Throughout my life as a grower and toker I have always loved the fruity flavors and incredible terpine profiles of Sativas. I have never really been a Kush fan, but only because I never really liked the taste and because being a hash man, most Indicas have much smaller resin heads and the outer cover of the tricome seems thicker and more volatile to me. Hash made from Indicas are generally darker and it’s rare when you can make real full melt, although there are exceptions.
As I have grown older, my super-potent Sativas really do a number on me at night and I have to actually be careful not to over indulge on my favorite Vortex because it can bring on an anxiety attack if I over medicate. This has lead me to take a second look at Indicas, in particular the one that makes really nice night time hash, Bubba Kush.
Over the last year, I have sampled about 15 assorted Kush cuttings, and by far my favorite is the one they call Pre-98. Dioxide, the creator of Chernobyl and Qrazy Train, is an amazing strain hunter and he reminds me of myself when I was young. The cat is relentless in his search and acquisition of rare genetics and he has a library of gear most people only dream of.
Dioxide has been running the Bubba Kush Pre-98 cutting for some time and has already made some new hybrids with her. He brought me a nice healthy cutting and I ran her through my grow room. As I write this story, the plant is at day 54 of flowering and almost every single pistil is a vibrant orange color and the plant looks finished to the naked eye. Dioxide informed me that the plant finishes about day 60 and suggested I wait a few more days. So the best way I know to determine if a plant is ready is to study the trichomes, so I set up my trusty Nikon d-50 and got as close as I could to Bubba Kush.
When I was a young man, I could just stare hard and see the heads, but at 50, I can’t see nearly as well as I used to. Scopes are cool, but for me, there is nothing like a macro shot with a 105 MM lens and zoom in with Adobe on my 22″ monitor. This not only looks bad ass, but leaves no doubt about what stage a plant is at.
I use just side lighting and a very shallow depth of field—generally a very low f-stop, like 3.5. I use my ring flash mounted directly to the lens. In the low light the plant appears to float with no background. In reality, there is a black back drop hanging but its a good four feet behind the plant so there is no reflection from the lights or the flash. The results are some pretty amazing pictures. If you study the shots you will see that indeed there are no amber heads and the plant clearly needs more time to complete its journey.
For a plant I never liked before, the flavor of it sure smells amazing to me. Maybe I just needed to grow it myself. So we wait till day 60 and do this again. Look for my start to finish Youtube video of this same plant I am just waiting for harvest to mix up the clips.
Macro Rules!
