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Origin of the Kritikal Bilbo strain, we must go back to approximately 1998

To know the true origin of this strain, we must go back approximately to 1998, when Scott Blackey better known as Shantibaba leaves the Netherlands and the bank where he had been working Greenhouse Seeds, to go to Switzerland to embark on a new project with Howard Marks where they founded Mr Nice Seeds Bank,  Santibaba was father and owner of many genetics but he could not keep the commercial names, as these belonged to his old bank, this made him rename some of his most famous hybrids, as is the case of an Afghan variety with a Skunk #1, and this is how the Critical Mass of Mr. Nice Seeds was born, a predominant hybrid strain of Mr. Nice Seeds. Mr. Nice Seeds Critical Mass was born, a predominantly indica hybrid strain with 80% indica and 20% sativa.

Scott Blackey “Shantibaba” y David Merino 
(Genehtik Seeds) en 2001
Scott Blackey “Shantibaba” y David Merino en 2001

A couple of years after the Critical Mass was marketed, a pack of seeds of Mr Nice in the hands of David, owner of the grow KALAMUNDUA, first growshop to open in the Basque Country and a reference in the cannabis world at the time.  David selected a phenotype for a characteristic behavior, with a fruity and intense aroma, a plant that a priori we would discard in a serious selection of seeds, in growth stage grew in a disorderly manner, with a lot of internodal separation, weak appearance and barely supported the weight of the buds, but that caught the attention of the Basque growers for a very intense sweet aroma that intoxicates the whole environment where it was.

From Kalamundua, in the old town of the city of Bilbao, in the late 90’s early 2000, this clone spread throughout Spain, called CRITICAL BILBO, his fame: the speed, the productivity and the new aroma and mutated flavor of those variety of the bank of Mr Nice, made that it began to win prizes in cannabis cups and became popular as a variety to take into account among the strains Old School, since from a standard hybrid between Afghan and Skunk, we had obtained a phenotype far superior to its ancestors. 

David worked to stabilize the variety and get stronger and more robust specimens, culminating in the creation of a seed bank itself: Genehtik Seeds, but the clone of Critical Bilbo was so popular that many banks used it to create new hybrids, to distinguish the original variety of the rest are baptized feminized seeds in 2003 was officially born KRITIKAL BILBO, adapting its name with the letter K as a sign of identity of its origin in Euskadi (Basque Country in Basque language).

David Merino y Ed Rosenthal en el Spannabis 2005 con Kritikal Bilbo
David Merino y Ed Rosenthal en el Spannabis 2005

Genektik Seeds inherited the work and the high level of cultivation carried out in Kalamundua and later Ortue, to print in the feminized seeds that it commercializes an own identity adding to the name of great part of the catalog the word “BILBO”.

Since then, the Kritikal Bilbo variety has reaped countless awards around the world, very popular in Italy, Poland, Chile and Uruguay, making a niche among the most desired seeds, for ease of handling and speed, as it is an indica that matures between 45 to 55 days indoors and very early outdoors, ready to harvest in mid-September in the northern hemisphere and mid-March in the southern hemisphere.

The key to the success of this phenotype outdoors is that it was adapted to the climate of northern Spain: rainy, humid and with cloudy skies and little direct sun, when grown in more pleasant climates the results are spectacular, medium-sized plants but very productive buds full of very aromatic resin producing up to 2 kg per plant.

We are proud as parents of this genetics that maintains that character of a hybrid of Afghani with Skunk that printed Shantibaba in its Critical Mass, the destiny and the work put in our hands the variety that evolved in Basque lands, until our famous KRITIKAL BILBO, an international variety that will not leave you indifferent once you have enjoyed it, it is usually the first choice when starting in the cultivation and so they will recommend it in growshops around the world, so the best summary to all this history about the origin of the variety is our motto:

“Put a KRITIKAL BILBO in your life”.

David Merino , orgulloso de los 20 años del premio HighLIfe 2004 y su Kritikal Bilbo
David Merino , orgulloso de los 20 años del premio HighLIfe 2004

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