapharm, and hints to the details of the work are scattered throughout those papers. There are still over 1500 hybrids and pure preservation lines of many landraces, from Thais to different Afghanis, Hindu Kushes, Hazes, Hawaiians, open pollinations of early Durban, Early Girl, early Cali-Orange lines, different skunk lines, a whole collection of rare hemp germplasm and elite seeds from different hemp breeders the world over (China, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Russia...etc, etc)... the list literally goes on and on, in fact we recently updated the database to a full excel file with as much varietal info as we could pull together for the entire collection- it's something to behold. When we were cataloging the collection I kept saying to Sam, "I can't believe you have all this stuff still just sitting here, locked away under tight security in this climate controlled vault." I mean you literally cannot imagine just what is in this Pandora's Box of seed. The core collection is Sam's life work, or a chunk of it - this is the Opus. I can't imagine this seed being pieced off into the hands of growers worldwide to squander, this is a living library and look into both the past and future of cannabis, and somebody needs to make the most of the valuable genetic resource within, because there is really nothing else like it on the planet.
Some may not see the value in these and think they are over priced, but I think Breeders Retail has priced everything very reasonably and very fairly considering what these are. These seed are not going to be recreated ever, this are a snap shot in time of something you'll never find elsewhere, and to be perfectly honest, there just aren't enough to go around and for everyone to get some. Those that jump at them will get a piece of history. Those that don't might be able to get a chance at hybrids thereof at some later point in time, but there is no guarantee. These wont last forever, and I know one day people will be kicking themselves that they weren't around to grab some of these when they had the chance. I have taken a selection of most of these for my own vault, because to me these are the building blocks, and I'm as much of a seed collector as probably anybody on the site. I know when they are all gone, I'll be one of the few able to say I've got my own nice little personal stash for my own use. Some of you will be able to say the same, but the amounts of the stocks Breeders retail has listed at the moment are limited, and they won't last forever. All I can say is if you want them, don't hesitate too long, because it is a very, very limited resource.