Karma Genetics Headbanger, Rare Dankness Starkiller and Moonshine Haze and GPS California Cannon

[minitiger]

Started these on September 2, planted five Headbangers, three Starkillers, three Moonshine Hazes and three California Cannons. I also panted four GPS Tombstones, but all four turned out male. One of the California Cannons didn’t sprout. Ended up with three Headbanger females, two Starkiller females, two California Cannon females and one Moonshine Haze female (bummer; besides the Headbangers, the Moonshine Haze was the one I was most interested in, wish I’d have gotten more than one female). This is my first grow without any Bodhi and in fact, I’ve only ever grown two non-Bodhi strains ever. One of those was a Rare Dankness freebie pack of their Tangerine Kush and they turned out GREAT, which is one of the reasons why I was comfortable ordering and planting some RD strains, despite all of the shit that’s been talked about them. I’m most looking forward to the Headbangers, just because Sour Diesel is probably my favorite strain ever, but I’m pretty excited about all of these. And very curious to see how some non-Bodhi strains do. I’ve never grown anything by Bodhi that wasn’t really fucking good, so I’m curious to see how these other breeder’s stuff stacks up.

These all vegged really, really quickly, except for the California Cannons. Those two stayed extremely compact and haven’t stretched very much in flower, either. Which is weird, because just about every grow report I’ve seen of the GPS Stardawg crosses mentioned how stretchy the plants have been. But yeah, the rest of the plants are getting huge. The Cannons I’ve actually had to place on top of five gallon buckets in the tent, just to keep the canopy relatively even. But all of the rest have stretched a ton, with the Moonshine Haze being the biggest stretcher. I’m not too surprised about that, but the stretch on the Starkillers and Headbangers has surprised me. They really aren’t that much shorter than the Moonshine Haze.

Anyway, here are some pics, you’ll see…

Moonshine Haze, veg day 51:

All of these plants were vegged for 59 days, just FYI.

Moonshine Haze, flower day 4:

Moonshine Haze flower day 22 (last night):

Haha! You can see she just exploded once I flipped. While she was vegging, I really wan’t too happy with eh internode spacing, there were pretty significant gaps between nodes, but she seems to have grown into it. It’s still a pretty gap-y plant, but not as bad as I thought it was gonna be.

Closeup:

Gonna take a while to finish, I think. Right now, I’m on an 11:45/12:15 schedule, but I think I’m gonna decrease the light and move to an 11.5/12.5 schedule in the next few days.

Anyway, here’s the Starkiller #2, veg day 51:

Starkiller #2, flower day 4:

Starkiller #2 flower day 22:

Stretchy, stretchy, stretchy…

Starkiller #3, veg day 51:

Starkiller #3 flower day 4:

Starkiller #3 flower day 22:

Here are the Headbangers. I really like the structure of these. They’re all growing pretty uniformly, which I didn’t expect.

Headbanger #2, veg day 51:

Headbanger #2 flower day 4:

Headbanger #2 flower day 22:

Headbanger #4 veg day 51:

Headbanger #4 flower day 4:

Headbanger #4 flower day 22:

Headbanger #5 veg day 51:

Headbanger #5 flower day 4:

Headbanger #5 flower day 22:

So yeah, the Headbangers stretched quite a bit, too. Probably like 150%. I shoulda measured them on day of flower and kept track of it. But I didn’t haha.

California Cannon #2 veg day 51:

California Cannon #2 flower day 4:

California Cannon #2 flower day 22:

Hm. Looks like I didn’t get any pics of the other California Cannon, but it looks pretty much identical to the #2. Very little stretch, extremely tight internodes. I actually really like their structure. I topped them once (along with every other plant) and the CC’s have turned into these super-bushy multi-top plants. We’ll see how they turn out. I’ve heard a LOT of bad shit about Gu, none of which I was aware of when I bought about a thousand dollars worth of his seeds. And everywhere I’ve seen grow logs of his gear, it seems like Gu is ever-present and exerting influence over what gets posted and what doesn’t. So it’ll be nice to do this report without any sort of influence from him.

Here’s a garden shot:

It’s getting pretty crowded in there and I need to raise the lights a little bit more. Although it doesn’t look like it in the photo, I really only have about eight inches left. And that’s a seven foot tent. Hopefully the plants won’t stretch too much more (although I’m fully expecting the Moonshine to keep stretching for another week or more).

Anyway, yeah, so there it is. Let’s see how these end up doing…

[minitiger]

I guess I should mention that when I ordered these beans, about six months ago, I was feeling extremely nostalgic and pining for weed that I hadn’t smoked in years. Which is the main reason I got those Starkiller beans. I love Skywalker OG, although I haven’t blazed any in about eight years, maybe more. I actually have smoked the Starkiller recently (if “five years ago” is recent haha). I didn’t find it to be anything remotely similar to Skywalker, which to me has always been a pretty euphoric, “let’s go for a nice long walk” kinda high. The Starkiller was much heavier, but very, very tasty. I got it from that dickhead Kyle Kushman’s dispensary in Studio City and it was very, very “black hash”-flavored. Just straight hash-flavored and really fucking stony. Great weed for bedtime. And the flavor was unreal.

So we’ll see how these turn out. The Starkiller description on Rare Dankess’ website isn’t anything close to my experience with it, pretty curious to see where we end up.

The California Cannon beans I bought because I also love Tahoe OG and haven’t smoked any of that in about twelve years (twelve years! holy shit, time flies…). I saw a grow report of it on the GPS website and the finished buds looked just like the Tahoe buds I used to get. It’s a very distinct look that’s pretty recognizable. Hopefully these plants turn out Tahoe-dominant. I’m taking any report I read on the GPS website with the entire shaker of salt.

[YoungDad420]

I just split a pack of Starkiller with a friend so I will be following this. Looking good so far!

[minitiger]

Nice. Why’d you get that pack? I’m just curious. What sounded good to you about it? The description on RD’s website is that of a “lemony etc” strain, which was so not how the Starkiller I bought from a dispensary about five years ago was. At all. Not even close. And all of the grow reports I’ve seen of it didn’t sound anything like what I smoked, either.

Dispensaries are pretty shady, but I feel like a lot of grow reports online are pretty shady, too. People get lazy and incurious and just go,”Yeah, Rare Dankness said Starkiller is lemony and I agree!” I think the discrepancies between everything I’ve read online about it and my actual experience with it is one of the main reasons why I wanted to grow this out myself. Just to see what’s what haha.

[YoungDad420]

My friend chose the pack, I went with it because RD seems to have some good stuff overall just to add to my collection. I grew their Facewreck and it was good

[iamyou_youareme]

Looking good in here bud! I’m liking the looks of the Headbangers and Star Killers. I’ve been interested in some Karma genetics for awhile, will be following along.

[minitiger]

Took these pictures last night, day 34 of flower. Brace yourself, there’s a lot of them…

Here’s the Headbanger #2:

Headbanger #4:

And the Headbanger #5:

You can see that they stretched a pretty decent amount once I initiated flower. I mean, they were pretty big on the day I flipped, quick veggers for sure. Still, I didn’t think they’d get as big as they did. They’re also growing very uniformly, no variation at all between the plants, except for slight height differences. They’re pretty much straight up and down, leading me to believe that they’re leaning more towards the Sour Diesel side of the hybrid, as opposed to the Biker Kush side, which I’ve read is more branchy and typically “OG.” Anyway, yeah, two of the three are almost as tall as the Moonshine Haze, which I definitely expected to get big.

Moonshine Haze:

Sitting on top of a five gallon bucket, she’s taller than me (I’m 6’2"). I’ve actually had to raise my lights almost to the top of the tent (seven feet), which I don’t think I’ve ever had to do. I maybe might’ve had to do that with Bodhi’s Tree of Life that I grew a few years back, those got pretty huge, too, but that’d be the only other time. And honestly, even if I wasn’t growing this Moonshine Haze, I’d have probably needed to raise the lights that high because of the Headbangers. Those are some tall plants, as well.

One thing I like about the Moonshine, though, is that I can tell that once they’ve filled out and swelled, there’s gonna be some nice foot-long (or bigger) colas on each top. Here’s some closeups:

You can tell from those closeups that she’s probably gonna take a while. Definitely, not as far along as the Headbangers or the Starkillers.

Here’s the Starkiller #2 (these also stretched a pretty decent amount):

And the Starkiller #3:

And here are the two California Cannons. Neither of them stretched much once I flipped, which is odd considering the one grow report of it I saw on the GPS website, dude’s plants stretched pretty big. I’ve got them sitting on top of five gallon buckets in the tent, otherwise they’d be about three feet away from the lights. They also look like they’re gonna take a while, possibly even as long as the Moonshine Haze.

California Cannon #1:

And here’s the California Cannon #2:

I dunno if you can see it in these photos, but both of the California Cannons have these weird yellowish pistils that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before. The best word I can think of to describe the color is “jaundiced” haha. I realize that that doesn’t sound too good, but it’s the best way I can describe it. It’s like an unhealthy-looking yellow. There’s nothing wrong with the plants, they’re fine, I think it’s just the way they look in early/mid-flower. Still, kinda gross-looking haha.

Anyway, yeah, so there are some flower day 34 pics. One thing I’ve noticed is that about ten minutes after I get done watering and stuff, when I’m out of the grow area and back in the living room or wherever, I have that “sour sensation” on my tongue and in the corners of my mouth. You ever notice that, after you eat something sour? And after the taste is gone, but you still have that sensation on your tongue/in your mouth? There’s no real defined smells that I’ve noticed, everything seems to just be commingling together to form a sort of “weed is growing” smell, but yeah, whenever I get done in the tent, I notice that it seems like I ate something sour a while ago. I’m assuming it’s coming from the Headbangers, but I can’t say for sure.

Anyway… Here’s a tent shot:

[minitiger]

I was re-reading the “Good representation of Sour Diesel” thread just now and realized I didn’t tag you, @Kingmambo. I took pictures two nights ago, on day 48 of flower, I’ll post them tomorrow.

[minitiger]

Okay, so we’re on day 51 of flower today, but I took these pictures Friday night, on day 48.

Headbanger #2:

I don’t usually do stem rubs or squeeze nugs while the plants are growing, just because smells tend to change so much during the grow and particularly after they’ve been curing for three or four weeks, but since I love the smell and flavor of Sour Diesel, I had to give them a squeeze. This one, the #2, smells very, very similar to Sour Diesel. It’s got a big-time sour/funk/pine thing going on, but no noticeable fuel element, which is something I’ve read about Karma’s Headbangers: all sour, no gas. We’ll see how these turn out.

Headbanger #4:

And the Headbanger #5:

I also squeezed either the #4 or the #5 (can’t remember which one) and the smell wasn’t nearly as reminiscent of Sour Diesel. It was much more “floral OG” which I thought was a little odd. Not crazy or anything, but a little odd. All of the plants are growing so similarly and the bud formation is nearly identical, so I figured they’d all just smell alike as well. But I guess not.

Anyway, here’s the Moonshine Haze:

This is maybe my favorite plant in the tent. Which is saying something, because I really love the Headbangers. She’s definitely the “loudest” plant in the tent. Definitely getting a tropical sorta smell from her, but there’s something else there that’s so familiar to me, too, something I’ve for sure noticed in another strain I’ve grown, but I can’t place it. It’s driving me nuts haha. I’m sure it’ll hit me one day, while I’m in there watering. I’ll figure out what it is I’m smelling.

Here are some closeups of her:

She’s got these loooonnnngggg, running colas up and down each top, easily a foot-plus. Love it.

More Moonshine Haze closeups (sorry; like I said, I love this plant):

Okay, enough of the Moonshine Haze pics. Here’s the Starkiller #2:

And the Starkiller #3:

This is my least favorite plant in the tent. If I’d have taken clones of her, I’d probably trash them. Her stems are the weakest of any plant in the tent (one of them snapped off on, like, day 41 or something crazy-early like that, hence the stakes) and I also found eight or ten male sacs on the lower branches on day 38, which is a first for me. I’ve never had a plant herm on me, ever. The flowers are the smallest of the two Starkillers (and of all the plants, actually) and the gaps between internodes are insanely wide (although the #2 also has ridiculously big gaps between nodes). And besides the tops, every node just has, like, one little nug and then four inches and then another little nug. I dunno, I’m just not really feeling this plant. There is one pretty cool thing about it though:

See that? Her leaves are turning really dark purple/eggplant, almost black. Never grown a plant that did that before. Here are some more closeups of her:

And we’ll finish with the two California Cannons. Here’s the #2:

She and the other CC are both fading fast, which is weird for two reasons. One, my plants don’t ever really “fade.” The only strain I’ve ever grown that faded was Bodhi’s Tree of Life, but it took around week nine/ten/eleven for that to happen. The California Cannon’s started fading around day 42 or so, which is reason number two. That seems really, really early for plants to be fading.

Here are some closeups of the CC#2:

She looks like she’s gonna take forever to finish. You can tell from the pics that the flowers are taking a long time to develop, not really digging that aspect of her.

Here’s the CC #1, which seems to be finishing much quicker than the #2:

The CC#1 is actually really impressing me. She doesn’t even have “golf-ball”-sized nugs, they’re more like friggin’ tennis balls. I squeezed a nug last night and was blown away. It had this nose-piercing, unnatural, synthetic thing going on that smelled delicious. It’s one of those smells where you instinctively pull your nose away, like,“Whew! WTF?” And then you immediately stick your nose back in haha. It actually reminded me EXACTLY of this one batch of Headband I got about ten or twelve years ago that was so good and so perfect and so amazing that I’ve refused to purchase or even smoke anybody else’s Headband ever agin. Smells just like that.

Okay, anyway, so those pics are from day 48, we’re on day 51 today. The Starkillers are coming down between day 63 and 65 no matter what. The rest will be coming down after that (obviously). I dunno exactly when yet, but they’ve got until day 77 before my vegging plants get moved into the flower tent. I decreased the light from 11.5/12.5 to 11:15/12:45 on December 17, gonna decrease again to 11/13 on January 1, hopefully that’ll help them finish up a little quicker. I dunno, we’ll see…

[nube]

Thanks for the heads up on this thread! Looking great so far. Curious how those Headbanger turn out; that’s one I’ve been interested in for awhile!

@minitiger

I’m most looking forward to the Headbangers, just because Sour Diesel is probably my favorite strain ever, but I’m pretty excited about all of these.

I had no idea you felt that way. @Greenhighlander is LOVING the Sour Diesel-esque phenos he’s finding in his Wolfpack F2. With greatly reduced flowering times.

@minitiger

I dunno if you can see it in these photos, but both of the California Cannons have these weird yellowish pistils that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before. The best word I can think of to describe the color is “jaundiced” haha.

Looks yellow green in the pics, but I wouldn’t call them gross. I’ve seen it a few times, most recently with a Jabberwocky x MAC cross from a friend. Didn’t seem to indicate health, just a color variation like pink or purple pistils.

@minitiger

I also found eight or ten male sacs on the lower branches on day 38, which is a first for me.

Sorry to hear that. In your pics from day 34 it looked like a few tops might have been dusted because there were some prematurely-withered pistils in evidence. Have you noticed any beans poking out?

@minitiger

That seems really, really early for plants to be fading.

I mean, maybe it is, maybe not. They may have needed more water at some point. Or they could just be extra heavy feeders. I’ve noticed some plants do a big nitrogen pull twice - one during stretch right after flip, and then another around week 6-7 when they push out another batch of pistils. Usually those are trich ripe by week 9-10 but still pushing a few white pistils, which I ignore. Either way, the early fade doesn’t appear to be impacting flower development, and could help make the smoke extra smooth.

Nice log!

[minitiger]

@nube

I had no idea you felt that way. @Greenhighlander is LOVING the Sour Diesel-esque phenos he’s finding in his Wolfpack F2. With greatly reduced flowering times.

Yeah, I love Sour Diesel. The flavor, really. The high is not my favorite (although it’s good), but the flavor is just so unique. There may be other sour, gas-y, lemony, funky strains, but nothing tastes like Sour Diesel. I’m afraid these Headbangers probably won’t be an accurate representation, gave ‘em a squeeze last night when I was watering and even the one that was smelling pretty close to real SD had already changed to more of a “lime” kinda smell. But, like I’ve said many times, everything changes so much while drying and curing, so we’ll see.

@nube

In your pics from day 34 it looked like a few tops might have been dusted because there were some prematurely-withered pistils in evidence. Have you noticed any beans poking out?

I haven’t noticed any seeds, but I haven’t been looking, either. It’s tough to examine some of the plants, just because they’ve stretched so much. When I set them on the table to water, all of them are close to a foot above my head, with the exception of the two California Cannons. I’ll check them out a little more closely when I water tomorrow night.

I will say that a friend of mine found eight fully-developed seeds in some of the Time Bandit nugs I gave her. I dunno what happened, if something in there selfed that grow or if one of the plants grew some sacs and I didn’t notice. But I light-proofed the fuck out of my room right after she told me. And it was already pretty dang light-proof. So I don’t think it’s light leaks or anything like that. I dunno.

In any event, now I have eight Time Bandit S1s. Or some kind of Goji/Time Bandit cross haha…

@nube

I mean, maybe it is, maybe not. They may have needed more water at some point. Or they could just be extra heavy feeders.

I think they’re just extra-heavy feeders. Definitely didn’t need more water, I water pretty heavy every other day religiously. I have read that plants bred in hydro setups or even just grown in soil but not organically grow differently or have different needs or whatever when they’re grown organically, in soil. It’s probably just because of that. I dunno, but when I went in there to water last night, one of the Headbangers had started to fade, too. I’m not worried about it, just making observations, really.

[minitiger]

I guess I should also mention that one of the tops on the Starkiller #3 snapped two nights ago, despite the fact that it was tied to a stake. I’m pretty irritated about that. Lower branches and whatever snapping is one thing, but a top snapping? A top that was tied up? That’s kind of unacceptable. I’m much more impressed with Rare Dankness’s “Sativa” crosses than I am their “Kush” crosses at this point. I started some new seeds on December 1, four of which were RD’s Ghost of Lee Roy, and only one sprouted. I also started two of their Midas (Albert Walker x Neville’s Wreck) and both sprouted and are thriving. The one Ghost of Lee Roy is the slowest vegging plant out of all of the starts. Between that and that Starkiller #3 throwing sacs and basically falling apart during this grow, plus the super-wide internodes and what appears to be pretty skimpy yields, I’m much more inclined to explore their Neville’s Wreck crosses and skip the crosses they’ve made with those Rare Dankness #1/#2 males.

Anyway, I’ve got that top drying right now, gonna try to give it a real dry/cure so that it doesn’t end up being a total loss. I will say that I smoked some of the Starkiller nugs last night that snapped off a week or so ago and it was pretty good. I could definitely feel it in my legs, very physically relaxing, but mentally stimulating. I’m chalking that up to it being very early-harvested bud. We’ll see how it really smokes in about a month.

[Joshj]

I wonder if you were to mitigate the stretching on starkiller #3 if it would solve it’s problems…run the metal halides through the 1st few weeks of flower.

Great looking strains.

[minitiger]

Here’s a couple pics of part of the top that snapped off. Buds are very pretty, I’ll give it that…

[minitiger]

I don’t run metal halides or HPS, I run LEDs. My lights are not the issue. In fact, they usually make my plants grow very compactly, especially in veg. It gets hard to sex the pants, actually, just because the nodes grow so close together (you should see the plants I have in veg right now, they’re like on their fourth node but only about two inches tall). Tough to get in there and check for pre-flowers. It’s not the lights, it’s the genetics. I’ve seen a bunch of Rare Dankness grow reports online and they all look the same, with ridiculously gap-y internodes. I’m not complaining, just observing.

Maybe I’m complaining a little… haha. It just seems to me that if you’re gonna “breed,” you should maybe make it a point to improve upon the plants you’re breeding with. But I think that RD’s goal was just to get clone-only genetics out there in seed form. And that’s cool of them, especially for people where access to clones is difficult/impossible. Having said that, those Rare Dankness #1/#2 males might produce extra-frosty plants, but it’s pretty obvious that they didn’t bring anything to the table structure-wise. Very floppy plants, for sure.

[stanknugzz77]

@minitiger

It gets hard to sex the pants

Ummm… what? Haha. Positive vibes…

~nugzz

[minitiger]

[Joshj]

I gotta be honest, I want some clones of that starkiller. Rare Dankness has seeds on their site…

[monkeyman]

@minitiger I just got done reading your thread so far and I am very impressed. Great descriptions and photos, thanks for sharing!

[minitiger]

Put a fork in 'er…

She’s doooooone…

Hoowee, that’s a gnarly-looking plant, isn’t it? Definitely time to chop her down. One thing I’d forgotten about until I hung her up, when I was tying some branches down way back, like maybe around day 50 of veg or so, I went too far and split her right where she’d been topped and had to basically tape her back together. That probably explains her behavior in flower. Also might explain why, like, the top half of her started turning eggplant/black around day 35 or so of flower.

Anyway, here’s some closeups of the #3.

She actually doesn’t look too bad up close. Seems like Bowie approves, anyway…

I also chopped the Starkiller #2 last night. I was actually planning on chopping both of them around day 62 or so, but humidity levels rose a few days ago and the #2 especially really seemed to appreciate it. There was a noticeable bud swell and resin production on the #2 (if I can notice it, it’s actually really happening, because I’m fucking blind), so I let them go a few days longer. Plus, the Starkillers are supposed to be my “night-time, sleepy time weed,” so I figured letting them go another couple days would only help.

Here’s some pics of the #2:

Siouxsie doesn’t seem as sure about the #2…

Just kidding, she tried to eat that branch hanging off the plant right after I took that pic. She LOVES eating weed leaves. Bowie does, too, but Siouxsie really fucking loves them. There were a couple handfuls of leaves in the garbage from the other plants when I was taking these pics and Siouxsie would not stop trying to get to them. And they were the dry, dead leaves, too, not even fresh ones. I finally plucked a little leaf off of one of the Starkillers and fed it to her, just so she wouldn’t try to get into the garbage.

So yeah, both Starkillers down. Got them hanging in the drying area now. Unfortunately, humidity levels out here have plummeted again, so I don’t know how long I’ll be able to let them hang before I have to chop them up and put them in paper bags. Hopefully at least five days. I moved a humidifier into the drying area (which is just the bathroom in the grow room) when I hung the plants last night and when I checked this morning, humidity was only 35%, which is way too low. So I moved another humidifier in there right before lights-off this morning, hopefully when I check in there tonight, humidity’ll be higher. Humidityhumidifierhumidityhumidifer!!

The Headbangers’ll be coming down day 73 and the California Cannons and Moonshine Haze will be chopped day 77. I’ll take pics of them as I chop them. If my vegging plants take a little longer to grow than I think they will (they won’t) then I’ll be able to leave the CC’s and the Moonshine up a little longer. All three of those plants look like they’re twelve-weekers, but those vegging plants will probably need to be transplanted by January 17 at the latest, so I really won’t be able to delay chop any later than the 17th.

Anyway…