New Caledonia

[TexasTea]

Cool insights about New Caledonia there zientist....thanks for sharing.

I'm with you Bluesat on the LEDs. I'm growing in organic soil too, heavily amended, and I'm running Bridgelux and Cree COBs. I find I cannot seem to add enough oyster shell flour and lime to keep them happy. I was adding a little CalMag this spring during watering and it was helping a lot. Will have to think about what I should do this fall either to keep recycling my current soil or start a new mix from scratch that has a better calcium balance.

 

[dubi]

That's great news chilliwilli If you have the chance it would be great to test both F1s (NC x Balochi and Balochi x NC) at the same time under same growing conditions to evaluate better which performs best and which one do you like the most. Sounds like a delicious sativa/indica mix

To preserve resins, cannabinoids and terpenes it's better to keep the temps in flowering not higher than 26ºC, they easily degrade on the 30ºCs and over.

Thanks The Zientist, so do your friends suggest a Hawaiian origin ? All the info is more than welcome.

I truly agree that growing under LEDS needs a different approach than what we are used to with HPS. The light spectrum and temps coming from the lamp change, so does plant metabolism.

 

[The Zientist]

You're most welcome, my pleasure as always. TexasTea If you are running into Ca/Mg deficiencies and you're positive that you're amending correctly with the right grade of Dolomite, I would either consider adding Gypsum for another calcium source or a bit of Epsom for the magnesium. I don't have much experience dealing with the Epsom, so I can't guide you there, but Gypsum also adds the sulfur which can play a major role in the synthesis of aroma compounds and improve pest resistance. Either that or consider adding homemade vermicompost early on, before planting and after assembling the soil with all the amendments, and to let the worms make it more bio-available.

dubi Although the term does have an Hawaiian origin, that I've later figured out on google after speaking with them, I don't think they were under the impression that it derived from early Hawaiian cannabis populations. And from the Phylos reports, the amalgamation of landraces and other type of varieties that gave rise to these seems to be very different from the composition of your New Caledonia accession. So I would think otherwise.

They did mention something about James Cook and his travel route passing along the coast of South America. This is purely speculation among the natives, to my knowledge there is no actual data that can connect the dots here.

Eventually I will meet with them again and understand better how's the context there, and if they can reach out to their elders and ask the right questions to shed some light on these matters. One of them told me that his grandfather was already growing in the island, which I find to be quite surprising. I thought the advent of cannabis growing in the island to be of more recent history.

I will receive also a few seeds directly from them and I've asked for some pictures too. I can post the pictures on the thread, if you feel that would be interesting for everyone dubi.

 

[dubi]

Hi The Zientist, i may be wrong, but i don't think New Caledonian cannabis lines like this one trace back to James Cook times on XVIII century, i think they are probably more a 'post hippie thing' like in Hawaii.

I think i commented on it on the Potcast interview, to me this pure sativa New Caledonia line is a blend of very desirable SE Asian and American sativa traits. Considering type of effects, terpenes, growing structure, flowering times, flowering structure, effects, chemotypes, ..... the closest possibility i could think of is a great blend of Mexican and Thai sativa blood.

 

[romanoweed]

@zientist please post caledonian pics man, just label them clearly visible.

 

[The Zientist]

Hi The Zientist, i may be wrong, but i don't think New Caledonian cannabis lines like this one trace back to James Cook times on XVIII century, i think they are probably more a 'post hippie thing' like in Hawaii.

I think i commented on it on the Potcast interview, to me this pure sativa New Caledonia line is a blend of very desirable SE Asian and American sativa traits. Considering type of effects, terpenes, growing structure, flowering times, flowering structure, effects, chemotypes, ..... the closest possibility i could think of is a great blend of Mexican and Thai sativa blood.

I feel that to be highly unlikely too, the data gap is wide. Is there any evidence that James Cook brought aboard drug-type cannabis seeds? But I am not dismissive of that possibility, neither.
I don't know enough to comment on these topics accordingly. Perhaps one day, following a more thorough genetic analysis and comparative study of the populations from New Caledonia, this can be pinpointed. Until then, we can have fun trying to find and connect the dots.

I'm well aware of your hypothesis, I've read your post and listened to both Potcast episodes.
heir origin being a result of an amalgamation between Southeast Asian and Central/South American landrace populations is a very appealing and well supported theory, based on the traits you mentioned and your extended experience and expertise with these varieties. Without any relatives popping up in Phylos, adds even more spice to the mystery.

romanoweed I wasn't able to gather with them yet, I'm looking forward to speak with them over these affairs. As soon as I have access to these pictures, I will gladly post them here, if dubi deems this the right place to do so.

Kind regards

 

[TexasTea]

This is the sativa leaning one. Starting to mellow out in the jar after a couple of months. I guess maybe even not quite two months. Anyway, it is smelling wonderful, lots of tropical fruit character with a hint of banana in the nose. The high is clear and very functional. Nice work dope.

 

[romanoweed]

we need more "nice work weeds". A nice opposite to many todays strains it sounds

 

[Vapomiam]

​

Hi there, greetings from the pacific

Below is an interesting article in french from Soft Secret about New Caledonia's cannabis history. Hope you enjoy the reading . You can use google translate and i can help if some points remain unclear.

L’HISTOIRE DU CANNABIS EN NOUVELLE CALÉDONIE :
https://softsecrets.com/fr/article/lhistoire-du-cannabis-en-nouvelle-caledonie

From my experience, being from the island, the article is quite a bit romanced but give a nice feeling of the cannabis culture over there.
For sure there is a great diversity of genetic origins.
I can confirm, from oral sources, genetics origin from Thailand, Vietnam, India, Zamal (Réunion island), Tahiti, Africa and of course from "dutch internet sources" while limited because of the difficulty to import seeds in this protected endemic paradise that is New Caledonia.
In the article, mexican genetics are mentioned in the beginings, but really don't know where this come from because there is not quite a big connection between NC and Mexico, maybe from the american soldiers being there during world war 2 but seems very unlikely as to my understanding and according to older people over there, beginings are more in the 60's, 70's.
For sure, there is a nice folklore about cannabis in New Caledonia, with stories of perennial plants of more than 6 years in "l'ile des pins", or of mango tasting varieties being grown in mango fields in Canala, extremely strong weed and of the best reputation and cannabis cup honnors from Ouvéa, "roussette" variety that smells like bats, hallucinogenic effects from "Maré", ... But don't be foold by all of that, while there are some passionated growers, most of the weed here is of poor quality, mostly because of bad drying technics, no curing and early harvests.
I m quite conviced however that genetic genepool remains interesting as the Ace offering seems to confirm. I have collected a few lines over the years, when i saw potential in them, that are waiting for legal years. Hope one day i can discover unique treasures from them .

Have a great day all.

Future

 

[Hiesenburg420]

romanoweed you wanted to speak to me about my strain in 2016

 

[dubi]

Amazing collection of New Caledonian genetics Vapomiam If some of them carry quality sativa genetics like the one we have explored and released then you are in a treat! Thanks for the Soft Secrets article, i find it quite vague and not adding much contrasted info, yet it's still interesting to hear more reports about the sativa lines of the island.

Thanks a lot TexasTea I like a lot what i'm seeing and hearing from your smoke report after 2 months harvest.
Glad the flowers capture the tropical fruity terpenes and uplifting effects i love so much from this released NC sativa line.
It's indeed a great sativa to work and to enhance any activity. Can't thank you enough for your motivation to experience so many ACE lines and for sharing your results with us!

Welcome Hiesenburg420

 

[Ur Humbl Nr8tor]

Amazing collection of New Caledonian genetics Vapomiam If some of them carry quality sativa genetics like the one we have explored and released then you are in a treat! Thanks for the Soft Secrets article, i find it quite vague and not adding much contrasted info, yet it's still interesting to hear more reports about the sativa lines of the island.

Thanks a lot TexasTea I like a lot what i'm seeing and hearing from your smoke report after 2 months harvest.
Glad the flowers capture the tropical fruity terpenes and uplifting effects i love so much from this released NC sativa line.
It's indeed a great sativa to work and to enhance any activity. Can't thank you enough for your motivation to experience so many ACE lines and for sharing your results with us!

Welcome Hiesenburg420

I’m going to have to get in on this NC party. I think she’d feel right at home in my sativa grove.

 

[ColoradoSativas]

Hey Dubi, I've got some New Caledonia growing now, one of them is a big female with dark purple stems. I didn't see anything in your posts about that purple pheno, know anything about it?

 

[Hombre del mont]

hi ColoradoSativas . I found a purple stemmed male, unfortunately i wasn't able to keep it.

 

[TexasTea]

ColoradoSativas, if you go back through the thread, you will see a lot of pics and discussion of my very purple pheno.

 

[dubi]

Thanks for joining ColoradoSativas please post some pics if you have the chance and tell us a bit more about her and the conditions she is being grown.

 

[Costa]

My first post after visiting the forum as a guest for years...Hello everyone and saludos from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. I am currently trying out several Ace strains here to check out their potential in a tropical environment. New Caledonia is one of them and since there aren't that many reviews by now i thought i could share my impressions i've gained so far with this variety.
On the 12th of may, 6 seeds (thx for the extra bean!) went into a tray with native soil and 3 days later all of them had germinated. 5 of them grew healthy/rapidly and where transplanted to their final spot in the garden 1 Month later. The other one showed male attributes after 3weeks already and was in general not as vigorous as the others so it went on the compost.

New Caledonia 6 weeks from seed in natural light cycle 13/11h

After about 10 -11weeks Plants started to show their sex. First it looked like 1 male/4female but unfortunately it turned out that two of them where full hermies and got pulled out immediately. Another one had some very few male pollen sacks as well. But just in the moment when I wanted to cut the plant down it seduced me with a heavy "peach ring" candy smell so I decided to just cut the few sacks I've found and observe "her" closely in the next weeks but I did not found any more bananas. So 3 Plants left, all female.

Here they are in week 12

21 days later at the end of week 15 flowers start to build up fast

Rain season started way earlier than expected and since beginning of August it had rain nearly every day, tropical thunderstorms included. But the ladies don't seem to be very impressed by the heavy rainfalls, winds and even fog. They continued getting taller for another 2 weeks but by now all the energy goes into their flowers. So far no sign of any fungi or rot. Impressive. Leafs start to yellowing out a bit too fast for my taste. Probably some of the nutrients, i use only natural inputs sourced directly from the land, got washed away with the continuous rainfalls. Smell is very fruity and i still can smell the "peach rings". Yummy

Beginning of week 17 on one of the few sunny mornings we have had here recently.

Realy hope they will make it until the end. Hard to say when they will be ready for harvest. So far, besides the hermies, an absolute unproblematic and easy strain for these conditions here.
Will try to get into more details of each plant in the next posts.

 

[Ur Humbl Nr8tor]

My first post after visiting the forum as a guest for years...Hello everyone and saludos from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. I am currently trying out several Ace strains here to check out their potential in a tropical environment. New Caledonia is one of them and since there aren't that many reviews by now i thought i could share my impressions i've gained so far with this variety.
On the 12th of may, 6 seeds (thx for the extra bean!) went into a tray with native soil and 3 days later all of them had germinated. 5 of them grew healthy/rapidly and where transplanted to their final spot in the garden 1 Month later. The other one showed male attributes after 3weeks already and was in general not as vigorous as the others so it went on the compost.

New Caledonia 6 weeks from seed in natural light cycle 13/11h



After about 10 -11weeks Plants started to show their sex. First it looked like 1 male/4female but unfortunately it turned out that two of them where full hermies and got pulled out immediately. Another one had some very few male pollen sacks as well. But just in the moment when I wanted to cut the plant down it seduced me with a heavy "peach ring" candy smell so I decided to just cut the few sacks I've found and observe "her" closely in the next weeks but I did not found any more bananas. So 3 Plants left, all female.

Here they are in week 12


21 days later at the end of week 15 flowers start to build up fast


Rain season started way earlier than expected and since beginning of August it had rain nearly every day, tropical thunderstorms included. But the ladies don't seem to be very impressed by the heavy rainfalls, winds and even fog. They continued getting taller for another 2 weeks but by now all the energy goes into their flowers. So far no sign of any fungi or rot. Impressive. Leafs start to yellowing out a bit too fast for my taste. Probably some of the nutrients, i use only natural inputs sourced directly from the land, got washed away with the continuous rainfalls. Smell is very fruity and i still can smell the "peach rings". Yummy

Beginning of week 17 on one of the few sunny mornings we have had here recently.


Realy hope they will make it until the end. Hard to say when they will be ready for harvest. So far, besides the hermies, an absolute unproblematic and easy strain for these conditions here.
Will try to get into more details of each plant in the next posts.

Sorry to hear about the hermaphrodite issues. Are there any stray lights around? I tend to find that matters little outdoors in a stable gene pool, but maybe these are a bit touchy. I really like to smells you describe and the effects definition from dubi sounds amazing. I need to find a way to get these seeds in my location. Best of luck!,

 

[Costa]

Are there any stray lights around?

No, not at all. I live off the grid in a rural area.

 

[Costa]

NC1
This was the one with the few pollen sacks at the beginning of flowering. Shorter than her sisters, only around 1.50m, but the most pungent and refined smell of all of them. Full "peach rings". Also the Flower-structure is more compact.

Photos from today, 4 months from seed.

NC2
Around 2m in height. The most sticky of the bunch, already a lot of crystals and buds are fattening up nicely. Very fruity terps but that peach smell is not as dominant as on NC1. More like mixed tropical fruits (kiwi, papaya, mango). Thats probably the "fruit salad" smell dubi has mentioned. Bud structure is a bit more open and airy but still very good.

Have you noticed the praying mantis on the second photo?

NC3
With around 2.20m the tallest of them. Seems to be a week or two behind the others in terms of flower development. Leaves are broader than on the other ladies but the rest of the plant shows more typical sativa traits. Smell is less strong, fruit terps are still present but accompanied by a metallic, hazy smell. More airy flowers but im sure they gonna pack up nicely.