Cold Creek Kush pocketed an early applause when it took second place in the indica category of the High Times Cannabis Cup 2010 and also medical marijuana users have reported on its outstanding effectiveness against: chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, nausea and insomnia.

The Doc, an ardent lover of Kush genetics, was eager to convince himself of the qualities of Cold Creek Kush and germinated a full package of regular Cold Creek Kush seeds, placing them between moist sheets of paper towel. When the radicles had very quickly emerged from the shells, he gently transplanted them into three litre pots filled with seedling soil. Only one of the seeds seemed to take much longer to germinate, but The Doc decided to give it all the time it would need. Put in a small grow box under two Secret Jardin 150 W high-efficiency CFL lights, the nine fast seedlings arrived at the surface in no time and straightened up. After one week of growth, they measured about three cm, already exhibiting three internodes, so they were going to grow very compact in the beginning and also very homogeneous. In the meantime, that slower tenth seed had sprouted too. The Doc moved all the plants into the actual grow room, where the young Cold Creek Kush plants received plenty of light from a 600 W Planta Star HPS lamp, 18 hours per day. They did appreciate that, having grown to a height of about 10-12 cm another week later, with 5-7 internodes, while that tenth plant was clearly behind. The Doc repotted the plants the plants into 11 litre pots filled with Plagron Standard Mix soil to which he had previously added 5% expanded clay and horn chippings and left them in the vegetative stage for ten more days. Then, after about 3.5 weeks of growth, he induced flowering by cutting down the daily light cycle from 18 to 12 hours, at the same time installing two GIB Lighting 600 W HPS and one 400 W Osram Son T plus lamp for an excellent bloom performance.

At that point of time, the Cold Creek Kush plants had developed into stout bushy plants with lots of well developing side branches and amazingly big broad fan leaves, measuring about 35-40 cm. The Doc was aware that, despite the considerable stretching effect that was to be expected, a somewhat longer vegetative period would have been advisable probably, but he also had two other, sativa-dominant strains growing in his room and therefore feared space problems. Nevertheless the first five plants revealed their gender after already four days, turning out to be all female!

“What a sensational female rate so far and I hope there are more to come yet…”, The Doc noted.

And, indeed in the following days, three more plants were producing female preflowers, while there were only two male ones, so there was a stunning female plant rate of 80%. After two weeks into flowering, The Doc reported: “However, the plants meanwhile seem to divide into two different height phenotypes, four of the female Cold Creek Kush plants have substantially stretched in the first two weeks of flowering, while the other four haven’t stretched very much, obviously subjected to a stronger indica influence which is also expressed in the form of wider leaves.”

While that different stretching behavior would last on in the following two weeks, all of the eight plants put much energy into the vivid production of female flower clusters and resin glands, after four weeks already. Cold Creek Kush came up with lovely dense white trichome carpets covering the prospering buds and bud leaves, spreading a deliciously blended odour consisting of a floral sweet body paired with fuel undertones. After five weeks of flowering, the stretching effect had come to an end, with the three largest plants having arrived at heights of 100-115 cm. Four of the plants measured 75-95 cm and that one late-start plant still nibbled at the 60 cm mark, but was growing very wide, with lots of side branches and already respectably big buds. Those five shorter plants were growing so densely that The Doc decided to remove some of the big shade leaves, to encourage the flower production of lower side branches.

Now it was all about building thick fat resinous buds, in the remaining weeks of flowering, all of the eight Cold Creek Kush plants were tapping their full bloom potential. The three tallest plants, with obviously more sativa influence produced a remarkably high calyx-to-leaf ratio, but also those shorter, more indica-dominated plants did exhibit a very attractive budding pattern with lots of flower hairs that turned orange near the end of flowering. After almost eight weeks of flowering, all the buds and bud leaves were frosted with tons of resin glands.

The Doc reported “What a pleasure to look at – The plants from the bottom to the top are laden with tight chunky buds, some of which could be ripe on a few plants in about 4-5 days, while others will obviously take a little longer.”

The first three plants were harvested after 59 days of flowering, while the other five needed 62-65 days to ripen. In the end, the Cold Creek Kush plants had grown to heights of 85-122 cm, solely that late-start plant had notably stepped out of the line, achieving a height of only about 65 cm, however, that was compensated by plenty of tremendous buds.

After the harvest had been dried and weighed, The Doc found himself in possession of excellent 730 grams (= about 91 grams per plant on the average, the heaviest plant had yielded 118 grams) of chunky Cold Creek Kush buds that looked, felt and smelled terrific: Highly resinous, rock-hard and giving off an exquisite bouquet of a floral and also fruity sweetness combined with a certain fuel note coming from the Chemdawg 91. As for the taste, the floral sweetness came over very distinctly also in the smoke, while that fruity aspect gave fully way to the fuel note now that lingered on the palate for a longer time after having exhaled. Cold Creek Kush’s turn was hitting The Doc very quickly, after a few tokes already, a mighty strong sativa buzz rushed into his brain and body, affecting a bright cerebral up high. But that crystal clear sativa effect wouldn’t reign unaltered for very long, as it was soon accompanied by a certain degree of indica stonedness, too. Overall a very strong and pleasant turn that kept The Doc both physically deeply relaxed and in a euphoric state of mind, lasting for about one and a half our.

“Kush reloaded – This is definitely another superb Kush strain from T.H. Seeds”, The Doc concluded, “with unusual qualities in the high, easy to grow and very rewarding in terms of both quality and quantity.”

Five regular seeds Cold Creek Kush seeds are available for 45€, ten for 80€.

Green Born Identity – G.B.I.

Originally published in Weed World Magazine 101

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