Grow Report: Belladonna

Truly an attractive lady – Belladonna can kill you!??

Drug friends who are not only familiar with cannabis, already know it: Belladonna (literally: beautiful lady) is the common short form used for Atropa Belladonna, also called deadly nightshade. The latin genus term Atropa comes from Atropos, a Greek mythological character. The three Fates of Greek mythology were pictured as old women who spun out every person’s destiny as if it were a thread. Clotho spun the thread, Lachesis measured it out, and Atropos cut it off, thus finishing a human being’s life. And indeed, an overdose of Atropa Belladonna can kill you. But don’t worry, with Belladonna, Paradise Seeds has created a 100% weed strain, so there’s nothing mortal about it all. The strain name shall rather associate strong potency and female beauty.
But how “poisonous” is Paradise’s Belladonna? Looking at its pedigree yields a first hint. Belladonna’s mother is Super Skunk, a Sensi Seeds classic that in the late eighties and early nineties internationally made the headlines as allegedly genetically manipulated and unnaturally strong cannabis variety. Of course that’s bullshit, natural cannabis simply has such a high psychoactive potential that is doesn’t need any artifical alterations, it’s all about selecting the best plants and breeding them. Super Skunk was and is very potent, indeed, but already back in the eighties, there were several likewise extremely potent strains like Haze or Northern Lights, but they were not that much in the spotlight, since Super Skunk became Holland’s cash crop no. 1, practically every coffeeshop in the country had it on its menu card, and it was exported a damn lot. So it received special attention from national and international media, more than any other marijuana strain, astonishing those ignorant mainstream journalists so much with its high THC content that they hysterically spread the rumour of genetic manipulation. But in fact, Super Skunk was created from nothing else than Skunk #1 backcrossed to its Afghani ancestor. Paradise Seeds crossed Super Skunk with a potent male (F1 hybrid) of 60% Sativa and 40% Indica origin that is kept secret by Luc, the company’s owner and breeder. So in Belladonna, both sides of the spectrum, indica and sativa, are quite exactly balanced – at least on the paper.

Both trippy sativa and stony indica effects

According to Paradise Seeds, Belladonna is very popular also as outdoor variety in e.g. California and Spain. And even in the Netherlands, she is suitable for outdoor cultivation, thanks to solid mold resistance and a ripening time of about mid-October. However, most growers use it as indoor plant so far, and so did our friend Mr. Power Planter. His ten original Belladonna seeds germinated very homogeneously and without fail. An Osram Planta-T (600 Watts) served as light source that, in addition to the ten Belladonnas, also illuminated ten plants of another variety. Ten days after germination, Mr. Power Planter transplanted the young seedlings to six litre pots filled with a good soil mix from the local growshop. The Belladonnas turned out to be indica dominant in terms of growth, the plants were very short and compact. However, they exhibited stronger side branching than a typical indica, and also the leaves were much narrower than for example those classic wide Afghani leaves.
The plants were growing with quite a good uniformity, there were no big differences in height and width. Four weeks after germination, Mr. Power Planter induced flowering (by switching from 18 to 12 hours of light). Eight days later, half of the plants had revealed a female gender, with the other half turning out to be male plants which were discarded. The remaining female Belladonnas, exempt from one slightly taller lady (75 cm), had reached an almost identical height of only 60-65 cm when harvest time came after 55 to 60 days – which was exactly the time period stated in the Paradise catalogue. So the five Belladonnas combined a moderate flowering time with a short height, bushy growth, and, best of it all, excellent buds. They were tight, broad and very resinous, also having a favourable calyx-to-leaf ratio, with lots of small, closely packed calyxes and orange hairs. Their smell was sweet’n fruity, a pleasure to the nose. The plants yielded an average of 25 grams, well satisfying for such small plants grown from seed. Both trippy sativa and stony indica effects were perceived when smoking the dried buds. So the high was complex and strong, lasting for a long time. The Belladonna flowers had a sweet full-bodied flavour that was very tasty, although having lost that fruity note after the drying process.

Belladonna took third place at the Spanish Highlife Fair in Barcelona 2005

On the whole, the Belladonna strain was highly appreciated by Mr. Power Planter aka Cloudz. He even decided to enter some of his buds at the IC Mag Cup 2005 in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, his entry was put into the wrong category by the organizer so that he had to match with professional seed banks in the breeder category (sativa) instead of competing in the grower category. Hence the fourth place Mr. Power Planter scored with Belladonna was quite creditable, and with 1003 points, his entry was only narrowly defeated by the first three varieties (1142/1099/1089 points). Apart from that Belladonna took third place at the Spanish Highlife Fair in Barcelona 2005.
Belladonna is a rewarding strain that gave a good performance in Mr. Power Planter’s test grow. Apart from its look and nature, also the price of Belladonna is very nice. Truly an attractive lady in any respect…

Cultivation data:

Variety: Belladonna (Paradise Seeds)
Pedigree: Super Skunk x Unknown Mostly Sativa
Vegetative period: here: 28 days
Flowering period: 55-60 days
Medium: standard soil mix
pH: 6.2-6.8
EC: up to 2.0 mS
Light: 600 W HPS Osram Planta-T
Temperature: night: 18 °C
day: 24-28 °C
Air humidity: max. 60 % in the flowering stage
Watering: by hand
Fertilizer (veg.): House & Garden A + B
Fertilizer (flowering): House & Garden A + B,
PK 13+14 in week six
Stimulators: “Exelent Explosief” Bloom-Stimulator
Height: 60/60/65/65/75 cm
Yield: 21/23/23/25/32 grams