Old School Mango Haze

Welcome to a very special moment for us, introducing you to the final boss of the Mephisto Genetics Sativa arsenal: Old School Mango Haze.

One of the longest breeding timescales and one of the most important and interesting strains we’ve had the pleasure of working on and adding to our catalogue in our Mephistory. A now 39-year-old clone-only cultivar and 6 years of breeding work to bring it from a small germ of an idea to market in autoflowering format.

Karel from Super Sativa Seed Club (SSSC) found their select Old School Haze in ‘85 as a result of crossing the famous Skunk #1 with Haze, both of Sam the Skunkman origin and running a pheno-hunt of 200 plants, what they found was so special they continued to preserve and grow the plant for the next 39 years and potentially forever more! For more info about the Old School Haze lore, and to learn more about the architect who birthed the strain originally, check out our interview blog post with Karel here.

The original Old School Haze is a wild girl, her Sativa blood is strong and she enjoys a stable environment and she’ll be quick to throw her toys out of the pram if the environment swings to her disliking (picture her adding 3-4 weeks to a 12-week flowering period). But, when done well, she’s absolutely spectacular; with supreme yields of psychedelic uplifting effects combined with a tropical aroma with subtle hints of ammonia on the back end.

Combining with our Mango Haze derived Sativa automatic, Mango Smile, this was an ideal pairing, it has smoothed out a lot of the finickiness, complemented and consolidated the tropical flavours, bulked out the flower structures, and reduced the flowering time. We don’t pat ourselves on the backs too often, but the proof is in the pudding and we recently scooped an award at the American Autoflower Cup ‘24 for Old School Mango Haze, grown and entered by our very own Jimbo. So we can safely say ‘job well done’.

The majority of our photo to auto projects from scratch are released at the F4 generation, Old School Mango Haze however was taken a generation further in-breeding to narrow down the expressions and create an extra stable strain.

Newbies, be forewarned, the Sativa genetics and Old School heritage run deep with this one, we’ve done our very best breeding across the generations to tame and bring this sassy Sativa lady into line, but like a traditional catwalk model, she’s averse to too much food. However respect this, have your regime and environment dialled and she will thoroughly reward you with what we believe is amongst the finest top-shelf Sativa genetics available in automatic format today.

As a seedling, Old School Mango Haze resembles Mango Smile, with a tendency to spend her early days developing structure, staying squat but throwing quick sets of laterals out that sport extra large fan leaves. These Jurassic-style leaves began to appear sharply serrated, a telltale sign of haze lineage.

Once a nice root system is established and she’s put on some vegetation, OSMH loves to stretch her legs; elongating nodes go boom as she transitions into pre-flower. In mid-to-late flower, when growth is optimised, constant defoliation is needed to promote nice airflow. Towards the end of flower, the tops of the OSMH begin to push out those classic needle-thin saw-blade leaves. A bit of fade and a stem purpling cascades through the plants.

From our breeding work over the generations, and from testers'feedback, the OSMH is a tricky feeder. She likes to remain moist, pots saturated at all times, but doesn’t want much if any food during the first 5 weeks. This can make or break the quality and output of the OSMH girls during a run.

OSMH is a particularly good candidate to train, leaf tucking, leaf manipulation and later on tactical defoliation can really help her monster along. Depending on if allowed to grow naturally or, if trained, flowers range from a stacked conical shape to thick, knuckled buds that are dense and drenched in trichomes. Trichomes, as with a lot of sativas, are finer but the coverage and terps contained are super nice. She can also produce classic sativa foxtails; but in a nice way. 82 days from sprout in soil, is usually more than enough to get her past the finish line with a nice level of trichome ripeness, and these extra days are where a lot of the extra flavour and effect comes from. Much like Mango Smile, you have a longer harvest window with these fine girls. They can be taken commercially from mid 70’s, but likewise depending on your own unique environment and grow style they could easily go to the early 90s.

On to the pièce de résistance of the Old School Mango Haze experience: her electrifying flavour and effects! Emphasis on electrifying, almost psychedelically energetic.

Flavours can be found that are a perfect balance between the effervescent and floral haze profile and an overripe juicy sweet mango with hints of cream, candied gas, lemongrass and melon. Tropical is a good buzzword in order to group the flavour profiles under one big hazy umbrella.

Effects-wise, she is uplifting, but so cerebral that the experience can shift in and out of the functionality spectrum. There's a bit of short-term amnesia at play, you get forgetful. Sometimes you feel this during consumption, the onset is so quick. Contrary to what some would consider to be panic-inducing Sativa effects, a well-ripened OSMH acts more as a mind zap. It’s not inquisitive in the slightest. You are left in a euphoric slumber. Happy and silly. It’s a party. Not one where you sit around pontificating and speaking in platitudes. On the contrary, you’ll likely dance. And for some time because the effects CARRY. This stuff will leave you hazed and confused for hours.

OSMH is the most challenging and rewarding offering in our entire library. Truly unforgettable.

To conclude, she’s not the easiest to grow, but our Old School Mango Haze is a juice that’s well worth the squeeze.