I'm just wondering if it's at all possible to find out the parentage of the Smile strain is, that I'm growing?

Is this just a cross of seed stock OT has up his sleeve that remains a bit of a mystry? Maybe we could hear a bit more about what strains/plants were used in this concoction you've made? I was wonderings are the majority of your seeds from landrace genetics, old hireloom genetics or a mix of lots of different things collected over the years?

I was just really hoping to get a bit more background to the strain and how it was created. It fasinates me to know how these special creations come about and would love to hear more about what "special little something" you saw in these perticular plants?

Thanks in advance

Bumping...

Anyone have any idea at all?

im sure oldtimer and vrg have an inkling, try a pm.

think i read somewhere its a India haze
i think there might be some kerala in there just guessing really
be interesting to here whats in its make up though

Been wondering this myself - nice one for asking 'out loud' Whatever's in it it's a damn fine smoke (partaking myself just now )

Bloody nice cooking OT1 - thank you, it's certainly a change from the dreaded 'dull Dutch indicas'. Any chance we could know something about the genetics of Smile ? Just outta curiosity really, don't want to be impertinent

ahh smile ,tis a loverly smoke.its what im puffing this very minute also.with a bit of bubble made from it rolled in the spliff.

just wanted to say i love it

I have said most of this many times.

I have collected seeds and made crosses I suspect for more years than most of you have been alive, I suppose you could call me a collector, keeping a small library of my favorite plants as mothers, from each seed batch I tried or made and grew out, I looked for new unique traits and highs.

This has just been to please me, since I have been here, there has been a constant stream of people asking me to produce seeds. When I do I get asked questions that are impossible for me to answer.

Only keep the outstanding and reject all the rest has been my rule of thumb. Nothing in the way of records have been kept, I really don’t remember the make up of keepers it was of no importance to me. I collect and exchanged seeds from all over the world, genes that have found their way in my plants come from northern NZ, Aus, quite a few from Mex, New mex, panama, Cal and oregon, Thailand, southern india, afghanistan, kashmir, nepal and bhutan, malawi, nigeria, sa are only a few that come to mind from early days, most were local strain developed and grown in the area, in other words farmed or cultivated, most did not have names.

In more resent years, I exchanged beans/genes with a lot of friends in the usa and can, now they do have names like ae77’s CO, speed racer, trix, one hit, uw, grapefruit, skunk’s and hazes, princess, genius, Romulan and numerous others.

All this time over the years when the mood took me I would cross lines adding/combining characters I like. If the result was better a new mum would replace the parent as you can only keep so many mums.

Now smile, from what I remember it has a small amount of haze, skunk, an indica from Af, a cross Mr Soul gave me, made from Princesses bro, cant remember what it was crossed with, anyhow these are some of the genes that made a mother I call celia, there may be many more I just can’t remember, so smile is the result that something that was slowly developed and selected over the last 20 years or so, I do remember celia replaced hd or was it hl, anyhow one of them was her mother, hd and hl started out from haze skunk crosses, but many other things were combined over the years, so its easy to say its a haze x skunk hybrid even though thats not the whole story, also the skunk and haze are not the same as the ones that went to holland. The male for smile comes from a line developed by an old friend in north london, it did have a nickname called cp [short for camden poison] I don’t have a clue what is in it, I had the seeds in cold store for 15 odd years, I can’t ask my friend as he has gone to rest at least 10 years back.

The thing is, none of the lines/genes are from names that are sold or mean a thing to anyone. All are worked/developed varieties cultivated either locally outdoors or indoors by people I have exchanged idea/genetics with over the years.

At this time I don’t intend to develop smile any further, I like and I am happy with them just as they are except for one small thing. I thought you would accept them for what they are and what they do when you smoke them, to me that is the only thing that counts.

While we are at it, oldtimes is slightly more complex than has been quoted, I had been intending to make a line that replaces es or approaches her effects and potency. I used males from esb cold store beans and backcross them to their aged mother. The result were very variable, I was not happy, I crossed the best fem to a separate line of bb, the best males were then back crossed to the mother, the male that produced the best results has produce oldtimes. In the mean time I am developing the line further, the mixed pollen from best oldtimes males was backcrossed to the aged mother, this generation/cross we can call oldtimes#2 is producing a good portion of females that are closer the mother as well as some like the first gen of esb. It is looking very encouraging, not sure what the next step will be, but I don’t think the #2 generation will be a release, oldtimes has a lot of development potential IMO.

For those asking, new stock of smile and oldtimes will be ready in about 4 + weeks, SB will be ready in about 10 + weeks.

Thanks OT, that's a fascinating read. I'm just happy to grow the Smile, as I'm sure she'll be a cracker whatever her make-up.

A very interesting read OT, nice one. I thought I knew roughly what it was but it appears that there is a whole lot more to it than I first thought. After a lengthy lifetime project like that, no wonder the weed is absolutely cracking.



Cheers OT

Thank you so much for taking the time out to reply OT, your response completely exceeded my expectations. Sorry if I had you repeating your self as well.

A completely fasinating read, I honestly had no idea that's how this (and other) strains had come about, certainly sounds like something spectacular, I'm more excited than ever now to sample the fruits of your labour!

I've got 5 females there to pick from and I'm sure I'll find some very special traits in there! Even though my computer is fucked I'll go out my way tonight and hopefully get some pics online to update my diary! Plants are finally in flower, be it a bit late due to my own short comings!

Finally, can I just say i can't thank you enough for making some of your life's work available to us here!


P.S. You just seriously brightened up a very, very bad day! Seriously, you just give me the perk I needed not to quit my job today, timing was impecable! life goes on eh!

Good read to brighten the day.

More of the same thank you.

Very interesting and lots of respect! This shows how much labour and love one can put into a strain and growing in general. Would be excellent if OT would do a diary where all this is being shown... how do you select your males by the way?
The only sad part of this story is that i really wanted to grow some SB before x-max and no beans available for another 10+ weeks!

keep up the good work,

AT

Thanks for info Oldtimer ...

Can't wait to smoke my Smile & Oldtimes...

Peace & Light

Mrm

Way too much "whats in it?" just smoke it!

True but can't blame people for having an interest in strains which are so obviously high quality.

OTs post explains why they're so good too. Made for enjoyment and done for fun over decades. My belief is the best strains come about in this way. Nice one OT Thanks for the post.

Oldtimes kicks ass. If you haven't grown that you should make time for it. I've saved seeds for when I'm able to play with crosses properly. I'm sure to get more from UGORG too, they're special I think. Top quality stuff.

I’m sorry I just don’t have time to do diaries, really I don’t have time to do this, ie post.

Selecting males depends on what I am doing, for me ie seeds for myself I tend to use a wide number of males from the selected male line to include all the genetic diversity or as much as possible, for making a seed line to sell, I do seperate males to seperate branches of the selected female, then a test grow from each set of seeds produced, it takes a lot of time. At the end of the day its still about selection and rejection, you will find with all of my vars some of that up high factor, + they have to make me smile or raise my mood, I don’t keep anything that makes me sit in a chair there are enough of that type out there.

When selecting the final male for smile there was one other that produced some plants that were even better with my small test grow, but about 15% lady/boys were produced in test grows done by friends. Intrestingly nearly all the testers kept a mum or two, as they liked them a little better than the line that became smile.

On the SB sorry about that, they were meant to be made at the same time as the oldtimes and smile were, but I cocked up and did not get the males needed ready at the right time.

For those interested, this is smiles mother back in 06, cola, lower bud and a couple of close ups, click the thumbs:-

Hey OT, nice read man, cheers.

Ive seen your cannabase pages on Bonsai mums. Do you keep bonsai mums? I'm thinking of starting a libary myself and they seem to be the easiest, and most space friendly way of keeping mums...

Yep just the same way and same box. Now I have to go play with my girls, they need some attention...

Thanks for the reply and additional info about your male selection, nice mum pictures as well! hope to read some more in the future...

AT