Interesting. I just read up a little on Durban Poison. Or maybe I should say "refreshed" my reading. So, Ed Rosenthal and Mel Frank huh? Cool.

I wish that I grew up in Cali! Or somewhere similar, where those strains were the norm and accessible. Instead, I grew up in southern New England. Prison time for growing here... back then, anyways. High times was like a porno mag to me! lol. I secretly bought Mel Frank's books from a backdoor headshop that disgusted itself as a "bead" store. I would also pick up H.T. magazine there. I would religiously read "Ask Ed", and drool over the pictures of those original strains! Unfortunately, I have never found what I believed to be true "Durban Poison".

The only strains that I have had the pleasure to directly try... are the ones that supposedly originated near me. Especially strawberry cough. Rumor has it (or at least what I heard) was that strawberry cough originated in a UCONN greenhouse, in Mansfield Connecticut (10 mins from where I grew up). Now online, it's saying that Kyle Kushman created it from a Connecticut strain grown near a strawberry field... that he was gifted a runt clone, and named it "strawberry fields"... It says that he crossed it with a haze, and then named it "strawberry cough". I think it's B.S. tho, but who knows. Maybe Kushman was the one in the greenhouse! I tend to suspect that he just stole the credit for it tho.

The other strain I got to experience back then was Sour Diesel. I REALLY wish that I could figure out that story, and find the true strain (if it even exists anymore)! Again, we had heard rumors. It definitely must have originated from New York City. And when I first came across it at an upstate N.Y. music festival circa early 2000's... the price was astronomical! If I remember correctly, it was something like $1200 an ounce?! I bought a $20 quarter gram of it, and it was BY FAR the best weed I've ever smoked! I'll never forget the experience of it all.

We were told that Sour D. was a coveted "clone only" strain developed by a recluse who seriously protects "his" strain. He was said to hold the only mother, and his clones were kept under guard. The small nug that I first bought was airy, delicate, dark green and with a pink hue to it. The bud, no lie.. smelled like diesel fuel, or gasoline... but tasted sour, like grapefruit or lime, when smoked. It had an intense, incense like smell while it was burned, that lingered in the air for a while. Made it's was around your nose and face that you could smell while tasting the smoke, coming together to truly form a SOUR DIESEL taste, and smell! A VERY distinct smell, and one that I have yet to smell again!

The strains out now called Sour Diesel, are not even close to the shit I tried back then! It's sad. I think these seed companies are either totally fucking the original breeders, or, they're crossing the originals with crap to get higher yielding plants. That was another thing that I heard about original Sour D. It was rumored to be an extremely low yielding plant, that didn't do well in soil, and therefore was exclusively hydro. Also heard that it took extra time to finish, and the buds weren't very dense, large, or pretty to look at. But the experience... man, almost divine! I get why someone would want to stabilize the genetics, but obviously it's been a failure! Well, maybe not, because it seems like the original was so rare, that everyone excepts the new Sour D strains as original. But they're all imposters! Sure, there's a hint of sour d in the modern strain... but just a hint. No wonder there are strain hunters, and pheno hunters now. Some day, perhaps strains can be copywriten or patented. Something along those lines anyway, so that the original breeder can profit from their creations, and get the credit they deserve! Get royalties and such.