And here it is ! the strain that finally dwarfs anything else in terms of aroma intensity. The strain whose aroma clouds penetratively rise into your face right after having opened the stash box, inducing an intense prickle feeling and spreading in the whole flat at lightning speed: Warlock. While one can argue over its fairly martial name, there`s no doubt about the unique smell and taste of this strain which represents something very special within the often genetically synchronized Dutch seed bank stock.

People who are not into marijuana will cry out, it stinks like hell!, when taking a nose of fresh Warlock bud. marijuana lovers, however, will rather praise its heavenly stinking scent. But its incredible aroma is not the only celestial dimension of Warlock: According to Gerrit, owner and breeder of Magus Genetics, Illinois state troopers measured awesome 29% THC in US-grown Warlock plants, it is not that often that a state`s institution provides excellent PR data to a cannabis seed bank.

The two Warlock plants grown in a 2001 German indoor garden indeed turned out extremely potent, but they didn't quite seem to come up to those 29% of the US Warlock plants. I would suppose 20-23% THC, values that are common with first-class cannabis strains, as proven e.g. by an independent laboratory on occasion of the High Times Cup 1998: "Ice" 23.7%, Haze Special 21.8%, Sage 21%, Neville`s Haze 20.3% THC etc.

"Warlock" Both the origin and development history of Warlock are very unusual. It`s the only case I know of where a cannabis seed breeder offers a strain for sale that basically still consists of the same genetic material that he started his grower career with a long time ago: In the early 90ies, Gerrit selected some incidental Skunk x Afghan seeds from coffee shop weed and decided to start his first indoor garden on this basis. These random bag seeds proved as true 'lucky punches' for Gerrit, after years of selective breeding and inbreeding they supplied the charismatic genetic profile for Warlock. Gerrit started the breeding process with a selected female Skunk x Afghan grown from the original bag seeds, pollinating it with selected male flowers of another plant. Gerrit reports on the next step: The second generation was split up in 50 families (from 25 females & 2 males) and developed separately. Half of the families where judged useless, because the male used to create them was causing too much unwanted "Sativa throw-back" in most of them. From the other half, the best family was reproduced (I've kept copies from the parents) and was sold as Warlock seeds from '98 till '00. With plants selected from the remaining families, I made several 3rd generation families and selected a few healthy males from the family that was most similar to the ideal and used them for several test crosses, the male that performed best of them serves now as a father to all my strains (including the Bluebirds Starwarz). Already after the fourth generation, Gerrit had ended up in something that he considered as genetically stable, high-quality seed strain.

"Warlock" The breeding process of Warlock was accompanied by the simultaneous sale of Gerrit`s Warlock breeding results in the popular Amsterdam coffee shop 'Blue Bird' (beginning from the mid-nineties). This successfully served two purposes: On the one hand, getting a constant feed back from lots of smokers upon the results of his work, on the other hand, binding these smokers as future seed customers, because Warlock was not available as seed until 1998, and when it came out, there were lots of eagerly waiting Warlock fans who could finally grow their beloved strain by their own hands. Gerrit had decided to release Warlock to the seed market right after the Cannabis Cup 1997, since the strain had taken 3rd place in the Bio Cannabis Cup and successfully proven its quality to the public. Although, genetically seen, Warlock is a mostly indica, its inner and outer traits show more of the sativa spectrum, for example elongated stem growth during flowering, a very high calyx-to-leaf ratio and a roaring sativa up-high. The dark-green leaf colour, however, reminds of the Warlock`s indica heritage, the same is for its bud structure.

Female Warlock plants tend to grow into a huge main cola, along with some nice tops resulting from moderate side branching from bottom to the middle of the plant. The resin content is very good and satisfying, though not able to compete with those abundant amounts of so-called white strains. Some plants showcase funny looking popcorn buds, consisting of unusually evenly rounded calyxes. It is no accident that this look reminds of Original Skunk#1 plants, as the latter, respectively something closely related, are contained within Warlock. In spite of the compact and dense look of its flowers, the Dutch aroma wonder cannot compete with Skunk#1`s extra heavy yield (judging from my test cultivation). But its still more than solid harvest amount will surely not disappoint any grower. The flowering period of 55-60 days is comfortable considering the sativa qualities of Warlock. Already in the vegetative stage, the typical spicy-sweet aroma of Warlock builds up and quickly fills the whole room. You`ll need a good air-filter system when choosing Warlock for your grow room.

The charismatic smell finds its equivalent in the rich and full taste: spicy, but not acrid, the smoke actually is pleasantly mild, making for a long-lasting, cerebrally and physically activating sativa high, mixed with a slight degree of indica stonedness.

GBI - Green Born Identity

Amongst the white strains, White Russian is one of the oldest and most sophisticated. We are talking here about a serious, professional piece of breeding work, not one of those crap seed varieties hastily cobbled together from inferior genetics and labled white for commercial reasons by some amateurs. No, it`s about the real mighty White Russian coming straight from one of Holland`s breeding halls of fame: Serious Seeds. Simon, the breeder, has done a fantastic job with White Russian, making it a popular figurehead of his seed bank right from the beginning. What a shooting start: White Russian took part in the High Times Cannabis Cup in 1996 for the first time, and it won both the overall Cannabis Cup and the Bio Cup for the coffeeshop De Dampkring at first go! In the following year, White Russian scored second place in the Hydro Cup, once again entered by De Dampkring. This company, known as one of the best quality coffeeshops in Amsterdam, contributed a lot to White Russian`s success story by selling it over years to thousands of tourists from all over the world.

White RussianLet us take a closer look at its genetics. White Russian is a stable mostly indica cross of Serious Seed`s AK-47 and the famous White Widow. These two giants of cannabis breeding history were merged into a new mega species that produces very consistent plants of medium height and dense, heavily resinous flower tops with very few leaves. White Russian is one of the strongest varieties available: For an independent seed comparison in the 90`s, 150 different strains were grown in a greenhouse. With 22% THC, White Russian turned out to be the most potent plant in this test cultivation. One could argue now, okay, White Russian is award decorated and everything, but that`s almost a decade ago, what about its actual capacity nowadays? A legitimate question that I decided to give an answer to. An up-to-date White Russian cultivation test should reveal its present quality as a seed strain.

An experienced grower called Cloudz conducted this project, using eight original White Russian seeds. All of them germinated very well and were grown at first under a MaxGrow (Germany) energy-saving lamp with 115 watts and full spectrum, what resulted in very compact growth with lush green leafs. Cloudz used six litre pots with soil mixture. 2.5 weeks after germination, the plants were moved to the actual grow room, where they received 600 watts of light from a high pressure sodium lamp, at a daily light cycle of 18 hours. What stroke the eye from the beginning on, was the remarkable uniformity of the plants. They actually looked like clones, there were almost no differences in height, width, colour and leaf structure. About four weeks after germination, Cloudz induced flowering by shortening the light cycle to 12 hours. Four plants turned out to be female, the male ones were discarded.

White RussianDuring flowering, two types of bud formation were revealed by the plants: Both were very dense and resinous (though not as resin-crusted as White Widow), having quite few leaves. But the first type grew a little bit higher and had colas that were more long-drawn, while the colas of the shorter second type were more roundish. The single yield of the four plants, however, did not differ very much, with the respectively best plants of each type yielding almost exactly the same. They all looked awesome at the end of flowering, loaded with thick beautiful buds all over the plants, from the very bottom to the tip. These tight flower clusters felt rock hard and promised a most rewarding harvest. The only thing that didn`t go according to plan was the fact that all of the four plants exceeded the expected flowering time of 56-63 days by five days, finally reaching maturity after 68 days, when 70-80 % of the stigmas had withered and turned orange. Well, these additional five days of waiting did not really hurt, considering the superb cannasseur quality of the buds and the extra grams of weight that were produced in the last five days. The harvest amount ranged from 40 to 51 grams, quite sensational for a variety that was grown from seed, cultivated in soil and left in the vegetative state for a standard period of time. Apart from that, the flowers effused an extraordinary strong honey aroma that had adopted an also fruity scent after the drying process. Already in the vegetative state, the plants are developing a strong smell, so take good care about proper air control.

Cloudz was all on edge when it finally came to smoking the White Russian buds. And wow... the effect was even better than he had expected, heavily potent, hard-knocking and stony, but also somewhat cerebral at the same time. One or two bong hits, and he was done for a while. The high would last for hours, often causing fits of laughter. Cloudz estimated the THC content at not less than 20%, clearly noticing the extraordinary strength of White Russian, and I agreed with him. The aroma of the smoke was very fine, too, offering a smooth, full-bodied sweet taste. The grower was overwhelmed by the overall quality of his four White Russian ladies, never before he had experienced quality homogeneity on such a high level, fantastic in both appearance and potency. No doubt, White Russian today still has its firm place among the world`s best cannabis strains.

Green Born Identity G.B.I.