Beansly
RIU Bulldog
Sure man. I've read a lot on Northern Lights but I don't have much hands on experience with it (I grew Jack Herrer, but it only has 25% NL in it).Never knew much about genetics, maybe could say I don't know anything, so explain to me the different strain crosses of NL.
Right now have skunk x NL and NL medicnal mix.
Thanks
I read a lot of stuff online written by breeders and such so my knowledge is based on only that. Maybe it's flawed, but you try getting a story about the origins of a particular strain that is 100% factual...
Today, there are no available forms of the original form of northern light left. According the most reputable sources, the original was grown by a man called "The Indian" on an island off the coast of Seattle, WA. The female cuts were labeled #1-#11, with #5 being the best of the bunch and #1 a close second. The cuts were given to Nevil Shoenemaker (Then of "The Seed Bank" now known as Sensi Seeds) who then took them to Holland and refined them and made them commercially available to the world. He began making crosses with NL such as the still famous NL#5 X Haze, that became some of the most popular strains of the time and even still now.
It's unclear how the seeds and hybrids were made as the NL cuts were all female. Here is a short excerpt from a article at Seedsman;
"How exactly these new seeds came to be is unclear but apparently Neville Schoenmaker used the plants that he got from the Indian to create new hybrids by further crossing them to some males of Afghani origin. He might have acquired them from the same source as the females but the Northern Lights males were never labeled, so their history remains unclear. The best guess is that Neville Schoenmaker created the new seeds by further hybridizing and inbreeding the plants that he acquired from the Indian to his old stock. Northern Lights #1 was described as a true breeding Afghani IBL (inbred line), suggesting that it contained none of the Thai Sativa that was later incorporated into some of the Northern Lights strains. At what point the Thai Sativa was infused into the genetic lineage is however unclear. Most likely it was bred into the Northern Lights #2 hybrid at some point. Regardless of their origin or genetic makeup, two particular males labeled Northern Lights #1 and Northern Lights #2 are clearly mentioned as the fathers of many new plants in a Seed Bank catalogue from the 1980’s"
Today, the original NL #5 is no longer available in it's pure form. But hybrids made with the original NL genetics are still available.
A Northern Lights #1-Hindu Kush hybrid is offered by Dutch Passion as "Oasis." There is some NL#2 in Honey B from the Flying Dutchman.
The NL males produced some famous off springs such as Big Bud, Skunk #1, Hash Plant, Haze and Swazi. In fact, NL is probably responsible for more potent crosses than just about any other strain.
The closest representations of the original Northern Light #5 mother are offered by Sensi Seed, and are Shiva Skunk, Silver Pearl and Jack Herrer. Also, THSeeds offers a nice NL#2 called Closet Queen.
BCSC offers a NL#5, but as the original NL#5 was a clone only female, it's likely that it was hybridized with some kind of afghani or hindu kush.
Sensi offers a seed called only Northern Light. It's unclear which parents were used to create these seeds, but considering they have the original genetics, it seems like whatever they did, it's probably legit.
Northern Lights is one of the cornerstones in cannabis breeding today. Any grower would be lucky to work with this plant someday.
Sources:
http://www.seedsman.com/en/origins-of-northern-lights/
https://growguide.opengrow.com/Main_Page
various other internet sources