Orange Hill Special with LED & DWC

This Orange Hill Special grow review by The Groff is grown with LED & DWC.

Orange Hill Special really is a special Dutch Passion photoperiod variety. It combines the best of our 1980’s Orange Bud and Californian Orange.  Orange Hill Special is a strong variety with a powerful effect, yet its easy to grow.  Because its such a special variety we offer it in both regular and feminized seeds.  

This weeks customer grow review comes from “The Groff” – a South European grower that likes to combine good seed genetics with a top quality recirculating deep water culture hydro system (‘RDWC’) and powerful a LED.

Above, Orange Hill Special at harvest.  Big buds, rich aroma, plenty of resin and some gentle blue colours make this a great all-round winner.

Words and pictures from The Groff

Groff explained that it was a need for quality medical cannabis which started his growing hobby.  

“I’ve only been growing a few years, it began quite seriously due to a rare medical condition in the family, and a failing western-medical solution for it.  From soil onto coco, and then on to hydro.  That was the obvious next step to up my game. After reading thousands of grows diaries, I was quite disappointed that in Europe I could not find a Recirculating Deep Water Culture system that was competent enough to meet my demands. Then, all of a sudden I found Alien Hydroponic Systems. I ordered 2 systems.”

The little 20L 4x pot system, and the XL 27L 4x pot system. They come fully “plug-and-play”, quick to set up and off you go!”

“They fit nicely into my regular 1.2m x 1.2m x 2m tents.”

Above orange Hill Specials fill the tent at harvest.

Below good sized blooms can be expected thanks to the consistent parent genetics.

Orange Hill Special with LED & DWC

Groff’s view on RDWC’s popularity

“It is quite amazing how much your daily maintenance goes down once you dial the system in.  The included 100L top-up reservoir actually permitted me to not do a thing for more than 3 weeks!! Just watch plant grow. No more dirt mess, no pestering bugs and flies, no more manually getting rid of run-off water.  RDWC is “better” than regular DWC for me, because higher water volume promotes much stabler pH and EC, and tons less water change-outs, all in all a maintenance heaven.

I find hydro much easier, cleaner, faster and better than anything else I’ve done before. It is certainly not more difficult than regular soil, in fact, when something is off, it’s actually easier and quicker to correct. 

The most important thing though, I would say, is to learn how to read the plants. No matter what system you use, this would be my top recommendation.  It does take some time and learning, but definitely rewarding at harvest. With hydro it’s much easier to figure things out, as plants react almost instantly to whatever you do to them.”

Above, a huge root ball from Orange Hill Special.  Large root systems are essential in the growth of large and heavy yielding plants.

Below is one of the Orange Hill Specials with the fan leaves removed.

Details about the Nutrients and LED grow light

“I used the entire Canna line, Canna A&B Hydro, Rhizotonic, Cannazym, CannaBoost and pk 13/14 and Boost. As supplements, Growth Technologies Liquid Silicon and Sensi CalMag Veg&Bloom. I also ran “bennies” – actively aerated compost tea, along with a regular foliar spray concoction of mine during veg & early flower. Nothing fancy, basically silicon supplement with either Rhizotonic or Boost.” 

“I used Hydrogrow LED SOL 450w (actual power draw), one in each tent. If using LEDs, be sure to use renowned vendors with quality products. Please avoid cheap deals. Otherwise you’re better off with HID’s. Living in southern Europe, LED’s not only are a blessing due to temperature control, but also because of light spectrum.”

Grow much faster with quality lights

“With quality lights, the girls will grow much faster and produce shorter internodes. Ideal for indoor.You see green because plants reflect that spectrum back, absorbing all the rest. LED’s don’t usually have the green spectrum in them, so it is really easy to pick up on problems much earlier on than with regular HID’s.  Basically a win-win situation.”

Above orange Hill Special can be a real handful.

Below pretty colours at harvest.

Groff’s advice to Orange Hill Special growers

“Orange Hill Special was no trouble at all, really easy to grow. I only use nutrient charts as reference, and do my best to read the plants. Early life is fundamental, so take it slow with EC, and gradually increase as the tone of green reveals. Light green, more food, dark green and/or clawing, lower the EC. Nitrogen is imperative early on, so keep the pH around 5.8 +/-  0.2″

“If you clone, you can easily find the sweet spot for that phenotype. They will love to be dialled in and respond accordingly. If doing from seed, don’t be afraid of letting the pH swing around. This will allow each plant to have their time to uptake whatever nutes they feel like. Just keep them within range and they will be happy.  One thing I will definitely do in the future is get more into topping, FIM’ing and  SCROG’ing.  If I had the space, I’d much prefer to see them grow naturally, but in tight spaces, one must resort to these techniques to consistently get numbers like 1.3 – 1.6 GPW (gram per watt). “

Final remarks on the Orange Hill Special grow

“One thing I can say for sure. If you find the orange-purple pheno plant, they are much quicker to mature than the rest. The smoke is slightly stronger and the taste much smoother and sweet. So definitely the one to look out for.  I was impressed with the scents these girls put off during their flowering.”

“I did seeds, not clones, so I had a very cool combination of phenotypes. Very citrus indeed, with a slightly pleasant musky-pine scent to them. This did vary significantly as the flowers matured, but overall in the citrus zone.  I was floored one day when I went in to check on them, and I could absolutely smell oranges in there! No kidding! I did not expect this at all. But it’s true. The name does do them justice.”

Sweet aftertaste and long lasting high

 “This also translates when smoking. Sweet aftertaste and a long lasting high. You definitely feel a full body “numbness”, but not couch-locking at all. I definitely felt mentally active, so based on my own lifestyle, I would say this is the perfect strain for a regular low dose smoke throughout the day.  Great for stress relief without impairing your judgment.”

“I must say it is a great creative tool. Perfect mix between being “far-out” and “in the zone.  If you’re going to do it, do it right. For that you need the right tools for the job. If I had an endless pocket to invest in the best gear available, I would definitely start with the best genetics. That is why I am loyal to Dutch Passion. No system on earth can produce great results if you don’t have great genetics. From there, it’s your job to make the best of them.”

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Congrats to The Groff on an impressive grow.  We cant wait to see his next one.

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