Fast Buds Fast Buds LSD-25 first grow

[Herbisaur]

Hey everyone, just signed up to the site. The minimal knowledge I have about growing has come from reading through different grows on these forums. So first off I'd like to say thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences. I am currently nearing the end of my first grow of Fast Buds LSD-25 and while I ran into many hiccups, this strain has just powered through. I was worried that my first grow would be a failure, but I believe I have one or two weeks left an everything is looking pretty good considering it's my first go. Anyway, I'll give my info on my grow and tomorrow I'll post some pictures.

Soil: roots organic (as is)

Lights: 380 watts CFL on a 18/6 regimen

Pots used: 3 gal Smart pots

Nutrients: Roots organic Buddha grow and Buddha Bloom, ended up being cal-mag a little too late

Plants grown: 3 LSD-25 (1 solid purple (almost black), 1 mostly purple/pink flowers but some green as well, 1 almost entirely green) All look different, 2 are about 21 inches tall and one is 18 inches tall.

Problems encountered: fungus gnats (taken care of with diatomaceous earth and yellow sticky traps, overwatering, calmag deficiency, Also I had a makeshift light fixture fall and burn one of my side branches, reducing its size by half.

Grow conditions; humidity stayed between 40-60% the whole way through. During lights on phase they reached upwards to 85 degrees and at night could fall to 68 degrees.

I also used a tower fan for circulation and had a small exhaust going to the attic.

As of today I am on day 50 and I am thinking harvest time will either be at day 56 or possibly a week longer. I have been looking at Elsam's grows of lsd-25 to gauge where I'm at. I noticed his grows are going 70+ but I think maybe the 18/6 cycle caused my plants to mature a little faster. My trichs are about 70% cloudy and 30% clear. I really don't want too many amber trichs so I will most likely go to day 56.

I will post some pics that I had taken through out the grow as well as a final harvest weight and a smoke report.

 

[Fuggzy]

Sounds good man. For a first time grower I'd bet 3 different phenos is nice. Lol all my first plants where all equally ugly.
So over watering is one of the most common issues with new growers. The method I find works best for me is judging the pots weight. I have a couple flowering girls that need daily watering, and loose about 3-4 lbs between feedings. When starting a new plant, get it all watered in, and just pick it up a few time, and try to remember how it feels. After a small while you will be able to pick them all up and see what needs water. Always try to keep in mind it is easier to fix dry soil, than it is wet soil. A dry plant will respond in a few hours, where a water logged plant may take days to a week to dty out enough.

A piece of advise I have frequently read (but not always follow) is... If you think it is ready, wait another week. If the progression of you trichs are no to far in to the amber stage, just let her go. She will add a decent amount of weight in the last couple weeks. Either way grats on the first grow, and the upcoming harvest bud! Till later, take care. :smoking:

 

[Herbisaur]

@Fuggzy my overwatering problem actually only happened once and it was at the beginning when the roots hadn't even began to fill the pots. I soaked the soil through and through and my cfl's don't produce hardly any heat so there was no evaporation. Pots stayed flu of water for a while, which led to fungus gnats. I laughed about it because I actually tiered them (but I put the cups upside down so that the diameter would be getting bigger as the roots got lower. Anyway I cold have just put a small amount of water into the cup instead of watering the whole damn thing lol. I was kind of mislead on the phenos because I had only looked at the most purple in normal lighting. They are in fact all quite purple, just one of them has leaves that are nearly black making her the most purple (and the biggest, and my favorite, shhhhh).

I also want to mention that all three seeds germinated in under 24 hours using unbleached paper towel method, all sprouted out of the soil in less than 24 hours after planting, and all showed sex on day 22. This plant has been such a pleasure to grow because I know if I would have grown a strain that required a delicate touch it would be dead by now. I initially LST'd all of them. At the 4th week of the grow they were all completely horizontal. Then I read @elsamurai grow and saw his natty girl produced the most by far, so I untied them all and within a few days you could hardly tell I trained at all, it was quite amazing how quick they straightened out after probably tying a branch down every single day since about week one (which was way too early to start training but I hadn't read enough at the time). Anyway here are the ladies...

Also @Fuggzy and anyone else who wants to chime in about harvest time. I know it's blasphemy to snip samples, but on day 42 I was impatient and I say trichs so I snipped a popcorn from the bottom and quick dried over a light bulb for about 4 hours. I honestly have to say I have been smoking for almost 15 years now and this stuff blew my mind. I expected to to get anything from it and learn a lesson about not cutting early, but it my body relaxed and my brain soared. It was one of the most pleasant smokes I've ever experienced. It almost felt like the first time again. After experiencing that I read a guy saying that for indica dominant plants you want mostly clear trichs because that is the peak of the THC production. He said the amber ones is THC being oxidized and turning into CBN which is similar to CBD? Basically his explanation was that people have bred CBD out of plants for the most part and by letting them go longer its's kind of like putting the CBD effects back into a plant that has been bred to not have it. He also said that the yield my increase if you let the babies go longer but more THC will be oxidized so you get a less potent product? I'm putting question marks because I want feedback! This is a personal medical crop and I consume maybe .5-1 gram a day so if I get 2-3 oz. I will be good for 2-6 months, yield is not too much of a concern as maximum potency. All feedback is very much appreciated!

 

[Herbisaur]

Also @Fuggzy, Thanks for the support. It's great to have a community like this, I wouldn't have known which way was up without AFN!

 

[Fuggzy]

Man your aren't joking, she does look almost black. I have wanted to try their LSD, and that plant just made her jump to the next order, shes beautiful bud! I have a Girl Scout Cookies by FastBuds going now, but she is a bit finicky in my opinion. Shes sensitive to pH flex, and hungrier than any plant I have growing, auto or photo. I'd grow her again, but more cautiously next time. Maybe some of that LSD would be a better choice next time.

In regards to trich colors this is how I understand it. Clear is immature, and will give you more of a racy feeling, and be a shorter buzz. Cloudy is mature and when the thc% is at it's highest. Giving a "correct" or expected buzz according to what it should be (breeders description). Amber is is more or less as you described it. This will also give you more of a couch lock feeling. I'm not sure about the CBN >/= CBD however. I'm going to have to research that a bit.

Man I was proud of my first grow and it was ugly as hell. I hope these 3 ladies bring you a great sense of pride, cause they should. Take care bud.:smoking:

 

[Herbisaur]

@Fuggzy I'm kicking around the idea of chopping them all at separate times. 1 at 56 days one at 63 and one at 70 for experimental purposes however, being that I don't have a separate drying room and I don't want any THC to be damaged from light I'm not sure if this experiment can actually happen unless I build a little drying room or something. Based on your recommendation, if I don't do the separate chops I'll probably let them all go to day 63 which would be a week longer than I was thinking. As far as being proud, I am quite proud of these ladies. about 2 weeks into flowering (week 5) my fan leaves started dying and I thought it was over for me, but it looked like a calmag deficiency by referencing photos. Unfortunately I didn't have any and I'm an online shopper so I ordered some but it took a week to come in. They lost many lower fan leaves, but honestly the CFL have pretty shitty penetration so those leaves probably needed to go anyway. After one dose of calmag they seemed to get right back on track. I do think I have some minor nute burn b/c I went full strength thinking the organic frets wouldn't burn it, lesson learned. Overall. I attribute my success to the strain. All around these plants are incredible. Even when I quick dried with no cure it kind of tasted like sour berries out of my vaporizer. I can't wait to taste the final product after cure and I definitely recommend you give these a go.

I'm actually so impressed with these that I have 5 more coming, also 3 fast berry, 3 rhino ryder, and 3 six shooter (I really wanted to grow crystal meth but I didn't have access to it, so six shooter a cross between crystal and mexican is the closest I could get). Think I'll do fast berry next I really like colors other than green. @Fuggzy what is your thought on growing different strains at once? I probably have room for 4 in my space if I add some more light. I really like the idea of having a harvest of different strains, but I worry I'm too much of a newb to deal with them all having different requirements.

Also, I looked into the girl scout and the pineapple express but they weren't as appealing to me as the aforementioned strains. Do you have a journal up? If not please let me know about yield and smoke and maybe I'll add to the list! If all goes well I'll be a fast buds poster child lol!

 

[Herbisaur]

@Fuggzy Also I wanted to tell you, I didn't pH anything. I used tap water that sat out for 1-3 days and I bubbled my nutes with an air stone my buddy had from his aquarium for about 48 hours before feeding. I had read organic soil buffers pH so I went with that because it was easier for me and I didn't have to spend any additional money. I did add 2 tablespoons of dolomite that I had for my vegetable garden to each 3 gals of soil which I read helps to buffer the pH, but did nothing for my calcium deficiency. Next grow I am going to use Roots Organic again, but I am going to cut with 25-30% perlite just to see if that is better.

Oh and I should mention I am adding raw coconut sap to my water. I bought it as a syrup substitute for pancakes but you can't replace maple syrup on pancakes so now I'm using it as a molasses replacement for the ladies. All they are getting now is sap and tap.

 

[Fuggzy]

You could definitely harvest at different times. You may have variances between them being you have different phenos. *I'm not recommending this, just sharing the idea* If you wanted a more accurate way to measure it, you could harvest the same plant 3 times. So for each harvest, you would have 3 different samples, 1 from each. I'm not 100% sure how good this works on autos, but a lot of photo guys do it with new strains. I have harvested 1 auto in 2 stages due to seeds not being mature, but bud being done. The plant I did went in to shock, but I chopped 8 of 9 branches, and threw it back under a 600w hps. It pulled through, but it was sketchy. In all honesty though, unless it matters what the differences in pheno 1,2,3... I would just stick to 1 full plant per harvest. Rule #1 in growing >>KISS<< keep it simple stoner. Sorry I'm a bit stone off a girls scout sample. (oh yeah, I always test my plants.)

If you want a simple drying area, you could make a drying box. It would only cost a few $$ if anything. I bet if you get creative, you'd have everything you need already. This is a basic google search for some ideas.
https://www.google.com/search?clien...s+drying+box&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Lime in soil is basically used just for pH buffer. It does supply Ca, but it takes a really long time to dissolve, which is when the Ca is released. The time table is more like years, than a single grow. If you want to get Ca amendments you could look in to gypsom. Not only does it add the Ca to the soil faster, but it helps keep your soil a bit fluffier. Hes is the wiki link on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsum
Oyster flour can be used as a lime substitute, and will buffer the pH also. Although, I have a feeling it would take a while to dissolve too, I've never used it.

If you are ever in another Ca bind, and have to wait on shipping, go grab some eggs, and vinegar. This is easy, and again, may be thing you already have on hand. http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/SA-10.pdf
This explains what is is, how to make it, and how to use it in proper doses.

@Fuggzy what is your thought on growing different strains at once? I probably have room for 4 in my space if I add some more light. I really like the idea of having a harvest of different strains, but I worry I'm too much of a newb to deal with them all having different requirements.

Haha I love the idea of different strains. Right now I have 7 different strains going. The 4 on the stove are a breeding project I am working on. The light green 1 in the back right is the GSC by fastbuds, dark green in front is an amnesia photo, front left is a tangie photo. The 2 in the back and the front center are by Rare dankness. The back 2 are long peak blues, and the front 1 is night terror og, all 3 photots. Not pictured is a Bubba kush auto by dynafem. So yeah I full support having a variety, but it is a good amount more work. I have a lot of time on my hands, so its no biggie to me. I don't see why 2-3 at a time would be bad though. 3 on the same time format. grown together should be EZPZ.

There is a link in my signature to my current grow. I don't have a golden ticket wrapped in a candy bar, but your sir are invited to stop in any time. Time to go burn another boul before the lil' fugger wakes up. Till later, take care bud.:smoking:

 

[Herbisaur]

@Fuggzy wow! So much great information! I am sure am glad you stopped in to check out my first contribution here! I actually do think that I have everything at home to build one of these drying boxes, except for the little filter for smells. I am going to start working on that tonight!

You have quite the collection there @Fuggzy ! I haven't even looked into photos yet but I am getting three for free. I don't remember what bank its from but I know there n Ice Breaker, Super cheese, and something else. I don't think they are femmed, but maybe I'll get lucky. What size pots are you using? After I chop I'm going to see how well my roots filled up those 3 gal smart pots and depending I may buy some 5gal or 7gal.

How's that GSC smoke? Haha sounds like you're enjoying it! Thanks again for all the info! I'm heading over to your grow now!

 

[Fuggzy]

I'm just passing on what I learned from others, and reading. Only thing I ask in return, is some day that you pass it on, and continue the cycle. After a grow or 2 you'll be surprised how much you have learned. You've obviously done some research, and your buddy telling you to bubble the nutes was a grade A suggestion. With those being your first time plants... Maybe it's me that should be reading your suggestions!

For a small filter, there are a couple routes you could go. The first being to just buy 1. Besides costing more than it would need to, I think any thing you buy prefabbed will be overkill. I have a 4" carbon filter running my tent, which is about what you would be looking at. The 2nd and my recommended option is to make it. Here is a guide to making 1 for a micro grow which would be a better size. https://www.autoflower.org/threads/diy-carbon-filter-for-the-micro-grow.48637/ This was put together by @elsamurai , a well know feller around here. This is a filter I was making for my micro cab. It is built on the same principles as the above guide, the pic is just for another visual idea. I used fan brackets from a commercial coffee machine for the top and bottom rings. The inside is plastic hardware mesh, and the white fabric is bunting material for quilting. The carbon can be found in your local pets stores.

So the GSC sample is pretty damn good. To be honest, it's kinda like your tester experience. Today is day 56 of 70+, so its pretty early. I am loving the buzz, and overly surprised how potent and nice it is this early. She also taste good for a no cure quick dry. I am getting a vanilla, and dough flavor. Not to strong, but better than any quick dry sample I've had. Oh and I should correct what I said about it being sensitive to Pf flex, I was stoned and goofed. I lowered my pH feeding as suggested by another member. What I didn't realize was my pH pen was mis-calibrated. So she got a nasty shock. She was the only plant of them all, so she is more sensitive than some plants, but I gave her a big change in pH, like .8-.9 when it was already lowish. In all fairness I should grow her again, and give it another chance. (only after some black ass looking LSD!)

If you have any questions fell free to fire away. I may not be able to answer it, but there are lots of bright minds here. The answers tend to come fast, and no question is to silly. Have a good 1 bud.:smoking: