The mostly indica strain Akorn has its roots in the North Western USA, from where it found its way over the big pond to The Netherlands in 1995, being added to the range of strains of a young seed company called T.H. Seeds. Akorn carries the nickname “Snowbud”, because its numerous big rock-hard buds look very frosty, almost like snowbound. Its potency is accordingly heavy. After a flowering time of 55-60 days, growers can expect harvests of 400-500g/m2. In spite of the genetically dominant indica share, Akorn plants tend to stretch so that heights of 125-150cm are possible.

Sensational success for Akorn: 20 years after its arrival in Europe, this T.H. Seeds classic took first place in the indica category (VIP judges) of the Social Clubs Cup in Barcelona at the end of May 2015, entered by Boira Barcelona Club. Not enough with that victory, at the same event MK-Ultra won the Indica Cup (popular jury) for the second time in a row: Spain definitely is a good place for T.H. Seeds!

The Doc loves strains like Akorn aka Snowbud, strains with a long eventful history. So it was a special joy for him to put this comeback strain to a cultivation test. Three feminised Akorn seeds he used for that, and they germinated well, after three days the seedlings had come off the ground and stretched towards the light. In the vegetative stage, the plants performed excellently, after 4.5 weeks (when The Doc induced flowering) they looked absolutely identical: strong, compact, highly branched, horizontally protruding, of exactly the same height. “If I didn’t know that I grew these plants from seed, I definitely would have thought that they are clones, never experienced such a stunning degree of uniformity”, The Doc marveled.

After the light cycle had been switched from 18/6 to 12/12, the three Akorn plants gave a quick response, presenting their first female preflowers already after 5-6  days. Two weeks later, those numerous branches were lined with lots of little initial “rose bud” formations. In the course of flowering, The Doc realised that the plants’ stretching behaviour was not as pronounced as expected, after about four weeks into flowering, they had stopped growing to height, being 76cm tall. “What is yet to come in terms of height now, will solely be caused by the actual bud growth”, The Doc supposed, and he added: “It’s still simply insane, these three plants are so uniform that the difference in height is less than 0.5cm! Also, they are about putting on a lot of weight, and resin production has cranked into full gear meanwhile.”

In the following flowering weeks, the plants kept on developing precisely in step with each other, with the buds becoming thick and thicker and the resin pouring out of countless trichomes in abundance. The side branches of the three plants, heavily laden with buds, had arrived at almost the same height, thus shaping an opulent wide bud plateau around the top cola rising up in the middle. Heavy and predominantly hashy was the smell of the tops, but also a bit woodily, with a hint of conifer. In the last two flowering weeks, The Doc didn’t give the plants nutrients any longer, but flushed them with plain water and two times with “Clean Fruits” solution. The end came just in time, after 8.5 weeks of flowering. As expected by The Doc, those three extremely homogeneous Akorn plants had fully matured on the very same day. He enthused: “Without a doubt, this strain’s nickname Snowbud is well-deserved, as the buds are so richly covered with silvery white resin crystals that they really look like snowbound winter flowers.”

The identical final height of the three plants was 85cm, considerably less than officially forecasted, but The Doc appreciated that sturdy, compact and very handy plant size. The more so as it produced tremendous yields – The Doc read a total of 320 grams of dried rock-hard buds off the scales, i.e. about 107 grams per plant on the average! “Once again, a smashing bumper harvest from a T.H. Seeds strain, after their Darkstar, also Akorn has impressively entered into the 100-grams-league now”, The Doc cheered.

Akorn’s spicy flavour proved to be quite like its odour, tasting hashy on the inhale and a bit piney on the exhale. While it was a full-bodied nice taste, it didn’t possess an unmistakable specific note by means of which one could have recognized the strain in a blindfold smoking test with many other strains. However, only quite a few strains do have such an unmistakable flavour. Smoking the Akorn unleashed brute indica power, with a hard-hitting punch as strong as Thor’s hammer: While The Doc, hard-boiled as he is, was able to enjoy the feeling of most massive stonedness that set in after half a joint, his pal Enzo felt like a temporarily paralysed wild animal that had been shot with a tranquilizer gun, bringing down his bodily functions to a minimum: Akorn, the comeback killer, had done a relentless job… For Enzo who doesn’t smoke cannabis every day, Akorn’s potency was simply too much. The Doc: “Akorn is a mighty strain with a very long lasting, tremendous effect. With this kind of weed, you can smoke beginners and lightweight users under the table. But for me as a chronic pain patient who can take a real lot, it’s just the right medicine. No wonder that this strain was recently chosen as the best indica strain at the Social Clubs Cup in Spain. As proven by Enzo’s case, there are, literally, devastatingly strong arguments for that..!”

Green Born Identity – G.B.I.

Originally published in Weed World Magazine 119

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