Dr. Atomic Shiva

All four are girls - how lucky could a guy get?

These four are two weeks behind going into flower as others popped at the same time. They were showing some deficiencies so it was a relief that the last two finally showed sex. They were up potted and put into flower two days ago. I found them looking like this tonight.



They seem to be rebounding nicely. (And looking rather old school, I might add.) Supposedly fast to finish. Hope that's accurate after the extra veg time.

I'll share some pre-chop pics when we get there.

I grew some dank dr. Atomic strain back in 2000. I can’t remember the name of it for the life of me. It was a blueberry cross I’m pretty sure. It came out purplish. I’d love to have that now.

billb said:

I grew some dank dr. Atomic strain back in 2000. I can’t remember the name of it for the life of me. It was a blueberry cross I’m pretty sure. It came out purplish. I’d love to have that now.

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Known as Blueberry Jam these days.

BB x NL, back then.

(I think I've got that right)

That’s it! I remember it being fire! Came out with some color and was dank. I’m going to try and find that Blueberry jam! Hopefully I can.

billb said:

That’s it! I remember it being fire! Came out with some color and was dank. I’m going to try and find that Blueberry jam! Hopefully I can.

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HD is holding.

It is a re-worked version. No experience with it. But the old one was truly remarkable; fire, like you say. Without a doubt.

I think it might of been blue dynamite. I think that was the name. Is that B.B. x nl?

It might’ve been called that. I just remember a friend in the early ‘00s grew it and said it was NL x BB from Dr. Atomic. I asked, “Dr. Who?” But I remember it as excellent herb. At that time I was growing just about everything Paradise offered. If these turn out nicely I plan to grab his NL and Blueberry Jam. And maybe Thai Lights.

I remember he used to have Nepal Baba for sale. . . always sounded nice to me, wish I had grabbed a pack.

geneva_sativa said:

I remember he used to have Nepal Baba for sale. . . always sounded nice to me, wish I had grabbed a pack.

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Had to look that one up. Sounds great! It’s not offered through HD. Maybe a dead strain for beans? Bubbleman has some great interviews with Dr. Atomic. I like that he maintains what he has -- not 50 strains - lol.

I also think the interviews are rather rare; seems the Dr. prefers to fly under the radar, so to speak. Interesting stuff.



billlb,

Also meant to say that that particular pairing (NL x BB) is an old time Canadian offering. Peak and JOTI also have current versions. So it's very likely that back in the day it was known as Blue Dynamite from someone. Maybe even the Dr., but not sure.

Blue Dynamite was something else done by Next Generation. Avalon x Grapefruit.
Friend of mine has been chatting with Dr Atomic on the net he's still around and doing good. Still has Blueberry Jam, Northern Lights, and a few other older strains. Sounds like they're as good as they've always been, as close as you're going to get to 80s and 90s cannabis without a time machine.

therevverend said:

Blue Dynamite was something else done by Next Generation. Avalon x Grapefruit.
Friend of mine has been chatting with Dr Atomic on the net he's still around and doing good. Still has Blueberry Jam, Northern Lights, and a few other older strains. Sounds like they're as good as they've always been, as close as you're going to get to 80s and 90s cannabis without a time machine.

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Thanks for the info - and endorsement! For some reason I wanted to say Federation for Blue Dynamite but knew that wasn't right (or the lineage).

Day 11 from flip:

Looking good, Shmavis !

What kind of fragrance those gals putting out ?

geneva_sativa said:

Looking good, Shmavis !

What kind of fragrance those gals putting out ?

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Thanks Geneva!

Not sure yet. They’re in with others that started flowering two week before these four. So hard to distinguish. Will be removing them in the next day or two to clean up and inspect. Will have a better idea then. (And probably better pictures -- this COB lighting is tricky ) But all five when removed to inspect for pre-flowers smelt great! No stem rub needed. Just carrying them in a tray to another room caught my attention. And there they were, smelling so nice, so early.

Group, Day 18:




#2 & #3 were first to declare sex; and the two almost look like clones.


#2 & #3, Day 18:

Update, Day 40 from flip:

Update, Day 40 from flip:

Respectable uniformity - especially nowadays. Four girls, similar expressions. Left to right numerically - only #3 is lagging enough to not get cloned. My luck though... she will be the standout. Terp-wise, all are fruity/skunky. Real nice, real classic nose.

Read somewhere but not from the Doc himself that this is an IBL...

Group shot, day 40:



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#2:

Hey Shmavis
Those Shiva's look great!
Depending on the date they were made, I believe those may have been done in the pollination round that was documented so well with pics on his website.
That round used a massive NL male from the seed stock that earned his NL line such a great reputation in recent years.
I know that the Blueberry Jam that I bought in '11 was made in that round from discussion with the Doc. He told me that the NL male was put over a female selection from Blueberry Jam seedstock, so basically BB x NL, BX to the NL.
I believe that these Shivas are the same.

That would make them something like: ((SuperSkunk x Hash Plant) x NL5) x NL5


Been a while since your last post in here.

Any chance we can get a final update with some pics and a smoke report?
Hope all is well
PS: these seeds are available at realgorillaclothing with the rest of the genetics from Seed Boutique.

Hey Raho

Appreciate the breakdown! I believe it was circa ’13 when I grabbed this pack from H. Depot. Very happy with the end results. But I think they would’ve benefitted from an even longer veg - even though they were very slow to veg. And likely more light; they were flowered under a 420w COB panel. I seriously regret not using the one male I had to make seeds, but I was already pushing it for pollen donors at the time and didn’t want to risk unknown pollinations. Would have to look back at my notes as I don’t recall at the moment, but either three or all four ended up with a few nanners, but no pollen flew, so no big deal.

Very relaxed body with a stony head from each plant, but #1 has the edge. More powerful, coming on faster with more punch - also the stinkiest. This was one of the skunkiest vars I have grown in years. I have quite a few jars and if Shiva isn’t the loudest, it’s second. Even has a nice skunky flavor. #4 has more fruity flavors coming through, but still underlying skunk. None of them are “HEAVY” like I was hoping for, but each a great ride to wash away a long day. I can melt into the couch and be just fine there, but not feel locked, or overly dumbed down. Decent duration, 1.5 - 2 hrs. And lends itself nicely to a sendoff for sleep. All in all, probably not an effect that’s all that rare - but I really dig that skunky terp profile from the old days. And I should mention that once, after more than a few drinks, I made it through about half a joint before I was wiped out - way too early in evening. Woke up hours later with the stereo on, and little memory. Found more moderate drinking necessary if mixing the two. This from someone who thought he knew his tolerance levels.

It’s funny you ask now... I received a sample of Gorilla Bubble just this past weekend. Super frosty, super loud, and pretty good tasting. (Did I say super loud? I mean ridiculously loud: seriously, it was in a baggie, inside a small glass jar, with the jar in a ziplock freezer bag, and that bag in a plastic grocery bag - and yeah, could still smell it!). Anyway, I chose Shiva and HP x BH to compare to. And honestly I can’t imagine that if you gave anyone a choice between the three that they wouldn’t pick GB based on appearance and nose alone... But effect wise the other two topped it, or so it went for me. I guess I mention this because it was kind of an old school vs new school showdown, lol.

But hey, Raho, SHHH! Don’t disappear the Shiva on me! I was stoked to see BB x NL listed at RGS and planned to grab those, but when I got ready to order, they were gone. Those were originals, right? I mean, the Blueberry Jam is the newer reworked version, if I understand correctly. Wonder who got the BB x NL... I grabbed a pack of Thai Lights instead and figured I’d roll the dice and hope Shiva is still there for my next order... but if not, oh well, I plan to get some of Beanho’s God Bud hybrids soon and will grab another pack then. Have some God Bud F2s and Yumboldt x BH en route - almost added Shiva to that order. And someday I will grab some Blueberry Jam and his NL. Had hoped to find NL at RGS, but no luck.

Things are well, thanks. Hope likewise for you, good sir! After a long hot busy summer, without plants, I am chomping at the bit to pop some beans here in a few weeks.

I kind of slacked on pics toward the end. And I think it was shortly after these pics at day 61 that I chopped, but would have to check. I want to say I took them at 65 days.

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#4:



Have a great weekend, folks!

Shmavis said:

But hey, Raho, SHHH! Don’t disappear the Shiva on me! I was stoked to see BB x NL listed at RGS and planned to grab those, but when I got ready to order, they were gone. Those were originals, right? I mean, the Blueberry Jam is the newer reworked version, if I understand correctly. Wonder who got the BB x NL... I grabbed a pack of Thai Lights instead and figured I’d roll the dice and hope Shiva is still there for my next order... but if not, oh well . . .

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I thought I was the only one that had thoughts like that
Hoping my order with some of those Shivas arrives today.
I have always wanted some of those Thai Lights. The Doc's thai looks legit for sure.

Funny, after I made my post, I kept looking for info on Atomic Shiva and found an old post from bubbleman in 2008 where he was asked by the Doc to photograph the pollination of the big seed batch he made that is on atomic's website.

Bubbleman makes some comments there that contradict what the Doc told me when I bought his seeds in 2012 (might have been 2011.)
One thing he said was that the Doc used 2 NL males, not just one.


I ran his Blueberry Jam and NL. On the NL, the entire 10 pack was male, so I picked the best of the 10 and crossed it to my keeper MNS Ortega.

Ran about 20 of the F1s. Most were giant plants with monster colas. Classic NL5 looking phenos, with peach colored pistels when they dried. Had a strange kind of wet cardboard smell when growing with light fruityness. Fruity hash taste when smoked. Kind of boring high. Out of the 9 females though, there were 2 "runts" that took a beating being right in front of a fan. I thought for sure they would disappoint and expected to cull them for the second round. Near the end of harvest, I noticed a heavy skunky stink coming from that tray, and sure as hell, it was coming from those 2 runts. The flowers had started to produce ridiculous resin late in flower, maturing faster than the bigger, more vigorous phenos. The bigger plants all had a few seeds hiding in their colas (probably a couple of nanners hidden in their bulk that were impossible to see.) In the second round I kept the better of the 2 runts and 2 of the bigger phenos. In the end, all the bigger phenos continued to be just average, 10+ weeks to finish, and the nanner issue returned (triggered by heat. I over-vegged and they got too close to the HPS.) The runt on the other hand was like a completely different plant.
Short, sturdy afghan tree, and super fast finisher (totally done in 8 weeks) no herms and a definite 8+ in potency. Classic pine hash terps. Strong and sharp.

I can't say for sure if the magic came from the Atomic side or the Ortega side.
I am hoping it's from Atomic. It was a 1:5 pheno I guess (not including the males.)

I've lost all that gear sadly, but am hoping I can find something similar in Atomic's old Shiva.

Here's a pic of that keeper hybrid:




In the Atomic Blueberry x NL, I found the phenos to be all over the place.
Without looking up old notes, I remember 3 distinct females.
One rounded top indica dom. Had boring terps and effects. Light blue/purple colors.

One skinny spear cola with strong camphor terps, giant calyxes, heavy resin, finished before the rest. Dark purple colors. This was my favorite.
One super vigorous girl, giant colas, beautiful structure. nice terps. She got too close to the lights at around 8 weeks and just exploded in male flowers throughout the buds. VERY heat sensitive.


Here is a pic of my favorite blueberry NL pheno (camphor spear, big calyx):


When I look back on this, I am starting to think that the variation might come from the 2 different males the Doc used in his seed run.
The Blueberry NL camphor spear had a lot in common with the Ortega/Atomic runt pheno pictured above, not the least of which was a faster finish. Also, big calyxes, heavy resin, and none of that fruity wet cardboard terps.

Anyway, sorry to call attention to some of the stuff hiding on the seed store.

I have a feeling you'll be able to get what you want one way or another ;-)

All the best amigo !

Thanks for those great pics Shmavis

No, thank YOU for the truly great pics and information - excellent work! And my plea of “SHHH” was nothing but a poor attempt at humor. I would actually like to see more grow shows of his gear, I think there’s likely some real gold to be found in his offerings - so let's get the word out! This was my first run of the Dr’s gear, but not the last. This was only a half pack so I still have five more and when I run them I will do so with another pack and see what I find from fifteen.

I was surprised by the skunk terps, but all four carried it without much difference in degree. That’s mostly why I am interested in returning to them. Hope you find what you’re looking for!

And I hope you pop them soon and show us what a properly grown Shiva looks like!