Grow Report: Original White Widow IBL

Paradise Seeds did astonish the seed market this year with a release of two classic strains in the form of real IBL (inbreed line) genetics: Original Cheese and Original White Widow. Using them as building blocks for creating new varieties, IBLs are hardly made available by seed breeders to the public, so the release of these two classic IBLs must be considered a real gift from Paradise breeder Luc to all those growers and breeders out there. He felt that time was due in 2012 to open his treasure chamber and share some of his pure-bred genetic gems with the cannabis world, also unleashing the legendary White Widow which, young and pretty as she has ever been, can now celebrate a lot of new wedding feasts again all over the world. And she's a full-blooded lady, indeed, being only available in the form of feminized seeds.

Famous for its heavily thick and white crystal layers

After her market introduction in 1995, White Widow became the undisputed queen of the scene for years, winning countless awards at the High Times Cannabis Cup and Highlife Cup, advancing to one of the most popular strains ever. Famous for its heavily thick and white crystal layers, she's still a standard on almost every Dutch coffeeshop card, a real timeless evergreen that still is a special delight to many growers and smokers worldwide. Luc received both an original White Widow female and male clone from Ingemar, the original WW breeder, back in 1996 and used them as breeding blocks for a couple of Paradise strains, enhancing the quality of the respective outcomes. His Original White Widow (50% indica, 50% sativa) delivers homogeneous plants building big central buds with tons of resin and a very high THC content, her turn is expected to be very strong and long lasting, accompanied by a pleasantly floral and pine flavour. She takes about 60 days of flowering to ripen, yielding up to 500g/m2 under indoor lights and up to 500g per plant under natural light (finishing time early October, can be grown outdoors between 50º n.L. and 50º s.L.).

The Doc was all on edge when he heard that Paradise Seeds had released the Original White Widow IBL and instantly decided to put her to the test in his grow room. Due to space issues, he only germinated three feminized seeds that quickly sprouted between moist kitchen paper sheets, then being planted into into 11 litre pots filled with Plagron Standard Mix soil to which he had previously added 5% expanded clay and horn chippings, and put into a small grow box under two Secret Jardin 150 W high-efficiency CFL lights for nine days. Then the three seedlings were moved into the actual grow room with plenty of HPS light and left there in the vegetative stage for two more weeks. At the age of two weeks, the plants grew very homogeneously, exhibiting heavily indica-dominant stout bushy growth and broad leaves, measuring only about 10 cm in height, with already 5-6 internodes and accordingly much side branch onsets.

After 23 days in the vegetative stage, The Doc induced flowering by switching the light cycle down from 18/6 to 12/12, at the same time installing two GIB Lighting 600 W HPS and one 400 W Osram Son T plus lamp for an optimum flowering light spectrum. When the plants were two weeks into flowering, having revealed their female gender, there was a noticeable stretching effect which was appreciated by The Doc. One week later, many little rose-shaped flower onsets had emerged along the branches. After four weeks of flowering, The Doc reported: „Now there are many most promising flower clusters on the plants, and resin production gets going! Lots of crystals are developing on the calyxes and flower leaves, the three OG White Widow plants seem to live up to this strain's trademark which is resin in abundance.“

Trichome accumulation became extremely vivid

When five weeks of flowering had been passed, trichome accumulation became extremely vivid, effecting an intense sweet floral smell, and that stretching effect seemed to have come to an end, at heights of about 65-75 cm. The three plants were about building very dense buds with a high calyx-to-leaf ratio, exhibiting an excellent blooming pattern. After six weeks, not a single flower pistil had withered, with the three OG White Widow plants looking fresh and beautiful, silvery white with resin. One week later, The Doc noted: “Now the first pistils have turned orange-brown, the peak of the flowering impulse seems being passed, while the three plants are still pumping out fresh new resin glands, heavily 'sweating'. They will obviously take somewhat longer to mature than officially stated.”

Until the very end, the three plants had remained to grow and bloom very homogeneously, in terms of height (68, 75 and 77 cm), branching habit, budding pattern, resin content and odour. They were laden with lots of side branches and big fat tops, forming a “carpet” of colas below the main cola that stood out of them. The first plant was harvested after 62 days, the other two followed on days 64 and 66. “But it was worth waiting those further 2-6 days, the calyxes of these compact, densely budded Widow plants kept on swelling in that little extra period, a real pleasure to look at!”

Tremendous White Widow Indica Power

Thanks to the very high calyx-to-leaf ratio of the buds, harvest work was quickly done. Considering those fairly low heights of the plants, The Doc was extremely satisfied with their dry bud yields which were 62, 65 and 70 grams of rock-hard crystal white nuggets looking very mouthwatering. He also liked their most delicious odour very much, it was pleasantly sweet and mild, sunny-floral and with a certain pine undertone, indeed. Of course it was with highest expectations when The Doc smoked the first Original White Widow joint, but what he did experience then, astounded even a longtime stoner like him: He was totally slammed by tremendous White Widow indica power in no time, half a joint was enough to throw him deep into his couch, feeling totally steamrolled! Although this strain officially has a sativa content of 50%, that wasn't noticed by the Doc in the high at all - when he had smoked the second half of the joint, he felt, positively, devastated to the bone and that mighty indica bang in his mind and body latest on four almost two hours.

“This is awesome Original White Widow quality, one of the strongest smokes I've encountered in recent years”, The Doc raved, “and the plants are very easy to grow and giving excellent yields. No doubt about that: The Original White Widow is still an absolutely wrinkle-free queen, forever young! Breeder Luc's IBL version impressively showed why the White Widow genetics have achieved a legendary status.”

Cultivation data:

Genetics: Original White Widow IBL
Vegetative growth: 23 days after germination
Flowering: 62-66 days, in general 60 days
Medium: Plagron Standard Mix with 5% expanded clay and horn chippings, 11 litre pots
pH: 6,0–6 6,0–6,5
EC: vegetative: 1,2–1,6 mS
Flowering: 1,6-1,9 mS
Light: First nine days of growth: 2x TLC 150 lights
Rest of the vegetative stage: 2x Osram Plantastar 600 W HPS
Flowering: 2x GIB Lighting 600 W HPS + 1x 400 W Osram Son T plus
Temperature23-26°C (day) 18-20°C (night)
Air humidity: Vegetative stage: 40–60%
Flowering: max. 50%
Watering: By hand
Fertilisation: HeSi Blühkomplex, HeSi Phosphor Plus from the 4th week of flowering
Additives/stimulants: Plagron Seed Buster Plus, HeSi SuperVit and Wurzelkomplex
Height: 68, 75 and 77 cm
Yield: 62, 65 and 70g