Pretty in Pink - a Festival of Colours


Genetic background and history

In 1998, Dutch Passion launched a cooperation with breeder DJ Short, adopting his "Blue Family" strains, including Blueberry, Blue Velvet, Blue Moonshine, Blue Heaven and Flo. These genetics were totally new to the Dutch and widely also European market, blowing a fresh breeze into the landscape of cannabis genetics which was heavily dominated by the Amsterdam gene pool (Skunk, Northern Lights, Haze) and White Widow. The Blue Family brought amazing new aromas and tastes, also attracting the growers with its fancy colours. 6.jpgFlo is one of the most charismatic and fascinating strains within the Blue Family, consisting of 60% sativa and 40% indica genetics - which means the highest sativa content of all Blue Family strains. Most of Flo's sativa genetics come from an Oaxacan (Mexican) sativa, the other from a Thai sativa, and the indica genetics are contributed by an Afghani indica strain. These three truebred parental lines represent the genetic framework of the Blue Family, all of its members have their own specific genotype within these three genetic cornerstones. Already in the 70ies, DJ Short had collected, selected and refined the original landraces Oaxacan, Thai and Afghani. Real raw and mighty cannabis genetics, powered by mother nature. The Blue Family members clearly express this vital background.

Cultivation test

In 1999, I got my hands on Flo seeds and made a late-start outdoor cultivation with it, starting five seeds in mid June. They all germinated well and were grown under fluorescents at first for two weeks. Then they were acclimatised to sunlight for some days and finally transplanted to the outdoor plot, directly in to the ground. Two plants were female and three male. Flowering startet much later than expected (at the beginning of September), it soon became clear that the plants were far away from producing the first ripe buds in the third or fourth week of September, as stated by Dutch Passion. However, the fact that the plants were much shorter in the vegetative state than common might have played a role in this context, as the plant's readiness to flower increases with its age. At the end of October, the plants had to be harvested due to the bad wheather, about 10-14 days too early for the remaining buds (some had already been picked). It is a special feature of Flo that the buds will not ripen at the same time so that it can be multi-harvested over a period of time. The colours of these outdoor Flo plants were looking awesome, with an intensely pink shade leaf colouration and violet to blue-red flower leafs and calyxes. In addition, the buds were covered by lots of nicely sparkling crystals, giving off a unique sweet and spicy smell, highly individual. The best thing: It exactly tasted like it smelled - a phenomenon that is quite rare in the world of cannabis strains. The Flo's intense Nepalese Temple Hash-like taste was a unique long-lasting fullmouth sensation, the flavouring agents of Flo copiously appended themselves to the taste bulbs and remained there for a long time. Also they high could satisfy any cannasseur's whishes, providing a long consistent flow with both motivational sativa and stoney indica effects, a strong, complex high. A grower recently told me that he has successfully germinated two out of four Flo seeds that were seven years old and stored in the cellar at room temperature the last five years. So obviously Flo seeds seem to have a long shelf-life also.