Where Did the Name Skunk Come From?
Cannabis growers often like the strong and distinctively powerful smell. It was in the States, in the 70s that the first varieties of Skunk appeared. Growers wanted a name that well described the strong aroma. Thus, as one of the most pungent-smelling American animals is the skunk, (which jettisons a foul-smelling liquid as a deterrent to potential attackers) the name Skunk was chosen, and immediately became popular, remaining in the cannabis vernacular even decades later.
How Did Skunk Cannabis Come About?
In the 1970s, David Watson, the legendary "Sam The Skunkman", selected and cultivated cannabis varieties in the California sunshine. The team was known as the "Sacred Seed Company" and was diligently hunting for special and unusual plants that would form the basis of a new cultivation program.
Skunk started as a Sativa polyhybrid, a cross between the Acapulco Gold and Colombian Gold (with a pure Afghan indicator also speculated to be part of its makeup). Legend has it that thousands of cannabis seeds were grown outdoors before the original Skunk was found. When Sam The Skunkman came to the Netherlands in the 1980s, he brought some Skunk cannabis seeds with him.
Island Sweet Skunk
One of Canada’s original and most popular skunk hybrids, otherwise known as Island Sweet Skunk, is a pungent skunk that has for decades been grown on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. A hybrid, it is sativa-dominant and was created by crossing Skunk #1 together with Sweet Pink Grapefruit. Combining a tropical grapefruit and orange blend alongside delectable sour diesel notes, a glorious combination of flavours is created that is what helps this famous strain a favourite for so many.
Why are feminised Skunk seeds the most popular kind amongst growers?
When growers from Holland experienced Skunk, they were immediately enamoured with the seductive combination of the powerful, heady and almost sensual high, sticky buds and heavy yields. Furthermore, its seeds were far easier to grow in a lot of different conditions. And, of course, the trademark bold skunk aroma was appealing to pretty much everyone.
Very quickly, Skunk became the talk of the town, and coffee shops and bars were buzzing with talk of this unique and highly potent type of weed.
Within a couple of years of Sam The Skunkman landing on Holland’s shores, innumerable hybrids and crosses soon came into being. Whilst “pure” Skunk was most certainly a highly respected strain in and of itself, it also became a key strain that was used for the purposes of hybridisation over the coming decades. Its innate high THC content, together with consistency of growth and the guarantee of heavy yields, has meant that its genetics are a natural choice that breeders will gravitate towards. In addition, its feminised seeds seem to consistently turn out top quality buds with that fantastic feel-good kind of high.
Thus, the Dutch took great advantage of Skunk seeds from "Sam” – together with the aforementioned THC-rich genetics, and it has proven to be easily widely cultivated. This has also meant that even less experienced growers may have had an XL crop. Skunk has all the important features of yield, efficiency and simplicity, and so it has remained a favourite of home growers ever since.
UK - Skunk
Skunk varieties are rich in THC and have a powerful effect. In certain countries, particularly the United Kingdom, "skunk" is often used as a general term for popular types of cannabis. This is often confusing for non-Brits, owing to Skunk also being a separate family of cannabis strains. Often, using the word "skunk" to describe other varieties simply means those which are very high quality, and rich in THC.
The Modern Cannabis Seed: Skunk
Many modern hybrid feminised cannabis varieties will also include Skunk genetics. As Skunk is a highly versatile variety, it means that it can be easily combined with other varieties. Often, improvements in yield, size, growth-rate and fertility occur when hybridisation occurs from crossing Skunk with other strains, allowing its progeny to exhibit an unusually strong growth pattern. Very frequently, Skunk is crossed with several other varieties, in order to produce indica-dominant and Skunk-dominant hybrid seed varieties.
Why are Skunk seeds as popular with home growers?
Originally, Skunk seeds were available only as regular seeds .However, when the method of feminising cannabis seeds came into being in the 90s, the volume of people wanting to grow from home increased exponentially. The feminised seeds proved to be a much greater convenience to the grower. There was no need to bother with male plants, the growing rooms could actually be far smaller.
Auto-flowering Skunk Seeds. Growing Skunk is Faster and Easier!
Auto-flowering seeds can be easily grown indoors or outdoors. The growth of, say, Auto Euforia and Auto Orange Bud takes - from seed to harvest indoors - about 75 days at 20 hours of light per day. Sometimes, some plants will require a week or two more, but they produce extremely high yields. Outdoors, auto-flowering Skunk seeds need about 100 days. Whether feminised or auto-flowering seeds are preferred, one is almost always guaranteed to get consistently good results every time from a Skunk variety.
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