White Widow, GHS vs. NIRVANA

Not the usual post, but an example of why "strains" are not real in the way most people think of them. All strains are breeder dependant and well, copy cat lies.

Here is an example. The "White Widow" below is from NIRVANA seed bank (on the left) and Green House Seed Co. (on the right).

Aryan from GHS is the closest to the true WW in that he was partners (at the time?) with the Seedsman(?) guy who bred the WW cup wining strain back in the day. Seedsman Seed has changed the name of the "original" to Black Widow. However Aryan of GHS claims to have the original genetics and sells them still as WW.

Nirvana's WW description is the same as any other seed bank in saying that the WW was famous for a CC award, but I dont see a claim to original genetics. Therefor their WW seeds are a knock-off, although a popular one. They do however claim that theirs leans towards the sativa side and as you can see this is no stretch!

• In order to see their individual traits and behaviour both seeds where germinated at the same time, vegged for 2 weeks and put under 12/12 for ~2 months.
• 2 Gallon Geopots, ROLS.
• Lights are 600w HiLUX GRO blue for 1.5 months and 600w Hortilux since.
• Nutrients for both have been MEDI-ONE by GreenPlanet.
• Same age. Stretch phase is finished for both.
• The GHS is fully budded and stands at roughly 12" tall. The Nirvana is 4' tall and ~2 weeks budding.

Your going to notice a weird bend in the Nirvana WW, this is due to it growing like crazy and an attempt at screening it for emergency height control. It was decided after that it was best to keep it vert in order to discover its true behaviour, as was the initial mission of this side project grow. A shorter but very similar Nirvana male was used to pollenate the GHS WW. I have never seen leaves as thin as the Nirvana WW.
Nevermind the plant to the far right in the top picture. It is a Super Silver Haze by Crop King seeds that was under attack in it's outdoor spot so it got dug up to get her to a safer place, she's kinda worse for wear but of no concern.

Lastly I want to say I like the Nirvana WW, it branching hieght is almost the same as the main cola and the bud sites are no more then a centimetre to an inch apart.

Will update with a final review of both after harvest is completed.

excellent plan, i admit to a like of nirvana, everything i've gotten from them seems legitimate, at least with respect to description
but yeah, the names are just lies, don't buy by name
i don't recall seeing such a nirvana WW sativa pheno, seem to recall a more regular type hybrid

All of them (Nirvana) that have grown have been this highly sativa pheno. Only exception is a male that had broader leaves, but was not vigorous and had longer node spacing, so he was moyd'd.

interesting, i'm pretty sure the grows i half remember had something different
but never grown the widow personally
one thing that does happen with nirvana is the breeder changes from time to time for a strain
they're a collective essentially, the california orange they were selling at the end was much different from the earlier versions they sold
which just goes to prove your point, the 'strains' may have a same name, but don't count on more than that

Morbid Angel said:

Aryan from GHS is the closest to the true WW in that he was partners (at the time?) with the Seedsman(?) guy who bred the WW cup wining strain back in the day. Seedsman Seed has changed the name of the "original" to Black Widow. However Aryan of GHS claims to have the original genetics and sells them still as WW.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure It's Shantibaba, who is THE man! , from Mr Nice Seed co, is the one to be credited for their "real" WW(black widow)

www.mrnice.nl/dhtml/history.php

the story your taking about it was shantibaba(not a partner a hired grower), but i subscribe to the other legend not as popular as that one. shati and another grower were hired by ghs(arjain) as a growers to work in the greenhouses, they both brought with them a cut of a then popular cut of white widow available to just a few growers of the time. these 2 young growers were charged with the white widow and other strains of ghs. for what ever the reason(arjain i`m sure) the growers left ghs and shanti took what he thought were his plants and hooked up with howard marks and started mr nice. shanti has never disputed this story but he stands fast that he did take parental stock that he was working and claimed them of his own. the pics you posted the nirvana is closer to the black widow in leaf and plant structure(hybrid), the ghs you have is more leaning to the sativa side of the cross which what most of the dutch claim as the original of the white widow.
no matter which legend you subscribe to you have both examples.