When I returned to growing, I often came across discussions about RKS in forums. Even in my own project thread, RKS was mentioned. When I had the chance to get the RKS seed, I didn’t hesitate to add it with my sign-up of Romulan in the Overgrow spring box. My curiosity got the better of me, and I popped the beans later in the fall. I started with four seeds and ended up with two A and B females. Both had very similar vegetation traits, good structure, and a strong, robust growth rate, with one being slightly taller in height/nodes. I vegged both for around 8-9 weeks and super cropped them. About 2-3 weeks later, after the flip, the taller B hermed.
Both were removed for closer observation in isolation. They slowed down for a period, partially seeded, but then picked up. They started to build tight sativa-like clusters with a burned rubber odor. Both began to show a nice glazing on the sugar leaf. The taller one finished first, with some lean to the branches. I wasn’t too impressed with the size, but there were numerous nugs along the branches. It was the terpenes I was more interested in. I eliminated the taller B pheno rooted cutting, and its seed was tossed. The taller phenotype had the terps, but weaker, and it hermied, so it was out of the running to be used.
The shorter A pheno didn’t show any rogue male flowers but had a lot more numerous nuggets, with a similar burned rubber odor and glazing. Both finished around 8 weeks. The shorter A, once close to harvest, was tested and showed much stronger potency, so I kept its cuttings. After it started to cure for a month, the terps became more pronounced with a pine, sour putrid-sulfur funk. The strong smack-you-in-the-face led me to think about reversing an A2 CripXmas and recharging this classic line with CripXmas improvement. I thought about mixing the two buds together like a mixed salad, and when I did, like something straight out of the early ’90s. It also had a pressurized hit, like hitting 30k in altitude without equalizing the pressure. To me, it was like the maximum of what the human body can withstand, which is why it earned the name Pressure Skunk.
Basically, the only thing I can say about RKS is to go lighter on nutrients. How CripXmas affects the ability to uptake more is unknown presently. I’m speculating RKS should be able to handle a higher concentration. The flowering time should be reduced, but it’s within the range of CripXmas time. If I’m right, CripXmas will make the lowers much bigger as it finishes too and fuller colas by tightening the plant structure further. RKS has a similarity to CripXmas in many traits. I feel they will complement one another in terms of potency and terpene profile as the missing component RKS needs to a good plant. If I’m right, the combination of these two will be the old-school skunk wet dream come true. The seed is huge and has a very hard shell density. With these I recommend a 24hr pre soak, then lighty take the point of the razor blade to the tip point front of seed, crack it slightly and then let them germinate however you like to do it. The seed is slower to pop without doing this because of the harder shell so it's why I recommend pre soak and cracking. I will include a picture to show where on the seed to crack with razor blade point.
Veg: 6-8 weeks
Flower: about 54-56 days
PPM: 300-400
Height: 3-4 ft
Yield: about 1 oz per gallon (CripXmas may double this)
