Hi Kanga, just touching on the Thai, I believe that as well as reducing flowering time and bulking up the heads, crossing the Thai with a more indica based strain may act as a necessary step in sealing in the raw psychedelic power of the Thai. For although I have not read anything on the matter, it seems evident to me that all of the powerfully trippy strains that leave SE Asia, end up losing their potency over time - no matter how good the new environment is for growing - for no other reason than that the humid equatorial jungles of SE Asia are the optimal environment for maintaining and preserving that unique high.
It seems that the prominent school of thought in cannabis circles is that strains only change via mutation, where I believe that change occurs in increments over time, without the need for large ostensible gene shifts - as a natural mechanism of adaptation.
Over the years thousands upon thousands of Thai sticks have entered Western markets like Australia and the US, and while these strains start off as powderkegs of trippiness that leave people gaga for hours - the question must be asked - where are they now? What happens to these cultivars? Because not a single one exists that has that same raw intensity. Hence over time strains like MM and Haze lose there much vaunted power and end up being very good smokes, but not stupefying brilliant smokes like we've all encountered in the past.
To me there is no other plausible explanation for why Thai sticks do not remain Thai sticks over time, other than a loss of potency due to less than optimal growing conditions. And although I do not have much of an argument to explain my intuition, I believe that this degradation is somewhat allayed by hybridizing said super sativa to a strain that produces a plant more suited to local conditions. Which in your case is probably a 66% to 75% sativa ratio.
I would also be interested in seeing you and Nevil cross that Thai stick to that Skunk of Nevil's that I sampled earlier this year, as a means to best replicate the 'original haze' so to speak. For another intuition of mine is that the 'original haze' was nothing more than Thai stick x an early era Skunk.
Yep, that's my opinion on the original haze - Thai stick x Skunk. Skunk being a combination of Mexican, Colombian and Afghan.
I'm not referring to the shitty skunk that most are familiar with, but that early roadkill skunk that took the world by storm, which I also believe you guys possess. While I think the Mazar is a nicer smoke. I think Nevil's Skunk is more potent.
That's all.
