Favorite Northern Lights Breeder?

[Southerncough]

Greetings gardeners,
I've been growing Northern Lights for years. Autos, Photos, freebies, beans from friends, etc.
I don't really remember who the breeders were if I knew at all. Most of them wound up in a little baggie with an "NL" written on it in sharpie.
While working in the garden last night I started to wonder "is one better than the other? Is there a go to breeder for northern lights? Are they pretty equal?"
what are your thoughts?

 

[TorturedSoul]

Sensi Seeds "regular" (non-feminized), if they still have the same line they did 30 years ago. Otherwise... Maybe still them, or Mr. Nice.

Sensi's is currently on sale - 35% off - for €78 ($92.38US) for a pack of ten. But if you live in the USA, you might have to purchase from a "middleman" seed vendor, because Ben didn't sell to US addresses in the past, and may not have changed that policy.

 

[Southerncough]

Thanks. Fortunately i have a bunch of NL seeds from various sources but good to know who breeds the best for future shopping/keeping an eye on the sales, etc

 

[startergrow]

Northern Lights is to be one of my favourites and would love to know I was getting a true strain.

I have grown a few types. One was the Canuk Northern Lights and was really happy with it. Another from a different big seed bank in Canada was also good. (can't name as not sponsors).

I've grown an NL Auto as well which was fine.

In doing some research it seems that supposedly the most documented (authentic?) was from Sensi Seeds, as TorturedSoul mentioned, (available from True North Seed bank who I've had great experiences with). Canuk and True North are affiliated I think.

I wish the banks were more transparent with how they get they get their genetics. It seems that it's a free for all and you just never know.

There's a company Phylo that does DNA analysis of submitted samples and places them in a 3D graphic linking it to all its relatives. Kind of a cool idea to nail down and preserve strains but there was some controversy about them patenting the strains. It's worth checking out the Phylos Galaxy though.


Over the years did you notice much difference in the NL you've grown and used in the past or is usually kind of the same?

 

[Southerncough]

Northern Lights is to be one of my favourites and would love to know I was getting a true strain.

I have grown a few types. One was the Canuk Northern Lights and was really happy with it. Another from a different big seed bank in Canada was also good. (can't name as not sponsors).

I've grown an NL Auto as well which was fine.

In doing some research it seems that supposedly the most documented (authentic?) was from Sensi Seeds, as TorturedSoul mentioned, (available from True North Seed bank who I've had great experiences with). Canuk and True North are affiliated I think.

I wish the banks were more transparent with how they get they get their genetics. It seems that it's a free for all and you just never know.

There's a company Phylo that does DNA analysis of submitted samples and places them in a 3D graphic linking it to all its relatives. Kind of a cool idea to nail down and preserve strains but there was some controversy about them patenting the strains. It's worth checking out the Phylos Galaxy though.


Over the years did you notice much difference in the NL you've grown and used in the past or is usually kind of the same?

I've noticed a lot of similarities in growth, smell, effects, etc. Some were more resilient than others, etc. but also know that phenotypes can vary within the same pack of seeds. For the most part they've all had decent structure with decent yields and that warm, buttery northern lights high that puts a smile on your face and eventually your face on a pillow LOL. My twin brother Couthern Sough got to visit the Sensi store while passing through Amsterdam on vacation a few years ago and allegedly brought home some beans but none were (just) Northern Lights. Come to think of it, one was NL#5x haze.
He Never did attempt to grow it yet....maybe "he" should!
Also brought back some Hindu Kush, Jack Flash, and chocolope too. Though the chocolope was from a store a few doors down from the Sensi store. forgot the name and Mrs Cough was super paranoid and insisted on dumping out all if the packaging with breeder info, etc.

 

[startergrow]

There is something about the NL effect. Always seems to be relaxing, never racy.

It's too bad seeds are so expensive. I've been creating my own lately for myself only, and while there's work involved and I have respect for people who do it for a living, you end up with hundreds of them.

Makes it hard to spend $100 on one seed or even $10 at the cheapest. ( I still do though)

That's why I think the authenticness of the genetics is important, if people are going to plunk down real money.

Shopping directly at the breeder stores would be the best like you mentioned. It's legal here in Canada but it's really tightly controlled by the government. It would be better if they allowed small breeders like with craft beer.

 

[Southerncough]

There is something about the NL effect. Always seems to be relaxing, never racy.

It's too bad seeds are so expensive. I've been creating my own lately for myself only, and while there's work involved and I have respect for people who do it for a living, you end up with hundreds of them.

Makes it hard to spend $100 on one seed or even $10 at the cheapest. ( I still do though)

That's why I think the authenticness of the genetics is important, if people are going to plunk down real money.

Shopping directly at the breeder stores would be the best like you mentioned. It's legal here in Canada but it's really tightly controlled by the government. It would be better if they allowed small breeders like with craft beer.

The closest I've figured for authenticity online is if the seedbank offers to ship in original breeder packaging. Which is cool but not as discreet as stealth shipping. My twin brother did pick up some Doobiebird Daydream seeds on a Colorado trip from a breeder there that was hands down the stickiest bud "he" had ever grown. Like, impossible to even roll a joint with because it'd stick to your fingers, the paper, ANYTHING it touched. So sticky it never really dried up! It's like handling fly paper LOL.
I do have some Pakistani 1975 seeds that my close circle raves about. Her seeds are pretty expensive and I'm tempted to find a male and breed some more seeds but in the meantime her cuttings root pretty quickly, even if just left in a cup of water they'll pop some little white nodes after a week.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I mostly used it back in the day as a breeding partner for equatorial type sativas. Speaking of NL crosses, that NL×Haze was pretty good, lol. I think Nevil Schoenmakers, King of Cannabis (RiP) was the first one to produce and work with that strain, maybe way back in the 1980s when he had his The Seed Bank of Holland. But I could be mistaken; it's been a long time, and the ol' brain is more than a bit crispy around the edges.

Oh, regarding the price of cannabis seeds: They're a bargain, and would still be a great value if they cost $100 each, lol. Each female plant can produce (many) thousands of clones(*), and each male can produce enough pollen for a lifetime worth of breeding/ crossing.

(*)Photoperiodic female plants, of course. If one chooses to grow autoflowering varieties... buy non-feminized ones and use a male to pollinate a female, I guess. Or mix up a batch of silver thiosulfate and use it to cause a female plant to produce staminate (aka "male") flowers. Rifleman did that (although I think he might have used colloidal silver instead of STS) to a female autoflowering plant, stuck it in a garden space with a Dark Devil Auto - and ended up with something like 4,000 seeds from one plant and 6,000 seeds from the other, IIRC. Which is a pretty good deal for the cost of two cannabis seeds, a few bucks worth of CS, the usual electricity/water/nutrients, and some time (if you ask me). Half the members of the forum - along with their friends - were probably growing one, the other, or both that year. Yep... cannabis seeds are a bargain, and one shouldn't choose them based on their prices. Well, with the possible exception of the newly minted cannabis gardener, I suppose. If a person has never grown a cannabis plant from seed all the way to slow dried and cured bud, and they are worried that they might commit negligent homicide on their crop (involuntary plantslaughter?), then it would be completely understandable to purchase something that's cheap. But even then, there's no reason not to add "but decent" to "cheap." For example, even Sensi Seeds - where you can spend around $200 for a ten-pack of regular Jack Herer seeds (worth every penny ), or can when their "35% off all cup winners" sale isn't running - sells feminized Sensi Skunk for $4.62/each or $33.10 for ten (on sale), feminized Mexican Sativa (which has some Durban and Pakistani Hash Plant in the genetics to shorten the flowering time and add some resistance to cool temperatures) for $7.70 each or $50.33 for ten, et cetera. And those stains are okay. The Mexican Sativa is an old-school strain that, while not exactly a powerhouse, has caused plenty of people to experience the giggles. But once a person knows they can grow a cannabis plant, the best thing they can do when shopping for seeds is to completely ignore the prices, and focus on other things, such as type of effect, strength of effect, duration of effect, yield, scent, taste, flowering time (if that's a consideration), how easy it is to grow (ditto), and suchlike. If the gardener intends to grow outdoors, whether the strain is compatible with the local growing season and climate would be important. Price.. ought to be #614 in the list of reasons to buy or not buy a strain, lol. After choosing the strain(s), if the gardener doesn't have enough money to buy it immediately, stick the money in a sock and add to it tomorrow, next week, next month, whatever. Buy the best strain for your personal needs, not whatever happens to cost less than however much you have in your wallet when you decide to go browsing. Which is not to say that an inexpensive strain won't best serve your needs; it might - but it might not. With a little bit of effort, you'll harvest enough to keep you in bud for a while. If I'm going to be eating the same thing for weeks, well, I can survive on potted meat "food product" - but I'd enjoy steak. Er... I'll hop off the rant box soapbox now .

 

[Southerncough]

wow, that was a lot of great info @TorturedSoul !
Like you said, I started out on some mystery bag seed of some cheap stuff that my weed guy called "zona". MMkay, all I know was that it was cheap, crunchy, had a mild buzz and a LOT of seeds.
So I figured I'd make my mistakes on the freebies in the bag instead of the $200 beans. And boy did I!
Even when I started paying for them I was so nervous about messing up and killing them not just on the price but
the difficulty of getting them. Not exactly on the shelf at Ace Hardware...as a new grower I didn't know who was legit or a scam online, etc. and send a bunch of money to someone overseas hoping a few weeks later something would show up in return. Thankfully I've ordered from multiple seed banks online over the past few years and never been burned knock on wood.
And you're correct, the right genetics are worth it. But as a new grower with a small space set aside I worked through lots of varieties and learning curves seeking strains that met both our medicinal goals as well as our garden setup.
i.e. learned that one of my favorite strains "Thai" is definitely NOT ideal for a small 2x4 bloom cabinet no matter how much you try to tame her, she wants to be 12' tall! BUT variations that introduced some indica traits like Chocolope helped make Thai something I could still attempt at home.
Which brings me back to the Pakistani 1975 bred by the Landrace Team has been a slam dunk. She's a pure indica with all of the happy vibes and pain reducing traits that's great for chilling at the beach, but if she'll put you to bed if you have a lot WITHOUT feeling foggy and groggy the morning after. That's Huge for us. In fact I usually wake up the next morning feeling alert and ready to go. That's worth paying a lot for seeds if it's the right stuff!
Also, nervous about pollinating the girls because I have so little space and worry about pollen getting stuck somewhere and seeding up future plants. BUT if it's a great genetic would I care?
The same breeder just released a pakistani/thai cross that I'm sure curious about...hmmm
Oh, also have some tangie auto seeds on the way, wonder if I could put some silver on one of them to create a boatload of seeds for future. Seriously, I'd be down for that. It's a fun little plant to grow. I've never managed a huge harvest but still fun to leave one in the back corner of my veg tent and let her do her thing LOL

 

[TorturedSoul]

Thai bud. Had a friend of the family who was in sort of like the service, but not exactly. He was all over the place, doing his thing, down time, and getting paid to do questionable things in strange places (and vice versa). He used to bring... interesting things. Some of them were cannabis seeds (or contained same), and that's how I got turned on to Thai sativa. Nice - but I couldn't seem to come up with a cross that got rid of the hermaphrodism while keeping what made the bud special. It was a top five, otherwise, and I kicked myself afterwards for not keeping mothers longer than I did. A regret that everyone has, sooner or later. 2,000+ stains and only so much space in one's gardens, yeah?

Chocolope- someone I "knew on the Internet" lived in California, and said he more or less accidentally grew one in his front yard, and didn't know what to do with the bud. "I'll take some!" I thought he was joking when he asked for my address, but... Several days later, I received a regular white envelope with two (flattened) joints in it, along with a couple grams of bud that had been loosely wrapped in some toilet paper. And I could smell it when I opened my mailbox, LMFAO. I didn't know whether to sh!t or run - so I grabbed my lighter. It was okay.

I never really got into indicas back in the day. I guess if I wanted a narcotic, well, I didn't reach for a "narcotic, light," If you know what I mean. Now... I could use them for pain, insomnia, and more of both.

If you're a big fan of them, Sensi Seeds' Black Domina might appeal. Smoke some and go find something comfortable . "Since 1996 Sensi Seeds’ four-way indica hybrid Black Domina has been standing for merciless terrific indica power, fast flowering, fat yields and a highly special aroma." It's got Northern Lights in its genetics. Also Ortega Indica, (Pakistani?) Hash Plant, and an indica named SA. Multiple phenotypes, so grow several, take cuttings, flower them (or the mothers), and keep the one(s) you like.

You can "bag up a branch," pollinate its flowers, and you might just get a few, a few dozen, or a few hundred seeds instead of a few thousand. Fans OFF, of course. Or you can use a little clone recipient, somewhere other than your primary garden space. It doesn't take much space, light, etc. if all you're trying to produce are some seeds. Once you see seeds forming, you can wet the plant down and stick it in your flowering room.

I've never had the pleasure of growing or smoking Tangie, but I've read that it's nice.

I've never not gotten an order. One was way late, reported it as MIA, got a reship; the original order arrived (after the reship), I let the seller know, was told to keep it. Once, I received the package - but my seeds had been replaced with a form letter telling me that the items were verboten, but if I disputed that, I was welcome to... I sent the seller a copy and he sent the order again, but to a different address (and it made it).

 

[Southerncough]

after sleeping on it last night I agree that you're totally right @TorturedSoul !
Why spend $15-25 on a single auto seed when a bottle of silver is $20 that can give me hundreds if not thousands of new auto seeds (and photo seeds too).
I think I'll start with the autos because I can infinitely clone my photos but once I've tried my hand with the autos I might move on to stocking up on some of my favorite photos like the mango, purple haze, and pakistani so that I don't have to keep clones for sake of not using up all of my expensive seeds and in fact bulk up my seed stash!

 

[startergrow]

Amazing info guys. Thanks so much.

You've changed my thinking on seeds. You're right. If I'm STSing and cloning them, you're getting loads of buds for years, so why waste the time on bad genetics.

I'm looking in to the Black Domina you mentioned. I like the sound of it. I'd never heard of the Landrace Team but looked them up and think it's a great idea and really needed. It's fun, as they say, pollen chucking, and I think it can lead to some "one in a million" super star strains but it could also start to make a mush of all the strains so the idea of preserving pure strains is a good thing.

I've pollenated an Amnesia Haze auto with photo Fem pollen (OG Kush) this summer and grew some seeds. From what I've read it will produce photo plants but offspring from those combined can produce auto seeds, depending on the mix of genetics and dominance.

My main goal in pollenating is to make S1 seeds of the strains I've grown that I've liked. I don't have the room to keep mothers so it seemed like a good way to go.

 

[Southerncough]

Amazing info guys. Thanks so much.

You've changed my thinking on seeds. You're right. If I'm STSing and cloning them, you're getting loads of buds for years, so why waste the time on bad genetics.

I'm looking in to the Black Domina you mentioned. I like the sound of it. I'd never heard of the Landrace Team but looked them up and think it's a great idea and really needed. It's fun, as they say, pollen chucking, and I think it can lead to some "one in a million" super star strains but it could also start to make a mush of all the strains so the idea of preserving pure strains is a good thing.

I've pollenated an Amnesia Haze auto with photo Fem pollen (OG Kush) this summer and grew some seeds. From what I've read it will produce photo plants but offspring from those combined can produce auto seeds, depending on the mix of genetics and dominance.

My main goal in pollenating is to make S1 seeds of the strains I've grown that I've liked. I don't have the room to keep mothers so it seemed like a good way to go.

I was thinking the same thing! I keep all the clones/moms around because I don't want to run out of seeds, etc. BUT if over the next year I one by one make fem seeds of my favorites i can fill some jars of our favorites and grow out the last clone freeing up precious space to try new varieties until we start getting low on the stuff in the jar and pop a new seed. I am going to start with an auto though since cloning isn't an option and the seeds are spendy considering you usually don't yield as much per plant.