Trick or treating might be out for you, but you can still have some fun that is equal parts cool and creepy. Scary movies are always an easy go-to for celebrating Halloween as an adult without feeling like you’re missing out on anything — especially if you’re not really into the idea of costume parties or haunted house attractions. And if you add some weed into the equation, you have the beginnings of a perfectly content night at home. Need some help picking out a strain for your movie marathon?

These particular strain pairings are just for the fun of the holiday and not at all based on matching the post-consumption experience with the type of movie you’ll be watching…. which is a good thing. It’s probably not a good idea to try to intentionally smoke strains that will mirror the potential fear and paranoia of watching a scary movie. Instead, these strains will mellow you out, help you chill and just add to the entertainment factor.

“It” + Pennywise

Whether you choose the original (which you should) or the remake, there are lots of moments when you’ll be glad you went for a high-CBD indica to calm your nerves. Plus, seriously, what’s more peak stoner than smoking a strain that is the exact same name as the main character of the movie you’re watching? Like, really, just pat yourself on the back for this one.

“The Shining” + Jack the Ripper

Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance in this classic film about a family’s weird and disturbing winter at a hotel in Colorado. This energizing sativa might be a good choice to help keep you and your friends upbeat during some of the more slow or meandering parts of the movie where you could lose interest. Instead, you guys can giggle your way through until the next scare.

“The Hunger” + Blood Orange Kush

Bust out this oldie but goodie where the iconic David Bowie plays an ageless but still somehow relatively youthful vampire on the hunt for fresh blood. This movie is definitely more eerie than downright scary and the paired strain works well with keeping you relaxed and feeling good with the calm, methodical pace of the movie.

“Carrie” + Killer Queen

Mean teens, hella blood and a nightmare prom? Check. Though this film adapted from a Stephen King novel was made back in the ’70s, it’s still just as creepy now as it was then. You can expect lots of cerebral effects with this hybrid strain that will keep you feeling energized as your body settles into deep relaxation.

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” + Sweet Dreams

Wes Craven did a pretty good job at making people never want to fall asleep again thanks to the disturbing and frequent appearances by Freddy Krueger in their dreams and waking life. This creeper strain is good for lasting through the movie and getting you nice and relaxed for a good night’s sleep — minus the nightmares.

“Psycho” + 3x Crazy

Considered one of the best psychological horror movies of all time, this movie is home to the infamous shower scene that has been copied and parodied since its introduction in 1960. Pairing a nice indica strain with this film will have you feeling zenned out and comfortably relaxed even through all the screeching.

“Night of the Living Dead” + Zombie OG

Take a break from your “Walking Dead” marathon and throw on this classic movie all about the undead feeding on those still living. As the name suggests, this strain is super potent and will have you feeling heavily sedated. It’s great for a late-night solo smoke where you have every intention of falling asleep right afterward.

“The Exorcist” + Holy Ghost

This strain is good for stress and anxiety which could help you keep your cool during an intense, high-stakes movie about clearing a kid of demon possession. And to help with the residual trauma, Holy Ghost is good for a mood boost that can help you shake that lingering sinister feeling.

The post The 8 Best Weed Strains for a Spooky Halloween appeared first on Cannabis Now.

The Cheese cannabis variety is an indisputable figure in the world of cannabis. Its name comes from its distinctive aroma of old cheese and its strong cultural roots in the United Kingdom. Cheese has been used over the years as a base to create new hybrids with unique characteristics. Its distinguished aroma and effects continue to be part of its legacy, as well as its particular history.

In this blog entry, we are going to try to contextualize a bit, and we will talk about the origin of the famous Cheese, a current phenomenon with a long and curious history behind it…

Origins of Cheese cannabis

Cheese is born from a selection of Skunk#1 seeds; today there is still a certain mystery regarding the origin of these seeds, since some Cheese lovers are convinced that it comes from Sacred Seeds, while others claim that it was born from a pack of Skunk #1 from the Sensi Seeds bank (later), but the origin is the same, a Skunk#1 line from the 80s.

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Sam Skunkman (Sacred Seeds) is considered the original breeder of the Skunk#1 strain. He moved from the USA (California) to the Netherlands in the 70s to grow cannabis, forced by the Reagan laws, and introduced the cultivation of sinsemilla marijuana. It is not known for sure how much weight his work had in the collective to create the variety, but he was one of the few members of the group who was able to avoid jail. According to the cannabis rumor mill, Sam arrived in the Netherlands with a suitcase containing 250,000 seeds with genetics created in collaboration with the Haze Brothers and the legendary Skunk.

In Holland, the Skunk genetics quickly gained a large group of followers, and many growers were surprised by its high yields…it produced much more than the sativas they had been cultivating and in much less time! But the Skunk genetics had a weak point; Due to its strong stench, the number of complaints against growers increased, and many were arrested. It should be noted that at that time, the installation of activated carbon filters to neutralize odors in crops was not a common practice, and due to this, Sam crossed the Skunk variety, sweetened it, and significantly reduced the powerful smell of skunk, from this way could go unnoticed in crops and avoid major problems.

The origins of Skunk

At the end of the 80s, specifically in the year 87, a selection made in the UK from Skunk#1 seeds appeared on the English scene, as we mentioned at the beginning, some point out that it was from a package of Sensi Seeds seeds, but… Where did Sensi Seeds get those seeds from? From this famous selection from the late 80s comes the famous Cheese, the variety that will attract growers and smokers for decades to come.

Cheese is characterized by its strong smell, vigor, and slender morphology, with exuberant greenery and really showy and sharp leaflets. It is a plant that branches easily with a medium distance between nodes and with really fast flowering, but that became really famous for its powerful, cured cheese terpene.

How Cheese genetics rose to fame

The turning point in this story is when the famous Cheese cutting reaches the hands of the Exodus Collective, formed in the early 90s in the Luton area, England. This collective occupied disused buildings and confronted the police, promoting housing projects, fighting against social exclusion, and supporting different community projects.

Exodus to this day continues to be remembered for its Raves (free Parties) with successes in attracting more than 10,000 people. Back in 2000, they were organized legally through agreements with the owners of the farms, always without doing business with them (fair trade policies).

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During its lifetime, the collective suffered strong police repression due to its alternative approaches to confronting social reality; raids with hundreds of policemen, and mass trials in which the police authorities contradicted themselves in their statements were the order of the day.

The Exodus collective always supported the legalization of cannabis and fair and effective drug policies. They grew weed, and Cheese was one of the collective’s favorites, it is for them that the legend was further forged, knowing the famous cutting as Exodus Cheese.

Cheese Seeds

Already in the year 2.002, the recently disappeared and esteemed by the entire cannabis sector Milo Yung (Big Buddha Seeds) made the Cheese cutting available to growers in seed form through a backcross with an Afghan variety: Big Buddha Cheese was born, a strain with which would get important prizes such as the High Times Cannabis Cup (Amsterdam), Cannabis Champions Cup (Spannabis Barcelona) and Highlife Cup.

Big Buddha Seeds’ Milo Dies

Due to the awards and the success of Milo’s seeds, Cheese continued to expand to Dutch Coffee Shops and began its recognition worldwide, all thanks to Cheese seeds being available within the reach of most mortals (previously, only it was possible to enjoy the original clone).

Over time, a large number of seed companies have included crosses with Cheese in their catalog, starting with seeds from the Milo bank, while others, in the best of cases, with the true UK Cheese clone (Exodus), such as UK Cheese x Bubba Kush from Philosopher Seeds Bank, seeds only available as a limited edition.

Later on, Milo Yung launched a new project with friends and breeders, Big Buddha Family Farms, where he crosses the original Cheese clone with Original Cheese (Cheese Bx3), one of the closest versions to the first, original Cheese clone.

The Cheese strain and the Exodus collective have become synonymous with cannabis culture in England. But to get such recognition, they also had to face great legal challenges and strong repression from the authorities. Thanks to the Exodus collective, Milo, and Cheese’s unique characteristics, it is still one of the favorite strains among Cheese enthusiasts today.

The post History of the Cheese strain appeared first on Alchimia blog.

Origins of Diesel cannabis strains

In recent years, Diesel strains have become, by their own merits, one of the most popular cannabis genetics, sought by growers and users both for their intense and special taste and for their strong effect, mainly caused by THC contents which can exceed 20% in most specimens. As it often happens in the world of cannabis, the exact origin of this genetics is uncertain, although one of the most commonly accepted theories tells us that it’s directly related to the Chemdog and, later, also to the OG Kush marijuana.

Therefore, to clarify the origins of Diesel, we need to know more about the mythical Chemdog strain – often called Chemdawg – and how it reached the East Coast of the United States.

Grateful Dead and Chem cannabis

On the 6th or 7th of June 1991, during a concert of Grateful Dead at the Deer Creek Amphitheater in Noblesville, Indiana, a young breeder called Chemdog met Joebrand (alias Wonkanobe) and Pbud in the parking lot, who sold him a 500$ bag of a pot called Dog Bud (grown indoors near the California-Oregon border). Surprised by the quality of the buds, Chemdog asked them for their number, and they later agreed that they would send him a couple more bags to the East Coast.

According to Chemdog himself, one of these bags contained only sinsemilla, while he found 13 seeds in the other bag, to the surprise of Pbud and Joebrand, who had been buying these buds for more than a year without ever finding any seeds. The male parent of these seeds remains unknown, and even the possibility of self-pollination has been considered.

That same year, Chemdog germinated 4 of these seeds; one of them was a male that was discarded (Chemdog was still very young, 17 years, and didn’t notice the potential of this plant) while the other three, which were females, were labeled as follows:

• Chemdog (today known as ’91 Chemdog)
• Chemdog “a” (today called Chemdog’s Sister)
• Chemdog “b”

10 years later, in 2001, Chemdog and his girlfriend tried to germinate 3 more seeds, labeled as “c”, “d” and “e”. The “e” never sprouted, the “c” turned out to be mediocre, while the “d” has been preserved until today, known as Chemdog D or Chem D.

In 2006, Chemdog and Joebrand met again, and Joebrand got 4 of the last 6 seeds. He labeled them from #1 to #4 and kept the #4, which he called “Reunion pheno” since he considered it the most similar phenotype to the original genetics. If we are to believe this, Chemdog would still be keeping the last 2 seeds today.

Chemdog and his friends – most of them were underground breeders – developed several hybrids from the Chemdog marijuana. These ones became especially popular:–

• Giesel (Chem D x Massachusetts Super Skunk)
• Bubble Chem (Chemdog’s Sister x Sag’s Blueberry)
• Chemhaze (Chem D x ’93 NL#5/Haze, also called Dawg Daze)
• Super Snowdawg (Bubble Chem x Super Skunk/Oregon Sno)
• Chemdog D x Pbud (variedad old school de Colorado)

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OG Kush and Diesel cannabis

In 1992, JJ and Weasel met in New York City’s Central Park, and shortly afterwards, Weasel obtained the Massachusetts Super Skunk and the ’91 Chemdog from Chemdog, although he didn’t like this name and changed it to Diesel or New York City Diesel. Just a couple of years later, in 1995, the Original Diesel came in – also known as Underdawg, Diesel #1, Headband, or Daywrecker Diesel – a hybrid developed by Weasel from the ’91 Chemdog and a Massachusetts Super Skunk x Sensi Seeds Northern Lights cross.

Soon, the famous Sour Diesel – also called East Coast Sour Diesel, or simply ECSD – was created by accident when a whole crop of ’91 Chemdog was pollinated by DNL (Northern Lights x RFK Skunk/Hawaiian) or by Massachusetts Super Skunk (JJ-NYC).

There seems to be no relationship at all between the American Diesel lines and the New York City Diesel from Soma (so popular in Europe thanks to the Mandarin Cut), neither concerning the organoleptic traits nor to the effect, which is milder than American Diesel genetics.

We cannot tell this story without mentioning the OG Kush strain. There are several theories about its origins: for some people, it is simply a sister of the Sour Diesel. For others, it is a self-pollination of the ’91 Chemdog selected in the Lake Tahoe area in 1996. Finally, the third and most widely accepted theory (Kailua Kid from Sierra Seed Company) tells that it’d be a cross between a Chemdog clone and a Lemon Thai x Old World Paki Kush hybrid developed in Northern California; this theory would explain the “Kush” in the name of the variety, while the “OG” would probably mean “Ocean Grown” (grown near the ocean).

From here, different clones of the popular OG Kush were selected, kept and shared, such as the Tahoe Cut (introduced to the community by Swerve in the nineties), the San Fernando Valley or SFV cut (coming from the area with the same name) or the Raskal’s OG cut (also from the San Fernando area) among many others.

Today, we can find a large number of hybrids developed from Diesel and OG Kush genetics, which gives us a hint about the quality of these strains, characterized by a very intense cerebral effect and an unmistakable blend of diesel, earthy, piney, and citric notes.

JJ-NYC is one of the breeders that has developed different varieties from the original genetics. He performed different tests with Hindu Kush and Afghani seeds from the Sensi Seeds Bank, developing a backcross called Double Dawg (Chemdog D x Afghani), which he backcrossed again, thus creating the Tres Dawg. Tres Dawg has been used for developing numerous hybrids of excellent quality, like Star Dawg (Chem 4 x Tres Dawg), White Dawg (The White x Tres Dawg) or Original New York City Diesel (’91 Chemdog x Tres Dawg). Rez from Reservoir Seeds has also used this genetics in his breeding projects, offering extraordinary versions like Sour Diesel IBL, mother plant of the renowned Riri cut, selected in France by Riri in 2006.

So, the next time someone mentions Diesel, you know it’s not just about potency and aroma, but about a story that began in the New York garages of the 1990s and ended up conquering gardens and dispensary windows around the world. A legendary strain that, like all good myths, lives on, mutating, inspiring… and leaving an aromatic trail impossible to ignore.

Happy harvest!

The post The Origins of Diesel appeared first on Alchimia blog.

White Widow is a legendary marijuana strain known by the vast majority of stoners. Who hasn’t heard of it? Who has not tasted the White Widow or some cross of the White family? Many old-school stoners right now are sure to have memories of their first trips – to Holland – with White Widow.

White Widow is considered a hybrid between a Brazilian Sativa Landrace plant and a South Indian Indica, a genetic that appeared on the scene in 1995 like a hurricane, winning the Dutch High Times Cup at a time when plants like Skunk, Northern Lights or Haze dominated the scene. Today we tell you everything we know about its origin.

Historical Context of White Widow

Today we want to invite you to reflect on the origin of the WW marijuana variety and follow the trail from its beginnings, since to this day seeds and crosses coming from it continue to be found in a multitude of seed bank catalogs, such as White Widow from Green House, Medical Seeds, Dutch Passion or Black Widow from the Mr Nice Seed Bank, and there is still quite a bit of mystery about its origins and those of its creator… what most potheads surely agree on is that White widow has been, and still is, a turning point in the history of marijuana, as well as the fundamental pillar for the creation of an endless number of hybrids (called “White family”). White Widow is the marijuana plant that marked a before and after in cannabis breeding, being the necessary cooperator for the appearance of many new seed banks.

At the end of the 80s, there were no plants with enormous differences and high variability of terpenes like today; the Sativa varieties stood out above all else and Haze was the bomb, as it would continue to be in the following years along with Northern Lights and Skunk genetics. In these glorious times, large-scale cultivation was allowed in the Netherlands and Switzerland, while outdoor marijuana crops were carried out on terraces, patios, or orchards without the current nervousness or paranoia since the neighbor did not know what a marijuana plant was, plant thieves did not exist and the police rarely knew how to tell a cannabis plant from a tomato plant.

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White Widow, together with NL and Skunk, was one of the genetics that had just established indoor cultivation in Europe. As we mentioned earlier, at this time most plants had great vigor and quite wild traits (landrace influence), for which adaptation to indoor crops was not a common denominator along with long flowering times and “low” yields. The majority of plants were only able to show their maximum splendor under the sun and only in those most propitious climates. White Widow could be grown perfectly under HPS grow lamps, with a contained height and an excellent production of tight buds with amazing bag appeal, nothing comparable to those produced by most sativa plants. With White Widow, several crops a year could be grown with excellent results in terms of weight and resin, something unusual to date and that the coffee shop market knew how to take advantage of.

Characteristics of White Widow marijuana genetics

White Widow is easy to grow, it is a fast plant with great resistance to inclement weather and has a high tolerance to cultivation errors. On most occasions, it is capable of assimilating a high nutrient content (excesses), ending its flowering without problem with a remarkable yield of buds completely covered in resin. The effect of White Widow is forceful and is noticeable after a short time, the high is energetic and happy in low doses with a very relaxing and pacifying finish. It is, therefore, a strain that does not drive smokers crazy like the Haze genetics of the time used to do or some Skunks with more sativa phenotypes, with endless effects that sometimes generated tachycardia or anxiety. Regarding organoleptic properties, the spicy aromas stand out with a woody background, sometimes confused with today’s “OG”.

Even today, White Widow remains the “tool of the trade” for many seed banks and growers. Its ease and versatility when working with it together with its combinatory ability to hybridize are more than consolidated. They highlight its sexual stability (firmness in sex), its ability to significantly shorten the flowering times of its offspring, and that it is not an intrusive plant in terms of terpenes, allowing the aromas of the other parent of the hybrid to predominate. Only those more experienced users and knowledgeable about White genetics can tell if a variety has been hybridized with Widow by its appearance and its peculiar aftertaste since it is difficult to appreciate.

Origin of the White Widow marijuana

Behind the illustrious creature we are talking about today, and in order to dig a little into its possible origins, it is impossible to do so without mentioning and bringing to the fore Ingemar, Scott Blakey, and Arjan Roskam. Below you have the “truth” of each of these three iconic characters from the cannabis scene. The controversy is served:

Ingemar

Ingemar (De Sjamaan) has been a pioneer in many respects, a Dutch grower from the 80s with a passion for outdoor growing who worked hard acclimating plants to the harsh Dutch climate, even making his own organic fertilizers (what we now call Living Soil). His work in the open sky may explain why WW is a very resistant genetic in outdoor crops, especially to fungi. Ingemar was a strong medical marijuana activist and altruistically supplied cannabis during White Widow’s breeding period. In an interview conducted for a German publication a few decades ago we can find some information. We summarize it for you:

To the forced question about W.W.’s genetics, Ingemar replied: “Well… that of course is a secret! I can tell you that it is from two seeds that were bred and stabilized for 6 years before being crossed and presented in 1987, The seeds with which WW was created came from a piece of charas.”

Regarding the origin of the seeds, the answer was that they came from friends or from trips: “At that time, due to Dutch permissiveness, cannabis cultivation was not a big problem, large-scale cultivation was allowed for seed production, it had fields in which I could plant thousands to be able to select the best. White Widow is the first plant of the white line (White Family), it produces so much resin that it is scary to smoke it. All I did was give dry product to a coffeeshop that presented it in different cannabis cups and she won. When I introduced Great White Shark she immediately won a cup too. Then I introduced the same weed under the name Peacemaker and she won a cup again...”

Ingemar affirms that the White Widow genetics from Green House Seeds is his creation, and that the parents are the same, “Yes, they are the same. Years ago I gave it to Arjan WW, he is the only one who has permission to use the plant and name.”

Shantibaba

Scott Blakey, known to everyone in the scene as Shantibaba, is a famous and well-traveled cannabis breeder. Today he manages, among other companies, Mr.Nice Seed Bank and CBD Crew. Of Australian origin and son of a doctor in mathematics, already in the 80s with the help of his father, they installed an indoor crop in a garage (it seems that all successful companies always start in a garage…) experimenting with different varieties.

After some time, Blakey traveled some 40,000 miles in his Royal Enfield through Asia in the 80s, collecting seeds of local marijuana varieties in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma… In 1986 he also traveled through South America (Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Los Andes) for almost a year, expanding his genetic collection, which he shared with Neville Schoenmakers until approximately 1998.

Cannabis in the 80s, the Dutch revolution

After returning from one of his trips to India he landed in Holland. In the 1990s he started his career in Green House Seeds, where he became co-owner with Arjan Roskam (1994), working together with Ingemar and Neville to create WW. After one of his trips, he returned to Holland with some seeds found in Kerala, which were later used as parent to create WW; These seeds came from a farmer in the Indian region who had kept them for years (possibly a hybrid) to selectively improve her traits and increase her resin production. With these seeds and the Brazilian female, Shantibaba created the original Widow that he worked on until it was released by the Green House Seeds bank in 1994.

This project with Green House produced countless strains such as White Widow (Black Widow) and many more belonging to the White Family, such as Great White Shark (Shark Shock), El Niño (La Niña), or White Rhino (Medicine Man). Due to disagreements with Arjan, he decided to leave Green House and partner with Howard Marks and Neville to found Mr. Nice Seed Bank, where they would offer versions of those same Green House varieties (the names you’ve seen in brackets). We are sure, he did not leave the company empty-handed without copies of the mothers developed alongside Ingemar, Neville, and Arjan in their time at Green House Seeds.

Shantibaba’s words: “I founded the Greenhouse Seed company in 1995 and won the HTCC with White Widow. I call it Black Widow now since I started at Mr Nice Seedbank. I know Ingemar and have worked with him in the past, he is not a breeder of cannabis, he is a good grower on mother earth. As far as I know, he never supplied seeds to anyone he knows, so I cannot comment on the seeds he sells, he never created his fame from seeds. Ingemar simply uses the name (in this case White Widow) as most people do…”

Arjan Roskam

Arjan Roskam (The King of Cannabis), is currently the owner of the Green House Company (Coffee Shops and seed bank) together with StrainHunters and Green House Feeding, a character with countless followers and detractors. He is a very active person today, and it is not difficult to follow his adventures and business through his social networks. His last great genetic contribution to the community, and a resounding sales success, was the acclaimed Super Lemon Haze.

According to Arjan: “Ingemar (De Sjamaan) invented WW as early as 1987. It was called Arnhem’s Wonder and it already won the first HT cup in 1989. For those who don’t believe this, call Coffeeshop Catweazel or Roger from the grow shop, they worked with Ingemar for Roger has always sold the clones he had, he had a famous grow shop in Nijmegen, I bought the male and female among other plants in 1992 and only crossed them in 1994. I didn’t have to breed at that time because Ingemar already had done it for us. And to this day you can still buy original White Widow clones in that area of Holland.”

Conclusions

Three decades later we still do not have a reliable version of the origin of one of the most iconic marijuana varieties in history, the White Widow. What is clear to us is that thanks to Ingemar, Shantibaba, Neville, and Arjan we know the White Widow and we have been able to enjoy it, and all of them have made it possible to a greater or lesser extent.

We do not want to end this blog entry without mentioning all those growers and hash artisans who are not taken into account in most cases and who were also part of this story. People who have kept, grown, and selected traditional local varieties for hundreds of years in their respective countries of origin. From our point of view, it would be impossible to enjoy the current varieties without them, as is the case of White Widow.

If you have information that can shed some light on this story, do not hesitate to pass it on through the comments, any opinion will also be welcome. Long live the White Widow!

The post History of the White Widow appeared first on Alchimia blog.