At the onset of 12/12, this plant was about 4 feet tall. It looked like a hemp strain. I pinched it several times, but it wasn't looking like any other strain in the room. It was extremely tall and lanky, and my friend and I kept joking that we were going to be able to make plenty of paper once it was mature. Soma describes this strain as having one main cola, with little side branching. This plants characteristics could not have been further from that description. We renamed it "the wreck" because it was completely out of control. Weak, lengthy brances all over the place. We used 4 or 5 stakes and who knows how many feet of tying material to hold them all up. Soma also says Lavendar does little branching, and while my Lavendar isn't stretchy or a mess like my BK was, Lavendar DOES branch out a lot. In fact, I crossed it with another strain specifically to GET more branching, and it worked beautifully. In the case of BK, the branching is a problem. With Lavendar, the branching is within control and really adds to the yield, so with THAT strain, it's a very cool thing.
Prior to flower formation, I almost regretted not killing it. But then the flowers began to form. I could tell right off that this strain was going to be EXTREMELY resinous - more so than any of my other high resin strains. It began to look like some amazing bud was forming on this girl, and the buds were everywhere. While they were growing into rather tight little nuggets, I don't think any of the colas were more than a few inches long.
We pushed the plant to about 65 days, but it could have been taken at 50 or so. I waited for a more amber color in the triches, hoping for a more relaxing medicine.
The plant smelled wonderful. Soma says "smells like a dead skunk"... and while I've smelled meds that are far more skunky, it did smell like skunk - the sweet kind, not the pungent kind. We anticipated that this would be the best tasting smoke in the room. It was up against Soma Lavendar (another on that didn't turn out like Soma says... NO purple in any of them at all - but the best tasting smoke I've got growing for sure!), NL, Green Giant, and an NL x Lavendar hybrid. I thought surely it would knock them all out in flavor. I was very disappointed. Have you ever smelled a food that was so aromatic you could not WAIT to taste it, only to have it taste bland and nothing like what it smelled like? Well, that's what I got. I will admit that I only did a short 10 day cool air (hanging plant in the dark) cure. I know that a 4-6 week proper cure would improve this strains flavor... but none of my other strains need a 4-6 week cure to at least have a great taste. Sure, the proper jar cure makes any strain improve so many different ways, but good smoke always tastes semi-good (even in a short cure) providing you don't heat it to make it dry out. Big Kahuna just didn't taste like much. It is smooth, and pleasant, but it's really hard to decide what you are tasting. It's just bland - that's what it comes down to. I cloned the flowering plant to make sure I didn't lose it, but now I'm not too worried about holding on to this strain. Bag appeal is A++++, LOTS and LOTS of resin, and the smell?? IT KICKS ASS. But again, the flavor just isn't really there. The yield was decent (about 130 grams dry), but not so great when you consider that this plant took up the space of two NL's in order to get that 4 or so ounces.
I wonder if BK is just an unstable strain, and I got a wierd pheno. Ya never know. I've always wondered the same thing about my Soma Lavendar... Soma says that one doesn't branch out much - wrong! it totally does.. and everyone else's looks totally different from mine and usually gets the purps. My other strains look just like other people's work, so this is not a result of bad gardening. I know what I'm doing... trust me.
I will give this more cure time and see if it get's better, but I doubt I will ever grow it again.
Garden Information for this report
|
StrainGuide © 2004 Overgrow Marijuana Seeds Review: Soma Seeds - 'Big Kahuna' |