Beauty is a very important feature as one could say that the eyes also smoke.
At Sweet Seeds® we enjoy to explore all the potential that cannabis plants have to offer. Beauty is a very important feature as one could say that the eyes also smoke. And when they do, they usually get as red as these genetics. If there was a Cannabis Beauty Cup, with prizes for the most beautiful strains, our autoflowering The Red Family strains would constantly appear in the podium, gathering most cups. All this while keeping up with the so well-known Sweet Seeds®’ quality standards, staying absolutely true to the slogan “Sweet and Aromatic Strains”.
When we first received an amazing exotic purple-flowered autoflowering genetic line in our R+D department in 2011, we quickly realized how special it was and the twist it could provide to some strains from our catalog. But it was a long way until this strain coming from the Chitral region in the Pakistani Hindu Kush was ready to be introduced in our genetic collection because the genetic line we received was not as stable as we like it to be before using it in our breeding works. It took us 18 months of painstaking work of inbreeding and selection until this sumptuous genetic was ready to be used for the breeding of new autoflowering hybrids.
Once it showed the stability and genetic traits that fi t our premium quality standards, we started to perform tests, crossing it with other top quality autoflowering strains from our collection. The strains with which we got the best results after intensive testing were the ones ultimately used for our first 3 autoflowering strains from The Red Family: Green Poison® (Sweet Seeds® variety SWS14) , Cream Caramel® (SWS04) and Big Devil XL Auto® (SWS28). It was a joy to see the amazing transformation of a Green Poison® turning red, a Cream Caramel® turning black (or almost) and a Big Devil XL Auto® acquiring the real tones of a devil.
When the 2013 season started we released Red Poison Auto (SWS39), Black Cream Auto (SWS37) and Dark Devil Auto (SWS38). Three strains that have been making history in the autoflowering online community, as you can easily corroborate by visiting the Sweet Seeds®’ subforum at AutoFlowerNetwork forums (www.autoflower.net) or by simply googling for “The Red Family + Sweet Seeds®” at Google Images. Juicy dark-red flowers make up for the most appealing cannabis ever grown by men.
These purple-flowered strains were so very well accepted by cannabis growers during the year of 2013 that in 2014 we decided to unleash pollens and let the family grow. An hybridization between Dark Devil Auto and Black Cream Auto gave birth to Devil Cream Auto (SWS45), while crossing Sweet Skunk Auto (SWS34) with a selected genetic line of Red Poison Auto allowed us to introduce Bloody Skunk Auto (SWS44) in our genetic collection. 4 years have passed and these 5 purple-flowered autoflowering strains from the Sweet Seeds®’ genetic collection have conquered not only the eyes, but also the palate and the yielding standards of most of our clients and friends.
Sharing a quick note on each of these 5 strains, one could say that Red Poison Auto is our best seller in a red version, featuring dense buds covered with aromatic resin, sweet and fruity aromas with a soft Skunk background, all within a plant with the appearance and structure of an Indica-Sativa hybrid. Black Cream Auto leans more to the Indica side, featuring short internodal distance, compact buds and a big main cola, while producing huge amounts of resin with sweet and fruity aromas and an outstanding earthy background inherited from our Cream Caramel®. Dark Devil Auto is our autoflowering strain that grows taller. This plant features the same structure of modern Indica-Sativa hybrids and adds incense and delightful citrus tones to the sweet and fruity aroma also present in other strains from The Red Family.
Bloody Skunk Auto, as the name indicates, stands out for a deep Skunk aroma, extremely pleasant and sweet. With a structure very similar to the classic Skunk strains, it produces large flowers covered with aromatic resin and a huge main cola on top. Devil Cream Auto shows great hybrid vigour since germination as it is composed of a wide genetic mix, allowing for a super-pleasant sweet lemony aroma on an incense background. This strain also grows quite tall for an autoflowering strain, producing a strong main stem, tough side branches and big leaves that end up forming a thick and dense main cola, surrounded by multiple buds on the side branches also with a good calibre and density.
These strains acquire purple tones during the flowering stage because they were developed within selective breeding programs that allowed to achieve genotypes featuring higher amounts of anthocyanins. The water-soluble pigment molecules called anthocyanins are classified as flavonoids and usually feature purple or red appearance. Cannabis contains anthocyanins all over the plant, from the leaves to the flowers and even in the stems and roots. But only with a great amount of anthocyanins it becomes possible to expect that almost every plant ends up acquiring purple or red tones. At Sweet Seeds®, through selective breeding programs, we managed to raise the amount of anthocyanins present in our strains from The Red Family to a maximum extent to fix the purple-flowered characteristic in all the off-spring. Something that we achieved with total success, while keeping the other interesting genetic traits intact.
All the 5 purple-flowered autoflowering strains from the Sweet Seeds® collection are ready to harvest between 8 and 8 and 1/2 weeks after the germination of the seeds. The purple trait is so well fixed that 90% of the seeds produce purple-flowered plants. That is 9 out of every 10 seeds, so you can not miss the fascinating colors even if you only sprout 3 or 4 seeds. But even if you get the odd “non-red” plant, you will still harvest high quality flowers. For example, if you have a Red Poison Auto that insisted to keep with the green colors, you have a plant that could very reasonably be called Green Poison Auto® (SWS30), which is also one of the best autoflowering strains in the market.
Even if you are extremely unlucky, you will be graced by an outstanding cannabic treat anyways. So go on, indulge yourself with the most stunning and remarkably beautiful strains in the market, showing your friends and beloved ones how beautiful your hobby can be. It will be fast and painless. No blood will be dropped, as we are sure that you will smoke it or vaporize it until the last drop in the exact same enjoyable way as a vampire drains the sweetest prey.
By Tommy L. Gomez Sweet Seeds®
Originally published in Weed World Magazine Issue 131
