Electrifying in any respect!
It was a great premiere when TH Seeds’ latest sativa release, Electric Lemon G, conquered second place in the Seed Company Sativa contest of the High Times Cannabis Cup 2011; both the name and nature of that new strain seemed to have electrified the judges. In its original form, Lemon G is a clone-only cut originating from Ohio, bred from an unknown lemony sativa male which was married to the legendary G-13. Rumor has it that this Afghani strain was developed by the University of Mississippi, on behalf of the US government, in the 1970s and subsequently passed on (illegally) by a research assistant to Neville Schoenmakers. Mr Schoenmakers, owner of the famous “The Seed Bank”, then spread it all over the world through his flourishing mail order service in the second half of the 1980s. But TH Seeds, or their US subsidiary in Colorado to be more specific, decided to further enhance Lemon G by crossing it with a very special NL-5 male in order to reduce its flowering time and increase the already big yields. They named this hybrid “Electric” Lemon G because “TSK kicked it up a notch by electrically stimulating the seed-producing plants.” This technique was reported to increase the female/male ratio of a batch of seeds and also improve germination power – which was to be proven in a retrospective cultivation test. Electric Lemon G’s smell and flavor, just as the name suggests, are expected to have a strong lemon element, “tasting like astringent lemons all the way to the last hit, leaving a strong, earthy citrus taste clinging to your taste buds”, TH Seeds reports. They characterize this strain as a “hardy plant” which produces large, long heavyweight sativa buds that shall deliver 300-350 g/m2 within a flowering time of 63-70 days. Furthermore, her sativa nature becomes manifest in her height (which generally amounts to 120-140 cm) and also in its kind of high that, according to TH Seeds, is “very uplifting with an almost anti-depressant quality making it a great daytime smoke, definitely not a couch-lock herb.” Right now, Electric Lemon G is only available in the form of regular seeds, but TH Seeds reported that they will start to work on feminized ones as well in the near future. They also underline that Electric Lemon G may produce different phenotypes.
Growolf instantly caught fire when he heard about Electric Lemon G and the story behind it, so he decided to run a test grow with a package of five regular seeds. With a duration of about three days, germination time in his heated mini greenhouse was fast, but not necessarily faster than usual. The young seedlings had a good start, placed under two 75 Watts high-efficiency CFL lamps installed in a Secret Jardin one sqm. grow box, and they soon exhibited a very compact growth behavior. After a couple of days, Growolf had planted the five Jiffies into 11 litre containers filled with coco ground. At the age of two weeks, it was time to move the five plants into his actual grow room, where they received plenty of light from 4x 600 Watts lamps (2x HPS, 2x MH), +450 W/m2. The five Electric Lemon Gs appreciated these light conditions a lot and put a tremendous deal of power into the production of many strong side branches, still growing very compact with a lot of close internodes, until ten days later when Growolf induced flowering by reducing the daily light cycle from 18/6 to 12/12. At that stage, the plants measured only 30-41 cm in height, which came as a surprise with an expectation of end heights in the region of 120-140 cm, but four of them were very bushy and, fairly unusually, exhibited only little main stem growth dominance. The side branches coming from below were almost as long so that the plants looked like the result of a pinching procedure although Growolf hadn’t applied that technique. The main stems of three of the plants naturally split up into two shoots, a rare phenomenon Growolf had not witnessed before. Leaf color was dark green (indica style) and the shape fairly slender (sativa), so it was apparent that both genetic aspects came through here.
After the light cycle had been cut down, the five Electric Lemon Gs revealed their gender within 7-9 days – three were female and two male, so the latter were removed. In the first weeks of flowering it turned out that the three remaining plants didn’t stretch as much as expected and instead remained more compacted, but this just meant that they put more energy into the production of a host of beautiful, long, top colas that emerged thanks to the abundantly growing, strong side branches; one of the plants, however, seemed to produce shorter buds with more stem internode interruption. This vivid flower growth was accompanied by a very early onset of resin appearance (after only a few weeks) which meant that all the buds were attractively glistening with resin glands and Growolf got a first slight impression of the lemony aroma that at least two of the three plants were about to produce. Two of the plants revealed a basically indica style flowering structure, building roundish tight buds, with quite a high calyx-to-leaf ratio which was due to the sativa influence. The buds of the third plant were more on the sativa side, having a tapering shape with a very high calyx-to-leaf ratio, but were incredibly dense and tight at the same time which was thanks to a certain indica influence. What all the buds had in common in the end were abundant trichomes; they seemed to ooze with resin, looking majestically silvery white. At maturity, after 66, 69 and 71 timely days of flowering respectively, that delicious lemony scent was clearly noticeable on two of the plants, but not as distinct and astringent as found with some other lemon strains Growolf had grown before – softer and a bit sweeter in comparison to those. The buds of the third plant produced a not-so-charismatic odor, being sweet and a bit spicy, but it was still a pleasure to sniff though.
In the end, two of the plants were 78cm whilst the other was 83cm in height and this was much lower than expected. Growolf would have kept them a bit longer in the veggie stage if he had known this, but also found that this was quite a handy size as they were strong, stable, bushy plants that could easily be harvested. Their dry outcome was excellent as well: 61, 67 and 75 grams of highly resinous Electric Lemon G nuggets were quite amazing for plants of their size and those numerous, big top colas had made it possible. After the drying process, the two lemony types had (luckily) preserved their citrus note and Growolf definitely looked forward to test smoking them. That lemony note proved to be well present in the flavor too and worked with a softly earthy undertone – a true pleasure to smoke for Growolf. Electric Lemon G’s high really came over him like a therapeutic high voltage shock – bam-bam-bam! Lots of vibrant sativa energy was unleashed into his head and body making him feel like he was sucking up green THC voltage and getting super high on it – truly electrified! Extremely stimulating, extremely uplifting, a good daytime smoke indeed but well suitable for many kinds of activities, and that prickling experience also lasted for more than one and a half hours before Growolf began to slide into a deeply relaxed state of body and mind; pleasantly chilling down from that intense sativa trip.
“Electric Lemon G fully deserves its name, she is a mighty strong sativa strain, electrifying in any respect!”, he enthused. “Frankly I wonder, though, whether that electric treatment of the seed producing plants has yielded an actual difference…that 3:2 female/male ratio was good, not extraordinarily high…but that electrification certainly wasn’t bad for the plants either. That’s for sure in view of these great results.”
Green Born Identity – G.B.I.
Cultivation data:
| Genetics | Electric Lemon G (Lemon G x NL-5) |
| Vegetative stage | In this environment: 3.5 weeks |
| Flowering stage | 66, 69 and 71 days, 63-70 weeks in general |
| Medium | Coco CoGr (11 litre pots) |
| pH | 5.6-6.4 |
| EC | 1.2–1.9 mS |
| Light | First two weeks: 2x 75 W Secret Jardin CFL, then 2x 600 W HPS + 2x 600 W MH, and 4x 600 W HPS during flowering respectively |
| Temperature | 23-28°C |
| Air humidity | 40-60% |
| Watering | by hand |
| Fertilisation | Hesi TNT Complex, Hesi Blüte Coco |
| Additives/stimulants | Plagron Vitarace, Hesi PK 13-14, Canna Cure, Agrom Medical Boost |
| Height | 2x 78 cm, 1x 83 cm |
| Yield | 61, 67 and 75 g |
Originally published in Weed World Magazine Issue 107
