by Nebula Haze
The 5 Strains: Blue Dream, Purple Ghost Candy, Candy Games #38, Mandarin Cookies, GG4 x Zkittlez. Here’s the full grow journal.
Germinated 3 seeds each strain. All but one GG4 x Zkittles seed sprouted.
Picked one seedling from each strain, and put them in the grow tent.
At harvest – 4’x4′ grow tent with two HLG Diablo 350 LED grow lights
Blue Dream by Seed Supreme
The Blue Dream plant grew the most weed of all: 6.7 oz by itself. A monster yielder.
Germination: Excellent
- All 3 seeds sprouted quickly, and grew faster than most other seedlings.
Plant Growth: Big, Tall, Fast, and Forgiving
- Tall, fast-growing plant. Would love to grow by itself.
- Loves lots of nutrients (about proportional to how big it grows and how fat the buds)
- Prefers overwatering vs underwatering. Could be a good choice for beginners who may accidentally overwater plants.
- Beginner friendly overall – Can thrive with a surprising amount of heat, light, and mistakes.
Bud Development: Long, fat “colas”
- Pleasant weed smell, not skunky, not funky, just like “Mmmmmm, now that’s good weed” kind of scent
- Grows long solid “colas” as opposed to smaller nuggets. They were so big I worried about bud rot, but they didn’t get a touch even when the humidity got too high due to weather. This seems to be a mold-resistant strain that might be a good choice to get solid yields in a humid environment.
- Good density, easy to break up, smokes well.
Yields: Monster Sized!
- Absolutely INSANE yields. It’s unusual to get so many ounces from a plant that had so little space to itself in the back corner of a crowded tent.
Grower Notes:
- Grows fast and gets big.
- Don’t skimp on nutrients, especially when buds look like they’re getting bigger every day.
- To maximize yield, do basic training: Make sure to top and train plant to grow flat in the vegetative stage, initiate 12/12 when it’s half the final size, and then try to leave alone except for holding up buds and strategic defoliation.
- Overall, I found this to be a plant that mostly takes care of itself in the flowering stage. Grows the perfect amount of leaves per branch without needing much from you.
So many huge, hefty Blue Dream buds!
Purple Ghost Candy by Seedsman
The Purple Ghost Candy cannabis plant produced a respectable 4.8 oz.
Germination: Average
- All 3 seeds sprouted, but seedlings grew a little slow at first.
In the past, I’ve had good germination rates with this strain. Admittedly, these seeds were a few years old, and older seeds tend to start a bit slower. But the seedlings quickly caught their stride and then overpassed the others.
Plant Growth: Big and TALL
- Once this plant got going, it started growing faster than all the others.
- Very branchy, responds well to training and bending.
- After the switch to 12/12, almost tripled in size.
- Prepare for a big plant, though the benefit is all the branches get covered in weed.
Bud Development: Tons of Fat “Nuggets”
- This plant grew fat chunky nuggets.
- Most bud development happens at the top of the plant (doesn’t develop lower buds as much as some strains, like the Blue Dream)
- Buds smelled the best, in my opinion. Just an extremely pleasant sweet, earthy smell.
Yields: Big
- Close to 5 ounces from a plant hidden in the back is a great yield!
Grower Notes:
- Big, tall, fast-growing plant. Would love to grow by itself.
- Very top-heavy plant, buds need support.
- Extreme stretch after initiating 12/12. Expect plants to 2x or 3x in size.
- Amenable to extreme training (which I had to do with it tripled in size in my last grow!). It acted like it was nothing.
- Consistently dense buds with this strain, whether grown under big powerful lights or small LED panels.
Extremely high potency, especially after curing (see my strain review). Depending on your tolerance, Purple Ghost Candy will either put your down for the night or send you to the moon.
Buds feel weighty in the hand
And sparkle in the jar!
Mandarin Cookies by Ethos Genetics
This little Mandarin Cookies plant (hidden in the middle) grew almost 3 oz by itself.
Germination: Average
- All 3 seeds sprouted, but were not the fastest growing seedlings, at first.
- Admittedly, the seeds were 5 years old.
Plant Growth: Easy to grow, smallish plant
- Small to medium plant (I’ve grown these seeds a few times now, and two Mandarin Cookies plants stayed small like this one, while the other two grew to a medium size).
- Extremely sparkly buds that spills out onto the leaves, too.
- Leaves either turn a silvery color or just straight up purple (we’ve had 2 with leaves that turned “silver”, and 2 where leaves turned purple). Not that leaf color matters a lot, but I find it charming.
This little plant was hidden in the middle, revealed by its unique silvery leaf color.
Bud Development: Thin, solid spears
- High density buds, grow like long spears and rock hard.
- Strong funk smell with citrus undertones (if you want people to go “daaaaamnn” when they smell the weed)
- Special potency – High levels of relaxing Limonene terpene. Extremely high potency but not overwhelming so like the Purple Ghost Candy. All buds have measured above 25% THC when we got them lab tested, up to 27% THC, so extremely high potency, but not overwhelmingly so, perhaps in part due to the the high levels of Limonene.
The Mandarin Cookies is in the middle here.
Yields: Average
- A smaller plant gives smaller yields, but productive for the size.
Grower Notes:
- This is a lovely plant all around, not easily stressed.
- Easy to grow, just give it water and nutrients, make sure all the buds get direct light, and let it shine.
The Mandarin Cookies buds grew sparkly and tight.
GG4 x Zkittlez by Seed Supreme
The GG4 x Zkittles plant made extremely dense buds. The plant stayed small overall.
Germination: Middling
- Only 2 of the 3 seeds sprouted.
- That being said, both seedlings grew well.
Plant Growth: No “Stretch”
- Grew normally in the vegetative stage.
- Responds well to being “topped”
- Didn’t “stretch” much after initiating 12/12
- Well suited to a smaller grow space.
Happy, bushy plant just before 12/12
Didn’t get that much taller after 12/12
Bud Development: Only “colas”, no little nugs
- Quick to develop buds, leafy at first
- Buds are long and solid (“colas”) as opposed to nuggets
- Buds got extremely dense after several weeks
Yields: Small to Medium
- Good yield for the final plant size.
- Lowest yields in this grow, but still held its weight. If all five plants had grown 2.4 oz it would still be a 12 ounce harvest.
Grower Notes:
- Give it a little time for the biggest buds to finish maturing.
- Both of the plants we’ve grown had a surprisingly long “ready to harvest period”. They entered the harvest window quick, but buds continued to improve, harden, and get bigger for the next 2-3 weeks.
- Kind of nice to have a plant that can be harvested relatively fast and still get good buds, or allowed to mature to greatly increase yields, density, and potency.
GG4 x Zkittles buds were dense, with a fresh scent.
Perfect nug size after drying.
Candy Games #38 by Happy Valley Genetics
The Candy Games #38 plant was my favorite plant to look at this grow.
Germination: Good
- All 3 seeds sprouted and seedlings grew well.
Plant Growth: Expect lots of flowering “stretch”
- Grew well and as expected in the vegetative stage.
- Tallish plant, with lots of stretch after initiating 12/12.
- Saw lots of space between nodes after stretching, but the plant filled those branches with nugs.
After 12/12, stretched a lot with a lot of space between nodes.
Bud Development: Big nuggets
- Buds don’t grow as “colas”. They grow like little golf balls.
- Some of the prettiest buds I’ve seen in a while.
- Beautiful dark color with purple highlights to buds.
- Relatively light scent that smells great. Might be a good choice for a stealth grow since it’s more mild and doesn’t have a strong “weed” smell.
- Grow this for magnificent bud appearance and a beautiful spot of color in your grow tent.
The buds all got chunky
Yields: Good
- Good yields of excellent bud quality.
Grower Notes:
- Beginner friendly, very forgiving.
- Get ready to be dazzled by a pretty plant!
- You’ll want to take lots of pictures! (here’s a cool new magnifier that attaches to your phone, which I found to help take a closer look at these buds)
Candy Games #38 buds on harvest day. I felt captivated.
Candy Games #38 made lots of fat, beautiful cannabis buds.
Round and fat like golf balls.
Which was your favorite strain from this grow? Let us know what you think.
Try them all! Blue Dream, Purple Ghost Candy, Candy Games #38, Mandarin Cookies, GG4 x Zkittlez.
Harvest in jars
See the full grow journal here.
