This is my first review for Nirvana’s BlackJack. A mixed-bag experience, some good insight with a poor result. The main overarching factor was nutrient excess through soil amendment and then feeding. The details follow:
No problems germinating. Nice, strong growth through its life. This experience has given insight into the vigor of this strain. BlackJack came in just as I was dealing with pests; it sort of avoided the problem, but when damaged from treatment it could easily replace fan leaves quickly. Nice nutrient absorption. This plant also persisted through cold temperatures and a lack of furnace, I really took time to dial in my winter grow operation.
When things are going well you get excited, and I become impulsive, and so BlackJack went into flower with great expectations. With the temperatures being low, and such a streamlined rotation, the plant used up alot less soil amendment than expected. And, I just kept feeding my usual flower nutrient/nitrogen fade! In summer, or when I didn’t have excess amendment, I got away with mistakes. This time, not so much. Blackjack did survive, which was not the case with all my grows, but it was overvegged, i.e. excess nitrogen and nutrients gave way more leaf matter than you’d expect. So the buds were big leafy messes with very dark foliage. I flowered for nine weeks, Nirvana projects 8-9 weeks. After trimming all of it off and drying, I was left with barely any decent product (as indicated). This fact automatically skews the curing, tastes, potency, and density, therefore, I can’t really say I have a sense of anything but early life (which BlackJack seems very solid!).
Regardless, I would say there were smells of sweet and herb while growing. It took a long time before the taste and smells of the dried product really came out. Even then, its faint and barely beyond bland. When I do get the aroma and flavour it, its lovely, a deep, sweet, green with a decent woody or pine finish. But often, the less dense product is just totally neutral. There is a good chance this is on account of overnuting, as the smells while growing were not necessarily ultra strong. I also tried budwashing for the first time, and while I would like to blame that, it wouldn’t be fair either. Its clear trichomes remain on the bud and that would include flavonoids.
Potency seems totally unchanged with washing. It seems to have nice characteristics of both sativa and indica. I flowered for nine weeks, the end of their window, so I did confirm under loup there were many amber trichomes. I like couch lock as specifically what I look for, but much of that may have been on account of an extra week.
Visually, the final product is nice considering the amount of veg. After washing, everything appeared very crisp even under magnifying loup, and the texture is just phenomenal when grinding. It dried very fast, but not overly dried, and it pulverizes to a perfect particle size.
All in all, a harvest of 19 grams is not worth my time, but I can certainly guarantee is was on account of nutrients and environment. My faith in this strain or distributor hasn’t wavered in the slightest. I’ve quite enjoyed the small harvest both solo and more often as a mixer. I had successful clones featured in other diaries and so I am excited to rectify this!
NL
