Biddy Early - A fresh breeze of superior outdoor genetics

Over night she became the covert shooting star of the High Times Cannabis Cup 2003. Totally unknown to the seed market before, Biddy Early scored a great coup at first go: It was the only outdoor-grown weed in the sativa category, and as such it took second place, leaving many high-bred indoor strains behind. The Biddy Early`s extreme citrus aroma and suprisingly strong potency hit the judges by surprise. It was the first outdoor variety released by Magus Genetics, and a big success story right from the start. Gerrit, the breeder of Magus Genetics, must have had the right touch when choosing the genetics for Biddy Early. Let`s see what is behind the name: As mother plant, Gerrit used Early Skunk (Skunk #1 x Early Pearl), an old outdoor classic from Sensi Seeds. Not quite a revolutionary genetic input for creating a new outdoor strain, but for sure a very solid hybridization partner with good open field performance properties. And such an outdoor-adapted variety was needed, since the father of Biddy Early is Warlock (Skunk x Afghan), a popular indoor strain from Magus Genetics that delivers a real aroma bomb with a very high THC content, imparting above average outdoor potency and much aroma complexity to the Biddy. The outcome is an outdoor variety with charismatic attributes and solid mold resistance that blows a fresh breeze into the landscape of outdoor genetics. According to Magus Genetics, Biddy Early can also be grown indoors with good results, however, it can prove hard or even impossible to keep mother plants in the vegetative state over a longer period of time, here the outdoor genetics take their toll sooner or later. Left uncut, the Biddy grows in to a christmas tree shape, reaching a height of 1.8 to 2 meters. Supplied with enough light, she exhibits very compact shoots with short internodes, what also makes her a highly suitable balcony strain.

That`s why the grower Ellis D. chose for Biddy Early as balcony plant in 2004. He intended to grow only one big lady there, and therefor sowed four seeds in mid-April. All of them came out of the ground quickly, receiving proper light from a 250 W HPS. Four weeks after germination, he changed the light cycle from 18 to 12 hours in order to be able to recognize the gender of his Biddy plants. After having identified them, Ellis D. had three very homogeneous female plants at his disposal, only one plant turned out to be male. Then the pre-sexed plants had to be forced into vegetative growth again. Ellis D. cut back all females to three internodes, gave them a strong nitrogen fertilizer dose and prolonged the light cycle to 20 hours. After some time, the plants returned to vegetative growth. But although clearly being on the vegetative side again, the plants kept on exhibiting one small single female flower at every new node. These flower memory markers reminded of the previous short flowering phase and showed that the flower hormone concentration in the shoot tips had not been fully scaled down again, the tendency to flower slumbered on in the plant, being superposed by the vegetative impulse. Ellis D. gave two females to a friend and kept one plant for his balcony project.

From June on, the Biddy Early solitaire plant resided on the southern exposed balcony of Ellis D., planted into a 25 litres container filled with soil. It was his plan to bend down the shoots of his lady horizontally and fix them to a trellis at the wall below his balcony window. But it soon became clear that this procedure had to be abandoned due to the Biddy`s sheer growth power, there were just too much shoots. By means of selective back-cutting of single shoots and bending down the branches again and again, Ellis D. achieved a huge horizontally even crown. His plant got very broad and very flat (75 x 110 cm H x W in the end). And it really had to be flat, for staying below the height of the balcony ballustrade (1,20 m) so that no neighbour would be able to sneak a peek. The June 2004 in Germany was unusually cold and dark, only a few sunny days broke through this unpleasant scenario. Due to the interaction of low light amounts and the Biddy`s latent tendency to flower, the plant autonomously returned to the flowering stage at the end of June. More and more flowers appeared at the shoot tips, developing into a vast amount of flowering tops in the course of July. At first, Ellis tried to force the plant back into vegetative growth by prolonging the daily light period with his indoor lamp in the evening, but this proved unsuccessful after a couple of days, and he realized that he had to give free rein to the flowering impulse now. As a consequence, Ellis D. carried his plant in and out every evening and morning so that it received a daily amount of 12 hours of light. The good thing about the precipitate bloom was that the buds could benefit from the intense summer sun light, and so the approx. 40 tops took an excellent development, getting fat and very resinous, exhibiting an Indica dominated flower structure, while the calyx-to-leaf ratio still was good.

Already on 24th of August, the Biddy Early had ripened and was happily harvested by Ellis D. After the buds had been dried, they gave a total weight of 115 grams of finest outdoor quality. Considering the fact that Ellis` balcony Biddy was three to four times smaller than a full-grown specimen with a harvest potential of 300 grams (according to Magus Genetics), this result was highly satisfying. Gerrit reports that the majority of Biddy Early plants will exhibit red and purple colours when the nights get cold. Unluckily, these attractive hues could not come about here, because the plant got ripe already in August. What was far more important to Ellis D., however, was the fact that the aroma and taste of the Biddy buds turned out to be honey-sweet and mildly flavoursome. There was no hint of citrus aroma, but according to Gerrit, the development of this special smell is rather fragile and depends on the case. And indeed, the strength of the high could compete with certain indoor strains, offering both energizing sativa and deeply relaxing indica effects, the combination of which providing a complex and revitalizing smoke experience to the consumer.

Biddy Early surely one of the most interesting and rewarding new outdoor strains in recent years. Now we are looking forward to Gerrit`s second outdoor strain coup sometime in the future.

Green Born Identity - G.B.I.

Biddy Early cultivation data

Outdoor

• Sowing date: May

• Harvest date: Sept/Oct

• Yield: medium/good (approx. 300 gr. pp)

Indoor

• Vegetative period seedlings: >30 days

• Vegetative period cuttings: >10 days

• Flowering period: 50/60 days

• Yield: medium/good (approx. 400 gr. per m2)

The Story of Magus Genetics

Biddy Early - A fresh breeze of superior outdoor genetics

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