Awakened by The Doc: A sleeping giant
Thanks to their marriage with Magus Genetics, 2.5 years ago, Serious Seeds gained a range of genetic treasures that enriched their already superb selection of the finest marijuana strains. One of these treasures is Double Dutch, a 60/40 to 70/30 (%) indica/sativa hybrid consisting of Magus’ former flagship strain Warlock (Skunk x Afghan) and Serious’ own Chronic (in its initial, pre-2000, version which former Magus breeder Gerrit had used by friendly permission of Serious back then) so Double Dutch is partly a case of a Serious strain coming home. With its honey-sweet aroma, cerebral high and big yield potential, Chronic was a perfect breeding partner for Warlock; Warlock further improved the average yield and integrated its aroma acridity along with devastating indica stone. The result is a strong, complex but well-balanced high, causing both cerebral (sativa buzz) and physical (indica body-stone sensation) effects, fired by a THC content of 15-18%. The buds will give off a pleasant, fruity wildflower scent, due to a strong Chronic influence.
Double Dutch needs 55-65 flowering days to ripen, then delivers tremendous amounts of dry buds, 500 or even over 600+ grams per square metre. In the seedling and vegetative growth stages, it exhibits its indica pedigree with fat leaves and thick stems, having a bushy growth pattern with dynamic side-branch growth. During flowering, Double Dutch produces countless huge, thick, sativa-dominant buds with a high calyx-to-leaf ratio, the structure of which reminds of those elongated “popcorn balls” that are so typical of Warlock. Due to their heavy weight, it may be necessary to stake the buds for support so be prepared. According to Serious Seeds, this strain performs well in bio, coco and hydro growth mediums alike. For clones, they recommend a veggie time of 7-14 days; for plants grown from seed about 35 days. Ripening in October under natural light, Double Dutch can also be grown outdoors successfully, it can be expected to have a reasonable mold resistance.
This stunning combination of two outstanding Dutch strains dominated the ICMag Cup 2007, triumphantly winning both the Growers’ and Breeders’ Cup and it took third place in the outdoor category of the Highlife Cup 2006; it will still take a lot more awards to adequately reflect the premium quality and huge potential of Double Dutch. While this strain has a lot of fans, of course, I feel that it undoubtedly has the potential to play an even bigger role in the worldwide growers’ community, particularly in the commercial grow sector. Therefore I regard it as a sleeping giant… and The Doc felt excited to awake this particular giant in his grow room.
For this mission, he used five feminized Double Dutch seeds. For the purpose of this particular grow, he directly planted them into 11 litre pots filled with The Doc’s mix of Plagron soil plus 5% expanded clay and horn chippings. After 2.5 days, all the five heads showed up above the ground which was lightning fast. Under two 600 W MH bulbs and one 400 W HPS bulb, vegetative growth was vigorous, strong and remarkably uniform; the five plants developed into compact bushy multi-branch plants with close internodes, forming an ideal base for heavy flowering and a rich yield. After 30 days in the veggie stage, at heights of 40-50 cm, The Doc induced flowering by switching the lights from 18/6 to 12/12. It took the plants only 5-6 days to reveal their female gender. When they were 2.5 weeks into flowering, while being subject to a strong stretching effect, the first little flower “roses” had emerged all along the branches. One week later, The Doc reported: “As expected, the plants keep on stretching, but are still shaping a compact bushy look. One of them seems to have become notably taller than the other ones. The bloom is getting into full gear now.” After five weeks of flowering, he continued: “Still stretching a bit, almost all the plants now have more than doubled their height. The buds are dynamically becoming big and chunky, and there already is quite a lot of resin on them. It has turned out that the blooming pattern of three of the plants shows a somewhat stronger sativa influence than the other two, but luckily they all have a high or very high calyx-to-leaf ratio.” One week later, that stretching effect had definitely come to an end.
After eight weeks of flowering, The Doc noted: “The flower hairs have started to wither, the plants have entered the road to maturity. Wow, these Double Dutch buds are simply impressive: so big, dense and numerous – it is a sheer pleasure to look at these heavily bud-laden plants and also sniff at them, as they are spreading a lovely sweet scent, a bit fruity with a hint of wild honey. Their rich resin content more than satisfies me, even larger flower leaves are entirely covered with resin glands which means, in consideration of those masses of big fat tops, that I will end up with plenty of resinous leaf material for the production of hashish! However, according to the flowering time stated by Serious, the beginning of the maturity window of 55-65 days has already been reached by now and it is obvious that some of the plants will go beyond it a bit. But who cares if you have plants that everybody dreams of?” In fact, three of the plants were ripe after 66 days and the other two went into ‘extra time’ of one more week. “Which was worth the wait”, The Doc reported, “as they’ve kept on swelling in the last week and a last drench of extra resin oozed out. The plants have ended up at heights of 84, 89, 92, 93 and 118 cm, being lined with fantastic buds from the bottom to the top. Lots of elongated side branches shaping wide horizontal plateaus of impressively big side colas.”
Thanks to the high calyx-to-leaf ratio of the plants, harvest work felt easy although a lot of buds had to be processed. In view of those tremendous amounts of buds, The Doc had been very optimistic that the yield would prove to be vast, but when he weighed the dry buds a few weeks later, even his high expectations were exceeded: The five plants altogether had yielded 610 grams of the finest Double Dutch buds, smashing 122 grams per plant on average. “And they had been in the veggie stage for only 30 instead of 35 days recommended by Serious…”, The Doc pointed out, euphorically fantasizing what the outcome would have been with 60 days of growth! The dried buds had kept their honey-sweet and fruity aroma, and he was looking forward to finding out for himself whether they’d turn him on with a likewise excellent potency. After a few hits, it became clear that Double Dutch wouldn’t disappoint The Doc here either; an intensely prickling buzz forcefully started in his head, spreading strongly uplifting vibrations as Double Dutch’s sativa genes impressively did their work. After about half an hour, the focus of the high started to shift more towards the body, causing a deeply relaxed laziness. The Doc said that he didn’t become fuzzy-headed at the same time, as that sativa influence was still taking effect on a lower level. That very pleasant state of mind and body lasted on for more than another 1.5 hours.
The Doc concluded: “Double Dutch really leaves nothing to be desired, it’s one of the most rewarding strains I’ve ever grown in all these decades. These are some of the most easy to grow plants, delivering sensational yields of wonderfully aromatic and potent buds in a moderate flowering time. I agree with G.B.I. that its commercial potential is far from being fully tapped worldwide, it definitely has what it takes to be a giant amongst marijuana strains. A still sleeping giant, but it certainly won’t have been awakened in my grow room for the last time…”
Green Born Identity – G.B.I.
Cultivation data:
| Strain | Double Dutch (Warlock x Chronic) |
| Vegetative stage | here: 30 days |
| Flowering stage | here: 66-73 days, 55-65 days in general |
| Medium | Plagron Standard Mix with 5% expanded clay and horn chippings, 11 litre pots |
| pH | 6.2–6.8 |
EC |
Vegetative stage: 1.2–1.5 mS
Flowering: 1.6-1.8 mS |
| Lights | Vegetative stage: 2x 600 W MH, 1x 400 W HPS
Flowering: 2x 600 W HPS + 1x 400 W HPS |
| Temperature | 23-27°C (day)
17-19°C (night) |
| Air humidity | Vegetative stage: 40–60%
Flowering: max. 50% |
| Watering | by hand |
| Fertilisers | Compo Algoflash 6-6-6, plus PK 13-14 from the 4th week of flowering |
| Stimulators/Additives | Plagron Power Roots, Plagron Vita Race |
| Height | 84, 89, 92, 93 and 118 cm |
| Yield | 610g |
Originally published in Weed World Magazine Issue 108
