This neophyte's thoughts on Shaman after his first grow

I know I'm not the first here to share his excitement about the results his first grow, but holy crap! In the decades I've smoked and wasted money on a overpriced pot, I don't think I'd EVER smoked a sativa before in my life until I grew one. It makes sense, I guess, since anybody with profit in mind would grow and sell the quicker harvest promised by Indicas.

When deciding on seeds, I went to leafly.com and plugged in my desired effects and rounded down the list to a very high recommendation of Shaman, which, apparently has been around since the mid-eighties. I planted only one seed on a sunny balcony, had no purple flowers, but here in the Caribbean it grew fast as hell, went to flower in a 5 weeks and harvested in less than the 8-9 week window (No, I did not mistakenly harvest early--checked everything and personally inquired at the brilliant "Harvesting and Trichomes" by k0ijn sticky which is still active).

Anyway, hats off to this amazing smoke which after drying and curing for only about 3 weeks, is like a fine wine. I LOVE this high. I have never been more creative, focused, relaxed and genuinely happy after smoking anything. I can't believe it is only going to get better with curing.

Some of this may be a reflection of the liberated feeling one has after growing for the first time, but I would be so happy to have this as my only choice for smoke compared to anything I've smoked. I know now I am absolutely partial to sativas. And Shaman is CHEAP comparatively! That opinion might change once the Tangerine Dream and Super Lemon Haze are ready for harvest next, but somehow I doubt it.

Anyway, thanks to the hundreds of posts and responses to my questions, I'm in a new world. I grew in a super soil recipe, by the way, all organic.

Cheers!

I've got some bagseed at the moment for my first grow which is indica. I just thought weed was different from when I was young then I found this site with much information about strains and effects and it's because I haven't had a sativa for a long time. I am looking forward to buying some sativa strain seeds for my next grow. It's going to be sweet.

Gratz on your grow. Supersoil is what I'm planning for my next grow as well. Got any pics?

I remember the first time I smoked Alcapulco Gold!!!! my first sativa dominate strain... wow, I was smiling so hard it would not leave my face LOL... good times indeed!

I do not have any pics unfortunately. The super soil recipe I used was a slightly amended LC Mix which there is a lot of info about on this site. Not that I can yet imagine a better high than what Shaman is giving me, but I really want to grow Durban Poison, Kali Mist and Jack Herer for the effects they seem to promise. Who knows? Maybe smoking Shaman as your first sativa is like having your first exposure to wine be Boone's Farm or MD 20/20. Or maybe it's just a lot of marketing hype about new strains in order to sell them at crazy-high prices. Not that I'm any more than a newbie, when you're choosing the sativa to grow (or anything), I highly recommend starting your search at leafly.com and then alleviating your doubts here at RIU.

So how tall she get?....height is what steers me away from sativas as i grow indoors....could u have kept it under 3 feet w a little training?

She grew no more than about 18-20 inches before she started to flower, and I started LST at about 12 inches. For the LST, I handcrafted a barbed wire ring (what I had on hand) just barely bigger than the circumference of the top of the 3 gallon pot, and forced it in to secure itself against the sides of the pot above the soil line. Then I used plastic-coated electrical wire (maybe 14-16 gauge?), bent the wire lengths into hooks on both sides and attached them to the plant above and the ring of wire below. I was very diligent about tying down branches and the main stem as they grew up to reach the sun, but it never reached more than 11 inches above the pot. In fact, I have a Tangerine Dream growing now that has at least a 20 inch main stem, and it is less than 12 inches above the pot with all the tie downs and has 7 very nice size colas. Granted, this is my first experience growing, but I don't foresee anything in a sativa (or at least the ones I have) that should make you shy away from them due to height issues, assuming you do LST.

One other thing, and this is only a guess: I "tapped" the plant with my forefinger lightly several times everyday when she reached about two inches (according to the Riley book this encourages stronger roots), and then at about 4 inches and above, I made a peace sign with my fingers and bent the plant carefully back and forth from side to side a few times everyday (this also encourages root strength). I believe that having done this to the plant very early on and consistently, it had the added benefit of encouraging her flexibility for LST. I did not have any problems at all with stems or branches breaking.

Definitely, grow a sativa with confidence! This Shaman gets me higher and more creative/focused everyday!