Grow Report: Nebula

Strongest Sativa ever smoked

Apart from Sensi Star and Belladonna, Nebula (also called Starcloud, due to its stellar qualities, as Luc from Paradise Seeds explains) is one of Paradise Seeds' most popular strains, having scored a lot of prizes at various weed festivals and cannabis contests. It has been available as seed variety since the mid-90ies, belonging to Paradise's initial seed collection. Taking a closer look at Nebula's genetics reveals its secret of success: She is composed of a fruity sweet US Haze-dominated genetic line and the spicy Master Widow, a White Widow cross in the 13th generation (at that time) developed by Dutch seed breeder Ingemar. This fine Mostly Sativa genetic lineage represents a perfect synthesis of both parents, Nebula tends to have that trade mark white appearance of the White Widow family combined with the fruity sweetness and soaring high of the Sativa parent.

I stumbled upon Nebula in 2008, when Luc gave me a bright little piece of Nebula water hash that strongly smelled like lemon, being extremely sticky. After inhalation, this rare specialty came down on me like a bolt from the blue, it was the strongest Sativa-like hash I had smoked so far. So I quickly decided to put this strain to a cultivation test for the first time. A friend of mine sowed six Nebula seeds (all of them sprouted), kept them in vegetative growth for four weeks. The plants were grown on soil, together with other strains under a 600 W HPS lamp and exhibited great uniformity.

Stronger and more complex

At the beginning of the flowering stage, they were 50-60 cm high, with moderate side-branching and dark-green leaves. The flowering cycle revealed that the plants would stretch a little bit, finally reaching approx. 80-90 cm at harvest time still an optimum indoor height. Nebula exhibits strong, long hairs and very densely packed flower clusters that are coated with large amounts of resin glands in the course of flowering. However, note that this strain has rather high light requirements, never expose it to low light setups, but make use of the fact that Nebula will reward extra light with extra buds. The grower's Nebula plants were ripe after 8-9 weeks of flowering, exactly matching the time period stated in Paradise Seeds'catalogue (which at that time was 56-63 days, nowadays it's 60-65 days). They were rich in resin, but could not quite compete with the sheer abundance of White Widow. Nevertheless these big buds delivered a stronger and more complex buzz than White Widow does its amazing how the combination of this paradise genetics have a bigger impact then the white widow alone. The euphoric effects of the high resembled those of the previously tested Nebula water hash pretty much, even though somewhat less intensive, of course. A very fast effect onset is followed by a long-lasting cerebral sativa high, accompanied with a certain degree of indica stonedness after some time - Sativa & Indica at their best. Some people even describe Nebula's high as trippy or psychedelic. As for the Nebula's THC potential, Paradise Seeds states 18-20%.

Reach for the stars...

And yes, these guys have any legitimation to maintain that Nebula earns its second nickname honey pot for its sweet smell and distinctively honeyed fruit flavor. Both smell and taste of the grower's Nebula buds were fantastic, indeed very sweet and fruity, and also very smooth in the lungs. Breeder Luc reports that Nebula also performs very well in a sea of green setup, recommending 10 plants per square meter for this method (potential yield: up to 500 grams per m2). Nebula will do well in hydro, coco or soil indoors. But this is not the whole story: It can also be grown successfully outdoors even in Holland (harvest time: mid-October), generally being an appropriate choice for outdoor gardens in temperate zones that offer a minimum flowering time of 9 weeks before the first frost. Once again: Nebula needs plenty of light, so locations with southern exposure will yield the best results, in figures 500-1000 grams per plant according to Paradise Seeds.

Nebula is a remarkable high-quality strain with the extra plus of great versatility. Grow it, smoke it, get ready for take-off and then reach for the stars...

Cultivation data:

Genetic lineage: Mostly Sativa (US Haze-Cross x Ingemar's Master Widow)
Suitable environment: Indoors, outdoors between 50 NL and 50 S
Vegetative stage: 4 weeks (incl. germination)
Flowering time: 8-9 weeks, in general 60-65 days
Medium: standard grow-mix
pH: 6-7
EC: up to 1.9
Light: 600 W HSP
Temperature: night: 16-18C
day: 24-28C
Air humidity: 50-70%
Watering: flood irrigation
Fertilizer (veg. stage): Advanced Hydroponics Dutch Formula
Fertilizer (flowering stage): Advanced Hydroponics Dutch Formula
Stimulants: Bio Nova X-cel
Height: 80-90 cm
Yield: 23-28 grams per plant