Jamaican Pearl
Sativa 60 / Indica 40
Origins: Marley’s Collie x Early Pearl
Flowering: 55-75 days
Jamaican Pearl brings the mellow high and pungent flavors of the Caribbean to more temperate growing climates. This mostly-sativa hybrid has a Jamaican cultivar mother, Marley’s Collie. Marley’s Collie most likely descended from old-world sativas of south India, but she’s been living in Jamaica a long time now, and over the generations, she’s been carefully selected and cultivated to nurture the pungent tropical fruit and breezy cerebral high that is trademark Jamaican.
Sensi Seed Bank chose a special Early Pearl male as the ideal pollen donor for keeping the magic, but speeding up the flowering time a bit. The Early Pearl strain is well-known as a fast flowering and vigorous plant, yet its sweet, heady qualities also make it a neutral influence on the flavors and high characteristics of the Caribbean, allowing the flavors and high from the Marley’s Collie to shine through.
Jamaican Pearl is a hardy plant that forms beautifully outdoors in climates both warm and cool, and even thrives as far north as 60 degrees N latitudes. This plant also thrives indoors, so long as gardeners follow the general rules for sativa success in indoor gardens: paying attention to height gains and taking care not to overfeed plants. It is an excellent choice for those who like to top and grow multi-stem plants, or for those with screen of green setups. The sea of green technique can also be used if plants are flowered when they are small and then pruned to slender columns. Plants can be forced when they are as short as 4 inches (10 cm) and will finish at 3 feet (1m) in height.
This robust strain forms tall, thick stems with branches that reach strongly upward. Jamaican Pearl colas are thick and spear-shaped, and some have a spikier top with impressively long, silky pistils that reveal its island heritage. Buds cluster down the branch, then bulk up, filling in gaps as they ripen to form colossal cattail colas. Indoor buds may pile more calyxes on top of ripe ones, but gardeners should not be fooled by these, harvesting when the body of the bud is ripe.
Jamaican Pearl has the luscious smells of fruit, with a strong and exciting spicy flavor at the finish. The increase in head-altitude is quite rapid, yet its subtle clarity often causes awareness to lag behind; several minutes after being high, the fact that you are high suddenly dawns on you. This buzz brings on a sunny disposition that make it well suited for daytime, conversation, and fun outdoor activities. Unlike some sativa strains, Jamaican Pearl tends to hold up over time for regular smokers without losing its ascendant qualities.