No problemo, Gizmo
I don't think there was any kind of germination rate disclaimer on the auction that I won (april of last year), & honestly it was the first time I was on the auction site in years. I noticed on later listings of "clearing/cleaning" packs that there was a disclaimer talking about 60(?) 70(?) percent germination percentage. I wasn't thrilled to read that or to experience a low percentage from my pack, but again - cost per seed was very very low. Also, I trust Shanti to make right should I run the whole pack & not find a few killer plants. So, right now I'm at peace with my 4 finished females-from-~18-20 seeds ratio.
mu, did you keep cuts of the Mango & LaNina that you love? My LaNina seedplants mostly leaned lemony & 2 of the offsite ones were on the fruit-candy-sweet side of life. Just one that I'd call 'hazy' (#1 & I don't have any clones). This Mango #1 looks to be a winner, it stretches haaaard sideways, & lots of vigorous growth shoots. It's staying squatter than the OG seedplants that I'm running with her & needs to be stripped hard to keep up. I'm letting her lag behind a liiitle bit, cause I'm worried that she may pass them in height by virtue of stretching longer/harder once she gets going.
LN #2 went 68 days & was approaching overdone. One of the most indica expressive seedplants. Grown in position #1 on a computer keypad in the 3 x 3 grid. Lowest yield of all the plants, but gave up the most early samples due to her ripening speed. Maybe 10g in early samples. 84g in the jar & her buds were pretty dense lil pinecones so not much lost due to larf. 40g dried trim.
Dry nug smell - 1. Lemon cleaner. 2. Sweet/fruity skunk 3. Coffee? Roasted nuts?? Pretty straight forward Lemon cleaner to me, but someone else said coffee straight away & after crumbling, sniffing, backing away & diving in again, can smell the coffee thing. I did bubba for headsmoke for a long time for those roasted coffee & pine terps. Faint in this, but it's there. Decent strength.
8/10 full disclosure, I like lemon cleaner smells
Nug look - Tightish small nugs, vibrant bright orange fat hairs. Some color, milky resin visually pops off of the darker colored bud. Med-sized bracts, left a decent bit of leaf on, as it was very frosty.
8/10 The masses would probably find this prettier than the LN #1 due to the color & denser buds.
Feel/Burn - Grinds more than it crumbles due to the tightness, leaf & smaller bracts. Not sticky enough to mess with my fingers when handling a rolling paper. Burnt, it smells like herb, nothing distinguishing (incense, skunk, baby shit, flowers, etc...) on the afterburn. Meh.
6/10 It gets over a 5 cause it was grown well & jar cured, but nothing special about breaking up a nug & rolling up a doobie. Smells great rolling, lol.
Smoke taste - Tastes great!
Very lemony & as mentioned, I like lemons. Lemon cleaner/oil really comes through. Bumped down a notch cause re-lit it just tastes like herb, not lemon.
8/10
Effect - Stonier than the other bud I'm smoking (Mango & Satty dom LaNina). Smoked a fatty after garden work & through the beginning of a frontline ep about N.Kor3a. High crept a little bit & changed from sativa dom to balanced after ~10 min. Perfect herb for vegging out for me. Sedative enough that I'm not getting up every 5 min to do something, clear enough that I can absorb & process new information, & warm/happy enough to bring out the my bleeding heart for all those political prisoners. High lasted for an hour+ & made me sleepy afterwards, not burnt out & achey/groggy.
8/10 Haven't really smoked this for a whole day to see if it's got a burn out or daily tolerance yet. I'll update when I do