# The Story of Black Russian



## subcool

Black Russian is one of the most amazing looking strains ever to be photographed and one of the main reasons that I am a writer, let me explain. I have been growing Cannabis and taking pictures of it for a little less than 10 years and I love documenting as many strains as I possibly can. To me a seed is like a box of cracker jacks and I cant wait to see the surprise I get each time I grow a new strain from seed.
I had never really submitted any work to a magazine before choosing the immediate feed back of the internet and sites like Overgrow and Breedbay until one day when someone I know sent pictures of my Black Russian clone into Hightimes and it was immediately published based on looks alone.
I decided if a plant I was growing was going to be in a magazine I better do it right so I used the text from the online post and the pictures I had taken to put together an article that I submitted to Danny Danko and the next thing I know I was a contributing writer to several magazines and now I have my own book published by Ed Rosenthal. 
Black Russian went on to become extremely famous and to this day breeders offer crosses made using the hybrids I created using the Solid Purple female and the dark magenta male used to create the f2 we released. I do not like Black Russian and we offer no hybrids of the parents now and no one in our circle of medical growers still grows it. But Why? I thought it would be cool to tell the behind the scenes story and shed some light on why I dont smoke or even grow one of the most sought after crosses to surface in a long time.


----------



## subcool

Like everyone else I was blown away by the looks of the Black Russian female we found using seeds from Nebu. Jill had met him once and he had given her a few packs of his seeds and when I landed out west I had seen pictures of Nebus work and figured I had to give it a shot. We shared the 5 seeds with friends up north and I ended up with a few females and a few males and choose the female and male based on things I have learned to look for over the years. I actually asked Nebu if this was ok and his response was to have at it. Everyone but me was gaga over the Purple buds I thought it had a weird taste of musk and pepper that over powered the nice Grape smell and taste that lurked underneath each toke. Meanwhile everyone was Screaming give us Black Russian f2s so I did and they were released to the growing public. About 75% of the females found from seed turned an amazing color but I caught hell from every grower that didnt get a Purple phenotype.

Pictures by Friends of TGA


----------



## subcool

I thought I could improve the potency and taste possibly by crossing the strain with one of my favorite mother plants Apollo-13 and used the Black Russian male to pollinate A-13 and create the strain we called Sputnik.  I grew out the new sibling cross and we found a nice ratio of Deep Pink females and ones that only exhibited solid white pistils and green coloring. The surprising thing was the buds from the non colored females was much better tasting and severely more potent than the females that grew Pink Pot.


I was at this point convinced that Purple Pot and Potency were not necessarily conducive. I stopped being so impressed with purple weed and preached Purple was just a color and not indicative of quality in any form other than looks. I passed the Mother and Father to a medical grower and ask him to keep them alive which he did not and it was about this time that everyone that was able to get a  pack of my Black Russian F2&#8217;s started showing them off online and things got crazy. I had no more seeds to give out and the few distributors still holding packs were getting prices never heard of for pot seeds. The last pack sold went for 1000$ and I need to make clear none of it went into my pocket that&#8217;s taking advantage of people.


----------



## subcool

Once I moved out west I was able to sample some of the Kushs that people like so much like OG Kush, Bubbu Kush and Chemdawg and I figured out I dislike the flavor of Kush! No matter what strain or how well its grown I do not like the hot taste of Kush Indicas and I now understand why so many people loved the Black Russian, Sputnik and the hybrids that spun off of this work. It wasnt a bad strain just one I didnt like the taste of.
See some people love Blue Cheese Dressing and it makes others cringe the same can be said for flavors in Cannabis I just found this out to late. It did teach me that there are many many palettes and everyone has different taste. No longer do I rush so fast to judgment based on taste. Black Russian always got me really high if I actually smoked a few bowls I just rarely got past the taste of the first bowl.
Once I relocated out west I was able to find an amazing tasting Urkle female that also turns an amazing color but nothing like the Neon Purple of Black Russian. The Urkle was however much much better pot and the strain we created with it Querkle is an amazing Indica with purple traits and a Grape taste that I enjoy every day!  So I dont hate purple anymore and thats a very good thing. In Fact a new hybrid created using Querkle,  Qleaner has become one of my favorite strains of all time! It taste like Grape Nehi Soda but has the added potency of Jacks Cleaner!

So thats it the story of a strain you may have seen and why now its more of an urban legend than seeds people can actually acquire. Several breeders do offer hybrids they created using seeds I created though and that is one hell of an honor.

Subcool is the Author of Dank Featuring Black Russian;  Page 26


Qleaner by Bongorilla

Sub


----------



## Locked

Wow...very cool sub....I love learning the back story on different strains...oh and I don't think I know of the right words to describe those pics...amazing is all i can say....thanks for sharing


----------



## 420benny

HL took the words out of my mouth. I love the qleaner day 50 top view pic. Killer colors.


----------



## the chef

Beautiful! Still though you couldn't breed out the bad taste with maybe a blueberry or similiar? Buetiful ladies though. I guess not now that it's gone. Would have been nice to cross into your quirkle to enhance the grape and maybe spacebomb to soften the pepper taste....dunno just throwing things out. Have similar problem with some deisels, love the smoke itself but the taste makes me gag! Thanks fer the share.


----------



## subcool

If I had it to do all over again I would have made sure I kept a copy of the male and female but I left em in the hands of a worker because I gave them no value as I didnt like the taste at all. I have since learned that that flavor is the classic kush taste many love just not me. I am very happy though with the end results and I feel my quest for a better breeding parent was met with the Urkle or lavender cut we found in Eugine.



I do not believe Blueberry is a good plant to breed with I did a good deal of work with it make in the day in fact Bog used my Jacks Cleaner X Blueberry in the famed Life saver but personally I believe it adds to many problem traits into a cross and the taste trait is to variable.


----------



## umbra

As a breeder, only you will know enough about it, to make that call. The future is ...limitless. Keep your eyes on the prize.


----------



## PsyJiM

ULTRA cool bud !!!
They look great !!!


----------



## jackson1

very exotic looking plants. nice job.....


----------



## the chef

Meant no disrespect, just an idea i had is all.


----------



## umbra

There are traces of black russian in many other strains.


----------



## Dahova

Great buds. How did you get HT to pblish your work just sent it in or you  had tto now someone


----------



## subcool

I still do it the same way to this day I contribute about 200 pictures and 4 articles per year and I am polite but in their face.

Its still not an easy thing though.

Persistence

Sub


----------



## Dahova

awsome ive tried to get some stuff published but only made it in the Pix of the crop portion. but allthe same i have a good level of  respect for your work.

Off topic....do you read emails and such


----------



## subcool

On good days 

Sub


----------



## NorCalHal

subcool said:
			
		

> Once I moved out west I was able to sample some of the Kushs that people like so much like OG Kush, Bubbu Kush and Chemdawg and I figured out I dislike the flavor of Kush! No matter what strain or how well its grown I do not like the hot taste of Kush Indicas and I now understand why so many people loved the Black Russian, Sputnik and the hybrids that spun off of this work. It wasnt a bad strain just one I didnt like the taste of.
> See some people love Blue Cheese Dressing and it makes others cringe the same can be said for flavors in Cannabis I just found this out to late. It did teach me that there are many many palettes and everyone has different taste. No longer do I rush so fast to judgment based on taste. Black Russian always got me really high if I actually smoked a few bowls I just rarely got past the taste of the first bowl.
> Once I relocated out west I was able to find an amazing tasting Urkle female that also turns an amazing color but nothing like the Neon Purple of Black Russian. The Urkle was however much much better pot and the strain we created with it Querkle is an amazing Indica with purple traits and a Grape taste that I enjoy every day! So I dont hate purple anymore and thats a very good thing. In Fact a new hybrid created using Querkle, Qleaner has become one of my favorite strains of all time! It taste like Grape Nehi Soda but has the added potency of Jacks Cleaner!
> 
> 
> 
> Sub


 
Great insight. This one post helped me understand a bit ore about peoples "cannibis palettes".

I am the opposite, I love the taste of Kush/Chem, and dispised "purp" for a long time. That is, until I got a hold of Erkle. To me, the Erkle was /is the best tasting "purp" strain I have personally smoked.

It's funny, folks either love Kush/Chem, or they just don't like it, and it is all due to taste. Your Bleu Cheese Dressing analogy was perfect.

Your Querkle is a good representation of what a good Erkle tastes like, and was an easy one to grow. I did find that the yeild was smaller then a regular Erkle,but still Dank.
I applaud you in your efforts to bring the taste of "Erkle" to the masses, as we in Cali are friggin spoiled and alot of the "clone-only" strains do not get a chance to go to other states/countries, so it was nice to see a breeder go with that strain rather then the Chem/Kush knockoffs.

Currently, there has been a Mango strain I have been seeing from a few friends in da Bay, and though this is an old strain, it has been "refined" and the new "version" is some of the best tasting herb I have smoked.
Hopefully, I will be picking up some cuts today.
I would love to see you do a project with the Mango, as it would compliment your current line up and I think would be a great addition to TGA strains.


----------



## BkPhate

Subcool, this was extremely informative, I may not be so quick to pass judgment on a cannabis flavor I do not care for.

I am running your Dairy Queen next, I am sure you will see the journal. Thanks a ton!


----------



## GrowinGreen

hey sub- any chance I could get a higher res copy of this photo? I can't stop freakin looking at it!

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=151809&d=1266181326


----------



## Ganjaden

Over the years, I've grown a few of the purple strains too, though mostly outdoors. While photographically it always looks the best, when you get right down to it, they were less powerful than the other "best strains" and they always lacked what I condidered a good taste. They were kind of heavy too. Real stoney weed but seriously lacking in taste. So it's been a couple of years since I've seen or heard of any purple strain that I'd again grow in my garden. And with all of the fruity, really good tasting strains available nowadays (including most of subcools other strains), someone would really have to.....convince me that this purple, good looking weed NOW compares with those similar strains that actually DO have a good taste. 

Maybe if that purple tasted like the old Orange Spice that was available some years back, I'd give that one another go. How's your Agent Orange compare, subby???


----------



## subcool

Agent taste similar to AE's Cali O but alot stronger and with more resin.
The JTR male really amped the whole thing up a bit. Its named well.
And Yes I missed you bro I still have your shots of Dannyboy in the tub your famous and didnt even know it bro.

I guarantee my Querkle taste amazing or like Sputnik we would have sent it down the road 

Good to see you!!

Sub


----------



## That crazy vancouver guy

hmmm... i wonder if these Black Russian beans i got hold some pretty girls....


----------



## ShecallshimThor

Sub 
your book is amazing!
i was wondering if you have ever smoke texada timewarp?
its a very potent creeper and im a huge fan of creepers
do you have any strains with the creeper effect i grew  deep purple and loved it also have 2 seeds left for when i get my new place
thank you for all you wisdom and once again your book is amazing


----------



## mizukage

my good those pics make me wonna smoke so bad!

Best pictures ive seen!


----------



## high before and after

These plants are so beautiful, it's too bad the coloring has nothing to do with potency, but these are so beautiful to look at, really nice pics.


----------



## Soulsuit

I've got some Double Purple Doja x Blackrussian F2's from beans I got from FOE20 back in the day. 3 Fems in the end. One fem Foeberry X Ak x Double Sour Diesel V2. And one on the fence for Hashberry X Blue Moonrocks. 2 Actually on the fence for that one but the one is way mutant and going to likely be male. Sounds like it should be a treat. Keeping some moms sounds like a good idea here.

Soulsuit


----------

