Origins and Backstory: Bred by Freeborn Selections, I paid $5 for these seeds at the cup (only available if you bought a $2-300 pack). Limepop Kush is a combination of Ghost OG and Meangene’s famous and retired Limepop male. Sky Jaro is a cross of Skywalker and Jaro—Skywalker is a popular OG clone, and Jaro is one of Mean Gene’s in-house crosses. The lineage of Jaro looks like: Sour Diesel x (Hollywood Pure Kush x (Black Afghani x Hindu Kush)). I germinated the whole pack and grew out 5 different females (the rest were male). Obviously given the lineage, this is a polyhybrid with all kinds of plants in the gene pool. However, they’re all winners, and these seeds were surprisingly somewhat uniform.
Appearance: The buds are so light green and frosty, and the pistils remain white so late into flower, that these flowers basically look white for a while (even after harvest!). They shimmer on and off the plant, and everyone who takes a bud out of the bag for inspection is instantly impressed. The resin production is fantastic, with copious coverage of trichomes all the way out to the edges of most of the leaves. The structure of the flowers is OG-esque, with large bulging calyxes of the typical OG curves. Pistils protrude from the almost-white flowers, giving an unusually ghost-like appearance to the buds. I could have fed my plants more, and they ended up fading a bit early. This produced mostly pale greens and yellows, but some red pigments did come out as well. This is definitely a yielder, with buds stacking the entirety of the stems with minimal leaf matter—making LPKSJ a very easy trim. At harvest, these plants basically look like platinum/white colored buds with a few yellow/red fan leaves attached for good measure. The plants are almost entirely platinum-sheened flower at finish, due to the intense resin production. Overall, this one is pretty, but seems to get more beautiful the closer you look and the more you handle the bud.
Aroma: Like other Freeborn gear, these are extremely loud and aromatic flowers. Growing plants smelled a lot like mom (Limepop Kush), with strong aromas of lime rind, lime soda, urinal cake, lysol, and pinesol. Perhaps the best aspect of the aroma is that there are no overly-dominant notes, and each tone is easily detectable. This gives the aroma a feeling of being “layered” as opposed to being one-dimensional (as is too often the case). There are other notes that I did not experience in pure Limepop Kush as well. They are mostly sour in nature, reminiscent of Sour Diesel and OG varieties. I detect cream, heavy skunk, sponge cake, gasoline, tarmac, sugar cookies, and that sour perfume note that I associate with high-quality OG clones. These flowers are really intense and notable, and exhibit many of my favorite smells I associate with cannabis. Overally, they’re sour, skunky, intensely-limey OG plants. My personally favorite phenotypes were profoundly lime-lysol, but there are more candied and diverse citrus notes to be found in this genepool as well. I’d say the olfactory experience is a highlight for this strain, but that would not be accurate—every aspect of this flower is a highlight.
Flavor: The smoke from these flowers varies slightly pheno to pheno (as does the aroma), but my favorite-flavored plants taste somewhere between a lime-lysol soft drink and a Country Time lemon/limeade. Genuinely, the flavor is as if Lysol made a transition to a beverage company, and then released a “Twist of Lime” version that had far more lime than just a twist. The smoke is sour, intensely and unmistakably lime (juice, rind, and flesh notes are all detectable), and my favorite phenotypes have heavy chemical influences. One is exactly like lysol, while another is more like urinal cakes, fuel, and OG. There is one outlying phenotype that tastes sweet, lacks lime entirely but has strong orange juice and urinal cake scents (as well as flavors). Aside from her, the other four females don’t stray far from one another. The flavor lingers, which is welcome—it leaves a supremely dank, sour-OG-skunk-fuel aftertaste that coats every part of the mouth for minutes. This reminds me of every great sample of Sour and OG I have had, but the lime flavor is so pronounced that it doesn’t seem old and tired by any means. All in all, this is a lip-smacker and is easily some of the best-tasting weed I’ve ever consumed. The only better-tasting weed I can recall are the bags from my youth that will eternally be etched in my mind, but I don’t think I’ve grown anything tastier. All my other weed tastes like nothing after smoking this.
Effects: Immediate and strong, LPKSJ hits like an OG. It is less euphoric and uplifting than pure LPK, and has more of a narcotic, relaxed effect. It is more potent, and really opiate-like. The strongest effects are felt within seconds to minutes, with a steep peak, prolonged stone, and gradual come-down. There is no creeping up with this one. The high is not narcotic immediately; it is at first a bit rushing and euphoric, but the sharp upswing quickly subsides into a more relaxed, lazy, and laid-back stone that has the power to end days, inspire naps, and has the tendency to completely sap me of productivity and gumption. This is not a smoke for getting things done, but is an ideal choice for winding down in the evenings, playing video games/watching movies, or settling in for a stay-cation with your partner. This is super strong smoke with no hidden surprises—after a toke or two, the smoker is quickly rewarded with the sensation of saturated cannabinoid receptors. If you smoke this one early in the day, it is incredibly difficult to get much “punch” from smoking any other flowers later on. My personally-favorite time to smoke this herb is when I haven’t smoked all day, and come home in late evening. When your receptors are fresh after a long day, the smack from LPKSJ is extremely strong and enjoyable, and I usually just lay down with my eyes closed for about 10 or fifteen minutes before doing anything else. I just let that sweet cannabinoid saturation wash over me, and enjoy the ride. The sensation is blissful, powerful, and even introspective/insightful before it settles into a more smiley, pain-killing effect. This is really great herb to have on the shelf in winter time, and a great choice for evenings at home.*
*At time of publishing, the covid-19 social-distancing has just begun. This is great weed to have on hand.
Overall: There was a time when I was somewhat jaded with Sour and OG crosses, and honestly I still am in some ways—after over 20 years of clone-only OG being around, I’d like to delve further into the gene pool and see what other incredible combinations of genetics are as yet unlocked. I am thankful and surprised to announce that while LimepopKush x SkyJaro carries all kinds of OG traits (less noticable but present are Sour traits), it is very unique and has been my favorite smoke (really no contest) all winter long. It is so enjoyable that it has actually renewed my interest in Sour/OG seed remixes. I have been smoking it almost exclusively for the last three weeks (except for mornings), as it is truly a complete package of a cannabis plant. There are genuinely no favorable traits lacking here—these plants were easy to grow, smell/taste incredible, produce high quality/quantity resin, are high yield, easy-to-trim, have great structure/bag appeal, and the stone is face-smacking. The mouth-coating flavor is nothing short of incredible, and the only flowers on my shelf rivaling potency of LPKSJ are the Triangle Kush clone and Sky Cuddler Double Kush flowers. I germinated the LPKSJ seeds while in a move because they held little value to me, relatively speaking (I wasn’t sure if they’d survive, but wanted to have some plants going, etc.). I knew they’d be decent coming from Freeborn, but certainly did not expect these to be the incredible plants that they became. These flowers are genuinely the best I’ve grown in several years, and it will be a sad day when I smoke the final bit. If you have some of these, rejoice—In my opinion, you are in possession of one of the greatest exemplars of everything that American weed should be.