Sensi Star (Paradise Seeds): Still one of the brightest stars in the cannabis sky
Sensi Star, a mostly indica hybrid, came out in the year of 1995, one year after Luc had founded his seed company, Paradise Seeds, and earned himself a good name with his (back then) small-but-fine seed collection. Sensi Star set off like a rocket, becoming highly popular worldwide as a “one-hit quitter”, a strain that makes you stoned with just one toke. It became the flagship variety of Paradise Seeds, greatly contributing to their story of success.
Nowadays, Sensi Star is considered a modern classic amongst marijuana strains; a timeless evergreen that still enjoys a big global following. It has pocketed tons of diverse cannabis awards over the years, including an especially fruitful Cannabis Cup 1999 participation that brought Sensi Star a triumphant double championship by winning both the Bio and Indica categories. In addition, it was chosen as the “Plant of the Year” by High Times magazine (2003) and Soft Secrets Spain (2009). The exact pedigree of Sensi Star is kept secret, but Luc has confirmed that quite a high percentage of Afghani genetics is involved, plus a bit of sativa. Thanks to its mighty genetics and extraordinarily rich amounts of resin, Sensi Star has a reported THC content of well over 20%, even 24% where measured, so it’s no wonder that Luc promises that “it is one of the strongest indicas you will ever encounter.”
Sensi Star produces dense compact buds in 8-9 weeks of flowering, delivering 350-450g/m2 on the average. According to Paradise, it is very suitable for a sea-of-green setup with 20 plants per square metre closely grouped together. Given this scenario, they recommend to let them remain in the vegetative stage for only two weeks (before switching to a 12/12 light cycle to induce flowering), as Sensi Star tends to exhibit strong side branching. Thus one can also grow fewer, bigger plants very well on one square metre, with more space between the pots. In temperate climate zones, with a ripening time of early October, it can also be grown outdoors successfully, producing an average yield of 400g in a good season, and up to 500g can be achievable. Sensi Star buds have a lemony/metal odor and flavor, strong and pungent, and smoking them basically causes an extremely strong indica body stone that may go along with an energetic cerebral sativa effect as well, smokers have gained different experiences here. Due to its outstanding potency, Sensi Star is a popular choice not only for common smokers, but also high-tolerance medical marijuana patients.
The Doc was very keen to test-grow such a superb strain that has proudly managed to stay on top for almost two decades. He germinated a package of three feminized Sensi Star seeds between moist paper sheets and planted them into 11 liter pots filled with Plagron Standard Mix soil to which he had previously added 5% expanded clay and horn chippings. Placed under two 600 W MH bulbs and one 400 W HPS bulb together with Ice Cream and Dutch Dragon plants, the seedlings quickly developed into vigorous young plants with strong stalks and very vivid side branch growth, indeed. Their shade leaves were medium broad in the beginning, but becoming more and more slender, sativa-like in the course of growth and later on when in bloom. At the age of 4.5 weeks after germination, The Doc switched the lights from 18/6 to 12/12 to induce flowering. The three Sensi Stars were growing remarkably homogeneously at that time (height 40-45 cm, 9-10 internodes), with profuse, wide side-branching and close internodes shaping a very compact bushy look. Revealing their first female pre-flowers took seven days. After three weeks into flowering, The Doc reported: “The plants are wasting no time, busily producing flower clusters. I’ve removed some of the large fan leaves from all the three plants, to bring more light to those long side branches and their buds. In the first three weeks of flowering, the plants have strongly stretched, now measuring 65-70 cm (still very compact though), an excellent indoor height, easy to manage.”
Two weeks later, he continued: “The plants have slowed down stretching in the past two weeks and now stopped, remaining at heights of 75-80 cm. One of them exhibits a more indica-style blooming pattern with a bigger share of leaves in the buds, while the other two are more on the sativa side. Tons of nice buds along the main stems and side branches, and their resin content is as copious as expected at that stage of flowering, the plants are already majestically glistening with silvery-white trichomes.”
After six weeks of flowering, it had become obvious that the sativa-dominant plants would yield a bit more than the indica pheno, due to their numerous expansive side branches (which were growing more temperedly on the indica pheno) and countless buds on them. However, the indica pheno was producing the fattest main cola. The Doc: “The buds are still getting thicker and denser, and the same is true for those impressive resin gland formations on them.”
When seven weeks of flowering had passed, he reported: “During the past week, the withering of flower hairs has set in, indicating that the buds now have more or less reached their final volume, while the calyxes will keep swelling a bit in the last weeks I guess. Without a doubt, the plants have entered the road to maturity now.” And would finish it about one and a half week later: With 59 days of flowering, the two sativa-dominant plants (type 1) were a bit faster than the indica-dominant one (type 2) which took 62 days. Type 1 also spread a somewhat different odor than type 2 – while both were predominantly sweet, type 2 was milder than type 1 which exhibited that metal note to a stronger degree, paired with traces of Haze. Type 2 had a certain fruity undertone instead. But both scents were delicious and highly appreciated by The Doc. One of the sativa-dominant plants proved to be the most resinous one in the end, even its flower leaves looked entirely sprayed with resin. It was closely followed by the other two though, which were regarded as heavily resinous by The Doc, so his high expectations towards Sensi Star in this regard were fulfilled.
Weighing the dried buds then revealed the final result: Altogether, the three Sensi Star plants had produced 335 grams of sticky green-white nuggets, almost 112 g per plant which – with regard to their fairly low height – was a stunning, super-fat yield. The Doc happily test-smoked the indica-dominant pheno first, and really, after just one toke, had that “crash-boom-bang” feeling, his THC receptors instantly came under continuous heavy fire, being flooded with THC molecules. He took a few more pulls, but then had to stop as he felt stoned-as-Hell already, and there wasn’t any uplifting cerebral sativa effect that maybe would have enabled him to move or catch a clear thought. So he waited almost an hour until that paralyzing, but at the same time very relaxing, effect had faded, and then test-smoked the sativa-dominant pheno. It heavily rang the bell likewise promptly but, right from the beginning, The Doc sensed that this time a cerebrally energizing sativa effect was getting into the act as well, very well balanced with a simultaneous intense indica body stone. That more complex buzz was extremely strong too, but now The Doc was deeply relaxing while having a clear, highly excited head which led him to busily making plans for his next cultivation cycle. He finished this joint and thus was under full effect for almost two hours. Later on, before going to bed, he smoked the second half of the first joint, and as desired, that mighty indica hammer soon put him to sleep. “Both those kinds of bud are of absolutely smashing, far above-average potency, I guess their THC content is well over 20 percent, indeed”, The Doc reported. “Their flavor also was splendid, a true pleasure to smoke. Type 1 offered more complexity and a slightly pungent spiciness under a sweet aroma coating, yielding a lasting full-mouth flavor sensation. Type 2 was less pungent, milder and even sweeter, a very welcome refreshing aroma variant.”
“What more can one desire? Sensi Star is a super-potent tasty plant with tremendous yields delivered in a moderate period of time. For me, there’s no doubt after this fabulous grow: It’s still one of the brightest stars in the cannabis sky!”, The Doc concluded.
Green Born Identity – G.B.I.
Originally published in Weed World Magazine 119
Cultivation data:
| Strain | Sensi Star (mostly indica) |
| Vegetative stage | here: 4.5 weeks |
| Flowering stage | here: 59-62 days, 56-63 days in general |
| Medium | Plagron Standard Mix with 5% expanded clay and horn chippings, 11 liter 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 | 24-28°C (day)
17-20°C (night) |
| Air humidity | Vegetative stage: 40–60%
Flowering: max. 50% |
| by hand | |
| Plagron Alga Grow + Alga Bloom, Plagron PK 13-14 from the 4th week of flowering | |
| Plagron Power Roots, Plagron Vita Race, Plagron Green Sensation | |
| 77, 81 and 83 cm | |
| Yield | 335g |
