I don't know what Ed is calling Maple leaf.
Ortega 15 was Maple leaf. This was crossed with AfgTx Sk and AfgS x sk males.
AfgT and AfgS were both sisters and pure maple leaf. Maybe Ed thought that AfgS meant Afg(Sam). It doesn't. The hybrid Ed is talking about is 3/4 Maple Leaf.
Nevil
===
It may have been something that I made.
The Maple Leaf cultivar AfgT had a full sister, AfgS. She was a fruitier counterpart to AfgT.
AfgSxSK1 was narcotically strong. I remember a few occasions that as group of people smoking it would suddenly get hit with a wave of warmth and then look at me with suspicion. I was inspired to cross this with the NL2xKush4, because I could detect a hint of commonality in the phenotypes. I never did find out how that panned out.
Nevil
===
A good description of NL1. Maybe ML1 meant MLxNL1. I know I made that cross.
Hash plant X NL1 was one of the strongest indica's I have smoked. That crossed real well with G13.
Nevil
===
The Maple Leaf came from a guy known to me as Jim Ortega. We traded seeds for a while. Not only did he supply me with Maple Leaf, but also Garlic Bud and Kush 4. The cannabis smoking world owes him a lot.
The Maple Leaf line provided me with a plant that I labeled Afghan T. This plant is the mother of Super/Ultra Skunk and also crossed well with HzC.
Kush 4, I crossed with NL2(which had the same Kush smell) and this Kush Hybrid is the foundation of todays Kush lines.
Garlic bud has also made it's presence felt and is part of todays super yielders.
Let me say one more thing about ML AfgT. This plant had exactly the same smell as Sams best SK1 but more so. It is the true Skunk archetype. I do not believe for one N.Y. minute that Afghani#1 is behind the SK1, which IMO gives credence to the Mendecino Joe story about SK1.
The world owes you a big Thank You Jim!
Let me be the first to say that I appreciate the work that you have done.
Nevil
===
Maple Leaf was not related to Northern Lights and didn't cross well with pure NL. Too much Indica. Hybrids of both strains dis cross well when they contained more sativa.
ML loves Skunk1. My nose and intuition tells me that these two are distantly related.
Jim Ortega is around and can speak for himself if he chooses. I get the feeling that he has spoken before and few listened.
The Afghan/hash plant is probably HPxNL1. Not a great yielder but gee it was strong.
Nevil
===
When I say NL5 did not cross well with ML, I mean it didn't fizz. I didn't find that many indica/indica crosses did. Indica to indica/sativa did. As a breeder who puts a product on the market, you find you have to deal with a few issues. What people say they want and what they really want. All those people who now seem to be against 1:1 matings would be the first to hammer you in public if they didn't get what they want in one packet of seeds. Remember brocolli man?
Predictability and genetic diversity do not go hand in hand. So you let them belittle you for doing 1:1 matings and they post pictures of the best buds in the world.
The market has changed since my day. Medical cannabis is more prominent. If you are looking for a particular effect, yield is not as important. If you say, forget about yield, I could blow you away, but few do.
Nevil
===
When I first got the NL varieties, there were 8 types, 1-8.
They came with descriptions, which I published in my catalogue. These descriptions may not correlate with what later developed. The original intention was to purchase seeds from the US NL growers. It didn't work out and supply dried up. I kept the lines separate and inbred them. NL1 and NL2 stabilised into distinct types and NL5 only produced one unique individual.
NL1 was a full blood Afghan indica. One thick main stem, dark green leaves, modest yield with nuggety buds, a little coarse with good resin production, which when ripe went golden. The high was narcotic. The seeds ranged from tiny to massive. I used to love the big ones. Large fat heavily and darkly mottled seeds. Selecting for these seeds made this Afghan even coarser. It was fun to show people these seeds.
The best line of NL1 actually came from the smaller seeded types, better high and bud structure.
There weren't many pure indica lines around in those days.
Big Bud, Hash Plant and G13 were pure indicas in my estimation, but were cuttings. NL1 was the only good pure Afghani male line I had.( there was Sams Afghani#1, but that was toxic in a bad way) The NL2 was a Kush.
I put the NL1 out there as a pure strain. I wasn't popular. People would tell me, "give me the pure strains", but if it cost them 10% of their yield they would complain, well try 50%.
The pure indica hybrids were more popular. NL1 x HP and NL1 x G13 were the best. At least people could use the word pure (very popular). But they were good!
I expect that a lot of people holding what they believe to be pure indicas today, would find, if the truth be known, that the sire line traces back to NL1.
Nevil
===
That's right OS. I did go to the States later and pick up the original U.S. NL5 mother and it was as it was described to me, part Thai. But my NL5 didn't seem to have any Thai influence. I spent a lot of time analysing the NL lines, in particular NL5.
I only saw evidence of two indica male lines in the NL series and that was NL1 and NL2. My best bet was that NL5 was a combination of NL1 male line and US NL5 female. I guessed that US5 was 50% NL2. Northern Lights 2x5 was the best that I could do staying within the line (pure NL).
Northern Lights changed the face of cannabis genetics (and many a smoker), but it was mostly through NL5. You've got to marvel at fate for dropping that one extreme plant into the lap of a budding seed breeder.
Nevil
===
The NL 1-8 were seed lines and most were hybrids. A couple of years after getting the seed, I went to the U.S. to get the U.S. NL5 cutting. It didn't turn out to be as good or even that similar to my NL5.
Nevil