Torture Gardens

[Rhizoma]

If blue-s were a feeling, soul, or emotion, I’d associate it with longing—that tender ache of something beautiful just out of reach; that quiet sense of distance, memory, and introspection.
In Portuguese, there's a word that beautifully captures this feeling: saudade. It speaks to the ache of absence, but also to the beauty of having felt something deeply enough to miss.

But blue-s isn’t only about sadness or yearning. It can also express a kind of peaceful happiness—not euphoria, but a calm acceptance of reality. A blues happiness, if you will: the soft exhale of the soul, the quiet joy that comes from understanding, from letting go, from being still within the flow of things.

So yes, saudade and longing may express the emotional spectrum of blue—but there's also a gentler side to blue. A kind of soulful relaxation, a grounded serenity that belongs to the same palette. It's not the absence of emotion, but the fullness of feeling—held lightly.
Peaceful, deep, and spacious, like looking into the sky or the ocean and feeling both comforted and small.

It could also carry traces of wisdom, solitude, and honesty—like a soul that’s been through things, carries the weight quietly, and speaks with calm clarity. Blue-s feels like the quiet between heartbeats, the cool side of the pillow, the color of a memory you don’t want to forget.

With this spirit—and the genetic pool mentioned above—the Shade of Blues hack was born.

The hack currently includes about half a dozen crosses. I'm now in the process of testing / smoking the selected mothers and preparing my grow space to begin cultivating some of their progeny.

 

[Rhizoma]

Some seeds on the go, following my initial project to cross Livers BX1 by Mephisto Genetics with Killer Skunk by UGORG.
Here the first seeds, results of the first crosses.

 

[Rhizoma]

The origins of the UK "Livers/Blues" cannabis cut are shrouded in mystery. This legendary strain has become a cornerstone of UK cannabis culture, forming a revered trinity alongside Cheese and Psychosis. Believed to have been discovered in the Sheffield area in the late 1980s, the Blues cut began spreading more widely in the 1990s. Its lineage is a topic of much debate. Some suggest it is a phenotype of Skunk #1, while others theorize it may be a hybrid involving strains like Shiva Skunk, B-52, or Northern Lights. Over the years, the strain has acquired many names depending on the region, including the original "Livers" or "Blues," as well as "UK Blues," "Sheffield Blues," "Steel City Blues," "Barnsley Jack," "Kriss Kross," "Blue Meanie," and more, some linked other not.
In 2010, UGORG (Underground Originals) released Blues in seed form. UGORG's Blues, created by crossing the original Blues cut with Killer Skunk, became so closely aligned with the original that UGORG's version is often mistaken for the true UK-only cut.
For purists: the original Livers/Blues cut contains no Blueberry genetics. UGORG worked to breed out the Blueberry influences in their creation for over 6 years, which involved SmellyBerry (Blues x Blueberry) and Killer Skunk (Blues x SmellyBerry).
The journey of UGORG in transforming a legendary clone into seed form was the result of several years of dedicated and skillful breeding. However, the true origin of the line traces back to Oldtimer1, who began it all by crossing the OG Blues cut—gifted to him by VRG—with a special Blueberry male from original DJ Short stock, also gifted to Oldtimer1.
This foundational cross provided UGORG with the genetic base from which they began selecting and developing their breeding projects. In my view, the Blues represent a legacy journey—one that UGORG has carried forward over the years, not only through their UK classics but also by honoring and evolving the living legacy of legends like OT1.
In the same year that UGORG released Blues, Mephisto Genetics began their Livers project, which culminated in 2020 with the release of Auto Livers BX1.
The "Barnsley Jack" cut earned its name due to the cannabis strain Jack Herer winning the Cannabis Cup in 1994. Considered a relic of its time, the Barnsley Jack cut is believed to date back to 1994 and remains in circulation among underground cannabis connoisseurs to this day (2025).
When I began this project, the only available Blues genetics were:
1. Livers BX1 by Mephisto Genetic
2. Killer Skunk by UGORG
3. UK420 subbies featuring UGORG Blues crosses
After a few months, Mephisto Genetics released several crosses featuring the Livers Bx1, Sour Livers, and Sour Orange Livers gene pool. Then, in February 2025, they introduced a special drop of old-school Blues crosses—based on what I could find online—featuring Livers Bx1 and several playful combinations as part of their Illuminautos or a special Blues & Livers release.
At that point, I decided to expand the maternal gene pool by including some of these lines. In addition, I selected two mother cuts that I personally appreciated: a White Widow (Euskalaria/Spain ‘98 cut) gifted by an old friend, and ESB from Fleur du Mal.
All of this work continues to build on the same three Killer Skunk males from UGORG, which I’m using as the foundational fathers for the project.
Viewing Killer Skunk as a form of Blues backcross, my aim was to unite Livers and Blues—to create a regular photoperiod version. This would form a strong foundation for selecting a standout keeper, and for future breeding projects exploring different shades of Blue-s.
If blue-s were a feeling, soul, or emotion, I’d associate it with longing—that tender ache of something beautiful just out of reach; that quiet sense of distance, memory, and introspection. In Portuguese, there's a word that beautifully captures this feeling: saudade. It speaks to the ache of absence, but also to the beauty of having felt something deeply enough to miss.
But blue isn’t only about sadness or yearning. It can also express a kind of peaceful happiness—not euphoria, but a calm acceptance of reality. A blues happiness, if you will: the soft exhale of the soul, the quiet joy that comes from understanding, from letting go, from being still within the flow of things.
So yes, saudade and longing may express the emotional spectrum of blue—but there's also a gentler side to blue. A kind of soulful relaxation, a grounded serenity that belongs to the same palette. It's not the absence of emotion, but the fullness of feeling—held lightly.
Peaceful, deep, and spacious, like looking into the sky or the ocean and feeling both comforted and small.
It could also carry traces of wisdom, solitude, and honesty—like a soul that’s been through things, carries the weight quietly, and speaks with calm clarity. Blue-s feels like the quiet between heartbeats, the cool side of the pillow, the color of a memory you don’t want to forget.
With this spirit—and the genetic pool mentioned above—the Shade of Blues project was born.
The project currently includes about half a dozen crosses. I'm now in the process of testing / smoking the selected mothers and preparing my grow space to begin cultivating some of their progeny.

 

[KingRatt]

Some seeds on the go, following my initial project to cross Livers BX1 by Mephisto Genetics with Killer Skunk by UGORG.
Here the first seeds, results of the first crosses.
View attachment 1738165

View attachment 1738166

Rad!

 

[Rhizoma]

Blue-Y = Livers BX1 by Mephisto Genetics x Killer Skunk #5-6-7 by UGORG (F1 hacking cross)


The origins of the UK “Livers/Blues” cannabis cut are shrouded in mystery. This legendary strain has become a cornerstone of UK cannabis culture, forming a revered trinity alongside Cheese and Psychosis. Believed to have been discovered in the Sheffield area in the late 1980s, the Blues cut began spreading more widely in the 1990s. Its lineage is a topic of much debate. Some suggest it is a phenotype of Skunk #1, while others theorize it may be a hybrid involving strains like Shiva Skunk, B-52, or Northern Lights. Over the years, the strain has acquired many names depending on the region, including the original “Livers” or “Blues,” as well as “UK Blues,” “Sheffield Blues,” “Steel City Blues,” “Barnsley Jack,” “Kriss Kross,” “Blue Meanie,” and more.


In 2010, UGORG (Underground Originals) released Blues in seed form. UGORG’s Blues, created by crossing the original Blues cut with Killer Skunk, became so closely aligned with the original that UGORG’s version is often mistaken for the true UK-only cut.


For purists: the original Livers/Blues cut contains no Blueberry genetics. UGORG worked to breed out the Blueberry influences in their creation, which involved SmellyBerry (Blues x Blueberry) and Killer Skunk (Blues x SmellyBerry).


In the same year that UGORG released Blues, Mephisto Genetics began their Livers project, which culminated in 2020 with the release of Auto Livers BX1. The “Barnsley Jack” cut earned its name due to the cannabis strain Jack Herer winning the Cannabis Cup in 1994. Considered a relic of its time, the Barnsley Jack cut is believed to date back to 1994 and remains in circulation among underground cannabis connoisseurs to this day.


When I began this project, the only available Blues genetics were:

1. Livers BX1 by Mephisto Genetics
2. Killer Skunk by UGORG
3. UK420 subbies featuring UGORG Blues crosses

Viewing Killer Skunk as a form of Blues backcross, my aim was to unite Livers and Blues—to create a regular photoperiod version. This would form a strong foundation for selecting a standout keeper, and for future breeding projects exploring different shades of Blues.


Lineage:
Mephisto Genetics – Mother: Livers BX1 = Auto Livers x Livers
(Auto Livers = Livers x Auto Blues)
(Auto Blues = Sheffield Blues x Purple Indica Auto)


[Livers BX1 is the culmination of more than 10 years of work and over 12 generations of breeding…]
[…] This would start with taking the best cutting we had available to us, ‘The Blues’ a cutting which was the city’s commercial growers bread and butter, and also the generic name or gold standard of quality weed. It dates back to the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, believed to be a variant of Skunk no.1[…]
[…] The Livers was a sister cutting to ‘The Blues,’ very similar in growth patterns and structure but more intense all-around and way funkier. We would get our hands on this some years later […]
[…] When we acquired the Livers cutting, we outcrossed it to our Auto Blues, to create Auto Livers, which was a big improvement of the Auto Blues, but we wanted to refine it and improve upon it even further, crossing it again to the Auto Livers, and working it back to auto in the subsequent four generations. Crossing with Auto Livers now at F4 has completely stabilised the amazing genetics meaning fewer phenotype splits and more continuity between plants […]
— Livers BX1, 2018


[Livers is a strain we at Mephisto are still in love with, now going on 25 years since we first sampled it in our hometown of Sheffield. Also known as Blues, Pukkas, UK Blues, Sheffield Blues or Sheffield Livers, she started life, as far as we know, as a Skunk #1 cross, the same as Old School Haze. We say ‘as far as we know’ because Livers has long been a bit of a mysterious strain, with the story and history behind it being mostly anecdotal. We were lucky enough to get our hands on a cutting of ‘The Blues’, a sister cutting of ‘The Livers’, way back before the farm was even a distant dream. Our first autoflower cross of this cutting, some 4 generations later, became Auto Blues […] […] When we finally acquired a cutting of ‘The Livers’, we outcrossed it to our Auto Blues to create Auto Livers, which was a big improvement of the Auto Blues, but we wanted to refine it and improve upon it even further, crossing it again to the Auto Livers, and working it back to auto in the subsequent four generations. Crossing with Auto Livers now at F4 to create our Livers BX1 strain, a strain that encompasses over 10 years of work and is what got us started with Mephisto Genetics in the first place […]


UGORG – Father: Killer Skunk = UK Clone-only Blues x SmellyBerry (Oldtimer1)
UGORG acquired the clone in 2003, released Killer Skunk in 2008, and Blues seeds in 2010.


[…]The one I grow is more sativa in structure and grows big fat calyx just like the exodus cheese, that and the distinct aroma are where the similarities end. The sativa bluez (aka killer skunk) is stronger smelling, sweeter tasting and heavier yielding. It does need a lot of light to show its potential. Grown exclusively under halides it will be wet to the touch! The indica bluez is short and very squat. It will rarely double its height in flower and grows rock hard solid nogs of stinky, goey goodness. Even fruitier on the nose than the sat var, but not quite so potent. This is a big yielder and ideal for sog […]
— VRG