Sativa Vs Indica
Clearly anything with a high percentage of sativa in the mix, was going to cause height issues later, so a sativa dominant strain was a no-no.

It was around this time I received an e-mail from an old friend of mine at Seedsman Seeds.

Seedsman had recently received a new batch of seeds from the Mr Nice seedbank, and one of these strains was the much respected Critical Mass variety.

Basically, I was offered a pack for free if I would report back as to how the seeds performed.

But before snatching eagerly at the free seeds I needed to look into the genetic make-up of the Critical Mass variety itself, as I wanted to be sure I wasn't going to be in for any nasty surprises later.

Critical Mass
On the face of it, I could not foresee any problems with the Critical Mass as the make-up was predominantly Afghani, crossed with a skunk #1, so my initial thoughts were "no problems there".

But from past experiences of growing skunk #1, albeit the Dutch Passion variety, I know that the sativa influence can rear its ugly head from time to time. Or at least its an ugly head when you have no head-room to spare.

Basically you can grow out a number of generations which could well have been bred from a single set of parents, and the outcome will be pretty much guaranteed. A true-breeding F1 strain which means you can be pretty sure of what you're going to get.

But every now and then a strange quirk of nature appears in the shape of certain recessive genetic qualities coming to the fore, depositing flies in your otherwise fly-free ointment, and this was the bit that bothered me.

No matter how many people I spoke with, no one could assure me that I wouldn't end up with a 6 foot monster trying to fight its way out of my grow enclosure, stinking up my big-sisters house as it went. Ordinarily I would have soldiered on, but under this particular set of domestic circumstances I had to be absolutely sure!

The facts were looking pretty conclusive and if I was going to grow in my small grow box, something with oodles of Afghani in the genes was certainly a worthwhile bet, so I mailed Seedsman, said "thanks for the offer", and a few days later the Critical Mass were safely in my grubby little paws.