2015 Shiva Skunk

Twenty-eighth Week (Mid-October) : Harvest Time. The first plant was harvested in early October, followed by three more a week later. By mid-October most of the plants had already been harvested. Only three plants needed one extra week. One plant - the smallest one - i left on purpose to live as long as possible. This lasted the whole next month, until the end of November, when ground frosts began, high humidity and sleet were forecast. You can see this plant on four last photos - a few days before harvest. The plants were harvested by cutting the main stem close to the ground. Then hung on strings in the garage to dry. The temperature in the garage was between 10-15°C and there was good air flow. They hung there in the dark for two months - until the end of the year. Next, the buds were separated from the stems, manicured and weighed. It was over half a kilo - exactly 508 g ready for smoking dried stuff. The stuff was divided into 10-gram portions and poured into waxed paper bags before being placed in a big cigar storage container. It gave me a lot of happiness for the whole next year. And even more. ~·~ Final thoughts : As you probably noticed, my spot is in the forest, which means - little light. Latitude 52° also means not much light plus a rather short summer and a long, cool fall. In such conditions i am limited to growing (outdoors) only a few varieties - those most resistant to bad weather and fast (short) flowering. Of course, i want to get the best high as possible. And Skunk is like that. Any variety of Skunk - Early Skunk and Skunk #1 in particular. I prefer Skunk #1 over Early Skunk, because it gives better yield (though needs to live two weeks longer), and the high is similar. This time i opted for Shiva Skunk, which requires more attention from the grower and a warmer climate. But she's also the strongest of all the Skunks - from what i've heard. I tried to grow Shiva Skunk once before, back in my guerrilla days, but i failed because the site was detected and destroyed before the plants matured. Now that i have my (relatively) safe spot and a little more experience - i decided to take a chance again with Shiva Skunk. I know i should have given more space between the plants, but i couldn't. Anyway, in my conditions i'm always very happy if i get 30 g from any plant. This time i got more - 33.3 g per plant. And i need a gram a day to feel 'safe'. So this time i had a lot more than i need for a whole year. I was happy and stress free :) Summary : The weather that year was simply great almost all season long, which is rare in these parts - truly exceptional. This certainly contributed to the fact that i didn't have any major problems while growing and was able to harvest on time - when everything was fully ripe. However, i can safely say that Shiva Skunk is quite friendly to grow - even in such bad conditions as mine. And at the same time it gives a large yield and very strong high. This is one of my favourites. 👍

From 15 plants - half a kilo of dry smoking material. 33.33 g per plant is very good ratio in my growing conditions. I had absolutely no major problems during cultivation, which was largely due to the exceptionally good weather at the time. The entire cultivation process was relatively stress-free. The high is really very strong - it will nail you to your chair. For long and for good. I like it!