Grow Report: Pandora

An Autoflowering Gift To the Grower

Pandora is an autoflowering variety which takes its name from Pandora of Greek legend. One of the first autos to be released by Paradise Seeds, this indica dominant strain (a mix of Afghan, Indian and ruderalis genetics) quickly cemented its reputation with cannabis growers thanks to its fast finish, high yield and 18 – 20% THC count.

Described as having a sweet and spicy flavor and an effect that comes with a ‘sense of cosiness’ and relaxation, this strain is also popular with medical users who grow their own medicine. Pandora’s description states 60-65 days from seed to harvest when grown indoors and 75 days outside with an estimated yield of 400g per m² / 100g per plant (indoor/outdoor). This grow report was compiled by renowned German grower ‘The Doc’.

Germination and Vegetative Stage

The three Pandora seeds easily germinated and three days after having sowed them, they had reached the surface of the jiffy pot peat medium. The Doc chose a 20 hour light cycle for growing them, throughout the whole cultivation cycle. Growth was very vivid right from the beginning, and also very homogeneous.

Two weeks after germination, the three Pandora plants had developed into compact young plants with a height of about 15 cm and already several side branch onsets having appeared. Leaf colour and shape, expectedly, clearly pronounced indica traits, being dark green and quite broad. Half a week later, after the seedling stage had more or less been passed, The Doc could already detect the first female preflowers at the top of the plants.

Flowering Stage

In the following weeks, in the course of flowering, the three Pandora plants exhibited a strong stretching effect on both the main stems and side branches. After five weeks, they had arrived at heights of 50-60 cm, still being very compact and having produced a lot of very promising female flower clusters from the bottom to the top, and there already were nice resin build-ups on the flower calyxes and leafs. Also, the plants had started to give off a sweet and spicy smell.

Two weeks later, after about 50 days, bud formation had become quite dense and tight already, and could also convince The Doc with a high calyx-to-leaf ratio, with fairly few flower leaves coming out of the buds that were densely packed with lots of small calyxes. That marvellous bud structure did impress The Doc had expected the plants to express some more indica flowering traits, but these Pandora buds did rather look like 50/50 indica/sativa which The Doc considered a great breeder’s achievement.

However, another two weeks later, he realised that his three Pandora plants would take somewhat longer to fully ripen than stated by Paradise Seeds. While at the end of the harvest window indicated by Paradise, after 65 days, one could have harvested the plants, as about 50% of the flower hairs were withered, meanwhile, The Doc wanted them to reach full maturity and thought that another week at least would also yield even more bud weight. And, indeed, after 72 days, two of the plants were considered fully ripe and harvested, with about 80% of the flowering hairs withered and most of the calyxes thickly swollen.

The third plant – which was the fattest one - remained for another three days and was harvested after 75 days.
All the three plants had produced very attractive long and thick top colas, and also the side branches were laden with nice dense buds covered with proper amounts of sticky resin, spreading an intense sweet smell that also had a spicy note. In the end they had become 70, 73 and 80 cm tall.

Harvest Yield

After he had harvested and slowly dried the Pandora buds over about three weeks, he put them on the scales and happily read amounts of 31, 33 and 39 grams from the display.

Smell and Smoke Report

And also the high provided by Pandora proved to open up a new dimension of autoflowering strain potency to him. Her strong indica effect had a very quick onset, already after a few puffs from a fat Pandora joint, The Doc was wrapped in enduring stonedness that provided a pleasant warm “fluffy” feeling to him, raising some kind of green hope, indeed, causing deeply relieving relaxation in both body and mind, but not totally paralysing so that he was still able to move if necessary – and necessary it was very soon, as he heavily got the munchies from having smoked some Pandora and stood up to search around for sweeties in his kitchen, finding three 100 g chocolate bars that soon were a thing of the past.

Verdict

That effect lasted for about one and a half hour which The Doc regarded as pretty long for an autoflowering strain. He was also highly satisfied with the Pandora flavor that came over very sweet and smooth. So altogether, The Doc was full of praise, in all aspects, for Pandora.

Cultivation data:

Strain: Pandora (90% indica / 10% sativa)
Life cycle here: 72 and 75 days, 60-75 days in general
Medium: Plagron Standard Mix with 5% expanded clay and horn chippings, 11 litre pots
pH: 6.2–6.7
EC: Vegetative stage: 1.2–1.6 mS
Flowering: 1.6-2.0 mS
Light: 2x Secret Jardin High Efficiency 75 W CFL lights = 150 W
Temperature: 23-26°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: HeSi SuperVit and Wurzelkomplex, Enzyme
Height: 70, 73 and 80 cm
Yield: 31, 33 and 39 g