Grow Report: White Berry

White Berry was part of a „six-pack“ of new feminized Paradise Seeds strains released to the market in 2007. The strain had been called “Hashberry” during development, but was renamed by Paradise Seeds due to the fact that a strain of the same name was available on the seed market from another company already. Paradise Seeds managed to earn themselves a good name as a producer of reliable feminized seeds after having released their first feminized versions in 2005, made from classic Paradise strains such as Sensi Star, Dutch Dragon, Nebula or Sheherazade (current Allkush). Ever since they have been receiving a very positive feedback on their feminized strains from lots of growers worldwide who reported 100% femaleness.

Uniform and superior female plants and flowers

Luc, the breeder of Paradise Seeds, is permanently working on feminized strains. A lot of precious and fruitful basic research on feminized seeds was done by Paradise Seeds in Switzerland several years ago. Back then, Paradise Seeds maintained huge breeding and production facilities in the Alp republic. The feminization method used by Luc has proven to be highly reliable.

Luc: “Our method is based on a scientific study on gender change in cannabis plants, dating back to the early eighties. Only if a specially selected female plant remains female even under stress, we will treat this plant in order to induce the production of stamina, the pollen of which is then used to fertilise appropriate sister plants. This method is called “selving”, and the result is feminized seeds that will produce uniform female plants. Under normal conditions, our feminized seeds will give you uniform and superior female plants and flowers. We believe they are much better than clones, as plants grown from seeds are stronger and more resilient.”

The Jacky White strain had previously been tested by infamous German grower Mr. Power Planter in its feminized form, fully convincing him with excellent 100% female plants, there were no signs of hermaphrodism or maleness at all. So he decided to put feminized White Berry seeds to the test as well.

A single-cola dominance

As with all of his strains, Master Luc keeps the exact pedigrees of this strain a secret. So we can only speculate about the genetic source of White Berry’s “White” attribute… while one thing is for sure according to Luc – it’s not White Widow. Also because of White Berry’s short flowering time of 50 days, Mr. Power Planter was interested in this strain. However, there was very little space in his grow room at that time and he realised that he could cultivate only four White Berry plants in addition. The four seeds germinated well and Mr. Power Planter placed the seedlings into two litre pots filled with Plagron Standard Mix. They thrived well under two 115 watts MaxGrow Dual Spectrum lamps and under a 400 watts Plantastar HPS respectively beginning from day 12. Then the plants were repotted again, this time into six litre pots. When Mr. Power Planter induced flowering by cutting down the light cycle from 18 to 12 hours, the four White Berry plants were moved under a 600 watts Osram NAV-T, sharing the cultivation area with several other plants. As stated by Paradise Seeds, their flowering reaction was very fast, indeed, with the first pre-flowers being visible after about a week. Their growth pattern also matched the breeder’s description, slender and medium in height, with a single-cola dominance. However, there were certain differences in height, one of the plants was about 25-30% taller than the other three.

Amazing: Like all the other Paradise strains

During flowering, the upper foliage of the plants turned purple and red, giving them a remarkable beautiful look, all the more in combination with the tremendous layers of white resin that had built up during flowering. These four White Berry plants really deserved their “white” attribute, oozing with resin. In addition, the flower structure was impressively dense and tight, also exhibiting a high calyx-to-leaf ratio that would make harvest work very fast and comfortable. Their sweet and fruity berry perfume was a sheer pleasure to Mr. Power Planter’s nose. Once again, he couldn’t find any male flowering on the plants, they all turned out to be purely female. However, one has to concede that the rather small number of four plants was not that representative. With an end height of 65-85 centimetres, the plants had remained small and medium-sized, being easy to handle. Their yield was 24-30 grams, a very solid and satisfying result for plants grown from seed and cultivated on soil. Flowering lasted a little bit longer than stated by Paradise Seeds (50 days), but 50-55 days are clearly within the range of tolerance.

Purple and red colours

Paradise Seeds promises that “White Berry’s hybridised genetics create a complex and versatile smoke, with the typical result being a crystalline sativa head high”. But the smoker should also be aware that “when smoked in higher quantities, an Indica-style body stone comes forward”. So Paradise Seeds come to the conclusion that “tokers who smoke lightly throughout the day, but want a deeper stone at night, may find that White Berry meets all their needs in one attractive, easy-growing package.” Well, Mr. Power Planter found out that all these information proved to be true. The dry White Berry buds effected a strong and long-lasting uplifting high when smoked in moderate amounts, and made him more kind of stoned when smoking a lot of them. But this is pretty normal, isn’t it? We all end up stoned after having enjoyed the Green to the fullest... White Berry`s taste was sweet`n fruity and somewhat berry-like, indeed, very delicious.

On the whole, once again a reliable high-quality feminized strain from Paradise Seeds. Amazing: Like all the other Paradise strains, White Berry can be grown outdoors, too, ripening already at the beginning of October under natural light. The colours must be incredible then, regarding the fancy purple and red colours White Berry exhibited even indoors…

Cultivation data:

Strain: White Berry
Pedigree: 75% indica / 25% sativa
Vegetative stage: 20 days
Flowering stage: 50-55 days
Medium: Plagron Standard Mix
pH: 6.2-6.5
EC: max. 2.0 mS
Light: vegetative: 2x MaxGrow 115 watts Dual Spectrum CFL, then 400 W Plantastar HPS
flowering: 600 W Osram NAV-T
Temperature: night: 17-20 °C
day: 23-27°C
Air humidity: 45-55 % in the flowering stage
Watering: by hand
Fertilizers: H&G One Component Fertilizer in the flowering stage
Stimulators/Additives: Hesi SuperVit, PK 13-14 in flowering week six
Height: 65, 70, 77 and 85 cm
Yield: 24, 27, 28 and 30 grams