Orient Express & more from the Buddhist Arc

[Satyros]

Himalayan Gold

I can't remember whether the at the end of Himalayan refers to landraces or this strain. One way is one and the other way is the other.

With this one, it had about 10 weeks of flowering, although it started slow. And in that time, it obviously didn't produce a major amount. However, it's perfect. Pretty much like making a divine offering. Also not a reeker, but does have a mild musk/skunk/hash aroma.

Now I will admit I ruined the Edelweiss. The Himalayan, although it had more total time, did not ripen overly much. I couldn't really scope the trichomes on Edelweiss when it was growing, because it was so small, but I think the following is true. On indica plants I do look for the pistils to recede, but, once that happens, you should probably plan on harvesting in a week or two. Even though the Edelweiss plant was still green, its pistils had vanished like a month ago, and that should have been the cue to take it.

So although this plant got somewhat battered and faded, the flowers are pristine and absolutely delightful.

 

[Satyros]

Couple quick thoughts.

Firstly about the breeding. It was my intention to reproduce some more Orient Express and try making some Mekong Express. Although I was completely unsuccessful, the male plant appears to have fulfilled his role perfectly.

This crop isn't seedy, but there is a seed or two in a few of the buds. So from the first plant, there came to be about eight Sex Express seeds. And so far, Orient Express is dumping out a few. What I've noticed is the OE seeds look pretty much like the original, small and dark, but for example there was a single Nemesis seed, and it looks like its original, larger and mottled. I have no idea what it means for seeds to look a certain way, but they seem to favor their moms.

The OE is a bit more jar-sweaty than the Mekong was. A few years ago when I decided to try to be somebody for about ten minutes, I picked up a nice Italian jar for storage. It seems to me especially for sweating, it might be a good idea to line it with parchment and maybe the weed wouldn't stick to it as much.

I tried a gross chlorophyll hit of some of the wispy trim, and my guess is it will be similar to the Mekong, but probably more "up".

 

[Satyros]

I almost chopped the Afghan. It stayed quite green through the harvest of other plants, and then it started to fade and the pistils withered, but it still didn't look like quite enough under a loupe. So I left it out, and after a quick overnight freeze, there was a rush of trichomes. Visible from a distance. I am not sure if it's supposed to happen that way, but so it went. Probably not much more time left on that thing now.

Himalaya Gold:

The sample was good enough to me at about 6 weeks, I could have harvested early and been perfectly content. This plant did get a bit seedy; probably dug out about ten Himalayan Express seeds so far. That's probably why the popcorn didn't develop into huge chunks. Even so, this one is an utter classic. Smokable form of meditative bliss. If it was me, I would use the term Sukha, an archaic term for ganja and charas in India, which is the same term for bliss, as in the Pure Land Sukha-vati. As much as I guess it does give a high-stoned buzz, it is almost more like a natural yoga-induced bliss, enough that I'd tend less to call it cannabis; very nearly the "smoke of enlightenment". Very mentally calm (not mindless); cheerful, pleased emotion; and a physical component that's simply more "good" than it is "heavy".

Nemesis:

Myself and others have wondered, due to the proximity of the parents' origin, if this kind is the same as Himalayan Gold. No, it's not. At first, we thought it had a unique or unidentifiable scent, if blue was a flavor, and maybe a little bit of purple, it would be this. Then we thought there was coconut or menthol swimming around in there.

Now actually, I don't have ounces and pounds to the point where they can happily cure for a month and longer undisturbed. Usually when the raw taste is gone, we burn it up. Because the Nemesis was small, I've tried to keep it pushed to the side, and now when you open it, you think: peaches.

In any case. Luxury edition. Limousine version. We think this bud has the best consistency; when you break it up, it beads, and looks like a stall of little green apples. I'd say its effect has a lot in common with HG, however, yes, it feels a bit more like going in a limousine; or as if a small orb inside your chest started expanding like a hot air balloon, and you slowly drift away. It might be fair to say that the Himalayan has more of a community feeling--I wouldn't say "social", but more like the universally shared aspects of spirituality, and the Nemesis is more introspective or more of that journey where only you can go. I'll have to try some more to figure it out, but I'm pretty confident in saying it has something of a large, slow and smooth vehicle ride; whether that is a sail, or limo, balloon, or even a bathyscaph, not quite sure yet.

So far, these two strains are going pretty high on my radar in terms of weed to smoke at those times you're mostly going to relax. I'd probably pick something else in the sense of taking a joint out to go do something, and these are not ultra-sedatives if you wanted something really heavy, but I think they are approaching perfection to relax, feel good, and stay awake.

 

[Satyros]

Not sure if the detail was so great in a lot of these, but here's a little snip of the Mekong I accidentally hit while trimming:



And just as an aside, those goats had an open door again today. Fortunately, since it's down to the Afghan, it's in the middle of the barricade, and they couldn't reach it. What amazed me is that they followed me back into their pen. That's why I smoked this bowl. Not really, but that was remarkably well-behaved for them.

 

[Satyros]

Round two and so forth--

Our second Kiss Dragon also had a kind of pink berry scent over the spice. Also a bit of nose burning vapors. If you ever tried the street "spice", I found quite a few kinds of that, which poured extreme vapor right up your nose. Some cannabis is not quite so extreme as those synthetics, but seems to pack a bit of its own stuff that rides into the nose and sinuses.

The buzz was pretty much the same as the first. It's good; I might say--and maybe this owes to the relative newness of the strain--it's maybe more like fresh pasta. I almost always prefer pasta that sat in the fridge overnight, so the sauce can really mix into the stuff. Fresh, it seems to be stacked on top and more like a separate additive. So I would say this is good pasta and sauce, however, the Nemesis and Himalaya Gold have sat in the fridge overnight and fully blended their aspects.

I waffled a few times about maybe making a mistake with the second Sexbud seed; and I have to say, either this really is the Swiss Cheese, or it's such a variation that it's a regression. There is no grapefruit to it, it's very pungent. The trichomes on this plant did not get very amber, but the buzz is not shiny, it's like tossing a paper airplane that turned out to have a five pound rock in it. Almost a sheer drop, and then, when you hit...well, I find the pieces of my mind out there bouncing around like the cogs and gears from grandpa's machine after we jammed the axe in it.

I never noticed anything was taken, but it turns out, a sample, of Mekong (I believe) made it to the person who supplied us with bags that smelled like perfume, which I can't tell if that was the weed, or what it was stashed in. According to them, the Mekong must have been grown indoors, because it was on par with the high dollar stuff they like, and they tried to buy it.

I took some Kiss Dragon out one time and balled it up in some aluminum foil. Upon opening, from being pressed, it had an incredible look on a commercial basis. If someone showed me a bag of it, I definitely would have gotten first and questioned it never.

As a result of things like this, I have been commissioned, if not outright commanded, to repeat the growing process. So that was fairly encouraging. Aside from committing the rarest of all grower's mistakes with the Edelweiss, I think all of these have shown that they can easily be grown just as well as if they were in an expensive hydro rig...and that growing and breeding in general should be available for anyone who wants to...

 

[Satyros]

Now. Some. Orient Express.

From doing all this, I'm going to generalize that indicas are faster in pretty much every aspect except drying.

If you can hack the taste, they can be good right off the plant and mostly hit quick. What I'm finding from both these Vietnam-based sativas is that even though the wispy bud dries faster, it takes a little time to assume its proportions; or to be fit to smoke. I didn't think either one made good early samples or is suited to any shortcut to force it to burn.

With the Orient Express, maybe I should say "dries on the outside". I am not sure if this was just because it was more or bigger than the Mekong, but, although it didn't wick, there was a collar of moisture in the jar every day until yesterday. Also, it's one I thought, what the heck? Is this molding on the stems? But I think it is normal for the hairs on the stems to take on a silvery appearance for a few days.

So this is really the first point at which a joint works properly. And its kind of a...slow but alert thing. Sort of like the Mekong flipped around. That one seemed to roll in through the eyes and settle into a fairly solid stone. The OE seems more like it starts pretty solidly...I wouldn't say stoned, but maybe centered...and then not really flying away, but sort of looking up. Beholding. It's not a droopy stoned slow, but more like all wave periods are longer and amplitudes turned down. It doesn't hit at all; I got a little tickle around the end of the joint, and then it just kept unfolding. Even with the big, slow thing going on, it's not drowsy or mentally boggy. So far I would put this with Sexbud in terms of something as a good high that won't really detract from other normal daily things.

 

[Satyros]

I already chopped the Afghan, but, there was some trouble with the internet backbone, so the pics aren't in yet.

It appears to have about the same volume as Orient Express did, which means it probably delivers about double the weight. This last plant had the thickest stem, and an octopus growth habit, branches almost horizontal. In terms of breeding, it's readily apparent that for example, Himalayan Gold is "this" mixed with something to make it thinner and more upright, and I presume uplift the buzz.

In trying to understand what people have done with breeding. So, the Swiss Cheese was pretty much what I expected from the Edelweiss. One step shy of an ultra heavy statue type stone. Both are, broadly, an Afghan/Skunk smorgasbord, mixed with Nepali sativa to adapt to Swiss outdoors, for the cold and dampness.

I think there were zero Kiss Dragon seeds. Some of the other plants made like one to five. So far, it seems like the Himalayan Gold was the seediest--not "very seedy", but I can see it may have been enough to hold back the yield. Of course, these wouldn't really become "Himalayan Express" without stabilizing some traits; and the difficulty there is, I don't really want to change it.

I guess I like all kinds of weed, but overall, probably 60% of my preferences run less towards "stoned" or "a buzz", and more towards the HG and Nemesis kind of thing, which I would categorize more as simply "good". Haven't quite decided if Orient Express is that same way; we ran out of papers, and I figured maybe it should get a chance to actually cure a little bit.

So at first, from planning to make "Mekong Express" because I thought the plants were similar and the Mekong line was going to vanish, at this point, I may be glad it didn't work. Despite the closeness of their origins, the actual plants and effects from Mekong vs. OE seem fairly distinct. Not something that seems like having a real reason to mix.

If a Vietnam influence would assist the HG in growing here, that could be spiffy. Those physical kinds of adaptations make sense. However, it's starting to look like a pretty deep abyss in terms of, why mix plants to alter the effects. So for example, if there is no need to adjust an Afghan plant to make it grow well, why would I go mixing that with something to make it higher and less stoned...aside from curiosity, or nature providing some seeds.

I don't want to make it sound like I'm opposed to that stuff. In a way, learning about some strains has really...opened questions that I didn't know were there.

Shortly before we got these, we had come across a bag of some of the worst outdoor sativa that could technically have been said to have a minor effect. So I experimented with...was it bad genetics or just a bad crop? About three of those plants came up. They grew about a foot tall, then, the stems turned to wood and they quit. Probably even the most mediocre breeder is actually standing miles above the...rope and sails...that some people are actually content with.

 

[Satyros]

I have got to try this again.

What one of my friends used to call "creeper weed", was, I guess, better quality sativa that does almost nothing while you're smoking it...and then about twenty minutes later, you're like, "what the hell happened to me?"

I can't quite decide how close Orient Express is to that. Yesterday, I tried about three bowls of it, stretched out across a couple of hours. I'm working on expanding the goat pen, so, yes, it was a way to enjoy something of an "up" buzz that didn't slow down or interfere with progress. And...I don't know if this is just because I was exhausted, or if this is the way it's supposed to work, but...after finishing, a couple hours after smoking this stuff, I was overwhelmed. Fried out of the gourd. In other words, it could be considered as "minor" in terms of taking a few hits and getting a rush...not likely to happen...but, cumulatively, with repeated use as a "companion", the result was increased or magnified into something the indicas don't really do.

So, being better rested now...we'll repeat yesterday, and see if it goes the same way. The Mekong was different--similar plant physically and geographically, with a much more earthy scent, and effect that usually went eye buzz --> very similar to indica stoned. The OE seems to only have the slightest or incidental stoned-ness, and may be more of a thing that tempts you into pursuing a lighter, more elevated feeling for a longer period of time, and then casts you into a vault from which there is really no escape.

In toking while posting, there is...something to it...sort of like igniting rocket engines before lift-off. With that metaphor, I wouldn't really say it has rocket-like thrust; more like launch is just where they turn off the gravity. Rise rather slowly, so that twenty minutes might not see a big change of scenery, but, apparently it will just keep going until you have exited the star chart.

If that's the general gist of OE, I might say it varies from Sexbud, in that, the Sexbud is something to smoke throughout the day, and then finish with an indica compliment; but on this, you just smoke it and later it eliminates your ability to pick up a bud of something else.

 

[Guest]

Really dig your reports man!Glad you are discovering pleasurable qualities in your OE.Sativas are really worth exploring,there is a very wide range of effects.

 

[Satyros]

Cool, thanks. There is no way to be sure, but I have a strong hunch that most of the outdoor weed that we smoked early on, was probably Vietnamese. I say that because it seems pretty clear, from the military, there was a big supply line for it, and I can't really say that there was the same degree of connection to Mexico or anywhere else at the time.

Yesterday I wasn't so exhausted, so, just the weed on its own...seemed very similar, it just kind of slowly accumulates, and...at an hour relatively distant from having smoked it, yeah, it was a bit of what the hell happened to me, a bit of an altered state.

You're "almost" stoned the whole time, but, it doesn't really do that; at least, to me, it makes a very centered unit from heart to head, feels nice, and can loosen your screws if you keep going with it.

One thing I've found interesting around the forum is to see people getting blinded from three tokes, or even one...and then somewhere else, someone will be tearing up a quarter a day. Pretty sure I'm in the medium somewhere in there.

It looks like nature's refund might keep the OE around for a while, and, I think realistically, I might be able to try one more kind of sativa that, so to speak, is in the 12-14 week flowering range. I'd love some day to be able to smoke some Kerala or other equatorial things, but to personally grow them, my story would probably sound like the guys in Denmark who saw their Vietnamese crash.

 

[Satyros]

Last one here. An Afghan landrace from near the border with Uzbekistan, provided by Spliff Seeds. Always seemed to be a spitting image of what it should: thickest stem of all these, dense/short node spacing, horizontal floppy habit. I think it seemed very close to 1/2 of the Himalayan Gold; both those plants shared a trait of producing pistils, but then not really multiplying flower clusters for two weeks or so.

The pictures are late and the work is done on it. The plant was so dense that, for instance, I had one of the branches in my face for about ten minutes trimming up and down, and it took that long to find the caterpillar.

One of the buds was dead. It was not quite as dark as something necrotic, and was already dry. My guess is that was probably frost damage.

There was just one drawback, because this house is not very well heated, so the air was colder and drier, or actually too cold and dry to do a good job. I was packing this one in a grocery bag and then airing it out. On the last go-round, it came out of the bag all stuck to itself like brick weed, and then after being out for a while, it was crispy. Went right into the jar and it never wicked.





No surprises from this buzz. It's pretty "down", stopping just shy of being a knockout or paralyzer. Which it might even be that, but, let's face it...my resistance is no longer in a clean condition. I used to take breaks simply by not buying another bag, but, that's not working here. I am not sure I can fiddle around with jars of weed and not smoke it.

In any case, this one refilled the jar that the Mekong was in, but it didn't all fit and I had to put more in another one. So it seems very abundant, although it doesn't have any seeds, no diverted energy as with most of the other plants.

 

[Satyros]

Back into the mix.

First we are going to look at "What happens when Orient Express pollinates your feminized plants?"

Starting candidate is Sexbud. There were about eight of these seeds, two being kind of small or maybe immature. After about 48 hours of sowing, one has sprouted and is attempting to break the seed hull. Not much, but it's a start.

I am not sure how to set goals for all these mixes. For one thing, most of the moms are strains only sold as feminized, so you can't really breed them as normal. So with an oddball, like Himalaya Gold x Orient Express, or "Himalayan Express"...one could cull the males and make sinsemilla females, or I suppose you could try to select them and make new seeds, and then later get some more feminized Himalayan Gold to mix with plants found to be more "true to type".

Orient Express mixed with itself made plenty of seeds, enough to handle that one like any ordinary crop.

Mekong High became unavailable from the breeder, although, it still has seed packs in at least a few places, and a bit pricier than they were (I think). This plant, being pretty close to OE to begin with, seems like the best candidate for actual "breeding", or at least reproduction in a selective manner.

The fork in the eye with this stuff appears that the plant you want to smoke, is the one you want to pollinate. Also, without indoor equipment and isolation chambers, all the males are going to be...sensitive issues, I suppose.

We will try adding a few different new things soon; the breeding or reproduction may be a bit unwieldy, but this year we don't want to be slammed in the corner of squeaking out the smallest plants at the last moment of the season. I would say the batch from last year was enough to keep one person, me, lit pretty much continuously, with about enough shared to be the equivalent of a second person staying lit pretty much continuously, for a little over three months. I don't know how much that actually was. Same amount of plants with more growth and more LST-branchy can probably boost it noticeably.

 

[Satyros]

The two tiny seeds did nothing; I wouldn't have put those in a pack for sale; so no expectation from those.

The six nice looking ones all sprouted; one was overly waterlogged and went *splat*, which is my fault. So five viable seedlings got going, although it does include, the first I have ever seen, a three-leaf mutant; that is to say, three cotyledons and the first true leaves are three. Some say this means an extra set of chromosomes. I see no reason not to give it a chance.

 

[Satyros]

Before getting really carried away, we tried what I *think* were seeds from Swiss Cheese and, those came up 2/2 and look a little different from the Sexbud seedlings. Overall, it doesn't seem like the strains designed to work in Switzerland are really the best choice for here, but we are going to see if there is any difference in these having a Vietnamese father.

Concurrently, we finally encountered a "major brand" amongst the commercial provisions, one well-known to heads by the initials "GG". The first thing I noticed is that whoever was behind it, took enough pride in their product to give us a few golf balls, compared to most bags which now look like lower branch popcorn. Without knowing what it is supposed to be or do, I would have to say it has a scent, not particularly pleasant, and not hops or skunk, but seemed a bit more like a wok of vegetables stir-fried with urine. Nevertheless, it smokes pretty nicely; not quite *just* to the brain like Sexbud, probably a bit more like the Mekong eye buzz, but, whereas, my Mekong led to a pretty solid indica stone, the GG is a bit more polished and remained "up" instead of going to a stony drop. So yeah, sort of between Mekong and Sexbud, at least on a first impression of someone else's material.

Edit: foot in mouth. I found out the "well known kind" was "the kind from yesterday" and what we have is called "something else".

 

[Satyros]

Score one Sexbud for the chickens. Four of those left.

I tried starting some Nemesis from same OE father, and, these seeds, usually somewhat thick shelled, still are that way. I suppose the seeds are just part of the mother and the only real paternal differences are inside. Out of six, they kind of all germinated. Two popped cleanly, and the rest needed manual adjustment. One of those barely cracked the shell, and it had what you might technically call a taproot, but not really. I think it just stalled out. Another one came out and looks alive, but isn't unfolding, so it may not go. Looks like four good ones of these. But even as seedlings, they are impressive, a little thicker and greener than the others. Sexbud looks average and the Swiss Cheese still has whitish flimsy stems, so, in spite of the thick hulls, Nemesis seems to make some pretty good starts.

 

[Guest]

Good luck with the new season brother!

 

[Satyros]

Hi, thanks.

Everything seems normal in that first group. They go into protection when potted.

Here's what I was thinking. If Nepal x North India is good, what about some Kerala instead, or Nepal x South India. Mandala answered that with a thing they call Krystalica, so that's where we're at. Also some of their White Bhutanese, Wild Thailand from World of Seeds I think, and then they toss you some Kalichakra.

These are more suitable for the climate than Swiss ones I believe. They actually say Bhutanese can get 2.5m tall if planted in June. Those are feminized. Probably best to do those last, and the others as individual batches every 2-3 weeks. Krystalica says for smaller growth, plant at end of May.

So that's what rolled in to the mix.

 

[Satyros]

Started the Kalichakra first, so that worked out as a 420 thing. Woo. Four of those. Then probably Himalaya...Express...in a week or so.

 

[Satyros]

I personally culled one Sexbud for being a yellow runt. It was not the mutant. Due to the high influx of mixed regular seeds, there is probably a great amount of culling to come, with no reason to attempt nursing anything that looks like it can't keep up.

Kalichakras are popping up. Not sure if it will go 4/4 yet, but maybe. That one looks like one of Mandala's first famous successes; made from S. India and "Golden Triangle" genetics, but I haven't seen anything more specific than that. This early wave is slated for more pruning and LST, and then probably less so until the Bhutanese which may be of the "top it once" sort.

As well as what looks like a basic landrace-y and low generation hybrid genetic pool, Mandala also seems to be set up towards outdoor organic in warm climates. I guess most everybody has "something" that may be good for that, but they seem "mostly" good for the method. They're perhaps a small company, a bit slower and less internet automated than many, and I like stuff like that. Probably what I would be doing in a free country.

Like Nemesis, Kalichakra popped two cleanly; the other two germinated, but weren't even normal "helmet heads" and the attached detritus was pretty much unremovable, so they didn't keep going. So I progressed to approximately sixteen "Himalayan Express". Although we had warm days in February, there were plenty of cool, rainy times until now--when it gets dry with a UV index of nine and temperatures that will start soaring. Pretty much the end of "cool season" activity, which may have been the detriment of the Himalayan last year. We'll see. The remaining strains all seem quite warm-natured, so this is roughly the "dividing line" between the two basic groups.

 

[Satyros]

This seemed rather strange to me, in the Orient Express mixes. Never having done this before, I don't know how much variation from the moms to expect. So far it looks like: none.

Nemesis is definitely Nemesis, broad-leafed and elephantine.

Two of the Sexbuds are narrow-leafed, just as the "grapefruit" parent.

The other kind, which I thought came from a Sexbud seed but turned out so different, I thought it might be Swiss Cheese by mistake, now in its second generation: the two "maybe Swiss Cheeses or Sexbud" look the same as the third Sexbud. I don't know if anyone allows for a "medium leaf" category, but yeah...this third Sexbud is totally distinct, and looking the same as those other two. Looks narrow compared to Nemesis, but broad compared to Sexbud, OE, and so forth.