We are excited to share a new collaboration between Dirty Bird Genetics and Purple Caper Seeds, using Alpha Skunk #45. The Surf Skunk Duo drops on 9/4. Get 3 FREE 3 Mile Hawaii Fem Photo seeds with every Surf Skunk Duo pack purchased as well! This exclusive freebie will be included directly inside your limited pack. Read on to learn more about Surf Skunk and Maui Skunk.
SURF SKUNK
Hawaiian Skunch x Alpha Skunk #45
Headliner of the Dirty Bird x Purple Caper collab, the Surf Skunk is a cross of Dirty Bird’s highly potent Hawaiian Skunch and Purple Caper’s prized Alpha Skunk #45 cut. Old school skunk genetics undoubtedly dominate the lineage of the Surf Skunk on paper, but we found that the Hawaiian-bred Maui Wowie came through powerfully, shining in all the right ways and making the Surf Skunk the highest testing strain of the project. The Surf Skunk is easily our staff favorite.
With very well balanced vertical and lateral growth, medium foliage density, tight (but not too tight) internodal spacing, and a phenomenal array of bright, sour, citrus terpenes, the Surf Skunk was a pleasure to pheno hunt and a true blast from the past. We found that 20% of our testers had the Alpha Skunk #45’s beautiful purple coloring woven into the flower from onset, and finding a special purple pheno is definitely worth searching for. The other 80% remained a bright, light green color, resembling the often-dominant traits of the Maui Wowie 2.0, parent to the Hawaiian Skunch. About 20% of our plants had a flower morphology that presented as very boutique. Although these plants didn’t yield quite as well as their counterparts, they had the highest calyx-to-leaf ratios, notably high trichome production, more granular-appearing calyxes/bracts, and were all a glistening, light mint green. We chose one of this pheno as our keeper cut, and we also found these plants to be the highest testing.
Overall the Surf Skunk is a well-spaced plant with flowers that stack together nicely as they start putting on the bulk of their weight around day 35-40. Stalks are sturdy, effortlessly supporting the high yields that this strain boasts. The terpenes and the resin production that we observed in our test runs were two of the most notable things that made us love this strain, and they typically go hand-in-hand. Terpenes ranged from the cheesy orange creamsicle scent of the Alpha Skunk #45 father, to the bright, sour, citrus of the Hawaiian Skunch mother. By day 52, the majority of plants we tested had trichomes that had turned 10-15% amber, making for a very short and fruitful flowering time.
Terpenes: Maui, Orange Skunk, Creamsicle, Savory Cheese, Grapefruit, Sour, Gas
PVI: Moderate
Density: Medium to High
Height: Medium
Flowering Time: 50-55 days
Morphology: 20% will have the Alpha Skunk #45’s purple coloring woven into the flower from onset, and 80% will remain a bright, light green color, resembling the Maui in the Hawaiian Skunch. Overall these plants are bushy but well spaced, great stack and spacing, sturdy, pungent terpenes, and are consistently high yielding.
MAUI SKUNK
Maui True Blood x Alpha Skunk #45
Having spent much of our careers chasing genetics with that genuine, old-school look, smell, and feel, the Maui Skunk was truly a delight to breed and to grow. It brought us back to the early 2000’s when sour, skunky, gassy, chemy terpene profiles were at their peak. Not only that, but the bones of these plants—their morpholgy—resembled an archetype that felt very nostalgic. I suppose it’s no surprise considering the linegages at play here, but it felt exciting and refreshing to create a new cultivar that somehow brought us back 20 years to what now seems like a simpler time.
The Maui Skunk is many things: It is mega greasy, mega sticky, a mega yielder, and it is host to a variety of really incredible terpene profiles. Terpenes are bright, sour, chemy, pine, and gas-forward. The Alpha Skunk’s funky orange nose adds complexity and variety making this strain exciting to hunt for any terpene enthusiast. Often we found our noses burned with the essence of menthol when we smelled the plants. In true Maui True Blood fashion, we also found that a small minority of plants had terpene profiles that were way out of left field: bright, sweet, tropical, and berry.
The Maui Skunk genetics have a classic bush morphology that is the slightest bit more vertical than lateral. The plants are not overly crowded or leafy and allow for proper airflow and light penetration indoor and out. They have large, broad fan leaves and ultra-greasy flowers that climb up the arms of their colas. Floral initiation is faster than average and you’ll know you have a good yielder by week 4. In our test runs, we observed an even 50/50 influence in flower morphology, with 50% resembling the long, bulky colas of the Alpha Skunk #45, and 50% leaning more Maui True Blood with dense, dome-shaped flowers. Density is to be expected in a MTB-dominant flower, but we found that the Alpha Skunk-dominant flowers were far more dense than they appeared. Because of their size, they can be easily mistaken as loose at first glance, but when you get in there and give them a squeeze, we were totally impressed by how tight they really were, especially by day 50 when the bulk of the flower and resins had finished developing. To top it all off, when we went to harvest our plants we found unassuming veins of purple running straight through the middle of the flower.
We harvested our Maui Skunks between days 52-55 and we found them to be incredibly sticky and greasy, gumming up our scissors far too frequently. Given their tendency to have lots of healthy foliage, the Maui Skunks aren’t as easy to process as your modern cookies strains, but they’re certainly worth it for the home grower that’s looking for old school flavors and effects.
PVI: Moderate/High
Flowering TIme: 50-55 days
Height: Medium
Density: Med/High to High
Terpenes: Sour, Chem, Pine, Lighter Fluid, Orange, Permanent Marker, Berry
Morphology: The Maui Skunk is a fun strain to phenohunt due to the diverse morphologies and incredible terpene profiles you are bound to encounter. Notable similarities across this cultivar include: All plants flowered and finished early, exhibited medium height, medium-to-tight internodal spacing, were mega greasy, and had high density. 50% of plants resembled the long, bulky colas of the Alpha Skunk #45, and 50% leaned more Maui True Blood with dense, dome-shaped flowers. We found that the latter showed up on the more bushy plants, and the Alpha-dominant flowers appeared on the plants with Alpha-dom morphology. The Alpha-dominant plants were also quite bushy but slightly more vertically oriented with longer (though still tight) internodal spacing. Green dominated the Maui Skunk’s coloring, though we found a surprising amount of purple running through the middle of the flowers. About 20% of plants were significantly purple.
HAPPY GROWING!