Recent Black Widow Grow

This is not really a thread but I just wanted to state that I recently blasted a half a packet of BW from Mr Nice.

I got 4 females from 6 seeds - which probably means I am going to get males from the next half packet.. Karma works that way.

Anyway, I have been growing this since the 90's. It is hard to remember how a plant was all those years ago - you get rose-tinted memories, etc... but I do remember 2 distinct phenos. 1 really short and 1 really quite tall. A slightly fruity hashishy aroma, a medium yield, an easy to grow plant and sticky buds.

That is EXACTLY what I got this time around. 1 plant 7 foot and 1 plant less than 2 foot. A third plant around 6 foot and the fourth about 2 foot!

All had reasonably similar smells. the taller plants were slightly more acid-fruity, like pineapples, maybe and the smaller more hashish like.

I can't say if this is still the original F1 - but it sure as hell acts like it.

All 4 plants are hanging now. Harvest 8 weeks, 9 at the most...a good fun grow. No keepers but all 4 plants were worth growing. Of course I haven't smoked any yet (but you KNOW when you have nice buds. The smell, the look, the resin...)
I will update you on the smoke.

All I really wanted to emphasise was that whether you like BW or not and whether it was conceived by Shanti or Ingemar (I don't know) it is what it is and THESE seeds appear a pretty genuine likeness of old style White Widow to me...if that is what you want to try then try these.


Grover
 
yes, it is sticky, evenly dried and smells like the 90s

It is not too strong yet - but bloody strong enough and building with the cure.

The taste is maybe unripe mango or something like kiwi fruit - it is fruity and sweet but acidy. Not sour - like lemons or lime but more like pineapple or kiwi... it is nice.

Nothing about this weed doesn't remind me of this weed. It hasn't changed at all...

Whether that is good or bad is opinion. I like it before a TV show at night but don't smoke it on the farm or if I have to do a school run later....

The sativa phenos are still drying/curing but smell similar, tbh
 
I smoked a 'wake-and-bake' this morning, of the most indica of the 4 plants.

I now remember why this weed ruined my life in the 90s.

It is hypnotic and very long lasting. I can still feel it a bit. (Still stoned at 1.45pm - way past midday. If I was in an office right now I'd be gutted.) I know I am a lightweight where indicas are concerned but still....

Put it this way - I have not been on the farm today...

The high is not really sleepy (although I bet if I had another joint I would not be able to do much else) so much as a hypnotic sativa but there is no energy with it. It is not the high of my Landrace Oaxacan (which is like smoking electricity), or the smoking pleasure of my Panama Red, put it that way... more Mongo Mongo but 'kind' with it. A little would be good for the mind but too much would burn the soul.

Daytime smoke for indica lovers but night-time smoke for real sativa heads like me. Still, it is nice to have something different in the medicine cabinet.

I wonder what the most sativa pheno will be like in comparison?
 
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...Anyway, I have been growing this since the 90's. It is hard to remember how a plant was all those years ago - you get rose-tinted memories, etc...

...I can't say if this is still the original F1 - but it sure as hell acts like it...

...All I really wanted to emphasise was that whether you like BW or not and whether it was conceived by Shanti or Ingemar (I don't know) it is what it is and THESE seeds appear a pretty genuine likeness of old style White Widow to me...if that is what you want to try then try these...

Refreshing to have you back GS! Always appreciate your simple honesty. Just started BW alongside SS, CBD SS, MH IBL, NMH, Ortega yesterday.
I too don’t care about who TF did what- a waste of my time sloshing around half truths AND outright lies. IME, there will always be those that would rather talk shit than grow shit. Fine by me. I’d rather have the bird in hand, with seed in soil and am not goin anywhere else. Why chase rainbows? When my friends tell me my stuff is the finest stuff they have ever smoked, I’ll take some credit for a small part but the kudos go to Shanti and crew for bringin it. “The proof is in the seed.”

Aloha braddah
M
 
All I really wanted to emphasise was that whether you like BW or not and whether it was conceived by Shanti or Ingemar (I don't know) it is what it is and THESE seeds appear a pretty genuine likeness of old style White Widow to me...if that is what you want to try then try these.
Thanks for sharing, GS, glad to hear you found a plant from your past :) We've just found an old lost love in our 5Haze, and it's a real pleasure. Her bud is identical - smell, high, taste, look - to the buds I remember so fondly.

I try not to be swayed by emotional views when it comes to asking questions or discussing pedigree. I'm less interested in seed production, for example, than other forum members, but I wont allow my disinterest in seed production (for example) to interfere in discussions for others. It's seems to me that any member of the Mr Nice community must, almost by definition, give some level of thought to pedigree (if not at present, then at some previous time for sure).

For me, discussions about pedigree serve a limited, useful, purpose in that my interest in pedigree is precisely what brought me to the Mr Nice forum / Shantibaba in the first place... If I didn't care about pedigree I might still be trying, in vain, to find haze genetics in Arjan's feminized junk :D 1 run with SLH was enough to send me back to the drawing board and I eventually found my way here, thanks to the abundance of discussion, interest and passion for cannabis pedigree that MN accommodates.

Yes the proof is, of course, in the seed - but that's easy to say once you've already grown the seed out :) Other people, reading these posts, might not have found or grown them yet.

With regard to Widow, I've never heard anybody contradict Shanti's claim to have bred the original Widow seedline, using a cup-winning cutting produced by Ingemar. A video interview on Youtube is my source on this and I highly recommend the video.

Never grown Widow personally, but it was one of the first 'skunks' (lol) aka flower available to me as a teenager. The usual street fare was dirt/soap bar, so Widow was truly out of this world for us. I can probably safely assume it originated with Shanti's seedline.

Widow Grail is close to the top of our list :) Nev's Mango first.
 
Good points TF. Appreciate your sound thoughts. You are a valuable addition to this site. Thank you.

Cool runnings
M
 
Thanks Guys,

That is very kind of you.

I've actually not tried the Nevil's Mango but the idea sounds great! Fruity Nevil's Haze? yum. I often found Nevil's Haze an infuriating plant - I've given up on it now there are better plants to invest 17 weeks in!! Maybe Nev's Mango is more stable and easier to grow?

All the stuff about who invented what and whether this or that is original is a bit moot all these years later.

If it is original and shit, is that good?
If it is not original but amazing, is that bad?

I suppose it is Shanti's marketing hook so it is important to him in that way...

A lot of what is said just confuses me so I sidestep it all now. Like plants you were told were females being the father of varieties (?), stuff like that... but generally I'm not growing anything dutch anyway so none of it matters to me nowadays... These BWs were a gift that has sat in my fridge for ages and I just wanted to blast through some seeds without the blether of mothers and clones and selection, etc...and chose these. As soon as I smelt them I thought of the 90's.
Still, there are some very interesting cannabis enthusiasts on this site to learn from and chat to (and elsewhere, too...) dutch weed or no dutch weed.
 
Good points TF. Appreciate your sound thoughts. You are a valuable addition to this site. Thank you.

Cool runnings
M

Thanks for the kind words, brother. Right back at you.
I just read this thread backwards; got to your reply and thought wow, I wonder who TF is, receiving such generous words from Musashi. Pleased to realise I am TF ;)

Peace.

All the stuff about who invented what and whether this or that is original is a bit moot all these years later.

If it is original and shit, is that good?
If it is not original but amazing, is that bad?

I suppose it is Shanti's marketing hook so it is important to him in that way...

A lot of what is said just confuses me so I sidestep it all now. Like plants you were told were females being the father of varieties (?), stuff like that... but generally I'm not growing anything dutch anyway so none of it matters to me nowadays... These BWs were a gift that has sat in my fridge for ages and I just wanted to blast through some seeds without the blether of mothers and clones and selection, etc...and chose these. As soon as I smelt them I thought of the 90's.
Still, there are some very interesting cannabis enthusiasts on this site to learn from and chat to (and elsewhere, too...) dutch weed or no dutch weed.
My conclusion is that Shantibaba is, by far, the most successful cannabis breeder in the world. Apparently he produces seeds for all the main players :) And we know he holds many solid, old school genetics. Very impressive.

The simplest, accurate conclusion is this: 'the precise genetic makeup of MNS strains are breeding secrets of the breeder'. I respect this. As Musashi wisely wrote, 'the proof is in the seed'.
 
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Hi Bigiron,

I honestly can't remember - at least 4 internodes, I think - maybe 5...

It was a seedling, too, so I would have expected a bit more vertical growth but there was no vigour at all in that one (and not too much in the other shorty, either.)

The 2 short plants are both quite different from each other in terms of flavour and feel whilst the 2 tall plants are very similar...

I actually quite like one of the short ones as a non-devastating indica with decent flavour. It didn't really need too much of a cure to be a good smoke, either - the other 3 needed more time to get rid of that grassy green flavour, which was strong but fades with a cure.
 
It looks nice and has bag appeal and is popular with my friends. I like it but it's not a keeper for me. The yield was good for a plant of it's size.

It somehow doesn't feel modern. The smell is not so penetrating as we are used to nowadays. It is not particular, just nice and indica-hashy. The high is in the middle of indica and sativa without really being either.

Worth the grow, for sure. I'm glad it was just a blast and not the full shebang with seed mothers and cuts, etc...
 
I should say that I have grown plant more attentively than this one, so I have to take that into account vis-a-vis the aroma and resin.

It was fed with organic feed but in a non-organic soil, which is always a TERRIBLE idea. Organic food NEEDS organic, living mud to work properly. If the mud isn't alive then use normal ferts... The organic stuff is designed to feed the soil organisms and not so much the plant (a little, perhaps.) This is pointless if there isn't any biota in the soil.

There was evidence of deficiency in the tallest plant as it just didn't have enough N to take it through the explosive stretch phase of flowering, when it needs it most! These will probably be the last plants I grow non-organically as my organic method is working a joy now and what is the point of not?

The longer flowering sativas are especially easier to grow with organic ways but the indicas have better flavours , easily. There isn't even much in the way of competition about it.

Bat Guano, seaweed, worm castings, etc didn't seem to do much with dead soil now seem to make plants sing and zing. Nothing seems under or over fed in the organic garden.

I don't think it would have turned this plant into a keeper and the plant was nice anyway but I'm just pointing out that you may have grown it better and got 10% more out of it than I did - depending on your methods. I'm just being honest. It was a nice grow but inattentive. I've seen what you lot (and myself) can do when paying more attention...that's all I'm saying.
 
I just wanted to mention that I have three females maturing. I won't be flowering them for at least a month and a half as I have drastically reduced plant numbers in favor of larger plants...and less legal risks.
 
I smoked a joint of one of the tall sativa phenos today...

I think I don't want to go onto somebody's site and cuss their weed so let's just say that it is below ordinary, really.

Strong, dull high and a frankly disgusting taste. There is no sweetness or Joy here I'm afraid.

So I tasted the other. Identical.

To be honest if I were a breeder I wouldn't put out a line that produced plants like that.... even just 1 or 2 a pack. I never grew any White Widow that was THIS bad in the 90's.

It is plants like that that piss people off and make them avoid MNS (you hear it again and again.) Just too many meh plants. I personally don't think it is worth 3 shit plants for 1 OK plant. I used to get this a lot in MNS seeds - that is why I, too, avoid them now. I planted these for a blast bit I do kinda regret it now. The nice plant is gone and I'm left with piles of nasty joyless bud. It is bud but I could have grown something else instead and got 4 good plants (and maybe an amazing one..)

I regret this review as well now. I really was hoping for better and didn't want to write a negative vibe but I want to be honest because honesty is best. In the past I have found some amazing plants in MNS packs. A Mango Haze and a Critical Haze come to mind straight away but I have planted dozens and dozens of Shanti's seeds since those plants and suffered so so many poor quality plants.

Black Widow is no good.

Best PLANT - 6/10
REST - 4/10 (MAX)

That was the last last chance! Don't shift through dozens of crap plants - you don't have to.There are so many packs of seeds where all the plants are good and 1 or 2 are amazing. Nobody needs to grow bad weed. 1 Keeper per pack is not good enough and not even true. What kind of breeder sells seeds that produce bad weed? It doesn't make sense to me - it can't be that hard to breed seeds that all produce good weed. When I plant tomato seesda ll the tomatoes are great - you don't get 1 good Marmande and 3 shit ones! I think that Shanti needs to either take back production of his own seeds (what quality control when somebody else is doing it for you in Spain?) or just cull all the shit parents and stick with the good ones (if there are any left...) The rest is about him making money out of the name Black Widow without giving any quality. Greedy.

I can't recommend Black Widow. I won't even grow the other half of the packet - I'm going to throw them away. I'm happy to chat on the site but I won't ever grow Mr Nice seeds again (I've said that before and this was an exception that proved the rule.)

My advice to anybody who has a pack of this is throw it away and buy something else instead (I always had great luck with Kali Mist but that is just me..it is the best Dutch weed, really...) you will SAVE money by throwing away shit seeds and planting good ones. £65 wasted but hundreds saved by having loads of great weed instead of loads of meh.

My advice to anybody vegging these plants who hasn't flipped them yet - compost. Seriously. Then take cuts from your favourite mother instead. Weeks lost, yes - but not months lost flowering out shit plants.

I'm really sorry.

Honestly - I'm throwing away the other half a pack. I mean it. Why would I waste time and space on that when I have lovely mothers and interesting seeds from around the World to try? Howard didn't mean to put his name to this sort of plant. He's turning in his grave...


I wouldn't want this review on my site (why should you put up with poor reviews on a site whose job is to sell your seeds?) so I won't mind when it gets deleted, I suppose. I am being honest without prejudice, though and so be it. Why should I lie about anything? I don't have any reason to not be honest with all you good people who risk a lot for their great love and should be rewarded with better than this. You all deserve that. So do I.
 
Critical skunk,Ortega, g13skunk, g13widow, medicine man, nev skunk, mango widow, Afghan haze have been grown from 16/17 seed stock, without selection, all producing above average results.. masterkaze has been the only strain that I haven't felt comfortable with, got it from your review lol but I'm also not 100% they were masterkaze, feel like they were a mix up. I have another packet, to compare to ones I grew..
 
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breeding a tomato plant is very different to breeding cannabis. You cant compare apples to oranges.thats all i have to say

Take it easy
 
Interesting how some say it is the best on the market and others do say it's absolute rubbish?

Don't know how this fits together..
 
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