History of '98 Aloha White Widow
In 1998 on the Big Island of Hawai’i, a new cannabis contender enters the arena arriving in paradise, ready to strut her stuff – putting other strains to shame with her frosty crystal coated game.
Growers in Hawai’i had been under siege from Operation Green Harvest Pakalōlō eradication efforts for two decades by 1998 and unfortunately for Hawaiian Pakalōlō and Hawai’i 'Ohana (Families) who lovingly cultivate it, their efforts were remarkably successful.
Hawai’i growers no longer could grow a field of Pakalōlō gratefully soaking up full Hawai’i sun, we had to hide in da bush and we had to find strains that could successfully camouflage in diverse tropical Hawaiian flora.
Growing in da bush with Green Harvest Helicopters directly overhead here in Hawai’i presents a unique set of challenges and difficulties.
You must find Pakalōlō strains that are small and compact, mold resistant due to high humidity and moisture in da bush that accumulates more rapidly than if you could grow freely in full sun.
Most Hawaiian Pakalōlō strains are famed for their massive sweet stanky yields, as many Hawaiian Sativa strains and get extremely large.
Kona Gold is absolutely massive and can be a serious hassle growing indoors as you need a indoor amphitheater or domed football stadium to contain her ridiculously vigorous growth.
Perhaps the Roman Pantheon would have enough head room for Kona Gold to fully develop indoors, traditional indoor grow rooms or tents – not so much.
A good way to identify real Hawaiian Landrace Kona Gold is her root system.
Kailua-Kona Hawai’i is located on the windward dry sunny side of the Big Island consisting of an absolutely gorgeous landscape; the most crystal clear blue water you have ever set eyes upon, stunning beaches like Kua Bay, Makalawena , Ho’okena, Honaunau, Spencer Beach Park, Magic Sands and Hapuna to name a few – another unique part of Kona side’s natural beauty and allure is the many different stages of Pahoehoe and 'A’a lava flows.
The roots of Kona Gold must travel deep beneath the surface and maneuver their way down through lava rock to find fresh springs and aquifer below.
If you are growing Kona Gold her root system will quickly fill any size pot and if there are drainage holes in your pots you will see roots climbing through searching for water to guzzle as she grows even mo’ massive by the second. We highly recommend utilizing pots that allow air pruning of root systems when cultivating Kona Gold.
So much Kona Gold was un-righteously confiscated by Green Harvest that many local people under 40 in Kona have never even even sampled her heavy heady Hawaiian high and some even believe it is a myth like many of our other genetics lost in time. Many myths and stories originate from a fact distorted over time, retold differently by each generation like a game of telephone (or coconut wireless as we say here in Hawai’i) passed down over the years.
Kona Gold is no myth and neither is '98 Aloha White Widow, though they are both indeed legendary champion Big Island strains due to their devastating effects and unique flavors.
As we all realized that we could no longer grow large Hawaiian sativa strains outdoor during Green Harvest eradication sieges, the search intensified for smaller strains we could get away with growing.
Many times in life what you are searching for will arrive at your door when you least expect it.
Enter '98 Aloha White Widow…
Legend has it a cannabis enthusiast from Canada was visiting Hawai’i and had brought some seeds to barter and trade for some Hawaiian strains.
As we say on Big Island: Big island, small world.
Seek and ye shall find, this cool Canadian cannabis connoisseur met the right people (perhaps in part because of da potent pack of Pakalōlō brought to share) at the right time and facilitated the birth of a legend.
Seeds have been a universal currency for as long as human beings have walked the Earth.
An exchange was made, Hawaiian landrace strains for some of the ultra dank this Canadian traveler had brought to the table.
While it may be Kapu (forbidden) to take lava rock home with you from Hawai’i, just ask any person who has returned the offending lava rock to Hawai’i and placed it back at the fired up feet of Pele the Hawaiian Volcano Goddess with apologies and humility.
Bringing Hawaiian genetics home is not discouraged, quite to the contrary, it is encouraged!
“Spread a lil Aloha around da world”
As anyone who is truly involved in our Hawaiian Pakalōlō preservation movement knows, our community is all about sharing and building with each other, not hording cuts and claiming false status due to your possession of a plant that we know is a gift from Akua (God) as it has been given to humanity as a gift, so shall we share this gift with our fellow humans.
The sharing of Pakalōlō genetics is one of the main reasons the cannabis community has been able to evolve to such a place that we are baffling anti-Pakalōlō “scientists” and brainwashed ignorant doubters as we can finally prove what we have known for Hanauna (generations), Pakalōlō is a medicine for EVERYTHING!
Seeds were sprouted and cuttings of each different White Widow phenotype were passed around the Big Island of Hawai’i freely in our underground cannabis community.
There are 3 prominent phenos you will see with true old school '98 Aloha Widow cuttings:
1: Candy Widz or Sweet Thang '98 Aloha White Widow as she is affectionately referred to, is light green completely frosted up da stem down da leaves off da dome (“nothing but net” as Michael Jordan would say ;-).
All up side down side inside out side of every 'ono (delicious) nug!
With a slight Sativa influence Candy Widz is so strong you may forget what century it is and anxiously look around the tropical Hawaiian landscape in fear of running into hungry dinosaurs and rival cave man tribes seeking to bash you with a club in order to come up on the wheel you just invented. By the time you realize Barney, Dino and Bam-Bam are all a figment of your mightily medicated imagination, hours have passed and you have slipped into the easy relaxed Big Island vibe where the Aloha Spirit and Big Island Love Trumps hate every time.
2: Dirty Widz, Puna Widow or Death Widz as she has respectfully been dubbed by Big Island 'Ohana who have been cultivating her for two decades now, is another story entirely.
A darker shade and a heavier stone that makes your soul tremble to accept the next hit of da doobie going round, battling the uncontrollable desire to taste her dank musky diesel smoke once more as you exhale yourself high above your cares and worries past cloud 9 to never-never land.
Dirty Widz thrives outdoors as she has acclimatized after 20 years of being grown in the Puna District of the Big island of Hawai’i.
There are 3 growing seasons year round here in Hawai’i, 2 short seasons and a long season ~ '98 Aloha White Widow has been grown outdoors here for over 200 seasons!
A serious pain killer, mood enhancer and all around go to strain for whatever ails you, '98 Aloha White Widow Dirty Widz is powerful as she is pungent!!
- Garlic Widz, Garlic Buddaz or Garlicz is perhaps one of the most amazing widow cuttings on planet Earth!
Garlicz has a strong aroma of skunky garlic and tastes like a piece of garlic bread covered in ganja butter!
A heavy heady Indica leaning pheno of '98 Aloha White Widow Garlicz is da mos rare and most sought after cut of da Widz for those who know dakine.
Some old school Big I growers say Garlic Widz is a hybrid of '98 Aloha White Widow and an old garlic bud indica from the early 90’s which may explain her inebriating indica lean and distinct garlic stink.
Besides the phenotype differences that may have arisen due to sister seeds from the same batch producing slightly different phenotype variations, all 3 phenos also changed and adapted to the specific regions on Big Island where they were cultivated.
South Kona 'Ohana kept da Garlic Widz cuts close to da chest, and can only be found within a old school tight knit South Kona Pakalōlō 'Ohana that has produced some of the best Pakalōlō on Earth!
South Kona is a community where the Aloha Spirit permeates every living creature and Big Island Love is much more than just a bumper sticker. 'Ohana all over Big I are some of the most loving people on the planet.
South Kona 'Ohana have Big Island love down to a science, right along side with their perfectionist Pakalōlō cultivation skills.
Candy Widz was grown in North Kona, South Kona, Kohala, Kau and Hawi on da Kona side of da Big I.
With more sunshine available to her than her sister Dirty Widz in sunny Kona as opposed to da more cloudy and rainy Puna/Hilo side, she changed and evolved into a magnificent masterpiece with a lighter color and sweeter flavor than either Dirty Widz or Garlic Widz.
Candy Widz can also be found Puna Side, but she is grown indoor over there more often as she is not as resilient in the rain as her prolific Punatic skunky sister da Dirty Widz.
Dirty Widz was a cut that made her epic Huaka’i (journey) across the Big Island from South Kona to Puna side and was embraced by Punatic growers, who love nothing more than good strong 'ono (delicious) Pakalōlō. She adapted to her environment and thrived! Right up there with Puna Buddaz when it comes to mold resistance, which is quite remarkable considering Puna Buddaz is a old school Hawaiian landrace Indica and has been around for centuries while '98 Aloha White Widow has been in Hawai’i for twenty years.
It is still unclear if Dirty Widz and Candy Widz are from different seeds started from the same batch or if the differences are entirely due to genetic divergence as they are so similar in so many ways, yet have distinct recognizable differences.
Genetic divergence is the process in which two or more populations of an ancestral species accumulate independent genetic changes (mutations) over the years, often after the populations have become re-productively isolated for some period of time.
We do know Garlic Widz is different as Garlicz Indica qualities are so prominent one could mistake it for a different strain than traditional '98 Aloha White Widow who leans to the Sativa side.
We experimented feminizing a Dirty a Candy Widz cut of '98 Aloha White Widow in 2012 to create our 1st S1 stock but when growing out da s1 offspring we still found phenos that brought out genetic traits from further generations past.
Most reflected their '98 Aloha White Widow Mothers with stunning accuracy, but when creating S1 stock there is no guarantee that the offspring will directly reflect the Mothers genetics without bringing out parentage traits from prior generations.
Therefore the only way to say for sure you have a true '98 Aloha White Widow pheno of the Candy Widz, Dirty Widz or Garlic Widz is to acquire a cutting from 'Ohana on Big Island.
Even with our S1 seeds created from the Dirty Widz and Candy Widz we found recessive genetic phenotypes arising, you can get very close as we have with our latest batch, but a clone is the only true genetic match to '98 Aloha White Widow.
We intend to work with '98 Aloha White Widow further by back crossing S1 offspring that we feminize back into the original '98 Aloha White Widow Mother cuts to stabilize and bring forth the cuts best traits in seed form.
It may be a few seasons before we have the resources to work on every project we want to as soon as we want to, as most of our growers are focusing on creating seed stock for Kona Gold, Maui Wowie, Kaua’i Electric, Moloka’i Purpz, Moloka’i Frost, Puna Buddaz, Hawai’i '78 and our other Hawaiian landrace genetics currently – some of whom are a frosty hair away from extinction…
For those of you searching for '98 Aloha White Widow, you have chosen wisely.
'98 Aloha White Widow is so powerful that she almost assisted Green Harvest in their genocide of Hawaiian Pakalōlō as growers continually chose widow over old Hawaiian strains for a variety of reasons from her potency to her faster flower cycle.
A big reason no other White Widow is quite like her is that she has assimilated into Hawaiian culture, acclimatizing to our environment lovingly lacing the lungs of local people with her pungent tasty smoke for long enough to be accepted into our society.
While '98 Aloha White Widow may originate from outside of the Hawaiian island chain, like many of our other favorite plants animals and people here in Hawai’i, she is Hawaiian now even if only Hānai 'Ohana (Family related by Love but not blood) and she has most definitely earned the name Aloha.
Aloha a hui hou,
Pua Mana 'Ohana
