Yes we are referring to the same person Luke Skywalker...
In reality there is no concrete fact on the true origins of OG Kush and which one is the original cut etc. But the facts that I have collected are as follows. I've had the cut since 2006 which is when I started growing. The person that gave it to me has had it since the early 90's 91-92. And the story that he told me was as follows. The original OG Kush came from Florida. It was brought here and given to a select few which he was one of them and B-Real from Cypress Hill was another among this small circle. It looks sativa-ish and usually starts off producing 3 leaf blades. Very similar to the Skywalker. It was later named Herojuana referring to it's combination of Euphoric-energetic buzz with it's narcotic body effects synonymous to an opiate. That's as far as I can track the lineage from the people I got the strain from. In fact B-real claims in this video that it did come from Florida in fact.
While we can't use claims on bulletin boards to back up the origins of the true OG Kush. We can use logic and also study the history on how marijuana got started in California. While there are 2 types of marijuana (Indica & Sativa) you got to wonder where did they originate? You never hear old hippies from the 60's and 70's talk about an actual native California strain. The origins of Sativa strains come from tropical, hotter more humid types of environments like Thailand. And the origins of Indica's come from dryer climates like Pakistan and Afghanistan.
I have a friends who has been growing bud here in our local Cali mountains since the early 70's and when I first showed him my Herojuana OG Kush his eyes lit up… and he knew right away the true origins of the OG strain. The obvious its a saliva-Indica Hybrid with slightly tilted on the Sativa side. The first thing he said to me was that it reminded him of the thai-sticks…he smelled it and tasted it in the bud. It's obviously has to be a sativa/indica hybrid to survive in the climate that we live in here in So. Cali. Below is some research by an accredited source.
By Rick Pfrommer, Director of Education, Harborside Health Center
Original landrace and other heirloom strains are often lost in today’s hyperkinetic world of breeding. ‘Landrace’ refers to strains that are indigenous to an area, such as Red Congolese. ‘Heirlooms’ are strains that were collected worldwide during the 1970s and propagated in Hawaii and Northern California. Our constant desire for new strains leads breeders to continually cross and re-cross existing strains looking for the next big thing. There is, however, a small but growing contingent of cultivators who’re returning to our cannabis roots and propagating old landrace and heirloom strains. Varieties range from pure African sativas to Afghani indicas, collected by world travelers on the infamous Hippie Trail (also referred to as the “Hashish Trail”).
All during the 1970s and early 1980s, cannabis aficionados of all stripes traveled the world smoking the finest cannabis and hashish available. From Nepalese temple balls to the famed Mazar-i-Sharif Afghani Black, the Hashish Trail was filled with exotic delights. The trail rolls on through Lebanese Red to Moroccan Kif, with stops in Bangkok for Chocolate Thai, and Columbia and Mexico for their infamous golden strains. Many of these intrepid souls also collected seeds during their travels. It was these landrace strains that became the basis for the nascent cultivation culture that eventually sprang forth in both Hawaii and Northern California.
Talk with any cannabis connoisseur old enough to remember these legendary strains and you’ll come away with tales of their epic strength. Equatorial sativas from Africa to Vietnam flourished in Hawaii’s tropical dreamscape of cannabis cultivation. Indicas from Afghanistan were more at home in Northern California’s cooler climate. I was fortunate enough to live on the Big Island of Hawaii from 1993 to 1997, and I can attest that the best cannabis I have EVER smoked was grown in volcanic soil on the slopes of the largest active volcano in the world, Mauna Loa. By the time I got there almost everything grown in Hawaii was some combination of genetics, no longer a landrace. Yet a few of the old-timers still had access to the classic ’70s strains, making for a wonderfully unique and diverse smoking experience.
From Nepalese temple balls to the famed Mazar-i-Sharif Afghani Black, the Hashish Trail was filled with exotic delights.
The scene in California at this time was slightly different. Northern California, as beautiful as it is, ain’t Hawaii. The Emerald Triangle rests approximately on the same parallel as Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush mountains. While Southern Californians could grow Columbian and Mexican sativas, their northern counterparts found the stocky indica plants much better adapted for their climate. Shorter flowering time allowed harvest to occur before the fall rains came with their mold-inducing downpours. These short and chunky plants produced the infamous skunkweed that became Northern California’s calling card. Again, anyone old enough to remember this cannabis will never forget the pungent, almost rancid, skunk-like aroma. I remember going to parties in the early ’80s with this herb double-bagged-and still being outed minutes after walking in. “Yo man, I know you’re holding, share the love!” Our own Steve DeAngelo also has memories of this era, saying that to this day he’s not seen cannabis like what he saw from Northen California in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
Original landrace and other heirloom strains are often lost in today’s hyperkinetic world of breeding. ‘Landrace’ refers to strains that are indigenous to an area, such as Red Congolese. ‘Heirlooms’ are strains that were collected worldwide during the 1970s and propagated in Hawaii and Northern California. Our constant desire for new strains leads breeders to continually cross and re-cross existing strains looking for the next big thing. There is, however, a small but growing contingent of cultivators who’re returning to our cannabis roots and propagating old landrace and heirloom strains. Varieties range from pure African sativas to Afghani indicas, collected by world travelers on the infamous Hippie Trail (also referred to as the “Hashish Trail”).
All during the 1970s and early 1980s, cannabis aficionados of all stripes traveled the world smoking the finest cannabis and hashish available. From Nepalese temple balls to the famed Mazar-i-Sharif Afghani Black, the Hashish Trail was filled with exotic delights. The trail rolls on through Lebanese Red to Moroccan Kif, with stops in Bangkok for Chocolate Thai, and Columbia and Mexico for their infamous golden strains. Many of these intrepid souls also collected seeds during their travels. It was these landrace strains that became the basis for the nascent cultivation culture that eventually sprang forth in both Hawaii and Northern California.
Talk with any cannabis connoisseur old enough to remember these legendary strains and you’ll come away with tales of their epic strength. Equatorial sativas from Africa to Vietnam flourished in Hawaii’s tropical dreamscape of cannabis cultivation. Indicas from Afghanistan were more at home in Northern California’s cooler climate. I was fortunate enough to live on the Big Island of Hawaii from 1993 to 1997, and I can attest that the best cannabis I have EVER smoked was grown in volcanic soil on the slopes of the largest active volcano in the world, Mauna Loa. By the time I got there almost everything grown in Hawaii was some combination of genetics, no longer a landrace. Yet a few of the old-timers still had access to the classic ’70s strains, making for a wonderfully unique and diverse smoking experience.
From Nepalese temple balls to the famed Mazar-i-Sharif Afghani Black, the Hashish Trail was filled with exotic delights.
The scene in California at this time was slightly different. Northern California, as beautiful as it is, ain’t Hawaii. The Emerald Triangle rests approximately on the same parallel as Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush mountains. While Southern Californians could grow Columbian and Mexican sativas, their northern counterparts found the stocky indica plants much better adapted for their climate. Shorter flowering time allowed harvest to occur before the fall rains came with their mold-inducing downpours. These short and chunky plants produced the infamous skunkweed that became Northern California’s calling card. Again, anyone old enough to remember this cannabis will never forget the pungent, almost rancid, skunk-like aroma. I remember going to parties in the early ’80s with this herb double-bagged-and still being outed minutes after walking in. “Yo man, I know you’re holding, share the love!” Our own Steve DeAngelo also has memories of this era, saying that to this day he’s not seen cannabis like what he saw from Northen California in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
As you can see… all these names chemdawg, OG, Sour Diesel blah, blah blah…. had to have come from the tropics or the deserts and they are all hybrids of these 2 types. In the 70's and 80's people were growing outdoors and a sole indica or sole saliva will not do well in our So cal environment. It was in the mid to late eighties when cannabis connoisseurs across the US where coming up with these sativa-indica crosses where OG Kush came from. He used to have this strain that he called convalescent and it he says it was very similar to OG Kush. And he had crossed an original purple afghani seed with an original lemon thai. I've showed him both the Skywalker and the Herojuana. While I can't really tell the difference by looking at them with the naked eye he was able to point to me certain things where I can now tell the difference between them 2. He give both of them an A+ grade but puts a slight edge on the Herojuana for being a bit more aromizing and a bit more rich in flavor. I also feel the same way having smoked both. Regardless, they are both original OG kush strains. Not sure if Skywalker is in seed form, I don't think so recalling what Ron Cabrera told me but my Herojuana strain only exists in clone form.
This whole story of the chemdawg bag seed junk sounds promising at first but it does not reference the true origins. Not to say that the story may not be true but it does go back to the same time when my friend who gave it to me first acquired his original cut. Maybe they did find a stress seed from a bag to acquire it and went on to create all those other OG strains that we hear of…But it makes sense for it to come from Florida as it is amore tropical environment there and more suitable for sativa dominant strands. I have both the Skywalker and the Hero. They are practically identical in look but as I mentioned before the test Ron did showed that my Hero strain showed a slight different nutrient uptake requirement during week 3. Ron's Skywalker goes back to 1998, while my Hero cut goes back to 1990 coming from Florida.
Nowadays you can really only find 2 OG's in the market. The commercial OG like Larry and all the other Og's that come in seed form and the true OG Kush that is more flimsy and delicate and more sativa looking. Which would be like the Skywalker or Herojuana strain. These days I wouldn't give out these strain to anybody but the friends within my circle. It's really the only ace in the bag we have left as true OG kush growers who hold the original strains. The collective that picks up my Hero calls it the Private Reserve. They've had to put a 1 1/8th per week cap on patients because it's sold before it's grown. Luckily anybody who came across a true OG clone probably lost it to spider mites or some disease. And also not being able to clone the plant correctly. They've all moved to growing the easier commercial OG that you see all over the place these days because they probably fucked up the plant. It's a super tricky, sensitive and finicky plant that requires expert knowledge and experience to grow it right. If you don't know how to Grow it then you will get super low yields and sub-par product. But if you figure out her secrete then she can perform like a winner. My best pull so far has been, 9 lbs on 4000 watts.
