White Siberian

After a browse through the wide variety and range of seeds in the Dinafem seed catalogue and a suggestion by my good friend Purple Phoenix, I decided to try out their White Siberian strain. It descends from a carefully selected White Widow chosen for its stability, high yields, psycho-activity

After a browse through the wide variety and range of seeds in the Dinafem seed catalogue and a suggestion by my good friend Purple Phoenix, I decided to try out their White Siberian strain. It descends from a carefully selected White Widow chosen for its stability, high yields, psycho-activity and taste, along with its medicinal aspects crossed with an equally well chosen AK-47 which offered it’s aromatic properties, strength and heavy yields. Considering some of the packaging provided by some seed companies, I was rather impressed with the presentation of the Dinafem seeds, they arrived in a small pop tin which itself contained a plastic vessel with seeds within. They were very well protected. A pack of three seeds was used and they were started in the process of germination. All three of the pack actually sprouted and they were then transferred to Root Riot cubes and put into a heated propagator until roots became visible through the bottom and side of the cubes. Then the seedlings were potted up into small pots with Plagron Light-Mix soil and they were carefully observed for vigour and vitality, the best of these was then moved on to the grow tent.

The entire grow was housed in a Hortilab 80x80x160 tent, fitted with an extraction system provided by a Vents TT 100 fan and a 100mm Rhino hobby filter. With the size of the tent and its positioning in a small cupboard, I decided upon and 250w Maxibright Digilight ballast and a 250w Sunmaster dual-spectrum bulb to help in some way to reduce any difficulties with heat. Additionally, an Exhale CO2 bag was added to provide some added CO2 and the potential bonus should we get any further heat problems, sadly a rather common predicament in these situations, especially during the summer months. 

Once the seedling was ready to be potted up, it was transferred to a 11L pot containing Guanokalong soil mix and watered in using Growth Technology’s Nitrozyme feed and Vitalink’s Bio Plus, utilised for its effective vitamin-based root initiation and as a stress reliever, especially useful after being re-potted. As the plant had started to flourish, the feed was changed for Ionic Soil Grow, a vegative feed, to provide more building blocks for increased growth and potential yield. The growth throughout could be said to be vigorous, things looked healthy and there was a flourish of leaf production.

The pH was monitored throughout this cultivation and only once did I find it necessary to add a touch of Growth Technology’s pH Down, to bring the pH from 7 to a more suitable range of 6.5, this would help to ensure the proper uptake of all the vital minerals required for vigorous growth. After a couple of weeks the plant was ready to be initiated into the flowering phase, so the lighting hours were switched and reduced from 18.5 hrs of light down to 11.5 hours. To facilitate this change in phase of the plant’s growth, the feed was changed and the bloom feed aspect of this grow was covered by using Growth Technology’s Ionic Soil Bloom. In addition, I used Dutch Pro Explode for a bloom booster to provide that little extra something and give her every opportunity to produce as much flower as she could, especially given the circumstances of her position, in a small tent, in a small cupboard. I have had some encouraging results with the Explode product as a booster additive in the past. Looking in the tent at this stage of growth there was a wonderfully proportioned plant developing with a strong looking central stem around which there was an abundance of flowers budding and filling. The lateral buds were demonstrating a similar property. White Siberian is an Indica Sativa hybrid that is predominantly Indica, the bud production was vigorous once it had been initiated and as ever, a true pleasure to watch them grow and swell to capacity. As they did so, the buds were becoming encrusted with an impressive collection of trichombs, giving them a shiny appearance and oozing a deliciously powerful and sweet aroma, that certainly got the olfactory system fired up and eager for more.

This has been an unusually warm summer and I have heard plenty of reports of people complaining about this slowing down their grows and adding a couple of weeks to the process and causing all manner of other difficulty and problem. I should say that this did occur with this grow and it took almost two weeks longer than expected to finish, but the actual grow location made making major alterations to combat this problem relatively unfeasible. That said, I wasn’t complaining about the result, apart from this extra few days, the plant showed no sign of stress whatsoever.

On the whole this plant took 73 days in flower until finally, harvest time arrived. The buds from this beauty were thick and dense, but they were also relatively easy to trim, with plenty of frosting on the smaller leaves roundabout the actual flowers . The resulting harvest weight from this plant was just under five ounces of dried bud, weighing in at 136g, it was a most satisfactory and gratifying return. Smoking proved to be a very pleasant long-lasting experience, the sweet aroma and intense effect of this strain gave a cerebral experience and also a relaxing physical effect which would be much appreciated by many who use Cannabis as a medicine. In fact, it has proved very popular with a number of friends who do self-medicate and tried it, their experience of this bud has led to a number of requests for more. 

I think I may just have to take Steppes to doing some more and making it a White Siberian winter too!