Kerala Gold

Kerala Gold is an equatorial heirloom variety, characterized as a Narrow leaf drug producing cultivar. It is said to have branched out from Idukki Gold a pure equatorial landrace, now extinct.

Kerala is situated at the southern-western ghats of India near the Malabar coast, and sees little to no change in daytime light duration, as it is only about 9 degrees North from equator, with a mild tropical-wet climate and moderate temperature throughout the year.

Kerala Gold plants can be grown easily at any time of the year in its place of origin, but January is usually seen as the most popular choice for harvesting. The humidity and amount of precipitations increases by 10-15% from April, gradually peaking at monsoon July-August and with the passing of monsoon to northern part of India, the humidity levels starts to go down and hit the lowest in January and February.

First 5-7 weeks of flowering is spent in stretching and creating internodal space for flower bracts. The parigonal bracts swell towards the very end of flowering and give of a yellowish/golden tint, caused by the majority of amber trichome heads and ample coverage of unusually long dried stigmas wrapped around it. Although it is not a vast difference like many highland regions but with relatively cooler nights in the last 4-5 week of the flowering plants transpire a bit more than wetter monsoon months, adding much needed girth to the budding flowers.

Kerala Gold features 16- 20 weeks of flowering with moderate to high yields. The strain shows great resistance to mold/powdery mildew, and pests in general. Even when grown outside of its natural habitat (at latitudes as high as 43 degrees), Kerala Gold thrives and flowers properly within 16-20 weeks depending on the phenotypic selection.

It produces an invigorating mental high, with euphoric onset which can continue for 2 hours. The terpenes are floral, woody, sour, spicy, incensey and,sandal.