I'm not from the U.K.
And "I'd know" because I've run the real GG#4 that was sourced quite directly-and I was less than impressed, in fact, it was, in my opinion, (and the opinion of many others as well) a garbage plant. Popular opinion and Instagram means absolutely nothing to me, so how many YouTube hits some guys with a big flower room and amusing snapbacks get really doesn't register with me.
The aforementioned "biggest hitters" as you describe them, barely rate a mention in my book. But that's my book, not yours. S1s and autos, do suck. And I'm no fan of fems but that's solely my opinion, YRMV. Hybrids, I never mentioned excepting detailing my disgust at 16-way poly-hybrids being sold as stable when they're nothing even remotely close. I can, and have, sourced just about every "hot" cut from the last 20 years. Just throwin' that out there. I've got friends everywhere.
Cookies & GG#4 will be popular for a hot minute, maybe more if they push the social media aspect, but GG#4 is a "unicorn" and about as unstable as a plant gets-and cookies seems to be pretty much the same. Anything that "throws a few seeds" (aka what you call "bean slips" meaning the plants probably reverse a shitload but they attempt to pick the seeds out before selling the weed) under little to no stress is what we call a "cull," and it hits the fucking woodchipper- that's the way it's always been, and I see no reason to start accepting wonky, half assed genetics into the mix as there's plenty of great smoke out there from plants that don't behave like that. And people who persist in trying to mainstream genetics like that, I have zero respect for. All social media fluff, no real substance.
@BrightLights,
Thanks for the warm welcome man, much appreciated!
Fun thread, and I love watching your grows man! Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one lol and yeah, I'm pretty strong in how I see things, and several decades deep I guess I've got more than a few opinions on the state of this here modern greenrush I'll share here and there, undoubtedly upsetting an apple cart or two but it's all in good fun. Looking forward to seeing your LED stuff as it progresses!