If a worldwide well-known, highly successful cannabis cultivation author stakes his good name for a new cannabis strain, the quality of the outcome is particularly interesting – after all the name shall stand for a high-quality product. Would Jorge’s Diamonds #1 really prove to be a diamond treasure?
Jorge’s Diamonds #1 is the result of a conjoint strain project by Dutch Passion and Jorge Cervantes, author of many popular cannabis cultivation books and numerous respective articles in worldwide cannabis magazines. I asked Jorge, how the collaboration with Dutch Passion came about: “I have known Henk personally for more than 10 years and we have grown to know one another well. I see him at many cannabis fairs. DP is the biggest seed seller in Europe and is very reputable. DP strains are some of the strongest and they take much care in seed production. We got to talking one day and started discussing a strain with Jorge’s name on it. We both thought it would be a good idea for both of us. DP sends out thousands and thousands of catalogs every year. I wanted to sell more books in Europe and decided it would be a good idea to have my name on one of his seeds. It is free advertising for my books!” Asked about the role Jorge played in the development of Jorge’s Diamonds #1, he said: “I was the simple strain taster and selector. I was presented with several selections from DP. I chose the one I liked best. I went with my instinct and chose the sweet taste and aroma, smooth smoke and potent long-lasting soaring high. I also looked at the fact that this plant is easy to grow and very resilient, so that anybody can grow it successfully.”
The genetics of the strain were selected from the 25 year old “Research Gene Pool” of Dutch Passion. The seed company describes it as a “unique resin-packed indica-dominant strain that is potent, sweet, flavorful and incredibly smooth smoking.” As for the pedigree of Jorge’s Diamonds #1, Dutch Passion states “rare indica-dominant genes mixed with just the right amount of sativa to give the smoke a very strong soaring long-lasting high.” Also with regard to the aroma, Dutch Passion promises a lot: “The exceptional taste and aroma are fruity and sweet. The insatiable taste is sweet and similar to wild honey smothered in raspberries.” Apart from that, according to Dutch Passion, Jorge’s Diamonds #1 is expected to be almost maintenance free, with spider mites and other pests known to leave it alone. Dutch Passion also provides specific information to medical users: By thin layer chromatography, the THC percentage of Jorge’s Diamonds #1 was measured at 16 to 18%, while the strain is high in THCV, CBD and CBN. Plants take 8-9 flowering weeks to ripen indoors, yielding between 200 and 500 g/m2. But thanks to quite an early ripening time of mid October under natural light, Jorge’s Diamonds #1 can also be grown outdoors successfully, so it’s a very versatile strain also.
When the strain was released to the seed market in 2008 – exclusively in the form of feminised seeds – it came highly recommended, attracting a lot of curiosity among growers worldwide. One of them was “The Doc”, an experienced German grower who earned his nickname from the fact that he always precisely knows what his plants need, quickly solving any kind of cultivation problem with his green fingers and propelling the plants to the best performance possible. The Doc put a whole bag of feminised Jorge’s Diamonds #1 seeds (10 pieces) into the ground. A couple of days later, he happily realised that all the seeds had successfully sprouted. The ten seedlings grew in one litre pots (filled with seedling soil) for two weeks on an area of 0.25 m2, placed under two 125 W CFLs (6400 K). They thrived very well, exhibiting lush green, very compact growth, perfectly indica-style. It was amazing how homogeneous the ten seedlings were, almost looking like clones. Then The Doc transplanted the young plants to 6.5 litre pots filled with Plagron Standard Mix soil plus 5% hydro correls to further improve the aeration of the soil. Now it was time to give the Jorge’s Diamonds #1 plants plenty of light. The Doc replaced the two CFLs with two 600 W and one 400 W Osram Planta Star (HPS) bulbs and moved the plants to a cultivation area of 2.5 m2. They spent another two weeks in the vegetative stage at 18 hours of light per day. The powerful illuminaton and perfect climate in the growing chamber (that technically was perfectly equipped, amongst other things, with an automatic SPC temperature controller) lead to rapid growth that still was very uniform and compact, the Jorge’s Diamonds #1 plants had very short internodes, 10-12 per plant, at a height of only 40-50 centimetres! They also heavily branched out so that were lots of strong side branches.
After four weeks, The Doc induced flowering by switching the photoperiod from 18/6 to 12/12. A week later, all the plants had revealed their gender and proven to be female. The Doc removed some lower fan leaves as they had become so huge that they completey shaded the side branches below. In the course of flowering, considerable differences in the grow pattern became apparent. Most of the plants suddenly started to stretch heavily. Six of them still grew homogenously, rapidly gaining height. After two weeks of flowering, they already had arrived at breast height. Another plant was becoming even taller, strongly reminding of a classic sativa plant. The other two plants remained to be small and stout, clearly exhibiting dominant indica genes, growing into very compact flowering bushes. After the third week of flowering, numerous “flowerets” had emerged at the top of the branches and lots of resin glands were about to develop, flowering was in full effect now. The Doc nurtured the plants very well, foliage still was completely healthy green, no yellowing at all. After four weeks of flowering, most of the plants had arrived at shoulder height. The buds got bigger and bigger, becoming impressively dense and thick. Even also on the fan leaves, a lot of resin glands had emerged meanwhile, Jorge’s Diamonds #1 proved to be an extremely resinous strain. The huge plants consumed a lot of water, one to two litres a day. On most of the plants, the flowering structure was sativa-dominant, buds were long and lanceolate with a high calyx-to-leaf ratio, but much denser and thicker than classic sativa buds, thanks to the indica influence. Without a doubt, these were true “heavyweight bud champions”. Between the 7th and 8th week of flowering, many buds became so heavy that they needed support and were staked by The Doc. The Jorge’s Diamonds #1 plants had grown into really big dimensions, bearing big snow-white buds in abundance that were composed of countless small tightly packed calyxes. An extraordinary harvest was to be expected – The Doc was heavily infected by green diamond fever now!
Amongst the eight tall Jorge’s Diamonds #1 plants, there was one exemplar that The Doc called the “Haze phenotype”. It was the by far tallest plant and produced huge long, almost leafless silver buds with particularly small calyxes and also smelled like a Haze plant. This made The Doc believe that Haze is one of the genetic components of Jorge’s Diamonds #1. He realised that his Jorge’s Diamonds #1 plants had to be harvested in two steps: The main cola and tops of all branches were harvested after about eight weeks of flowering, the remaining buds took another one to two weeks to fully ripen.
After all the buds had been dried, The Doc put them on the scales and was stunned by the result – the yield was 90 grams per plant on the average, the heaviest plant had yielded amazing 110 grams. In addition, he got plenty of resinous leaf material for his Ice-O-Lator.
Most of the buds really provided a honey-sweet smell and taste, and some of them also had a fruity side to the aroma. The high was as strong as expected and also complex, producing an overwhelming long-lasting cerebral sativa effect in combination with a slight degree of stonedness. It didn’t come as a surprise though that the Haze phenotype plant caused an accordingly crystal clear vibrant Haze high with no indica influence at all, while the two Indica phenotype plants provided a lot more indica stonedness.
One of the ten plants had produced a very few male flowers after six weeks of flowering at the base of two buds, but The Doc managed to quickly discover and remove them. From then on, this plant produced only female flowers. Two other plants exhibited some single “bananas” in the main cola at the end of flowering, but these were infertile, not able to shed pollen.
Altogether The Doc was very impressed by Jorge’s Diamonds #1: His treasure chamber was filled with almost a kilo of finest green diamonds, potency and aroma were a true cannasseur’s delight. He felt that this strain is undoubtfully worth of honouring Jorge Cervantes and arrived at the conclusion that these kind of diamonds really are a grower’s best friend. Feminised Jorge’s Diamonds #1 seeds are available in units with five (50€) or ten seeds (90€).
Cultivation data:
Strain
Jorge’s Diamonds #1 (Mostly Indica)
Vegetative stage
here: 4 weeks
Flowering stage
here: 8-10 weeks, 8-9 weeks in general
Medium
Plagron Standard Mix, 6.5 litre pots
pH
6-6.5
EC
Vegetative stage: 1.2-1.6 mS
Flowering stage: 1.6-2.0 mS
Lights
First half of veg. Stage: 2x 125 W CFL (6400 K)
Second half of veg. stage and flowering stage: 2x 600 W and 1x 400 W Osram Planta Star
Temperature
Vegetative stage: 22-24°C
Flowering stage: 24-28°C
Air humidity
Vegetative stage: 40-60%
Flowering stage: 50%
Watering
By hand
Fertilizers
HeSi Blühkomplex, HeSi Phosphor Plus
Additives
Nitrozyme, HeSi Boost Complex
Height
160-180 cm, two plants were considerably lower.
Yield
90 grams per plant on the average
Originally Published in Weed World Magazine Issue 86
