I went to the US to pick up the original US NL5. It wasn't in the same league as mine. The NL boys from the US came to me for my NL5 offspring. It was much better than the original.
Nevil
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Mine were from that plant (US NL5) and all of the brothers and sisters seemed typical of the line, except one. I expect it was a throwback. It's hard to glean information about breeding from underground sources, but I can assure you that I've spent a lot of time analysing the results of the original NL lines. My NL5 seemed to have characteristics of NL2 and NL1, but had completely dropped any Thai influence from the mother. If you have bred enough plants containing indica, you will have seen some of these throwback indicas. They are not all great, but the short indica like 8 week anomaly will pop up.
Nevil
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I met the Indian to obtain the US NL5 cutting two years after getting the seeds. This was the only NL cutting that I ever got. If I ever sold seeds from this US cut, it wasn't for long. It was already superseded before it got it.
Nevil
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When I say NL5 did not cross well with Maple Leaf, I mean it didn't fizz. I didn't find that many indica/indica crosses did. Indica to indica/sativa did. As a breeder who puts a product on the market, you find you have to deal with a few issues. What people say they want and what they really want. All those people who now seem to be against 1:1 matings would be the first to hammer you in public if they didn't get what they want in one packet of seeds. Remember brocolli man?
Predictability and genetic diversity do not go hand in hand. So you let them belittle you for doing 1:1 matings and they post pictures of the best buds in the world.
The market has changed since my day. Medical cannabis is more prominent. If you are looking for a particular effect, yield is not as important. If you say, forget about yield, I could blow you away, but few do.
Nevil
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When I first got the NL varieties, there were 8 types, 1-8.
They came with descriptions, which I published in my catalogue. These descriptions may not correlate with what later developed. The original intention was to purchase seeds from the US NL growers. It didn't work out and supply dried up. I kept the lines separate and inbred them. NL1 and NL2 stabilised into distinct types and NL5 only produced one unique individual.
NL1 was a full blood Afghan indica. One thick main stem, dark green leaves, modest yield with nuggety buds, a little coarse with good resin production, which when ripe went golden. The high was narcotic. The seeds ranged from tiny to massive. I used to love the big ones. Large fat heavily and darkly mottled seeds. Selecting for these seeds made this Afghan even coarser. It was fun to show people these seeds.
The best line of NL1 actually came from the smaller seeded types, better high and bud structure.
There weren't many pure indica lines around in those days.
Big Bud, Hash Plant and G13 were pure indicas in my estimation, but were cuttings. NL1 was the only good pure Afghani male line I had.( there was Sams Afghani#1, but that was toxic in a bad way) The NL2 was a Kush.
I put the NL1 out there as a pure strain. I wasn't popular. People would tell me, "give me the pure strains", but if it cost them 10% of their yield they would complain, well try 50%.
The pure indica hybrids were more popular. NL1 x HP and NL1 x G13 were the best. At least people could use the word pure (very popular). But they were good!
I expect that a lot of people holding what they believe to be pure indicas today, would find, if the truth be known, that the sire line traces back to NL1.
Nevil
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The NL 1-8 were seed lines and most were hybrids. A couple of years after getting the seed, I went to the U.S. to get the U.S. NL5 cutting. It didn't turn out to be as good or even that similar to my NL5.
Nevil
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I smoked the early Kali Mist, it was good. It deserved to win a cup. I remember the Cambodian story and I didn't believe it at the time. I think that it was a NL5xHzC crossed with a predominantly sativa type. Excellent hybrids can be made using an F1 5Hz parent, but there is not many of them left anymore. I never took Simon seriously after that.
Nevil
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That's right OS. I did go to the States later and pick up the original U.S. NL5 mother and it was as it was described to me, part Thai. But my NL5 didn't seem to have any Thai influence. I spent a lot of time analysing the NL lines, in particular NL5.
I only saw evidence of two indica male lines in the NL series and that was NL1 and NL2. My best bet was that NL5 was a combination of NL1 male line and US NL5 female. I guessed that US5 was 50% NL2. Northern Lights 2x5 was the best that I could do staying within the line (pure NL).
Northern Lights changed the face of cannabis genetics (and many a smoker), but it was mostly through NL5. You've got to marvel at fate for dropping that one extreme plant into the lap of a budding seed breeder.
Nevil
