My Goals In Developing SouthEast Lights
My original purpose was to develop Sensi Seeds Northern Lights for the environment of the southeast U.S. I knew it had been developed in the Pacific NW of the U.S. and then bred for seed development in the Sensi greenhouses of Amsterdam, both environments that are drastically different from the long, sunny growing seasons in the S.E. Much, _much_ respect to NL Seattle Greg for his decades of work creating Northern Lights. Much respect to Nevil Schoenmakers and Ben Dronkers for selectively developing a magnificent, foundational strain of cannabis.
I decided to increase the typical vegetative phase by a month or two for increased root and leaf development and then slowly extended the flowering phase by an additional two months to provide adequate time for the buds to mature into ripe old age, for a total life-cycle of 6-7 months. Unlike the short growing season of the Pacific NW and the seed production greenhouses in Amsterdam, I gave time for the plants to develop their full potential. There was no need to top, prune, FIM, ScrOG or do anything else un-natural. I would never use chemicals or hormones for seed production. I knew I could make Northern Lights shine even brighter.
That was 20 years ago.
I created an indoor environment that would mimic the environment of the SouthEast U.S., with as much light and air circulation as possible. This included 100 watts per square foot of metal halide light that transitioned to almost 2k PAR light via LED's, 450 cubic feet per minute of air circulation and 7 gallon containers of well-balanced potting soil. I had previously grown Jamaican and Columbian sourced Type IV/hybrid cannabis in this environment with very good success.
That was 30 years ago.
I've been guided by the brilliant light of this statement:
"The cannabis plant is a truly special emissary of the plant world to man, and is a great teacher of appreciation for the wholeness of the lifeforce which animates this planet. It is a very beautiful plant, with a great vibrance and serenity, the very essence of the feminine creative energy. The Princess of the plant world, who gives us a wonderful gift in return for our care and attention."
Owsley "Bear" Stanley
Unexpected Results
For many, many years, up to the F4 gen, the plants were rock solid stable. They were essentially all the same, a vigorous Type IV/Hybrid Christmas tree pheno that made Northern Lights such a legendary developmental strain. I knew things were going to get weird at F5 and they did. Started getting a few Type II/Indica phenos that were poplar shaped, shorter and darker green. They had a more intense smell and mellow effect, a nice variation from the normal Northern Lights. After a couple generations, I learned to identify the pheno early in its development, so I could enjoy a bit of variety in the desired mental effect.
At F6, the first Type I/Sativa plant appeared. I was sure this plant was just an over-achieving male because it was just so height dominant over all the others. The pre-flowers caused me to question my assumption and flowering proved me wrong. I was expecting so much after harvest and curing but was a bit underwhelmed. Low yield, almost no smell with a nice, clear mental effect, quite familar from my time in Miami. I guess I was expecting the Thai portion of Northern Lights to really be different from the high quality Jamaican and Columbian I knew so well. It wasn't. On this last F6 grow, all three appeared simultaneously.
That's when I realized I had reverse engineered Northern Lights.