Many things cost more when bought in lower quantities (just another "tax on the poor," I suppose). I have no idea whether or not cannabis seeds are like this, but I suspect they are.
I don't blame you. It's an option, though (and one that still gives the generally lower prices that buying "full" packs might provide) . There was definitely a lot less anxiety involved when I split a side of dead cow with people than when I split a cannabis seed order. And I didn't have to worry that someone would feel shorted if their cut of beef didn't turn into a steak, lol.
I noticed that Ace Seeds provides an option for those who do not wish to purchase their regular-sized packages. I think they label them as breeders' packs. Obviously not the "different size" option that you're looking for. And I don't see me being able to buy such things any time soon (as in, this lifetime). But I'm happy that someone did - because I ended up with some interesting seeds and crosses of the same. I cannot even speculate as to whether the person would have done the various breeding operations if he hadn't had so many potential parental plants. But I wonder.
In regards to that whole "Pick & Mix" business model, who packages the seeds? I know that Barney's Farm produces carded single seeds (because I've ended up with several). But are they all like that, or do some sellers simply split up bulk(?) packages? The latter means the customer has to trust the seller to be honest (but that's always the case, to one degree or other), but allows for the possibility of being able to purchase any quantity of any seed (that the seedbank stocks).
I used to follow the automobile industry fairly closely, and Mercedes Benz (not exactly priced like Yugos were) ended up at or near the bottom of quite a few "customer satisfaction" type surveys. Of course, the surveys were in Europe, where the average car buyer seems to care more about quality (or at least understand the definition of the term
) and there appear to be more choices, at least in the price ranges that Mercedes "competes" in.It's not a law, it's just something that people who pay a lot for things hope to be true. And, I guess, something that people who don't pay a lot for things hope isn't true.
I am kind of a fan of Sensi Seeds. I have bought some decent commercial strains from the Dronkers family over the years. Their products... I started to type that they're not cheap - and, with some of their strains, this is true - but then I recalled that their Hindu Kush is €15 for three (or €45 for ten), their Sensi Skunk is €15 for three, their Skunk #1 is €15 for three... and their Mexican Sativa is only €16.50 for three (or €42.50 for ten). But, anyway, they've also spent a lot of the money they've made... on increasing cannabis-awareness - and not just the "drug" aspect, either; I'd love to go spend a day touring the museum.
30 years of Sensi Seeds – An interview with Ben Dronkers
30 Years of Sensi Seeds - from an overwhelming passion to an unshakable vision
Ben Dronkers - Sensi Seeds
I hope he has lots of money. He's spent/invested/donated millions of dollars for cannabis. He has been arrested many times in the general pursuit of his passion. He lots of strains. And Sensi Seeds has quietly been sponsoring this forum for years without, as far as I know, ever advertising any of his wares on the forum or receiving any notice other than the banner ad and place on our list of sponsors. In other words, it would be very hard to quantify any direct return on his investment. And, while I like to think that our favorite forum is special, I suspect that Sensi Seeds has spent money with most of them. The indirect benefit is obvious, I guess; more people growing means more people buying seeds in general and, undoubtedly, some of them purchase his seeds. Nonetheless, I think he'd be supporting "the industry" even if he wasn't making bank off of it. It's that whole "passion" thing.
Those "copies" of strains that you mentioned, that seems like another reason to charge whatever you can get, lol. If, every time you turn around, there's another seedbank selling a knock-off of "a famous strain," then the originator is going to be moving less volume (and not receiving a penny for each knock-off that a competitor sells). Also, there's that whole (presumed) guilt by "association" thing going on - if someone reads that the Jack Herer strain is decent, tries another breeder's version, is disappointed, tries a couple other breeders' versions, is disapointed again... then the person might just decide that Jack Herer is an overblown strain that isn't very good. And he might happily tell everyone who will listen (and/or post about it to random thousands of people on a forum) .
I'm not trying to say anything about the Jack Herer strain's quality; I just picked it for an example because people can find the name in many breeders' catalogs.
Ya got me. Maybe it's because everybody knows how easy it is "to make a seed" - but that less know the work involved in developing a line (especially one that is even relatively stable). Or that they do not factor in the fact that it's usually harder to vanish when the rozzers are looking for you when you own a world-famous cannabis business than when you're just some guy renting an apartment and growing a few plants (or even a few dozen) .
IDK. Maybe a better question is why would anyone balk about paying even the highest retail prices for cannabis seeds... and then buy a bunch of products from Advanced Nutrients
? Okay, I had a little fun typing that one in, but you can substitute most any nutrient company (that targets cannabis growers) and it'd still be a valid question; that's just the only brand that I once read someone could spend $1,200 on getting all the recommended base and supplement products. But, be that as it may, the main ingredient in just about any liquid nutrient is... water. We could spend a few hundred dollars on bulk dry components and have a lifetime supply of nutrients, tailored to fit any strain that we wanted to grow. But we don't, for the most part.Actually, I'd think that the chances would be fairly high. Isn't that the main reason that most of the commercial fruit/vegetable plants sold to gardeners are F₁s, so that the customer gets the same thing, every time?
The thing is, most strains sold aren't exactly F₁s. That sort of implies that both parents were "pure," doesn't it? But most commercial strains appear to be crosses of crosses... of crosses.
If I save the seeds from a couple of Better Boy tomatoes and grow them out next year, I'll have a lot of tomato plants - that don't produce the same size/shape/flavor of fruit.
I have a couple Serious Seeds Bubble Gum seeds. I read on their website that this is "the only inbred strain (not a F1 hybrid) on the Serious menu." I don't know (been too many years since high school biology and, besides, I was as high as possible every single day back then
), but I am under the impression that this means, if I try to grow them, both germinate/sprout, and I end up with one of each sex... that I could leave them in the same space during flowering and I'd end up with a few thousand seeds that, on average, all produced plants that were recognizably Serious Seeds Bubble Gum (and that the bud that these plants produced would be, too).I could be wrong. If so, I hope someone comes along and schools me on it.
That's because those hundreds if not thousands of seeds that you've produced are no longer F₁ seeds, lol, they're F₂s - and that's if the seeds that produced the plants that produced the seeds you're hunting through... were actually F₁ seeds to begin with. IOW, if the breeder you've bought the strain from created it by crossing two pure landraces/IBL (yes, I know, I'm using the two terms indiscriminately when they aren't interchangeable), then those seeds would be F₁s.
I think I went through like five packs of Nevil Schoenmakers' Haze back in the day before deciding on two keepers - and I thought that was a pain, lol.
Some days I find myself wishing that every seed from any given pack all grew into the same phenotype. Other days, I remember that what I love might not be seen as desirable by others (and vice versa).
