I feel the need to give my 2c on the SSH and Jack Herer thing. Nevil bred SSH, the lineage and selections have been detailed many times.
Jack Herer was introduced by Sensi Seeds as their entry to the HTCC in 1995, I think this was just at the end of Nevil's time working as breeder for Sensi, I think it is Nev's work, it is certainly made from Nev's genes. It is similar to SSH but has a slightly different palette of flavours, tends to be spicier than SSH, I like them both a lot, they are both great breeds.
In order to get a handle on what Nev is saying about SSH, Jack and Diesel being the same cuts you need some insight into how the companies that enter the HTCC do things. They just buy in the best batch of weed they can find in that calendar year and enter that in the cup under whatever name they want then they sell seeds with the same name. Usually there is little or no relation between the buds that were entered into the cup and the seeds sold with the same name. Let me outline two recent examples of this:
Couple of cups ago GHS entered a batch of SSH they purchased from a broker in the Dam and grown by some guys in the south of Holland, it was an excellent exemplar of SSH, a 9 week pheno that leaned to the NL parent. Shanti posted about this at the time on icmag. The SSH they entered in the cup is a pheno from Mr Nice Seeds, it has been around for years in Holland, those guys in the south have been growing it for years. However, the seeds that GHS were selling at that time were completely different to Mr Nice's original SSH so this is a clear example of the buds entered in a cup under a certain name bearing little or no relation to the seeds sold under that same name.
Secondly, the year after the GHS SSH example above, Barney's won a cup with a batch of C5 which is an old cutting from Nevil's garden and is a NL5 x Haze. They called it Red Dragon and Derry the owner of Barney's got up on stage to receive his cup and gave an impassioned speech about having bred Red Dragon in the jungles of South America from new landraces sativas from places like Laos. That was 100% bullshit, the Red Dragon buds were C5, that is a known fact among those in the know in the Dam, I won't name names but I have this direct from the horse's mouth. The seeds that Barney's sell as Red Dragon could contain C5, Barney's bought in batches of seeds bred by a guy who goes by the online names Zeno and Freakje, he made several matings using the G13 x Haze male from Soma and the best Haze cuttings available - A5, C5, Mexican Haze, HPHaze etc. Perhaps Red Dargon seed from Barney's is C5 x G13Haze, Zeno/Freakje definitely did that cross. The Dampkring Hazes such as Ocean's Twelve Haze are also bred by Zeno/Freakje, again, they bought the seed from him.
The moral of the story is that since the ban on seed production in Holland in 1998 it has become a totally fraudulent and bullshit world of fakery, lies and double-dealing, companies like GHS and Barney's pull every trick they can think of which makes it hard for the layperson to know what is what. Luckily I have multiple contacts in that world and have an insight into a lot of what goes on as a result. I'm not afraid to speak out and tell what I know as I won't be going back to the Dam for a very long time, in fact, I'm not able to for legal reasons! lol Besides, what is the worst that could happen? Derry calling me names or Arjan having me thrown out of his coffeeshop? I rarely visited their shops anyways so I have nothing to lose by speaking out.
