Society today, is consumer driven. That’s why there are so many different brands of baked beans, or washing up liquid, and each with its own faithful band of supporters. That’s called consumer choice. You have it and you use it every time you hit the shops.

The supermarkets have finally realised that humans are creatures of habit, and have made it possible to complete your shopping at the click of a mouse.

You don’t even have to select the products you want to buy! The supermarket website remembers your last orders (from your receipts, the information off which is stored along with your loyalty card number), and once you log into the supermarket website, the site remembers what you purchased last time and offers you the same choices again, along with anything else the store stocks.

You get your heavy order delivered to your door, and all from the comfort of your arm-chair. No more queue’s with the kids in front of the sweets and candy. No more “bag for life”, and no more “we’ll open up a new checkout if there is more than one person in front of you” bullshit, (they never do)!

You know what your family likes, and that’s what you’ll buy and from a male perspective, that’s what I call technological advancement!

In a world where the choice of the consumer is limited only by they’re own imagination, you can fire up the Internet and buy absolutely anything you choose because the customer is king.

Lets face it. The ruderalis gene is nothing new but never having grown it out myself I was keen to do some research before finally deciding to give over the next two months of my life to something which is deemed a “novelty” on certain Internet forums. But what do they honestly know?

With the loudest complaints generally coming from people who have never grown it out themselves it seems to me its not possible to give something a balanced hearing when all around are advising against it.

Never one to follow fashion I thought I would give Lowryder a fair hearing.

So I fired up the Internet, punched the word “ruderalis” into Google, and waited for the results.

In the time it takes your joint to burn your fingers when it sticks to your lip, the results were in and I opened the first returned webpage. This is what it said on ;

Cannabis ruderalis is purported to go into budding based strictly on age and not on changes in length of daylight. This kind of flowering is also known as auto-flowering.

Cannabis ruderalis has a lower THC content than either C. sativa or C. indica; thus, it has little use as a drug. However, C. indica drug strains are frequently cross-bred with C. ruderalis to produce plants combining a higher THC content with the hardiness and reduced height of ruderalis.

The term ‘Ruderalis’ was originally used in the former Soviet Union to describe the varieties of hemp that had escaped cultivation and adapted to the surrounding…yada yada yada””.

I don’t know about you but I only remember reading a single sentence;
C. ruderalis has a lower THC content than either C. sativa or C. indica; thus, it has little use as a drug.

The rest of the information just fills space if you’re a grower planning your next project. But the following sentence speaks volumes also;

…however, C. indica drug strains are frequently cross-bred with C. ruderalis to produce plants combining a higher THC content with the hardiness and reduced height of ruderalis.

Now that’s what I’m talking about. Its not the Lowryder you grow. It’s the cross. The Lowryder is simply the delivery vehicle.

So how does that work?

Apparently the male Lowryder carries with it, the auto-flowering trait. What that means is you can put your favourite mum to a Lowryder male and a percentage of the offspring will carry the auto flowering trait, whilst also carrying with it the illusive potency factor from the newly introduced gene pool.

A bit like “open source software” for cannabis growers.

The latest Lowryder variant, (the imaginatively named Lowryder 2) has been crossed with a reputed Brazilian strain called “Santa Maria”. Another Google moment turned up the following information;

Lowryder 2
The long-awaited successor to the Joint Doctor’s flagship strain is finally here.

Lowryder #2 is the newest product of the breeder’s quest to improve the strength, yield and flavour of his original variety while maintaining the unusual characteristics that made it so popular.

Lowryder #2 has been infused with superior Santa Maria genetics, a variety known for copious resin production, exotic taste and soaring highs, it is an indica / sativa hybrid originally from Brazil. The cross was subsequently selectively inbred for three generations.

The result is an auto-flowering dwarf that yields a wonderfully strong, head-turning smoke with intoxicating taste. The strength and flavour is backed by copious resin production and much-improved yield and stability. Buds are larger, tighter and more aromatic than the original Lowryder.

As with Original Lowryder, no separate room or light cycle is needed to flower Lowryder #2. Outdoors, Lowryder #2 will mature quicker than any non-auto-flowering variety””.

As usual I only read one sentence from the last four paragraphs;
The result is an auto-flowering dwarf that yields a wonderfully strong, head-turning smoke with intoxicating taste.

Marketing hype? Or a fair indication of what I can truly expect? The answer is, I really don’t know, and on that little nugget of inspiration, I decided to give the new Lowryder 2 a fair trial, so I joined the informative message board at ; the home of Lowryder.

Now its time to build a growroom. More as it happens.