Apollo-13 BX At Long Last
The Brothers Grimm were Cannabis breeders that were only around for a short time but they had a huge impact on my Cannabis collection. One of the strains they created was Apollo-13 and it is without a doubt one of my all time favorite plants. Never mind the incredible red bubble hash she makes, or the fact that the buds produced by this plant will make a novice smoker sick due to it's amazing potency. Her best trait may be the genetics locked inside that produce such amazing hybrids when she is using in a breeding project. I have written extensively on the history of Apollo-13 but just in case your unfamiliar I better cover some facts. Apollo 13 is a cross between Genius and P75, two strains created by The Brothers Grimm. I grew the Genius variety back 8 years ago at the same time I was growing the Apollo-13 and let that cutting go because of her small yields. Back then I was much more concerned with yield over quality and I will always regret that decision as Genius an Apollo-11 phenotype was my second favorite smoke and considering Apollo is one of my favorites to this day I am sure genius would still be also. Only 500 of the Apollo-13 seeds were ever produced so its rare to start with and then from that small gene pool I am only aware of three cuttings that survive today from original stock. I am lucky enough to have saved not only 2 packs but also acquired one of the prize female cuttings close to the source. It is very hard to describe Apollo-13 as she is unique to all other plants excluding her hybrids. She has a strong smell that is a mix of sour rotting fruit as well as black pepper and an underlying citris smell that mixes with a skunky flavor. This is what The Brothers Grimm had to say;
"Apollo 13: This skunky girl will make your eyes water with her pungent perfume. The delicate balance of Indica/Sativa makes Apollo 13 perfect for growers limited to a single strain. The long, fat colas and sparkling, sticky side branches really weigh in at harvest time. This is the type of smoke you can't hold down; it expands and blasts off from the lungs. The high is clear and cerebral, without a hint of paranoia. Her citrus flavor and happy high make Apollo 13 very popular at parties! Two hits and you can leave your own footprints on the moon. Flowering: 45-55 days Height: 120 - 150 cm. Yield: 400 gm/m2."
So for years I grow this girl out writing stories about her exploits and making some great hash along the way and finally when I got into breeding Cannabis I used her to create one of my award winning strains called Vortex. Combining Apollo-13 with Space Queen we had an instant winner and one of the best of her hybrids that I had created. Online followers of my work urged me to continue my work with the Apollo-13 and back cross the mother plant in order to produce what we call in the breeding game a BX. This is a method of using a plants sibling male to pollinate the mother plant producing a hybrid with additional traits from the mother plant. In theory each time this stage is performed the resulting seeds produce plants more and more like the mother plant. Each time the step is taken the desirable traits of the mother plant are increased. I said in theory and what I have found is if you continue the process there is not a great benefit as far as stability goes. With one proper back cross of the correct plants can yield an amazingly close replica of the mother plant in high numbers.
The How
Once I was finally talked into this project by Apollo-13 lovers I started by germinating 20 Vortex seeds in order to find 10 males in order to select a breeding male from. As Luck would have it I got 19 female plants and even though the one male was a nice one we scrapped that project for the time being. Later that year I had another legal grower start 40 seeds for me and over time we worked our way down to 4 nice males that we put through our selection process until we found the one male that performed as we wanted. This process in very involved and time consuming as the only way to check the traits of a male is to breed to a known female. The resulting seeds are grown out and then the hybrid that most resembles the mom is noted and the male plant that produced this effect is saved. This is how we created Apollo-13 BX but I have one time saving trick, as a contributor to many medical groups I can donate these crosses to medical growers and collect their information and apply it to my research. This saves a great deal of time and I think works better than one person trying to track hundreds of plants over time.
By compiling all this information in 2009 we were ready to do a test release of our Apollo-13 BX to some medical growers and sat back to watch the findings. At the same time I had people close to me start a few packs so we could observe how the hybrid compared to the Apollo-13 mom. I knew we had a winner early but kept quite as I saw plants in early growth just covered in resin and by week 3 of budding I could start to smell traits I was all to familiar with in the BX. We released the strain privately late in 2009 and again watched as the gardens bloomed until we were sufficiently impressed. The strain went live in 2010 and quickly sold out in the first few weeks leaving us scrambling to make more.
Apollo-13 BX is the spitting image of her mother and I am hard pressed to tell the difference my looking at my own pictures of the two. Whats even more impressive is the collection of pictures I have collected by growers of Apollo-13 BX that look like I gave them my mother clone instead of them starting a few seeds. I am completely satisfied with the results and last week when Ed Rosenthal contacted me about contributing a forth strain to his upcoming Big Book 4 I knew this new Hybrid was the one.
Like her mother the high of Apollo-13 BX is inspirational and Motivating as long as you don't overdo your consumption. It's slightly creeper but you still feel it the second you inhale it just keeps building over time and I have more than once quickly took a few hits in between chores and found myself higher than I expected 15 minutes later. If you on the other hand take a few to many hits then your immobile physically but your mind is running wild with way to many ideas to actually get anything done.
Simply put this is Exceptional Cannabis
Subcool
www.tgagenetics.com
Apollo-13 BX
Apollo-13 X Vortex
Representing thousands of hours of selective breeding we proudly offer our first back cross of Apollo-13. Pain staking care was taken in the male selection and the project to locate him took 60 plants and over a year of research. The high is instant and powerful yet also invigorating and inspirational. Most of my writing is inspired by the THC profile of Apollo-13 as it provides a boost of mental energy. Apollo-13 is so prized for its Red Bubble Hash that many growers dream of processing the entire plant into Hash.
Simply stated I feel this is the best Cannabis produced in Seed Form!
1) Phenotypes- The Dominant Variation is a mirror of the mother plant
2) Height- Tall thin Sativa Look
3) Yield- Medium yield very resinous and sticky
4) Indoor/Outdoor
5) Best Way to Grow- Easy to shape and train allows any style of growing
6) Harvest Window-55-60 Days
7) Sativa/ Indica 85/15
Hybrid- Apollo 13 is a cross between Genius and P75 (a precursor to C99).
9)High type-.The high is clear and cerebral, without a hint of paranoia
10) Taste is almost indescribable, like Rotting fruit, citrus, and baby poo with a hint of pepper