Dutch Passion strain story An autoflowering strain that changes your mind: Think Different
Text & Photos: Green Born Identity – G.B.I.
Autoflowering strains keep on improving in performance quality, meanwhile competing with traditional ones in terms of potency and yield. Dutch Passion is leading in this field, and with one of their latest AutoFem strain releases Think Different, they aim at setting a new standard that stands out of the crowd. For creating this very special easy-to-grow strain, the Dutch Passion breeders used a strain from their genebank named AK420 which is a very productive AK47 hybrid with an extremely high THC content. It was hybridised with a carefully selected ruderalis plant to yield a superior autoflowering variety that would even outperform Dutch Passion's AutoFem bestseller AutoMazar.
Think Different’s pedigree consists of approx. 60% sativa, 20% indica and 20% ruderalis. Dutch Passion promises good homogeneity, with the plants achieving heights of 1-1.5 metres and yields of 250-300 g per plant when grown under optimum conditions. Indoors, even harvests of up to 500 g/m² have been reaped by commercial growers in The Netherlands. Thanks to a short life cycle of only nine weeks from seed to harvest, also impatient growers will feel comfortable with Think Different, and they’ll surely also appreciate its stunning THC content measured at 18%.
It was a cultivator called “Growulff” who put Think Different to an indoor performance test. He hadn’t cultivated any other autoflowering strain before as he was very sceptical, not convinced of that whole autoflowering thing, but the description of Think Different caught him, raising the expectation of a good first time autoflowering experience. Out of a bag with seven pieces, he germinated five Think Different seeds that quickly sprouted within three days, placed into Jiffy pots. At first the plants, together with other strains, were maintained in a separate grow box (equipped with a 600 W HPS bulb) in Growulff’s grow room for two weeks under a light regimen of 18 hours per day. The young seedlings, soon planted into 11 litre pots filled with coco ground and automatically watered by drip irrigation, developed very well and after two weeks, the first single female flowers were already visible at the top of the plants. Growulff had to move them into the actual grow room then, as he needed the grow box space for starting other strains. This meant that the Think Different plants would receive 18 hours of light per day only for two more weeks, because at that point of time, Growulff would have to induce the flowering period (12/12 light cycle) of some regular strains already present in the grow room. However, merely twelve hours of light per day are suboptimal for autoflowering strains, but Growulff hoped that the rich amount of light available in his grow room (+600 W/m²) would compensate for this to a certain degree.
After four weeks, the plants were between 40 and 55 cm tall and extremely bushy, having produced plenty of side branches beset with many closely spaced internodes and leaves that expectedly were more on the sativa side. There already were nice little buds along the main stem and branches, flowering production was notably increasing pace now and Growulff was very confident the outcome of his first autoflowering grow would be great. Another two weeks later, the plants still kept on growing into height a bit while flowering, but height growth seemed to come to an end very soon. Proper resin production meanwhile had effected an attractive silvery bud appearance, and the flower clusters were becoming pretty dense now. Their highly pleasant smell was sweet, but also revealed a tiny hint of ruderalis. When another two weeks had passed, about fifty percent of the flower pistils had withered and Growulff expected that the flowering time of nine weeks as stated by Dutch Passion would prove to be the case so that there was still about one week to go. The plants were 55-75 cm tall now which was considerably lower than expected, but had produced a big fat main cola and several thick long side branch colas that were looking quite impressive and raising the hope of a very good yield. After 62-64 days, Growulff could harvest all the five Think Different plants that, by the way, hadn’t revealed any male flower.
18 days later, the pretty resinous Think Different buds had been thoroughly dried and slightly fermented, so it was about time for Growulff to find out the weight of the dry outcome and he put the beautifully looking nuggets on the scales. He determined a yield of 52.5 grams on the average which was absolutely excellent – Growulff could have placed nine of these plants on one square meter and his total yield then would almost have equalled the 500 gram mark accomplished by those Dutch commercial growers. He wondered what would have happened if his Think Different plants had received 18 hours of light or more throughout the whole cultivation cycle, arriving at the conclusion that this light scenario most probably even would have let his plants surpass the 500 gram mark.
So as for productiveness, Think Different had fully satisfied or even exceeded the expectations of Growulff, now it was the question whether the same would happen in terms of potency and flavour. When test smoking a decent Think Different joint, his first impression was that this autoflowering strains tastes surprisingly mild, there was no hint of ruderalis in the taste at all and instead a yummy clear sweetness. Think Different’s turn rushed over him quickly, providing a strong sativa up-high effect with a vibrant happy bright feeling in the head and crystally clear optical perception, combined with a small bit of simultaneous indica stonedness also. Growulff is rather a heavy than a light smoker, requiring a certain high amount of THC in order to really get high, but Think Different easily did that job for about 1.5 hours and gave him what he needed plus a bit more – Altogether, Growulff was highly satisfied with the premiere of an autoflowering strain in his grow room. Also, Think Different really lived up to its name and, indeed, made him think different: About autoflowering strains and their potential. In the future, he will surely give other such varieties a try – well, Dutch Passion’s soon to come AutoFem release StarRyder certainly does have good chance to make it onto his agenda…
Green Born Identity – G.B.I
Cultivation data:
Genetics |
AK420 x Ruderalis (60% sativa, 20% indica, 20% ruderalis) |
Life cycle |
here: 62-64 days, 63 days in general |
Medium |
Coco ground, 11 litre pots |
pH |
5.5–6.2 |
EC |
1.2–2.0 mS |
Light |
First two weeks: 1x Planta Star 600 W, then 1x Osram Son T plus 600 W plus additional light coming from surrounding bulbs |
Temperature |
20-27°C |
Air humidity |
40-60% |
Watering |
Drip irrigation |
Fertilisation |
Canna Coco A+B, Rhizotonic, Cannazym, PK 13/14 |
Additives/stimulants |
Cannaboost, Agrom Medical Boost |
Height |
55-75 cm |
Yield |
52.5 grams on the average |
Source: Dutch Passion
Originally published in Weed World Magazine 100