Strain Study: Cheese

The creation of the Cheese we know today involves 3 sets of people at 3 different times...

This may come as a shock to some but Cheese, its Skunk #1 - it's just a Pheno of Skunk #1 that had the Cheese traits that we all know and love. So although Sam the Skunkman isn't credited with creating the Cheese strain directly, he is responsible for creating the genetics that made Cheese possible.

When Sam the Skunkman moved to the Netherlands he took with him his genetic library which included Skunk #1, working with Nevil Schoenmakers to establish 'The Seed Bank' they then made the seeds for Skunk #1 available.

This is where the strain makes its jump to the UK, according to Skunkman Sam himself, a member of the Exodus Collective purchased some Skunk #1 seeds while in Amsterdam and brought the seeds back to the UK with them.

After growing them out one of them was selected and cloned and named Cheese because of its pungent aroma. It is also rumored that there was a panic to find a clone that hadn't started flowering to preserve its genetics, but was found on an older ladies bathroom windowsill. But that is just a rumor.

Clones we're given out freely by the collective which is why this specific type of Cheese is referred to as Exodus Cheese. But here lies an issue we will come to later - because it was a certain pheno of Skunk #1, it was clone only.

Now, as we go through the 2000s Exodus Cheese took hold of the UK cannabis scene, if you were smoking at the time I'm sure you'll remember trying to stash that bag in as many 'smell proof' baggies and boxes filled with deodorant as you can and still being able to smell it when you opened the front door.

Well if you trying to stash that eighth proved that impossible, imagine trying to hide an entire grow of it? That's where the next person enters the story.

Milo from Big Buddha seeds liked the taste but thought the smell made it too hard to grow safely, so it was crossed with Afghan to make it smell less but keep the trade mark taste.

He crossed the female Cheese clone with a high-yielding Afghani male already in his collection. The Afghani itself came from a large shipment that entered the UK during the 1980’s. Milo had acquired a number of these seeds and grew out and selected a particularly vigorous male.

Milo crossed the Afghan male with the Exodus cutting, stabilising and perfecting the strain, before going on to produce the first Cheese seeds.

In 2005 Big Buddha Seeds launched with Cheese as their only strain. In the process they became the first to bring Cheese to the UK seed market.

But, because Exodus cheese is a pheno of skunk #1 and is clone only....

https://www.icmag.com/threads/the-exodus-collective-history-of-uk-cheese.128667/

https://mrnice.nl/forum/threads/the-great-cheese-deception.1933/

https://www.icmag.com/threads/1st-lga-cannabis-cup-2007.70684/post-2071734

https://www.reddit.com/r/uktrees/comments/136soqt/milo_aka_big_buddha_has_died_in_his_sleep_the_man/