'Goldfinger' - Malawi Gold X Flo

[Elevator Man]

I think I may have managed to fertilize this female at long last - early days yet, but hopefully even the very small amount of Goldfinger pollen I had will do the job - I can see a few calyxes swelling now.

I'm a little concerned about the weird green patches on the leaves in terms of passing on that trait to the F2s, but at the same time I think they should be diverse enough to make a better selection, assuming I get enough. It may after all just be a unique problem with this plant, rather than a genetic issue. This is what learning is all about , I guess...

 

[RubbaDub]

This is a very interesting thread. Is your Flo the original strain from DJ Short?

 

[Elevator Man]

It's the original, 'Original Flo' from DJ, via Dutch Passion - when I bought them DJ didn't have his own label, and all his catalog was sold through DP, so that was the only route possible. To be honest, I'm glad I did, as they're all the 'old-school' purple thai/bb sativa phenos, and they've proved to be wonderful smoke over the last three years.

 

[lasko]

good work EM my eyes are so pleased it gives me motivation to do some crosses with flo on my own but have to wait for oaxacans to grow a little first.

 

[Elevator Man]

I can really recommend Flo as a crossing partner, particularly as the male - now I've crossed it with a bunch of strains I've grown before, I've seen pretty much improved stock throughout, though I haven't been able to grow any really large numbers. But it added berry flavours, improved the bud density and resin coverage to everything I crossed it with, and on the sativa strains like the Malawi Gold it brought down the flower time too - without affecting the high, which is a real bonus.

As for this Goldfinger, it hits seven weeks tomorrow, so I'm cutting back all the food now except Cannazym and Boost Accelerator for the next week, and then pure water for the last two-three weeks, depending on how long it takes to finish. I'll get some new pics up shortly - it's looking really nice now, and smelling like heaven...

 

[Elevator Man]

Here's a few pics of the pheno mentioned above The resin coverage is building quickly now, and the aroma is delicious. The plants have also adopted a very Flo bud structure, showing the structural influence of the males used, as the pure Malawi had straight columnar colas with no breaks.

The weird green patches on the leaves are visible - I'm still no nearer figuring out what this is, as it only occurs during the stretch, and only on this one plant so far, bith indoors and out. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to know. Looks like a very weird trace element deficieny, and the leaves feel calloused and lumpy, like rough parchment. Other than that, the plant seems in perfect health:

 

[ThaiPhoon]

She looks dyno-mite! I just had a taste of the GoldfingerXSdog cross I made. Also germed 9 more beans of it and got 8 sprouts.

I can taste that great earthy goodness from the Goldfinger. The Sdog seems to add some sort of limey or citrus tastes to it...Its quite nice.

Peace

 

[Elevator Man]

That's good to know - I was thinking of starting some of those soon, just to see what happens. I'm really pleased with the direction this cross has taken, and am very excited about where it might go! More updates asap...

 

[Elevator Man]

Here's some new pics of the Goldfinger 1A pheno, just approaching nine weeks. It's very resinous, although the pics don't show it particularly well. What they do show is the superb calyx/leaf ratio, which is improved over the original Malawi by an order of magnitude.

This pheno flowers much more like Flo, with the pronounced 'spear'-shaped bud on top, followed by smaller buds down the stem, as opposed to the Malawi cola. All that remains now is to find out the final flower time...

 

[Elevator Man]

Harvest Time...

Harvest Time...

I just chopped the Goldfinger a few days early due to space issues, and on appearance, I'd say that this would have been bang on at 77-80 days. This is the faster-flowering Goldfinger from the #1 Flo male - it's knocked a week off the previous phenos from the #2 male, which are 12-weekers. That makes a colossal four weeks knocked off the original Malawi Gold time of 15 weeks. So I'm very happy on all fronts.

The plant structure is far more Flo-leaning than Malawi (and the other phenos), and is almost all bud, with hardly any significant trim - again, a huge improvement over the Malawi. The calyxes are more pronounced, resin coverage is greater, and the smell is an incredible mix of floral, fruit and spice. It's somewhere between bluebells, pineapple, blueberry, ginger, vanilla, and cream - in short it's just delightful, and my favourite-smelling weed of the moment - the fact that I made this myself is even more amusing.

My plan now is to take this cross to F2, and now I've enlisted some help on that project - we're looking for a perfect male and one more female from the 1A batch, and we'll either use this female or a new one as the mother plant for the F2s, and then we'll really see what this can do...

 

[Elevator Man]

A comparison...

A comparison...

At this point, it's well worth a quick side-by-side comparison of this Goldfinger with my recent green pheno of Flo - amazing similarity, and shows there's definitely progress being made - Goldfinger left, Flo right:

 

[ThaiPhoon]

Beauties! what else can I say?

 

[Elevator Man]

Not much really...

 

[Elevator Man]

Well the Goldfinger is living up to its promise, and is delivering some fine smoke indeed - very, very flavoursome, quite penetrating and expansive, and very up, with a trancey, dreamy, almost psychedelic state when over-indulged in! The best part is that it's totally smokeable in five days - curing obviously will improve it, but as soon as it's dry, it's good - tasty, potent and beautifully structured - just calyxes, basically. No time for a proper smoke report, and I think we all know what kind of smoke it is by now, but I'll get a few close-up bud shots posted soon, before I smoke them all!

One other exciting bit of news is that the test plant of Goldfinger X MoFlo at my friend's place is flowering, and has an amazing smell, like fruity but mentholated mushrooms! Oh yeah. And the bud structure is hard - way more than the straight Goldfinger. Those Flos certainly know how to firm up a sativa alright...

 

[ThaiPhoon]

Yeah! EM I totally agree with the ready in 5 days! The last GSK I had was ready and tasty in a matter of days also. Goldfinger is truly a fantastic cross, I'm glad to see the MoFlo cross working the magic as well!
I still have 5 of the MG2XF2 beans to pop...Also I am still holding out on chopping that GSK...

Peace

 

[Elevator Man]

ThaiPhoon - I've let a few friends smoke the Goldfinger now, and all are agreed - it is a fantastic smoke! Old-school effects with a new-school taste! Many people I know have never smoked anything like this before - sativa-dominant strains grown under lights that is, and they're already stunned. They haven't laughed this much (or worked this much!) in ages while smoking, and that's exactly the idea...

I may have mentioned this already, but some friends are growing out another ten seeds now to make the F2 generation. They've been so consistent so far that I'm happy it's a good F1 mix, and we can pretty much select the parents purely on health and vigour. The female I have is fine, but I'm still a little concerned about the weird yellow/green leaf trait. It doesn't affect flowering at all, but I'd rather have perfection where possible, so if my friends come up with an equally special female without the funny leaves, we'll use that one instead.

 

[Elevator Man]

I had a huge buzz tonight when I got to see the Goldfinger X MoFlo plant tonight - this thing is amazing. It's at nearly nine weeks in hydro, and looks to be done. The top buds are very large, the calyxes dark purple all over, though the leaves are still green. The bud/leaf ratio is very high - better than the Flo, and a different plant altogether than the Malawi Gold. Resin is everywhere, and the smell is completely unique to me, and very exciting indeed. If this is representative of this cross in terms of flower-time, etc., I'm onto something, definitely.

I'll get some pics before/when they come down - they're at my friend's spot, so he'll give me the call when it's time. I can't wait now...

 

[Guest]

Good news about the hydro plant. Is this the same friend who has the El yuc in hydro? Take some pics ofthat plant if it is pretty please!

 

[Elevator Man]

No, it isn't sadly - I won't get to see their grow. But they already chopped their El Yuc - not sure how long they flowered it, but I doubt it was more than ten weeks. But it looked done - and buds more like yours. It tasted better than mine did, but again, not as speedy as the original. Seems the longer it flowers, the more speedy it gets...

As for the Goldfinger X MoFlo (Project X for now), it seems to be done, in less than nine weeks, which is amazing - may be luck, but maybe not. My mate's going to get some snaps of that before he chops it, and I'll definitely post them here.

And I'll definitely get some test smoke of that too - and the Skunk X Flo and G13 X Flo hybrids he's just finishing...

 

[Guest]

Glad to hear their El Yuc looked like mine, I was so worried when I saw your 'Mexican Kush' version! As prety as she was, she was just not right in some way.

Yup, she looks done at 10 weeks, bug buds with swollen calyxes and loads of red hairs. T took mine around 13 weeks the first time as it was back when we had the record breaking humid month and I had some mould problems, only lost 5g of her to mould but it meant she was cut a little early. Second run she is already at 14 weeks and still not fully ripe, the triches are nearly there, but I want a full third of them to be amber before I chop her this time. i begun flushing her 4 days ago and she looks great, the resin has increased in the last 10 days and like last time, some of the calyxes are turning purple.

Great news about Project X, I like the Flo a lot and the Goldfinger was interesting, need more testing of that one to form a solid opinion.