I just popped by to post my thoughts so far on the Royal Queen Special Kush No 1 which I am currently growing.
Some Information About How I Grow:
I grow all of my plants using virtually the same sort of cycle / style using the same medium - CoCo. I germinate from seed and give the plants an 8 - 9 weeks veg under a 125W CFL followed by a weeks veg introducing the plant to the 600W lamp which gets gradually lowered towards it over the week. In regards to feeding and training, I will alter that according to the needs of the plant and strain. But generally they're all given the same cycle and treatment. I have all my temps and humidity etc all pretty much under control. They're not always spot on lab conditions but it's usually all well within spec with the exception of summer when I, like most people suffer with the heat.
All my plants are fed on Canna CoCo A + B with the addition of Rhizotonic, CalMag, Silicone and Potash at various stages as required.
Young plants are started on Rhizotonic until they show signs of underfeeding then I start introducing the Canna CoCo A + B at a very low rate - probably something like 1/8th - 1/4ml per liter and bring the strength up and slowly introduce the silicone until they reach adult maturity. Adult plants are fed at an EC of 1.0 - 1.2 depending on plant size and uptake etc. I only give what they ask for when they ask for it. Rarely (as was the case with the C99) I'll go to 1.3 but I'll watch the plant closely at that strength.
All feeds and waterings are PHd to 5.6 - 6.0 (rarely I'll let it rise to 6.2)
Temps and Humidity are in or close to the correct specs for their respective growth stages.
About My Seed Stock / Collection:
All of my seeds barring those I got for free tend to be 8 week indoor photo period strains. Those are my main criteria when selecting seeds. Obviously I look for other things as well like flavour, smell, yield, tollerance to disease, heat etc. But I generally stick to 8 weekers. I try to pick those strains which suit my room and my style / method of growing to give me the best chance of success and the end results I desire. As we know, some strains do better in one environment than another and I've had my share of failures in the past so I'm very selective due to the fact I only grow one or two plants (max) at one time so can ill afford failures.
About The Royal Queen Special Kush #1:
First of all I should point out that I'm not bashing the strain or the seed co here I am just purely stating things as they are from my perspective. Also (as with all my other grows) I only germinated the number of seeds I need plus one. In this case I germinated two seeds and picked the best one to run with. Because of this I could have been unlucky and got a weak seed or a different phenotype or something but on the flip side, not everyone has the money or the room to germinate heaps of seeds and pick from the creme de la creme. As I understand it, the mark of a good seed and good breeder is consistency and repeatability of the seed stock. I.e. if I plant 10 seeds, they should all roughly have the same characteristics. Not identical but similar. E.g. similar growth rates, similar heights, similar yields that kind of thing.
With that "disclaimer" out of the way, it's on to my experience with this strain so far...
My Special Kush No 1 plant is approximately at the end of week 6 (give or take a day or two) of its flowering cycle under the 600W HPS and at this time I am not all that impressed to be honest.
Prior to selecting the Special Kush for this run I had been on the internet to refresh my memory of its characteristics, requirements etc. I had just gotten through a run of C99 from Female Seeds and again that was a single plant which has sort of set the benchmark for me and is in part responsible for some of the reasons why the Kush dissapoints. Having read up and refreshed my brain on the Special Kush I went ahead and germinated my seeds.
I had read on the internet that this Kush plant would need some height management and training so having just got through with the C99 which was an absolute monster, I kind of imagined facing that sort of size again. By the end of the C99's life I had run out of room to raise my lamp up any higher. It really was a monster. A meter wide or probably a little more and from floor to tip she stood about 4ft maybe a little more. So I expected something similar of the Kush and began topping and training heavily from the 4th node over a period of about 8 weeks.
I topped the Kush several times during veg and bent and tied her back to open her out like a squat candelabra thinking I'd end up with quite a wide open tall plant at the end. The Kush responded exceptionally well to the training and was so determined to grow that even when I'd bent the stems they'd be upright again a few hours later. It got ridiculous in the end. I could crush and twist the branches until they flopped over and no matter what they'd be upright by morning. In the end I was forced to tie them down to keep them down. As you can imagine the end result were some of the toughest knuckles I've ever seen on a plant and thick sturdy branches like you wouldn't believe. But the more I tried to keep the plant opened out, it had other ideas and was determined to keep all the branches growing tight against the main stem resulting in a densely packed, compact looking plant.
I stopped all training on the Kush for remaining week of veg under the HPS while I slowly introduced the high powered light to the plant as I have done all my previous grows. I like to wait and see how well they stretch before I decide any more training is necessary. The final week of veg under the HPS really got the plant growing but still it was determined to remain as a tightly dense plant despite my efforts to open it up more but at the end of that week I flipped her into flower and this is where I started to get concerned.
For the first week of flowering the Kush did very little. She remained healthy and green and feeding happily but she didn't seem to be doing much at all by the end of the 1st week in flower. The C99 had already started to show signs of stretch and flower by this time. So what I thought I would do is be fair and not count that first transition week so I reset my 8 week count and started again. But by the end of the second week I still saw very little happening. She was stretching but it was really slow and not much. This has carried on to where I am now (aprox end of flowering week 6).
All in all I would say the Kush is just about "barely" double her starting size but has no width to her. It's more like a densely packed conifer looking thing. So at this point I'm already realising that this plant is not going to live up to expectations OR the information I read on the internet. At the end of week 6 there's clearly no chance in hell she's going to gain another 2ft in height and another 2ft in width LOL.
The yield consequently looks abysmal. The buds look like they're more like at week 4 stage and there's not going to be much at the end by the look of it. It's almost a shame to be using 600W on it. I doubt they'll be enough of a harvest there to see me through the next 10 weeks until my next run starts and finishes. I also highly doubt she'll finish anywhere near the 8 weeks stated - whereas the C99 was looking lush and fat by week 7 and was well on its way to finishing.
In comparison, I could get four or maybe even five of these Special Kush plants in the same space one C99 took up and I doubt even four or five of these Kush plants could top the yield of one C99.
I don't know who wrote all the information I read about height issues with these Special Kush plants but either I got a bum seed or their idea of height and mine greatly differ LOL.
I feel like I've been sold one of those hugely hyped up display sized intergalactic thunderblaster fireworks for £250, got all excited about the hype and when it's gone off it's nothing more than a sparkler pops out the top with a little flag on :/
I know it's not fair to keep comparing it to the C99 all the while as they are two totally different strains by two totally different breeders but this Kush certainly isn't living up to my expectations with or without the C99 setting the standard. All I can say is this had better be some PREMO SUPER DELUXE BLOW MY MIND BEST TASTING SMOKE EVER at the end of it.
My Final Thoughts:
I've made up my mind (nothing to do with the outcome of this Kush) but I enjoyed everything about the C99 from Female Seeds. It grows well in CoCo, it responds really well to my style of growing and environment, it stretches like mental and it yields really really really well. And the absolute best thing about it is the flavour and the high. It's one of those strains you don't get bored with - at least I don't. There's very few strains I've found I can smoke repeatedly but this C99 is definitely one of them. My friends Cheese strain being the other. I can smoke the C99 in the day at a nice sustained rate and still function and not have the tired, heavy couch lock feeling but at night when I want to get couch locked I just roll a blunt and it's job done. It's a very versatile smoke.
I really enjoyed the C99 both growing and smoking it so much that I'm switching to it full time. I won't be doing any other strain for the foreseeable future. I think I've found my own personal "holy grail" strain in the C99 and I don't think anything else can live up to my expectations now.
But going back to the Kush, I still maintain it is disappointing whether or not I had done the C99 prior. The Kush just doesn't stand up against any plant I've done previously if I'm honest - not in terms of growth anyway. I can't comment on the quality of the smoke but certainly the yield looks disappointing at this point.
I certainly wouldn't consider doing it again as my main grower - maybe more of a side grow if I fancied something different (assuming I like the smoke of this grow).
It would be unfair of me to ultimately judge it totally based on just one grow from one seed but as I said earlier in an ideal world, 10 seeds should result in 10 plants with similar traits. In my case, I could have had that one bum throwback bean I don't know. The write ups say it's a big plant and I end up with a dwarf...
On the plus side of things, the plant is healthy so it's not likely to be stunting from any shock or disease etc. She's quite happy and always has been. Eats well, nice and green, no burnt tips, no signs of stress etc. More or less a steady grower. She absolutely loves being topped, bent and all kinds of training and she bounces back quick and I mean real quick. I couldn't keep her bent over for more than half a day - OOO ERR MISSUS! So in that respect she's got some much desired qualities. And when I say she's healthy and green I mean green. It has some of the best foliage I've ever seen on a plant - typical indica short squat bush all tightly / densely packed branches and nodes - probably a lot more so than usual to the point it is bordering on a disadvantage in that you just can't keep the plan opened up so the buds on all the other branches are all tightly clustered to the main stem and very little light gets down those sides of the buds.
As a result you get a plant with half developed buds in the inside where the light can't penetrate. Up to now I've not devised a way of opening up the plant where it stays open without causing any lasting damage or stress. The plant already looks 2 weeks behind what it should look like in terms of bud development for the end of week 6 / start of week 7 so anything that upsets it now will cost more time.
Now I understand this strain a little, having got this far with it, If I had the space and time I would probably try working with it to get the most from it because it does have some nice qualities but sadly I don't.
And just because it's disappointed me doesn't mean it isn't right for someone else such as someone with not much head room or someone looking for something they can be brutal with such as a first time grower because if this strain is anything, it's forgiving. I absolutely ragged this plant trying to get her to lay down and bend over and the bitch just wouldn't do as it was told. Screw you pal I'll be back where I was by morning.
In the end I had pinched out the same part on the same branches over and over and over that it got knuckles on top of knuckles on top of knuckles. Any more knuckles and I fear the plant would have punched me in the face and bent me over! OO ER! LMFAO. I honestly couldn't keep it tied down or bent over. It's a surprisingly tough little :@@:$^&$###
So it does have it's plus sides to it. It's not all bad. I would definitely recommend it for someone starting out not expecting too much and wants something hardy that takes punishment and abuse in its stride. It definitely likes CoCo and responded well to my feeding and care or rather abuse regime.
When it finally finishes I'll report back with how well it did and how well it smoked.
My only real critiques ultimately from my experience are that it seems under-developed for 6 weeks into flower (not counting the week I knocked off in the beginning) and that it's just too small at the end of the stretch for my liking. If you know that prior to trying this strain then you wont be disappointed like I was. If I had known how small it was really going to be and how long they were going to actually take to finish I'd have probably done 4 of them or not done any at all.
I hope someone finds this information useful. Thanks for reading.
Edited by TheGreenMachine, 13 April 2017 - 09:12 AM.