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Here's the first of the two 'grapefruit' phenos, and the highest-yielder of the bunch. This pheno had huge leaves and buds compared to the other three, and was more 'sativa' in profile, though still very stocky. The smell is grapefruit-area, but with a strange medicinal overtone, which is almost 'meaty' when dried - pleasant, but a bit strange.
The buds are hard, though they have a slight squeeze to them when dried - the first two plants are rock-hard, like they've been varnished, by way of comparison. But the overall bud size was extremely good for my cabinet, and I got an ounce from this plant, which isn't bad for 13 inches tall, and being pretty crowded for its early flowering. My only clone looks like it's dying, but a friend has a backup which hopefully is still alive! If so, I'll be keeping this one...
Here's the last of the four BSphenos - probably the best quality, and predictably not the highest yielder! This one is also sweet grapefruit, but sharper, with hints of lemon/lime and sour apple candy too. It's almost like a mixed-fruit marmalade or barley sugar, but with a slightly astringent, floor-cleaner back-end - very nice indeed. The buds are more foxtailed, reminding me of my green Flo, and the longest and thinnest too, with a more compact structure.
Sadly the buds are lighter than the others, though just as hard, and test smokes of just-dry buds confirms this probably has the most sativa high of the four, but it's early days yet. It's certainly the tastiest to smoke, as the first two phenos harvested have become incredibly bland on drying, to smell and smoke. A shame, but I think they might just be a touch too Afghani-leaning for my tastes. This one shows more promise, and a larger plant might just produce the goods:
The last pic in the top row was a blending experiment that worked, thankfully. I don't often get the aperture down far enough for close-ups, and often get parts out-of-focus. So this image was made from two identical images other than their focal points, and then they were blended together to just use the sharp parts of each.
Works a treat - as long as nothing moves at all between shots, which is easier said than done at this distance...
Although all the phenos have rock-hard buds, and superb resin coverage, they're a bit bland really - the first two especially have dried down to almost no smell, and the high is a littte flat, as reported elsewhere. It works, but it's a bit boring. The last two phenos are more interesting to me, as they have more sativa genes in them! And taste and smell better too, which is part of the pleasure for me.
To be honest though, the skinny, weird sativa BB f3 still fascinates me much more, and I've got another, much much bushier plant of that in flower now at about 3.5 weeks - that will be receiving some 'special pollen in the next few days - from my 'Overflow' male, which is the Mystery Strain X Flo...a perfect male pheno of the MS at last...
Shame about the BS2.2, you would think from the name it would be more sativa than BB.
Still no growing happening here, which is highly depressing, but that sativa BB F3 is top of the list of things I want to grow when one day I have a garden again, followed closely by the indica BB f3 and the Oaxacan! lol
I put some pollen on that sativa BB two nights ago actually - from my latest male, which is the Mystery smelly one X Flo (codename: Overflow). I thought it might help bulk up the buds a bit, whilst keeping (or adding to!) the sweetness. It's a prodigious brancher, and this latest plant has really responded to everything, and has buds everywhere, so I didn't mind giving up a branch to make some seeds. And become the latest 'new project' (Bilberry!)
I do have one wrap of MoFlo pollen that I was dying to put on it too, but I have to save that for the original green Flo, which is still unpreserved.
As for the Blue Satellites, I just threw #1 and #4 in the bin - got to be ruthless. I kept #2, as I like the grapefruit/sour apple taste, but the winner is definitely #3 - fantastic sweet grapefruit, solid buds and nicely potent. My clone died, but a friend has a backup which is fine, so I'll get that back shortly. I think they might do OK outdoors too.
Thanks folks - much appreciated. Will be a couple of weeks before the next installment, but it'll be the Appalachia, which looks amazing, so it will be well worth checking back when they go up...
52. Appalachia (Green Crack X Tres Dawg) - 58 days.
52. Appalachia (Green Crack X Tres Dawg) - 58 days.
I only got one female from the five seeds I sprouted, so I was very pleased indeed to get this great specimen at the end. I've no idea what pheno this is, having never grown, smoked, or even seen either of the parents except in a few photos, but I'm guessing this leans slightly more toward Tres Dawg than Green Crack, going on bud structure, leaf-shape etc.
The buds got very hard in the last two weeks, which was a relief, as they felt quite fluffy early on, and although the resin coverage isn't up to OG Kush levels, it's still very respectable, and is quite sticky to the touch. Very bright orange pistils and a faintly blue tinge to the vegetation should translate into excellent bag-appeal - definitely a good commercial strain, as the bud to leaf ratio is superb.
The aroma is intense, and when smelled fresh is a very strong, overripe fruit, with a skunk/spicy/sweet (almost menthol) back-end. I'm sure this will mellow on drying, but it smells stronger than most strains I've run so far. Yield looks to be quite high for the size of the plant - I'm hoping for 1.5 ounces, based on how heavy the hanger felt today when I put them up to dry, but we'll see.
Very impressive though, and many thanks to H&L for the opportunity to grow this out - definitely a keeper, if it smokes as good as it looks and smells...
Not sure how many seeds went out, but I'm really glad I got them - it's almost a 'smoky' fruit smell, if that makes sense? Very nice, and I think it'll get less mentholated and more perfumed as it dries. I just hope the dense buds don't go all airy on drying, as they're really looking fat at the monent...
Well there's been years of arguing about the lineage/origins of this one, and much of it is still a mystery, but here is 'the blues', one of the most popular clone-only UK strains. This is actually the first time I've ever grown one, having always left it to the hydro boys (and it being a little narcotic for my tastes), but I thought I'd try one in soil to see how it fared (and stank).
Structurally, it's almost identical to the 'Mystery Strain' and similar to Cheese, except it has a slightly chubbier leaf-shape, compared to the more sativa-looking MS and Cheese leaves - this means it's extremely branchy and will happily grow many tops of a decent size, or just one monster bud if left untopped.
The actual shape of all the members of this 'group' of strains is a very squat Xmas tree, but almost urn-shaped, in that the lower branches come up very high on the final plant. Topped, they just spread out happily. The buds are rock-hard, as always, and with some foxtailing, but with only medium resin coverage, though that's not an issue with this strain as it's extremely potent.
The smell is extremely rich, blueberry/fuel with a strong earthy back-end, which fades on drying to an incredibly sweet, almost sickly pungent 'blueberry' smell, which will stink out anywhere, smoked or stored. Smell prevention in all aspects of this plant is quite important! The yields are generally very high, so it'll be interesting to see how much this produces -the buds don't usually shrink that much, so could be interesting.