Hey guys, I had some things come up and I never finished my journal. I'm sorry about that. I'm going to update this journal all at once since harvest was some time ago. I'll also be posting two new journals as I want to get back into the community a bit more!
DISCLAIMER: Any opinions or negatives mentioned about these strains is entirely based on my mistakes, I do not blame the breeders or strains for any pitfalls.
My final dry weights were
Night Owl Galaxy Brain: 5.8oz
Mephisto Pink Panama: 2.7oz
Fastbuds Zkittlez: 4.6oz
By a mile, my favorite strain was/is Galaxy Brain. It was suggested to me not to defoliate or train much on my first grow, and this strain still produced very well all the way down. The effects are strong, it hits smooth, and it turns a really nice dark purple when it's all ground up. Pink Panama suffered greatly from the low defoliation. It was very bushy, and the bottom half was completely undeveloped. The top looked and smelled nice, but I believe I dried it way too fast, as it's very harsh, and the somewhat fruity smell is now very dry and earthy smelling. The Zkittlez was bud top to bottom, the thing was absolutely stacked. Unfortunately, likely due to not watering 2-3x a day like the Zkittlez demanded, it hermed at some point and I didn't notice, so now most of the bud has seeds in it, at least 3-5 seeds per bud. The bud size was slightly deceptive, as they shrunk into the smallest bud out of the entire tent. Some of the buds went from being the width of my hand, to the width of a thumb. I have no guess as to why it shrunk so much compared to the others.
Overall my biggest takeaways from my first grow are to defoliate/train more, and be MUCH more prepared for the drying, as I completely ruined every main cola, along with a very poor job at drying everything else. I didn't have a dry tent, so I hung them to dry in blacked out paper bags in an active tent. It was just way too hot for them to dry properly.
Galaxy Brain left, Pink Panama middle, Zkittlez right
Galaxy Brain left, Pink Panama middle, Zkittlez right
Galaxy Brain
Zkittlez
Pink Panama
I don't really have shots of the Zkittlez and Pink Panama buds after drying, they're a little nondescript. I'm in love with Galaxy Brain though.