[dr.penthotal]

Dear Icmag,
It’s been a long time since my last post,
But today I’m really happy to share this experience with you all.
Today I’m sowing my last seeds of what I called “Grapefruit grail project”.
This is only a part in a strange journey I’ve took in search of the perfect grapefruit smelling plant in the last 5 years.

Everything begun in 2006 when I first smoked a joint of NYCD from Soma seeds while in Amsterdam.
Saying I felt in love with that weed is reductive, I got something more than an obsession for it.
It was great: real red ripe grapefruit taste that was the same as smell, it filled your mouth completely and for minutes after joint that wonderful taste lingered in your mouth like you kept on licking your fingers after you’ve peeled lots of agrumes… And potency! Wow! Always noticeable after any weed out there, NYCD stood out for having a joyful and up high which is still nowadays one of my favourite in Ams. For years it’s been the herb that I usually smoke before leaving Holland, to feel the last time the freedom of medicate with such good stuff in plain sight and have a good taste in my mouth on the plane coming back home…I thought I WANT more!

It was great when I first bought my pack of Soma seeds.They were bought in Dampkrieg growshop in front of central station, together with Soma’s book. While I was paying for it at the counter Soma himself walked in the shop. I was able to meet and talk to the breeder of the seeds I was actually buying in this moment. He signed my book and gave me his benediction.
It’s been nearly 5 years of growing/living aside of NYCD, and unfortunately I’m not satisfied with the phenos I found with these seeds.
So far I’ve planted a total of 35 seeds of original NYCD from Soma. All those beans came directly from Soma’s hands, no fake, all regular seeds.




My first batch was with 5 seeds. 3 males and 2 females. I grew this batch 6 cycles, indoor on hydro, soil and Soma’s soilbeds, outdoor 2 seasons, trying to replicate that flavour I met in A’dam, but my plants looked and smelled different (later I realized they were some Afghan-hawaian pheno).








Incredible plants: tall sativa, 12 weeks flowering time, incredible hybrid vigor, hardness to pest and bad conditions, fresh fruity floral taste and smell, but far from being grapefruit!


One male was used for breeding.

Also a couple of F2 were planted, but no grapefruit!
I had 5 seeds left, maybe that pheno could be among those, but I got 4 males and only one female more. Super sativa one, super floral (rose, and violets) smell and taste, very vigorous but not grapefruit again.
I talked to Soma about this, he said it was easy to find a grapefruit sport and I decided to get some more 10 seeds of NYCD and 10 seeds of NYCD x G13Haze.







From NYCD I got 4 more females ( I admit I got a poor m/f ratio with those ones…), all being incredible, robust, vigorous plants BUT no grapefruit!!!
Better results in terms of smell were found in G13haze line. My NYG #2 was the closest of all to that wonderful smell, but still it is slightly different: begins as pungent hazy, greasy smell as you approach first your nose, then grapefruit appears behind leaving a good ligt aftertaste of bitter oranges that lingers for minutes. I was happy!!
NYg#1 followed being a bit more indica as plant, less grapefruit smelling, but more pronounced in taste. Good m/f ratio with those being 6/4.
A couple of those were haze leaning phenos, long flowering, dry woody smell tinted of fruit, more potent and cerebral in high, BUT not grapefruit! To mention a good male NYG#7 which was the best smelling plant of all, very vigorous.




But when in Amsterdam again, I realized from the first smell out of that NYCD box in the coffeeshop that mine wasn’t even close to that! Dutch weed looked better: big fat calyxes that revealed a sort of indica parentage, very compact and tight buds, very resinous on every part, masterfully grown, but looked a different plant to the best I could achieve at home in best condition.
I blamed on myself and promised to do better with my plants and give a try to new 5 seeds regular.




To sum up, almost 2 ½ years spent to hunt for that grapefruit pheno and no success!
I revisited all my growing technique and skills and gave a try to the last 5 original seeds regular, deciding to look for a more indica style plant and hoping for some grapefruit.
As earlier I got 3 males and 2 females. The latter looked very similar to the ones I had previously, and one of them smelled like a sort of strawberry, but no grapefruit. The males looked a bit more promising: fatter indica leaves than the previous males, a tint of fruitness and grape in there. Almost close? But what to do? I decided to mate my NYG2, the best smelling and tasting plant to an array of males I encountered. I had 5 different males coupled: a NYG#7 and three males with indica leaves from last batch and the first male met 3 years before from which I could see the offsprings already.
Meanwhile I tested NYG7 with sour diesel, chocolope and ak47 to try potency and I was quite satisfied with results.
So I sowed 50 more F2 seeds, a mix of NYCD x NYCDG13haze#2 and NYGH2 x NYGH7.
I grew them, sexed them and flowered the clones for 3-4 weeks to see the first resin.
Then I chose the very best 3 females, using a criteria of selection based on grapefruit smell alone.
Only 3 out of 30 females smelled grapefruit, with different tones and bitterness.
The best smelling plants came out of NYG13H F2 (#8 and #9).
Are we dealing so with a recessive trait? Soma told me it is quite frequent to meet a good grapefruit smelling plant, but indeed I had a lot of work to be done before achieving this result. He was lucky as he met this pheno on the 6th seed planted. This pheno is still circulating in Amsterdam.
Now these 3 selected plants are flowering beautifully. 8th week. Still 2-3 weeks to go.
3 different phenos: one (NYG2 x NYC3) is really close to her mother in appearance and smell.
NYGH F2 #8 is a super sativa looking plant, growing as a beast and super foxtailed. Fast flowering although, not more than 3 weeks to go. The smell of this one is the best achieved so far: bitter and sweet grapefruit peel is all there, mixed with a strong kick of fresh flowery sativa. Just move some leaves indirectly and you smell the grapefruit, gently squeeze one calyx and there’ll be no soap to cover it, almost embarrassing…
I’m closer this time but what a pain! Anyway it’s similar, not the same as amsterdam’s…
Need to test potency.
#9 is smaller and is more indica, good grapefruit taste but begins with a strong musky smell, it’s fruity as a backsmell, after the musk is gone.
Growing so many NY plants I noticed anyway that a good cure is a must to refine the grapefruit, only after 2 months after harvest that hazy-musky smell leaves place to fruitness to its best.

Just as a note, last year I flowered 5 female chisel. Lots of resin, beautifully smelling plants, but NO HIGH! My tolerance is well in shape, but I smoked this variety just for taste: grape/grapefruit well dipped with cheese aroma. Very nice, but no High. Discarded.




At the end I wasn’t satisfied yet. Soma himself offered me a clone of this pheno this year.
Unfortunately I cannot afford to carry it home, my hunt for grapefruit is not over yet…
So one month ago I begun to approach the problem under a new sight: I planted 40 seeds and called It “grapefruit grail project”.
I decided to try more variety that were labelled to be grapefruit and test’em.




I got 5 grapefruitdiesel and 5 dynamite 5 agent orange (together with 5 querkle and 5 vortex) and 3 NYCD (soma pheno) x bubblegum from a grower friend met in Amsterdam and least but not the last 2 spice from mrnice seeds.
About this one I have always liked the afghan-hawaian touch in a lot of Soma genetics, liked it in NYCD, even if it was too dominant for me in this cross, liked it Amnesia haze, in Spice from Mrnice is missing the afghan part, still conserving some agrume background. I’m very curious about this one.
Today it’s the turn of 5 NYCD female from Soma, (he handed me those beans, being sure it’s the right time, as e said that those were the best NYCD seeds ever made, very very close to that grapefruit pheno I’m looking for), sided with 4 Female seeds grapefruit to compare.
New seedling after a month have already among the best grapefruit smell I met till now, but a lot of small variations are already noticeable. More in the future about this as I see some resin.

Thank you for getting through all this long post, now you can understand why it can be called an obsession.
More than 100 seeds and a few years to find a smell. Hope to end this with a new variety, something like “100% True Grapefruit”, or “Grapefruit madness/obsession”.
I want to share all this with you, any question, clarification or comment is welcomed, sorry if something is a bit confusing.

[Darkstarlive]

good luck with that.

[mellofello]

Damn you sure are a man on a mission! Props to you bro you know what you want and your doing what it takes to get it. Not tried much NYCD in Adam but got offered soma's cut of it a while back. Might have to look into it as just reading your post got my mouth watering.

Good luck with the on going project dude, I for one would be interested in seeing what the finished cross will have to offer

peace

mello

[Dawn Patrol]

Have you ever considered Grapefruit Haze?

[Rowdy420]

Dude thats an epic seed drop, I'm sure your going to find a few keepers in that lot. The pic of the NYCD looks very sativa. Update?

Good luck, peace

[azad]

Its an interesting read.I faced a simmilar situation when i smoked the Amnesia Haze in amsterdam 2yrs ago,but i could'nt find the genuine seeds to try find the Pheno.
I figured it down to 1 breeder Hy-pro seeds, but their out of stock.
several other companys carry the strain but thier all crosses of the original cut i belive.im not sure how simmilar they may be.Im in no circles to acquire cuts.
I wish i had half the expirience and patience you do...thankU..Always remain in harmony!!

[dr.penthotal]

Hallo friends, thank to everyone who gave a peep o grapefriut.
Some months have passed and I concluded the flowering of those 2 NYCDG13H F2.

-NYgH#8 was truly a beast! Long flowering (11weeks), haze leaning pheno. Super, super foxtailing. Really a foxtail queen.
She began very early in foxtailing like 5week of flw.







The best smelling of 2. Strong smell of bitter grapefruit peel. Very promising. When lit she displays a good undertone mixed with a very good indeed spicy-nutty flavour which is delicious and hereditated from NYG7 male.
(This flavor was actually part of another good cross I did with sour d).
Good potency, uplifting, high for sure. No paranoia. Kept for comparison.

-NYgH#9 looked different, more NYCD leaning,



less fluffy buds, more dome like. Good grapefruit smell, with some hazyness in it. Nearly no grapefruit in taste, good buzz, but average. Discarded.
This is a comparison of bud density and shape.




The best expectations anyway come from the new round.
Harvest of first plants is coming in a week or so and I'm so excited.
Plants look beautiful, no problem of overfert or nutes or anything.
I'm running last days of AC to low temps a bit (hot summer temps are getting higher). So I'm triyng to get best smell and taste from them. Organic in soilbeds as always.

Out of 5 NYCD S1, 100% germ rate, even if one seed died after coming out and one is a dwarf. From the other 3 I had best indica looking NY I ever experienced. Leaves are so fat! And fast flowering....
Now they're showing the typical NYCD cola, but the one you can see in Soma's book, very, very similar.
Smell is total grapefruit this time!!
Even if with some slight variation, I'm getting the closest ever!
Sad to get here through femmed seeds. Anyway we need to do the smoking test, it's half of the cake!



Best expectations come anyway from others seeds I have.

-Grapefruit from female seeds are 4 different looking plants: quite sativa looking, long colas, good vigor. All plants are looking different. Only one of them is showing grapefruit smell though. Sweet and candy smelling, not exceptional on other traits. They display an heavy double dented trait on leaves.




-GrapefruitDiesel look more promising anyway. Stronger plants, they show hybrid vigor, a leaf in the middle between indica NY and grapefruit. Smell is very good from all the 3 females I had. A sort of sweeter candy like nycd. But really good! She shows a faster maturing, even if colas are a bit longer and smaller than NYCDS1.


-Dynamite showed a smaller version of grapefruit, but a bit more refined. More uniform in growth patterns, same double dented leaves as gr, but more indica looking. Fast flowering, nearly ready at 7th week. Good soft grapfruit tone in smell. I think good for outdoor, as I see a cola not so prune to mold I think.

-NYCD x BUBBLEGUM: WOW! More NYCD looking plants than Soma's. LArge leaves, sweet smelling from the beginning.
Strong hybrid vigor, they're still building up large long colas. Bub male improved sweetnes in smell and added some typcal bub funk to NY. Grapefruitness, if analyzed alone is a bit in the background, but well melted with bubblegum. They're showing the larger colas of the round, maybe a bit longer to flower. VERY GOOD!!




-Agent Orange: BEST OVERALL! I wanted grapefruit dank? I got orange dank!! Wow guys, this is dank.
Strong plant, doubled in stretching adn shows frosted compact buds. But this is the beast that are making my apartment smelling orange. If you just look at them you perceive the orange. If you smell them your nose is filled at first with some strong sweet lemony tart funk, followed instantly by a strong smell of pure oranges, like mature orange peels that resemble an artificial orange lollipop. Smell sticks in your nostrils and on your finger for 10 minutes later! It's impressive the potency of this smell.
Orange smell is there from the 2nd week of flowering. One plant is mor Jack the ripper pheno, one is more Orange velvet like. Both are super impressive.



-Vortex: same as above. Super DANK! but we're outside the baloon of grapefruit. It's a sort of lemon-pinapple funk, skunky smelling. 4 look like Apollo 13, one is more slender and with bigger calyxes and more reeking. Can't wait to test these. They're finished at week 7. First to be chopped down.




-Spice: the most NYCD looking plant to the pheno I used to see with SOma's NYCD. Is this from the true hawaian parent stock?
(afghan hawaian male was from Shanibaba indeed, respect Shanti!)
No grapefruit here, just a faint idea of this (but actually I find some parellels with grapefruit from female seeds...). Most sativa looking plants, very vigorous, very large, very long colas, seem a 12-14week flower.





I had some good males also. I didn't miss the occasion to pollinate everything with some SOUR IBL, some Querkle, some NYCD BUB and Agent Orange pollen. The latter are looking the most promising.

To complete there are 2 SSSDH from Rez which are doing very fine. More on this later.

To Dawn patrol: sure I considered that! but this time I wanted to avoid some haze cross, too many NYCDG13Haze till now, so I wanted something purer. Have you tried this one?
Tnx Rowdy, Azad and Mellofellow for stopping by!

Grapefruit project is going on, I'll keep updated, thanks everyone for your time, I know it's precious
peace
Dr.P

[dimodz]

Thanks 4 shring you infos bro

nice that you finde Orange pheno on Agent Orange.
I have to say thats very esay with that strain 4 orange taste.
Thave you not found in Grapefurit strain from female seeds real small & taste ?


peace & green vibes
DiMoDz

[Dawn Patrol]

Dr P -

great project, thanks for the detailed update! I haven't tried that strain, but your pics and descriptions are awesome. Can't wait to see more!

[dimodz]

i forget to say have you tried SweetPinkGrapefruit from Steve (SoL) .,?

that have real Grapefruit small & taste