The Short Story:
In short, Darshan is a God O War f1 x Nepal Highland IBL. Its inception was never intended this early on. The numbering of the Darshan's represent the GOW phenotype that was pollinated. Darshan is nothing more than informational gathering at this point. There's a much longer backstory if you're up for a read.
The Long Story:
@jaguarlax don't mind the copy and paste. It made it easier to answer possible questions.
History of Darshan and the Nepalese in my garden; and where we're at today
Late last year I started working on the God O War F2 project. I was narrowing down my top ladies to #3 #4 and #8. All were gorgeous flowers with a nicely balanced hybrid stone that I like. #10 and #11 were visually the heaviest producers, with #11 looking the heaviest. Neither #10 or #11 expressed any color. #7 and #9 weren't going to make it past the second round.
I still needed to find my male. I had chosen two, but I accidentally culled my favorite one. I was planning a round three to look for a male similar to the one I culled. While searching for him, I was going to keep looking through the females to see if there was something even better than my selections. I also wanted to continue growing my initial selections before choosing a final candidate.
While round two of the GOW f2 project is growing, I decided to start my Nepalese project concurrently.
What is the purpose of the Nepalese Project?
I'm trying to recreate the strongest stone I can remember. The effects were more like an acid trip rather than just smoking some weed. You'd be high for 6-8 hours after smoking one blunt. This was pretty typical feedback. No one knew what it was genetically. We didn't even ask those questions back then. Even so, during that time, everything was pretty much called chronic. It was 1995 and '96. That old school, psychedelic effect is what I'm chasing.
Why Nepal Highland?
Without knowing the genetic make-up, I needed to decide my course. The first thing I thought of was, "old school." I remember the transition in time going from brick weed to green bud. It was the prime of White Widow, Northern Lights, etc. Today, there's been 25 years of cross breeding and the genetic roadmap growing far away from its roots. So I knew I wanted to start with a landrace. For me, that feels like a blank canvas and a good starting point.
I understand how we're in the infancy stages of understanding cannabinoid profiles and how they interact with each other. I also believe in my gut that THC-V plays an important part in my quest. So a cultivar known to produce THC-V was another box I wanted checked.
Most of the stronger landraces come from higher altitudes. The Himalayas being one of them. Nepal Highland checked the box of a higher altitude landrace, and is known to produce higher levels of THC-V. It's suppose to produce highly resinous plants with sturdy structure, and a slightly shorter than normal flowering time for a sativa. So I figured it was worth a hunt and a good starting point.
So what traits should you be looking out for?
Shortly after I started the Nepalese seeds, the pandemic happened and the decision was made to shut down completely. I was turning off all of the lights without knowing when I'd turn them back on. So I had to let my entire library go. Keep in mind both my round two GOW f2 project and all of the Nepalese are beginning flower at this point. Thankfully I had already chosen what visually looked like a potential stand out Nepalese male. He hands down had the best, natural structure of any plant I've grown. Aside from that, and a stinkier stem rub, I still don't know much about him at all. Even with such limited information about him, I decided to let him pollinate every plant in the flower room since I was letting them all go due to the unforeseen shut down. It was a Hail Mary attempt to try and preserve those genetics, to some degree, so I could restart my projects in the future. So I hit every Nepalese female, to produce more Nepalese seeds to hunt through later when I decided to restart this project. My GOW F1 girls were in the same room. So they were hit too as innocent by-standers. It also helped in preserving those particular GOW phenotypes I was never afforded the time to get to know and decide on. But
I never would have intended for any of the crossbreeding to begin otherwise. BCK, Darkstar, Moontang Mystery, and GOW #'s 3,4,8,7,9,10,11 were all apart of getting some Nepali pollen. That's how they came about.
What do I expect from them?
That's hard to know considering I was never afforded the time with these projects nor were they ever planned at this juncture. The GOW f2 project needs to be started from scratch with all new f1's, and I need to restart a hunt and familiarize myself with the Nepalese first and foremost. These unplanned Nepalese crosses are still in the earliest phases of discovery and quite frankly, they're just seeds at this point to explore if time or desire permits.
I'm not presently taking the Nepalese crosses too seriously, nor do I plan to do anything with them for some time. Unless of course one of them is undeniably a show stopper. I only consider those a glimpse into how the Nepalese might pair over-all regarding plant and flower structure, smell, and possibly effect. More importantly, if similar traits are present amongst the crossbreeds, this could potentially be documented as possible dominant traits passed along from the father. This could give me good intel into the Nepalese hunt since I did a selective pollination with the same father.
So what's the best approach with them?
Informational gathering right now. Any bit of feedback is important. Everything is new and uncharted. So vigor, plant structure, flower structure, ease of grow, any resistances, aromas, flavors, bag appeal, effect, etc.
Lastly
Darshan means "The act of looking. An opportunity or occasion of seeing a holy person or the image of a deity." Hindus attach great importance to a Darshan, or view, of a saint or holy image. I found this to be a very fitting name considering it's a God O War x Nepal Highland IBL.