The Story of Serious Six

By Thomas from Serious Seed

Serious 6 is the first new strain developed by Simon, the breeder and owner of Serious Seeds, in the last 10 years.

This strain was developed mixing genetics from Canada with Sativa-landraces from Africa through a time consuming process of selection and cross-breeding.

The goal of this long selection process was to create an early-finishing Sativa type of plant which is very mold-resist- ant and will finish outdoors in the dutch humid and cold climate at the end of September. In Holland this is an important date, because after that time strong rains and winds start, which will cause bud-rot in most varieties. With this plant we think we have reached that goal; in Holland the majority of the plants can be harvested at the end of September. Outdoors in Spain this will be much earlier, we estimate that most plants will be ready to harvest at the 15th of September or maybe even earlier!

We introduced Serious 6 for the first time at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam in November 2009 and she was greet- ed with much respect and love from the cannabis community, everybody wanted to get their hands on the seeds of this new strain.

We planned on releasing the seeds after that  Cannabis Cup, but the final indoor test for the variety was not good enough for Simon. He let a batch of indoor-plants flower for much longer than recommended (more than 3 weeks longer) and two of those plants showed one or two single male-bananas. This is a natural reaction of a sinsemilla plant at the end of her life-cycle when she feels threatened that she will die without producing seeds. Although most cannabis plants will do this, because its a survival mechanism which has proven to be successful during the evo- lution of the cannabis plant, Simon said he will not release a plant that shows even the slightest her- maphroditic traits.

So we had to go back to the beginning and started to select for a different parent combination again.

Outdoor plants can only be tested once every year; during the summer season. Every summer for the last couple of years we have tested new parent combinations of the Serious 6, and therefore it took us so many years to create the plant that Simon desired.

Finally after great results this summer, we feel this unique strain is ready to be released.

Outdoors she grows tall and slender like a true Sativa, with one main stem with side buds, not the christmas tree-shaped plants which is more Indica- like. Despite the dutch outdoor climate the buds will grow few small leaves and build a particular- ly thick layer of cristals, compared to other out- door plants. Approximately half of the plants will show strikingly beautiful pink pistils, which can be seen in the fotos next to this text. The pink pistils are only noticeable on the living plant, once the flowers ripen the pink hairs will turn to a normal brownish colour. At the end of the flowering cycle these pink colors are substituted by purple colors of the calyxes and leaves.

The Serious 6 is a very beautiful plant to have in the garden which is certainly one of the positive characteristics for growers. We have noticed how much visitors loved the Serious 6 test plants from the looks alone, making remarks like:“Hey man, I want to grow this awesome plant in my garden!”

The Serious 6 is an almost pure Sativa with a short flowering time (about 8 to 9 weeks indoors) which gives amazing results indoors. She will fill up and produce dense long buds glistening with trichomes, spreading a very aromatic fragrance. The aroma of Serious 6 is a new combination of  odours which cannot be compared to other cannabis varieties. She has a smell and taste that is different and new, and seems to be built up in lay- ers; citric, anise, spicy are only a few of the recognizable aromas.

Her effect is a cristal clear head-high, once you smoke her you will get creative and active and you will want to do something creative like painting, writing or playing some music. The Serious 6 packs a load of THC! At the Spannabis 2013 on Friday the 15th of February 2013 an  indoor grown bud of Serious 6 was tested at the Canna- laboratory at the fair with 17%  THC.  That  was the highest measured THC-content of ALL strains tested that day at the fair!

People in Spain are lucky enough to be able to grow seeds of strong plants like AK-47, Bubble Gum, Chronic, White Russian or even Kali Mist outdoors, because in this climate they will finish without getting bud-rot. Growing the Serious 6 outside next to them, may have the advantage that the Serious 6 is ready to smoke while you wait for the other plants to finish flowering.

Right after its offical market-release in May 2013, an indoor-bud of Serious 6 was entered into the Highlife Cup, a dutch cannabis-cup organzied by the dutch Highlife magazine. It was entered in the Bio-weed category, which had a total of 21 entries competing for the crown. Allthough there were also some heavy-hitting kushes in this category, the judges appreciated the uplifting and clear high of the Serious 6 and its extraordinary fine taste and awarded it with the second place trophy.

All in all this plant is perfectly suited for outdoor grows in a wide range of climates or for indoor growers who like a quick finishing sativa. Serious  6 offers a very nice alternative to the wave of hard- hitting, couchlock Kush-strains that dominate the market today.