Willy Banjo Cheap but Smoking

Could that be it? Surely the AK-47 is a well-known name in the cannabis scene since Serious Seeds coined it in 1995. But when scanning through old magazines I have to admit that little attention was given to it in articles. The fact that it is well known amongst growers is mostly from own experience and from their opinions given in chat rooms on the Internet. But when you look at a well-known name like ‘White Widow’ another plant thrown into the world by Dutch breeders at about the same time as the ‘AK-47’ the latter seems under snowed by the first. For years the name ‘White Widow’ was heard everywhere.

But now, almost ten years later it seems that the AK-47 has been gaining popularity over the years and was slowly but surely growing out to be such an acknowledged and reliable champion that there was enough reason to have it chosen as plant of the year 2004. The popularity of this plant is not due to some successful and carefully planned campaign. No, it came from what matters; from the experience of growers everywhere buying the seeds and liking the results they got from them. They made the plant popular and if this is the reason for the ‘Plant of the year’ choice than it is indeed a rightful one.

An ongoing phenomenon with popular seed names, which has been seen for years, is that other Companies like to use those names. They start selling seeds under either the same or almost the same name as the original. People who don’t know the name of the companies who produced the original seed names are an easy victim when they ask for this name and get a cheap imitation in stead.

At this moment for example is the ‘Nirvana’seed company doing exactly that. They sell a seed with the name of ‘AK-48’, how original can you be? But that’s not all. When you compare the description of this strain at their website with that of ‘AK-47’ by Serious Seeds it is impossible to see a difference. They copied it till the last letter, won awards and all!! This is not only parasiting on the popularity of reputable seed companies, it is cheating and robbing people who are not aware of what is going on. Practices like this are the cause of bad raps in the cannabis scene. Although ‘Nirvana’ is not the only seed producer making money like this, they seem to be the leading company when it comes to parasiting on popular names.