Northern Lights

What Northern Lights Is

Northern Lights is among the most influential indica strains ever grown, a near-pure indica descended from Afghani and Thai landrace genetics, and a parent to a large share of the modern catalogue. Jack Herer, Shiva Skunk, Super Silver Haze and hundreds of others run back through it.

Where It Came From Is Disputed

The lineage is agreed; the geography is not. Several accounts say it began in Washington State in the 1970s before being brought to the Netherlands. Another places it in Seattle in the early 1980s. A third holds simply that Sensi Seeds propagated it after 1985.

What is better documented is the Dutch chapter: breeder Neville Schoenmaker developed several phenotypes in the 1980s for The Seed Bank, which became Sensi Seeds. Sensi is widely credited with commercialising the strain, but the claim that it was bred in the Netherlands is not firmly established, and the American origin story is the more commonly repeated one.

Northern Lights #5

The #5 phenotype is the one that mattered. It is credited with Cannabis Cup titles in 1989, 1990 and 1992, with one source putting the total at five, and it is the cut that appears in so many later crosses.

Potency: Treat Figures Carefully

There is no reliable strain-wide THC number. Figures found range from about 18.5% to over 40%, but the low end comes from a strain database and the high end from individual retail listings, mostly infused or concentrate products. Those are batch-specific and not comparable.

For flower, the high teens to low twenties is the honest expectation, which is normal for a cultivar selected in the 1970s and 80s rather than during the potency race.

Aroma and Flavour

Pine leads. Leafly lists pine, earthy and woody as the main flavours, and reviewers describe the pine as very prominent. Sweetness and a spicy, skunky edge sit underneath, with citrus keeping it from becoming heavy.

Terpene listings vary: one gives caryophyllene, limonene and myrcene; another leads with terpinolene; a retailer describes it simply as a heavy myrcene profile.

Reported Effects

A euphoric head effect that moves into full-body relaxation. Sleepiness appears in user reports (one reviewer notes it turns sedating if you keep going), though another reported feeling creative and focused instead, so the sedation is not universal. Generally given as roughly 90% indica. These are reported impressions rather than guaranteed outcomes.

One Claim to Set Aside

A strain database states the genetics have been preserved unchanged for forty years. Given how widely the name has been propagated and re-released, that is not a claim we would repeat.

Growing Northern Lights

Northern Lights is the strain most often recommended for a first grow, and the figures support it: it tolerates temperature and humidity swings better than most, and reviewers describe it as resistant to common pests and mould.

Flowering is fast. Sources give 45–50 days, 55–60 days and 7–9 weeks, all short by modern standards. Plants stay 90–110 cm indoors, reaching up to 200 cm outdoors, with a short stalk that suits a small tent. Indoor yields are reported up to 550 g/m².

Those traits are why it appears in so many crosses: breeders used Northern Lights to bring flowering time down and hardiness up in plants that had neither. Note the autoflowering versions are a different product with their own timings.

What to Check When Buying

Expect sweet, earthy and faintly spicy rather than anything loud. Northern Lights predates the era when strains were selected to announce themselves, and its reputation rests on reliability rather than intensity. Material sold under the name testing in the thirties is almost certainly a modern cross.