I’m actually cannibalizing a hanging NL5H specimen, the last that was in the round. And not the least, the female initially selected to carry the repro. Rolling the last in writing it is a perfect condition to give a feedback on this recent iteration of Sensi Seeds (2023 batch).
Unfortunately it’s all we got from Sensi. The evasive and and large panel of datas given in the description is not even worth to be mentionned. For an expensive high tier line, it’s quite insulting. Because it’s one of the pillars of the modern strains.
I will not start to talk about the genesis of this line, it’s even deeply linked with Neville wich complicate always the backgrounds. This is a territory i let for the weednerds, also because i’m sincerely more concerned by the genetic i have in front of me.
In synthesis, it’s revolving again around a Northern Light. And the NL5 in particular. This shit make high grade exotic genotypes when handled, but the occurence is rare. The occurrence of pillar like the NL5H even more.
The sweet skunk, the jack herer, the hempstar … this a base that is talking to me. But also a weed that can be considered as an important classic to know. And no, it’s not growing like a haze at all.
-= YIELD =-
Just keep in mind that you’re not buying a sativa line with the NL5H. The yield is on the upper side just like the Big Bud, same potential for cash cropping. Exact same incredible answer to DWC and bubblers, for yield. Not saying they are linked at all, but the comparative perfs express that in fact you’re in fact buying a yielder that have to be grown and hybridized this way : For grammers.
It’s obviously not a commercial crop here lol, but … as balanced reference it’s not hard to obtain one oz of final product per liter of root mass. Not a challenge with this horse i mean. Buds are kind of fluffy, it take some volume to make weight. It’s maybe the only one sativa-ish side of this genotype lol
A good hydro setup (she love it) can push the NL5H over the kilogrammer/m² or 3+ oz/ft². Most of phenos.
If like me you appreciate the usual Skunk/Afghani yielders but that you like now more exotic combo to stash the hell … she’s for you. You will not be the fastest of the bloc but for sure the more expensive with a good stock of it ^^
This genetic potential pass quite well with anything you’re able to guess possible. It’s not the case of the Big Bud and most of skunk/afghani hybrids. Even with raw landraces, much more elegant than the meh SK#1-way usually taken.
Yes, it’s a true “pounder” but that pass it whatever the fuck.
-= HEIGHT =-
This is not a plant radically different to manage that the Big Bud, overall and height counted. I got a bunch more “hazey” phenos in the Big Bud, historically, that with NL5H. Because i got none until today ^^
You will rarely reach over 4 feets/120cm outside the pot, indoor, if you’re more on fast turn-over than with a tree-grow style. It’s not specially stretchy and the elongation of the flowering stage is streamlined. No auxin rush to expect like a JH or a BB or any sativa.
Sincerely totally manageable for everybody, we are not talking about a Kalimist or a JH at all.
-= FLOWERING TIME =-
I feel even guilty to write something about it but fortunately for us, and genetically, between 90 and 120 days like it always been. Yeah. It’s not 50 and i continue to say that this line have none sativa traits but the fluffy buds and … well that’s all.
EXCEPT, the double flowering stages ^^ This way those that are not serious when they read my shit are fucked to milk this strain lmao
Just like 10-20% of Jack Herer phenos, her skunked daughter, you have a kind of binary choice for your harvest. It mean one month more of flo while you thinked she was done.
For the nutes, the bitchy side of the JH is totally inherited from the NL5H. And it’s related to this particular flowering sequence. Recessive on the JH and focused on the most hazey phenos. Global with the NL5H.
Just like the Big Bud, the first month of the NL5H is frustrating. You know it’s a pounder but you see nothing related. So it’s pointless to don’t just give the balanced NPK base it need. Eventually a shot of PK to stimulate declarations …
Look at this digression on the HA log, explanations with macros ^^
It’s when the phillotaxy of the floral mass is changing for a spiraling pattern that all is maded. After a ~month then. From there you start your vegetal mass boosters (generally revolving around PK) and you work the backbone of the yield during a tight window of 2 weeks to 3 weeks only. It’s not an easy yielder like the Big Bud.
90 days : greedy but standard smoke for the reference
120 days : yield fully expressed during senescence, less terps but dominating stone (it’s the true referential, initially).
70 days … do be this cheap ass with this strain. Or you will never understand why she’s so used everywhere to make hybrids ^^ Simply.
=== Turpz ===
Maybe the more easy i knew to date to manage on this part. Its kind of dried apricot tone don’t resist much but it always offer interresting combos with other terpy lines.
The smoke is dry, not much expansive and at the image of the buds : quite sativa-ish in textures. In the club of those able to dry sinus.
The aroma is so particular that all i found is this “non-fruity apricot taste”. At first you will hate me to synthesize the smoke like this but on a second move i’m sure you will love me to have found something simple and enough close.
Early detection of very aromatic phenos is a breeze and reliable in the final product. Each his own but i favorite the balance with this one. I firmly think that the stone and the taste are equals in the signature. Both are not a challenge to upgrade, but to balance.
Dried apricots. Is the turpz as good that in paste when an asteroid got the dinos ? Yup. No change. But the magic terpz of the NL5H is in its hybrids. Particularly in its F1 when carefully inbred.**
What is crazy is that i prefer twice the terpz of the Hempstar VS the NL5H ^^ But not the stone. Just saying, to en-light the potential of selection even just inbred directly and not to have a laugh.
=== Potency ===
The style is there, accurate. It’s a solid comfy stone.
The torque not. So the sharpness.
Still dominating enough to chill as fuck, but not enough strong to keep you hooked and “well” on something even stupid. Like just staring at the stars.
It’s just a maintenance-task to improve it at least at its past heights. Good cares and logic is enough. The sexuality have to be screened but don’t expose fundamental problems like the Big Bud of the same year.
How the blunt is smoking … surprisingly almost the same way with all phenos. The chemotype don’t lost its soul. Let’s roll another one … just for the real time context lol
Maybe i’m a bit harsh with the potency but my notes are actuals, not scored in the past with modern references in head. What is sure is the elegance of this smoke that only wait someone to care about it. Just basic gardenning : cleaning herms if any, gauging the best looking and resistant phenos … and the smoke will follow.
No real breeding traps in the NL5H, not even the big clash you’re expecting in the later segregations. Yup, the haze was totally gulped, you have only some bones remaining and it’s all the fire about this line with hazes-ultras etc … don’t give a damn fuck. An exotic but reliable yielder that kick a rounded terpy stone … that is not a skunk ? I take it.
The initial goal wasn’t to make it potent but decent.
Pass you turn if you search a potent reference directly, without inbreeding it.
If you’re searching a serious backbone to refine, it’s a very valuable bet. Potential still big and hybrids are surprising when choices are smart.
Sensi VS Mr Nice : choose the compromise that fit your need. I chose Sensi because the comfort zone with my background on their line. Simply. My padawan is on the Nice version, if ever we find something drastic to be known … it will be loud and clear. Like with the Critical Mass that was an hell to obtain in auction. But at last news (over a decade ago), nothing to really talk about. Beside the dramas and the millions of “i was there, look at my testimony” stuff.
=== THE PHENOS ===
There is a few Sensi release that truly need a compass to don’t screw the repros, it’s not the case of the NL5H. Since the start, it’s stable in its way without being uniform. It’s exactly what give this elasticity in hybridism works.
The spectrum of expressions is all about variations and there is no real gap in the final product among phenos. Just a matter of intensity and potency.
So i will show my usual pick (at release state only). Well it’s less innocent that it appear in fact ^^
Both represent well the range of this tight variation. There is no real segregation at release state or even in F2. With a good dog, the genotype if following you calmly like sheeps. It translate in a big inertia, inbred. For the better and the worse of course.
If you want to enter in the guts of this one over multiple generations, plan a bunch of parralel lines. With the NL5H it’s often better to restart from a parralel line than fixing a single bad selection. Inertia, but like a mountain ^^ Very satisfying for the chemotype, each step is a definitive win.
In the NL5H, there is two main currents in term of phenotypes. What most people don’t know about it, it is that it’s spreading in two famed references not necessary linked with a haze dominance. And not even linked with the NL5H but with her daughter the JH.
Let me expose to the hate my grid of selection ^^
NL5H#1
This is what i’m calling in the JH line (NL5H x SK), the “C99 pheno” occurrence. After the reference “Cinderella 99”. With the NL5H, the reference still apply but it’s the backbone directly. Kind of naked, you see the guts.
In term of weed you get the more fruity apricot tones with these phenos, let’s say the more defined. Potency is always ok, but very commercial. Built to be binged, to maintain the wellness of the stone.
Jack Herer 2023, “C99” pheno
This dominance translate in the JH on a more known and popular form. More kick, the fruity tones drifted on citrus fruits / pineapple. But not specially more generous in yield or more potent that the NL5H backbone.
The NL5H#1 was initially selected in checking one by one a bunch of good checkboxes all along the grow. Even in the JH these phenos are always well balanced.
NL5H#2
This is what i’m calling in the JH line (NL5H x SK), the “A13 pheno” occurrence. After the reference “Apollo 13”.It always been a less popular form over all its qualities in term of potency and singular terps.
Jack Herer 2023, “A13” pheno
More rare that her sister the C99, the A13 still quite easy to spot with its singular shape. And as you see from the NL5H to the JH … it’s going in reinforcement. It stay quite dominant and printed sharply on 2nd and 3th degree hybrids, before returning in its initial balance : a pure RR gulping all R and even d/R.
The progeny will be more groovy but the weed of the pheno was exactly on the grade of an A13 (grimm) female i used that won a cup, crossed with a NL sensi. It’s why the sudden declassification of the NL5H#1 i’m smoking atm, after a long process of notations for nothing lol It’s the game.
The “C99 backbone” flux represent from 30% to 60% of the specimens with a wide variation : from diluted to NL-ish. Not rare, but the quite clean form i’m showing is, inside its own subgroup.
It can totally be a daily smoke for someone that don’t saturate to smoke NL5H weed ^^
The terps are enough entertaining with the heat and the stone is never agressive, at worse you get a nap.
But they are generally quite capped and doomed to produce “binge smoking weeds”. It don’t mean weak weed, it don’t mean bad weed. It mean a weed you smoke by tons, putting yourself in a temporal black hole lol, but that never saturate as well. It was a light concern a long time ago, the reason i was using the JH the day and one or two NL5H after the dinner. For the concept, even if it was often litteral.
With the modern 2023 iteration, it’s very problematic as it. The genetic need cares to recover its torque, it’s to know before hunting. If you select directly for long lasting stuff, you will shoot in your feet. Don’t worry, the line is very easy to improve overall.
So the old lights differences between the C99 and the A13 phenos, become huge on this modern release. The A13 had always an edge on potency, helped by its longer maturation. But it’s quite polarized now.
Unfortunately the “A13s” stay quite recessive and don’t spread much in balanced hybrids aside … at least they stay super easy to spot with their shape and leaves shapes.
My ride that is twisting suddenly on the A13 and my comparisons are going against my will to really say that the line is just a clay to make whatever you want. But at the condition that you plan to give time to the line.
Directly extracting a 2023-2024 NL5H at top of its expression … fucking expensive for sure but i don’t even think it possible with enough occurences. Another toke on this stellar C99 pheno and i feel enough that i bought genetic more than a weed. Just be warned.
I will make a graphic with notes as synthesis ^^ For the fun.