Old school grower: someone who actually learned to grow without the internet. Yes, I believe that NL is, and will always be, the best strain on earth. The story of its birth is nothing less than a legend and has been mistold for years. As most legends go, it has been modified, glorified, and transformed into a fairytale. it is my belief that an accurate view of the past can greatly influence a positive future, thus, expierience, is the truest form of education. Years ago I and many others were sure that this story would NEVER be told, now we all agree that it has to be. I will tell it now as best as I can with a great hope that the next generation will realize that canibus roots reach much farther than the medium we plant it in. This will be a little vauge I don't want to distort the history with what I am not sure of. The first thing you should understand is that northern Michigan is very primitive, and Wolverine, Mich. is no exception. Winters there are hard, there are few locals and the year round residents are like mountain men, Its a tough life in the north, cutting wood and shoveling snow are family events here and everyone knows everything about everyone. When the first NL strains started to show up I was very young, my parents worked for the department of natural resorces and I spent many long summers in the forests. Sometimes my father ( a true biker type) would work on saturdays with one other man and they would take me with them. we always worked in the same basic areas on those days and although I wondered why, I kinda knew that I should not ask. On weekends we would travel 3 hours south or 3 hours east to visit family and friends, as I came of age I slowly realized I was seeing a group of men with a mission and I quickly put it together. Now at this point I wished I was older, my father, under pressure from mom, let go of the lifestyle, However he was a man of integrityand gathered great respect from all that knew him. The was expected from me and as I got older I was greatly exposed. The actual crosses used in NL were not named strains in fact they were numbered, I seen babies with number 2 on them as well as number 29, so I dont know that anyone could have given a true lineage at any point. Two brothers in the north took a leadership role in the project, I believe that they had no idea where they were going with this other than just makin' good weed. they had a sizeable grow op that would make a modern grower laugh. There were no test groups, no controll rooms, no bigtime operation at all. So they made do with what they had. A batch of plants and seed stock was sent south, a while later the same was sent east. One of the brothers would go from place to place pickin up new stock and droppin off stock from another sorce. breeding stock was chosen for size, color, and trichs. These guys only seemed to know one style of breeding and that was "adaptive" they had a therory that if they only kept the strongest producers with the best qualitys the strain would have to improve, and if they done this in multiple locations and rotated stock the outcome would be a strain that does well in many different settings. Needless to say they were right. As near as I can figure this went on for about ten years gie or take. Sounds simple huh? So what makes NL so wonderfull? RESPECT and DIGNITY, and INTEGRITY, these are the primary ingredients that bring a "breeding" to its potential. I will always be impressed by the people who pulled this off. And threre's a lot of them. isn't it odd that with so many players no one was ripped or backstabbed, isn't it odd that no one has ever stepped forward and proclaimed themselves as the creator? When these guys pulled MASSIVE yields they never sold out and took the beans anywhere. In fact it is said that the beans originaly taken from mich were GIFTED not sold and that the gifted stock was thousands of seed most of which never made it to the final destination. THE POINT: A couple poor backwoods boys with a few good beans are most likely the best breeders to ever grace this earth. not because of thier knowledge or the luck of a good strain or a kick ass grow room. there were few books on the subject and they were expersive and hard to find so it wasn't that. They never even knew that the only reason they had sucess was because they had RESPECT, DIGNITY, AND INTEGRITY!!!!! THESE MY FRIENDS ARE THE ONLY INGREDIENTS THAT WILL SEPARATE STRAINS FROM GREAT STRAINS, GROWERS FROM GREAT GROWERS AND BREEDERS FROM GREAT BREEDERS. I want all who read this to picture a few hairy men with broken chainsaws and a few missing teeth in the bunch. Picture bluejeans with holes and patches, plaid work shirts and very little education. Cheap beer drinkers, Deer poachers (for food for the family) and bar fighters. And just think, that group had a level of trust and respect for each other and the MJ that we may never see again, those "losers" were better humans than most of us will ever be. RESPECT EACH OTHER IT WORKS!!! I respect you all G45
What a cool story! If I ever have the chance to smoke some Northern Lights, I will definitely remember it and smoke in honor of the few hairy men with broken chainsaws and missing teeth =D
cool background on the fam. i dont much now about the history of northern lights but your saying your pops n his buddies grew the shit out of it ? pm me if you want to talk about it. i'm always down to verb on cool shit like this. i want to hear more..
that is pretty interesting. has anyone else ever noticed that there always seems to be alot of northern ligths floating around during fall/late summer?
Badass. Ever since i had Northern Lights last summer it's been my favorite. It taste like....fruity. It's amazing.
Very good account of Northern Lights. Wolverine, Michigan is about as backwoods as it gets in lower Northern Michigan(population was less than 400 in 2000 census). It is said one of the true growers involved in the NL breeding took some seeds down state to a breeder I knew personally; the true creator of Pinconning Paralyzer. Pinconning Paralyzer was a cross using a very potent Afghani variety crossed with the Northern Lights. Northern Lights acquired it's name from the many different hues it produced when grown in the short, often cool lake front temps in the area. It was common to see hues of blue, red, purple, and frosty white from these outdoor grown plants. The true NL strain from Wolverine could be planted in late April and be fully mature by early Sept. which made it ideal for the short grow season; very early frost were quite common in that area. It was also ideal b/c come mid Sept. deer hunters begin to scout out their hunting area which I personally have lost many crops to myself. I'm unsure of how it reached the West Coast, but it is said seeds were acquired from some bags of NL. Others say it was cuttings taken to out west and they were used as mothers and back crossed to recreate the strain. However it got there, it was the turning point for the strain. By the mid 70's the strain had pretty much become a household name among many grow circles. It's short bushy structure and fast flowering made it an ideal indoor strain as well, this was once again reworked in the Northwest where it then become one of the most famous and legendary strains of all times. The important thing to remember is that most of the Dutch strains were a result of what us breeders here in the United States did long before seed banks and Dutch hybrids became the norm in growing. If you look at the history of most hybrids since 1984; the lineages lead back to well known strains like: Northern Lights, Skunk, Haze, Early Pearl, etc... and less known strains like Emerald Pearl & Kryptonite. So when you are looking at all the Dutch strains out there, remember, many of them would not be here if not for the old school United States back woods growers of yrs now past.
Man, those are a couple of bad-ass stories dudes. I’ve met some of the boys from the UP in MI. Truer words have never been written!
just to be clear my pops never grew anythimg that lived, however he had a lot of reason to be in the woods and a lot of friends, my "uncles" ya know. my pops was a respected man and was trusted.
Very very true, but focus also on the group, they did it just to help each other with a common goal. no bullshit, just respect for each other. I mean, they went further on respect than most do with talent.
Exactly, I acquired many a strain just out of mutual respect. This new generation of growers would never understand. Back in the late 70's many of us used very primitive indoor set ups, and grew outdoors. We grew just s good of bud then as we have no, but with half the technology and no internet to turn to. I had a breeding project busted by the Feds, to them it was just a pole barn, shell of a house, and 12 acres of plants growing. To me it was much more. They said the plants were numbered to determine different stages of growth, but that was not the case. We see it more and more, a grower gets a few successful grows under their belt using basic idiot proofed genetics and they are God gift to growing. They do not respect nor apprciate the knowledge and/or history behind growing, breeding, or even the plant species of cannabis itself. When we took our genetics to Holland it was our goal to further the species and breeding of this species; but this was not the case. All we did was create a get rich quick scheme for Dutch businessmen. Now we are seeing the same with growers here. It is all how much money they make. I could care less if you get $600 for an oz, backcross a rare cut, create your own F1 hybrid, work F2's to make a F1 hybrid grow true...then come talk to me. To me, growing is a passion based on a goal of preservation of strains long lost, and my great appreciation of the plant itself. Today it is all about who you can stab in the back, or how much money you an make. In Tuscola Co. I remember sitting with groups of growers ranging from commercial growers, those just wanting to make few bucks and have some free weed, and those that just grew b/c they new how. We would trade ideas, smoke, share our bud. It di not matter what was what, it was one set price among us. Harvest &Trimming parties, jokng about the crops which the high school stole, or just laughing over the 6 pm news b/c one of our crops was busted and made the breaking news. G45, I have no doubt in my mind we have either met, or at the very least have smoked each others bud. Nice to finally meet a like minded grower with the same passion and respect I possess for growng, breeding, and just over all appreciation for the plant itself.
guys , its a pleasure to know yous 2 . having just become a member to this forum n i have learned so much . i have been around cannabis all my life n was simply afraid to try to grow for the longest time . till recently i have decided to get into it . i have always agreed with the old schoolers when it came to values . i would love to be able to chill with yous n talk till the sun came up about all the stuff ive missed. being very new to growing i do alot of looking through strains n stuff as yous might ve noticed . unfortunately the internet doesnt do much but facilitate sales pitches for companies . it is a great asset and enjoyment to be ab le to chat with yous n people like yous about all the great and important things about life n growing. i am trying to get a good foundation to start my growing preferences and appreciate all that i have learned . i live very far from cali so grow houses are very rare(good ones that is). n all the ones i knew were the ones that got busted . so i stayed away . but as far behind the times of hybrids i am i feel it has done me good in a sense to be able to see the true ways i would like to represent growing . even from my first purchase before i knew shit about shit i still had the instinct of what tampering did and differences in regular seeds n femms. to me its all the little things that multiply to one big thing . so with this i knew i wanted to push that snowball in the right direction and again thank yous for helping with that.
Same here G45. It is a pleasure. There is a good group of guys here, some like me, most do not....but that is not here nor there IMHO.
Good story, same place i learned to grow. if you are familiar with the area, my mentor lived around Torch Lake. Unfortunately this isnt the norm and for 99% of ppl that try it and they will not get these results. So no feelings of grandeur please, lol...
had a family cabin on torch way back when, lotta old folks nice and quiet. I fish out of frankfort alot and have a lot of family on cryatal lake in benzonia,cut my teeth in Honor, mich if ya know of that little po-dunk. A lot of REAL outdoorsmen in that area, being an avid hunter/fisherman you lnow I love that northwest LP!
also you are right, 99% wont ever get these results, but notice that the only results I clearly made mention of were the "HUMAN" results. The best results that matter here are were the very high yields of honor,respect,and trust. Until growers regain that old school trust and respect we will have to accept the fact that we have reached our cieling. True respect dosen't get discussed by those who have cuz it is just who you are and what you do. Dignity and integrity are missing from the grow scene now and everyone wants to push a button and have it done. Untill people take the price tag off the weed we grow and the strains we love it will always be business first and in business someone always gets fucked!! The back bone of MJ has always been respect and love amongst those who know. It wasn't this "my pecker is bigger than yours bullshit" we have in the younger generations.
No doubt man. Used to go up for the summers when i was in college at Eastern. I am an avid outdoor person also. The bud that is grown up there still lingers in my head 10yrs later, lol. I was born and raised in SWFL, so the Salt Life is part of me. But if i had to choose to be somewhere other than 60 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, i would definitely choose the woods of N. Mich. Thanks for bringing back some memories... Can't argue any of the above. Things have changed. Seems like ppl are in some type of competition with the Dutch or Canadians, and that is a sad aspect of it, no doubt...
Yep, even as young adults in '69 we seemed to have a more mature view of what we were growing. As ignorant as I was of proper growing techniques the result seemed to be killer. Nothing has come close to the weed I grew in my mothers backyard in '71 from some Jamaican bag seed. At that time we mainly got seeds,leaves and stems with a few buds. As stupid as it sounds, I grew it for the leaves. It was still unbelievably strong. I just started the DNA freebie seeds from Attitude so we'll see how it goes.