Strain
Aroma: Cloyingly almost disgustingly sweet, Diesel, Sandalwood, Sage, with a hint of citrus sharpness. Picture this...it is a warm day and you are at the soda can recycling joint, if you know this smell you should start to get that sensation in the corners of your mouth under your tongue, like when you bite something sour but this is the sweet version. It is the gross sensation that almost makes you want to lick that sticky sweet grossness off the warm, old Pepsi can, but you have just a bit of dignity left so you don’t. While you are contemplating licking that gross but good, cloyingly sweet goo off the can you catch the odor of sweet, dank, sharp fuelie diesel smell from the gas station next door, then you catch the faintest whiff of that hippie who lives nearby who is burning some sandalwood and sage incense. That is Arise. What makes the aroma even better is the slick, greasy yet sticky feeling of the buds when you are handling them. The combined aroma and feel make for an AMAZING sensory experience!
Taste: Exactly like it smells but muted versions of the smells. When smoking in a J the sandalwood and sage are the dominant flavors. When vaporizing the flower the sweetness and diesel are the dominant flavors. I have not dabbed this strain yet, but will be squishing a little this weekend so I can crush a fat dab and really get into this strain. I have a feeling it is going to be intense on many levels.
Sensations: Enhanced auditory and visual sensations without hallucinations or paranoia. Clear headed and focused, great for doing tasks where concentration is desired.
The High: Initial sensation is that ice cream headache like sharpness behind the eyes, but not unpleasant. Then there is nothing for a bit, almost long enough (5 minutes) to make you think “where is the high?” Then you start to notice the sharpness and vividness of your surroundings becoming more intense. The auditory enhancement sets in, (NOT the scary almost hallucination type of auditory enhancement where you go on a 15 minute sound hunt in your house because you definitely hear something, but have never hear that before type of enhancement), but the type where you are a little more aware and music is fucking awesome, enhancement. Then, at about 15 minutes in, give or take, you find yourself thinking, “oh shit, I’m high”. Then you can ride that wave out for about 2 to 4 hours. The high is very functional and “up” without being racy or out of control. I am extremely focused and in a single track mind set when using Arise. Not that I can’t think about other things, but I am not distracted by 72 other thoughts racing through my head, which is normally a huge problem for me. I am also regularly plagued by incessant negative thoughts, which are absolutely abolished by this strain. So far, the only negatives I have experienced are: dry mouth and a little bit of a crash after the high type feeling. The dry mouth is to be expected, cause you are smoking weed, the “crash” might be the fact that this is not properly cured yet, I was only 6 days into drying when I did this smoke report. All of the above information was from vaping 0.25 grams of ground flower. I am a daily smoker, not saying that my smoking habits are good or bad, but I want people to have a reference. For those who do not smoke a lot, this is likely a one or two hitter quitter. My wife is my occasional smoker, test subject, so I will update when I have that information.
Growing: Growing this strain was a breeze. I run an LED that has 2 COBs along with supplemental reds and IRs for flower. Running it with everything on pulls 210 watts out of the wall. At 24 inches above the canopy the footprint of the room will get about 800-900 ppfd. I had this plant in a 2.5’ x 2.5’ x 7’ tall area with one other plant during flower. I pulled 98.15 grams with almost no training aside from one topping and a little supercropping because the stretch was no joke. If I run this as a single plant, there is no reason I can’t pull 5 oz from a single plant with this set up, if this pheno is a good example of what to expect. Because of the height of this plant after the stretch the top was receiving about 1200 ppfd and the plant took it well with no supplemental CO2. I only started to see just a hint of tip burn when I pushed over 2.3 EC and for as much of an issue as I have had with Botanicare, the plant put up with it well. Next time I will do a little more training and will trim up the bottoms a little bit more, but ultimately this is a set it and forget it plant for those who don’t want to fuss.
Harvesting: I took this one down after 52 days of 12/12, I know, that is quick! And to be honest, I could have gone a bit longer, but I wanted something that was going to be an active daytime strain and I had some scheduling issues that really made cutting at day 52 the right thing to do...this time. I will definitely experiment with 9, 10 and 11 week harvests in the future. I wet trim, always have, probably always will, and this plant was a pleasure to trim up. I say that because there is almost nothing to trim except for the fan leaves. Could do 4 of these in the time it took me to trim my C99, and the buds are all like perfectly formed little pine cones..even the little lowers that are the size of a marble.
Final Thoughts: Rasta Jeff nailed this one! I am not affiliated with Irie Genetics, but I can HIGHLY recommend Arise to anyone looking for a dope growing and smoking experience. (see what I did there?)