Long post so maybe in the future it can be used to help figure out the legend because it really seems like a Myth. For those of you that have never smelled a Skunk, you can buy Skunk spray extracted directly from a skunks butt. Go dump it down the road and drive by 10 minutes later and you'll know what Skunk weed smells like. If I'm in the car with you I'll be hanging my head out and breathing deep while you cringe lol.
Backyard Boogie I think we've chatted in the past? I've been in and out of these boards like a ninja for decades so if anything sounds familiar weve probably chatted in the past, I very rarely using my actual identity but life isnt as dangerous these days.
Yeah Shoreline had the greatful dead story that lines up right in the timeline also. It's like they found Shoreline and spread it like Johnny Appleseed. The problem with that tho is those guys wernt thinking about breeding and growing. I do suspect someone might have bought weight to sell in other places because that what people do.
Growing weed on a small scale wasn't really a thing back then and the amount of Skunk that went around would have needed huge fields to grow. Or maybe not because as far as I know Skunk wasn't widespread, just in certain spots east of the Mississippi River.
Someone was growing that stuff...outdoors...where are they? Where are the hubs that distributed it? I was too young to be involved but I know the Skunk we got came from southern Illinois and it was from Kentucky. That was from 85-90ish. My guy, that could tell me where in Illinois he got skunk is dead. He was killed in 94 or 95. I think if I knew I'd go to that town and run an ad in the paper. Try and back track my way into kentucky.
At that time I was in middle school growing a couple Mexican seeds, like a middle schooler, with a friend. I had an adult guy I knew that grew like the Europeans and he set us on that course over time. He grew Burma and whatever else those guys in Amsterdam/Cali were growing. No Skunk. Skunk wasn't even a thing to him as far as I know but maybe it was and he chose to grow other stuff. He just never said anything about Skunk and I don't remember Skunk being a thing in hightimes or Amsterdam seedbanks, just your high grade reggie on the streets if you knew the right guys.
Then we add in the story of Skunkman Sam, who supposedly funneled all the Skunk in the world through his breeding and produced a sweet Skunk that magically replaced all the Skunk in the world overnight. Sure, maybe he got his hands on some Shoreline seeds from a dead concert and did what breeders do. I've grown Sam's Skunk #1 and the Skunk is faintly there so yeah, I'm pretty confident he bred with it, he didn't change the world tho, he just bred with skunk like any breeder who makes crosses. Know what I mean? Then got lucky because people wanted Skunk only to find out sweet Skunk kinda sucked. Sorry, Skunk #1 kinda sucked.
It's stories like Skunkman that mess up this history. His story dominates Skunk and it takes attention away from possible orgins before Skunkman even heard of Skunk. And of course people who confuse catpiss and cheese with Skunk. Cheese is like body odor and catpiss is like ammonia.
Another thing to think about, breeders wernt breeding like that back then. I'm meaning not many had the room to phenohunt and pick choice plants let alone stabilize them enough to grow acres of consistent skunk for years. And then one day it was gone.
Was Skunk even a calculated cross? Did someone spend a lot of years phenohunting to create a weed that smells exactly like a skunk only to have Skunkman move in and destroy all that work?
They say Skunk was a cross between Afghani, Thai and Columbian Gold I believe? Santa Marta? Whatever, just knowing I'd have to use three different landraces with the end goal to recreate Skunk is daunting. Sounds fun but yeah, so many years.
That makes me ask, if we have a lineage...who was the guy that provided that info? Who was the original breeder of skunk or is *that* the myth? Maybe Skunk is a landrace? From Columbia but NOT Santa Marta because too many people say it's fruity weed up there.
Is it a Kentucky landrace? Any major busts in the early 90s that shut down Skunk over night?
Whatever happened was epic and makes me sad. I guess we gotta wait for crispr to figure it out for us.