Blueberry, exquisite and colorful, receives this name for its purple color acquired along the last weeks of flowering stage, and also for its sweet and fresh aroma, that reminds to blueberry. In this post we will talk about this cannabis strain, a loved rare hybrid, which genetics has been used as a base for many crossings since it came out in 70s decade.
DJ Short
Talk about Blueberry origin means talking about its breeder: DJ Short, an expert grower who, even living away from the mainstream, is behind the breeding program of many cannabis strains, and even some of the most popular hybrids ever.
DJ Short, whose name has nothing to do with a disc jokey, nor short (he is a quite tall guy, and very clever because besides breeder he is also got a psychology and biology degrees), is a canadian breeder who started, as many others, growing sativas in early 70s. Those days he worked in Oregon, mostly with south american landrace strains, arrived from Colombia, Panamá or Mexico, grown indoors and outdoors, selecting those individuals that meet "desirable characteristics".
The Blue family
Lucky (ours) made that in mid. 70s some seeds arrived from orient (brought by a grower or a hippie coming back from hippie trail) arrived to his hands. In-between those there were Thailand sativa, and first Afghani indica arrived to America. With those plants in he's hands, Short used his hability and instinct trying to stabilize them to create new strains. Those first investigations concluded in discovering two new peculiar sativas: a Thay female named as Juicy Fruit, with sweet taste and intense buzz, and a Purple Thay female (crossing between a Highland Oaxaca Gold - mexican sativa- and a Chocolate Thai), with the characteristic of turning to purple color when temps were low.
In the other hand, afghani indicas, arrived at the same time the indoor gardens started to develope, would become the third leg of Blueberry genetics. Short adapted grow lights to these strains, that needed more power; and got a very uniform crop that produced dense buds, with another goal achieved: a quick flowering time (almost half of a sativa). The only problem Short had with afghani plants was the sedative buzz delivered, far away from energetic effects, and euphoric, from sativas he was used to. The solution was obvious, and was not difficult to find out.
It was this way how, in early 80s, the Blue Family was born, from a crossing between Purple Thai and an Afghani male. The sativa and indica combination reduced remarkably the flowering period compared with pure sativas, and the result were thick buds, covered with abundant resin, with soft, sweet and fruity taste, that remind to blueberries, grape, berries... It also balanced the relaxing effects type indica, with an active buzz. The true is DJ Short, together with other contemporaneous (those californian legendary growers), were responsible of opening the cannabis panorama to a new world for growers and consumers, all over the world, and since then we can benefit from marijuana strains adapted to climate, easy to grow, in addition to a wide different tastes and effects that still goes on.
From those crossings Flo came out: Purple Thai x Afghani, 60% sativa, 40% indica, a hybrid with very quick flowering period (it only took 6 weeks to mature). This became a classic. This first cross produced purple buds in pearl-shaped form, delivering soft and energetic high that kept your mind clear.
Following with this work-line, Short crossed some individuals of Flo with selected females, from a Juicy Fruit x Afghani crossing. Blueberry, contrary to its predecessor, was a mostly indica (80% indica, 20% sativa), resulted from some phenotype huntings of this cross. This new strain also inherited the bluish purple color, besides its fresh and sweet taste, but what definitely turned her into a popular strain was, probably, its potency and its high THC content. Indica genetics left you with a powerful relaxing feeling, but balanced with its sativa part, that brought a powerful euphoric effect. As soon as it was discovered, she make herself a name in the West Coast.
Blue Velvet, also known as Blueberry Thai, was another of those first crossings forming The Blue Family, that also was appreciated like Flo and Blueberry. That was a hybrid strain (50% indica-50% sativa) also bred from a Purple Thai x Afghani crossing.
Blueberry, a genetic spread all around Europe
As some of he's compatriots previously made, DJ Short left the United States, and their poliitics against drugs, and jumped into Europe in 90s decade, where he spread he's seeds, and also he's new strains on all seedbanks.
First he arrived to Holland, where it was possible to work legally with cannabis, so he had more possibilities to keep on working on new strains. There he worked for Sagarmatha seedbank, company who sold Blueberry, Flo and Blue Velvet, and also developed new strains, like Blueberry Bud (still in catalogue today, even the neverending accusations produced after the ending of their collaboration). Short after that he jumped into Dutch Passion Seed Company, that also bought and sold Blueberry, and where DJ Short had the same bad luck than with Sagarmatha. From that collab. some Blue strains were born, like Blue Heaven, Blue Moonshine and Purple Passion.
Finally he moved to Switzerland before going back to Canada (where he was born). There he worked for Spice of Life Seeds, and together they bred hybrids like Moonshine Rocket Fuel, Rosebud and Blue Satellite. Going back to Canada, in 2000, he founded he's own seedbank and kept breeding hybrids, descendants from the Blue genetics. Nowadays he is still active, even being in the shadow, working as a consultant for he's son at Old World Genetics.
3 Blueberry characteristics
Genetics: Afghani indica, Purple Thai, Juicy Fruit.
Flavour: Blueberry, berries, sweet and fresh.
Effect: Relaxing, wellness felling, euphoria.
Medical properties: anti-stress, sedative, anti-inflammatory, against depression, good for migranes.
Nowadays Blueberry is grown in more than 60 countries, and is included in grower's TOP 10 strains to grow. Still today keep appearing new descendants from the Blue Family (like Blue Dream and Blue Kush). Follow the path of Blue strains is almost impossible. Along more than 4 decades of work, the origin and genetic composition of some of these strains has varied. Even though, all of them are, related (some take more from the Purple Thai, others are closer to that first Juicy Fruit, and some other show indica treats... In addition, for every new strain created many phenotypes can occur. The best of all is this never ends, and we can be sure that in the future more sweet a bluish strains will appear.
Sources:
Leafly
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