8 Ball Kush

Sorry, I was so excited I forgot to take pics of the plants before I cut them down :facepalm: So, that's it! First grow under my belt. I was a bit sad to cut them down at first, but as I started cutting off buds I couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear :D I listened to a bunch of 311 and Sublime, then finished off dancing with my non-stick Fiskars (kids: don't try at home haha) to some esoteric electronic music that probably no one knows. Yeah, I'm a somewhat older guy but fortunately for me I'm not stuck in the era of my youth ;) Anyway. 9.8oz wet and then into the grow tent in darkness with the negative pressure through the carbon filter, the only time I could smell anything was when I'd open the tent. I wet-trimmed anything that wasn't covered in crystals and called her done for this first time. 4 full days/nights worth of drying yielded 61.5 grams, or just over 2.5oz. Nice! Then into mason jars with 58% (my preference) humidipacks and stored in a cool, dark cabinet. Burped about 6 times so far in the last 36 hours, pulled out a little popcorn bud each time, smoked some of them and gave some away. One thing to note is that today, only 36 hours after curing began, the buds are already significantly less harsh to smoke. Buds from both plants are absolutely amazing. After smoking, a brief energetic/creative head high sets in, then shortly gives way to a full body stone that makes me feel like I'm skipping through time and screws with my vision. It ends with a nice calming feeling that could last all day, almost like that next day after doing ecstasy. Both plants are similar except plant A hits a bit harder. I can't stop grinning from ear to ear, laughing at everything and yet nothing! Yet if I want to get up and do something, I can. 8 Ball Kush has been my favourite for a long time, and when you grow it yourself, OMG it's way better than commercial stuff you buy. Definitely not something I could smoke all day every day. It was almost too much for my wife, but she did enjoy it, just wants to pack less next time :) The smell/flavour is very earthy and spicy. Almost kinda like a minty-mentholy-coffee background thing going on, it's hard to pinpoint. And then plant A has this pungent, sharp diesel thing going on that plant B does not. It just blasts me in the face when I open the jar! Burns nicely in the bong, into a fine ash and right down the stem. Also produces MASSIVE vapour clouds in a "Vapir NO2 V2". Could I do a better job of harvesting/trimming? Yeah. Could I do a better job of growing? Yeah. Did I dry it out too fast? Maybe. Could I write a better diary and do some imaginative stuff? Absolutely. But I'm happy with the outcome. Amazing cannabis, probably the best I've ever smoked (honestly!). I'm definitely going to keep growing more 8 Ball Kush, while also exploring other strains. I wish I could grow more than 4. I feel like 6 or 8 would be perfect, but I can't complain considering I'm just happy it's finally legal. The clones have been moved into the tent in their perlite hempy buckets, so I don't have to constantly pull plants in and out of the tent any more! And if I do need to move them, 4 gallons of perlite retaining half a gallon of water is much lighter than 5 gallons of soil soaked and heavy with water. That diary will be updated in a couple days. When I get close to starting flowering phase with the clones, I'll build two more perlite hempy buckets and pop some Girl Scout Cookies using Rapid Rooters to kick off a third diary. To everyone who followed along and/or gave me private advice, thank you. I'm the kind of person that will take the knowledge you gave me and increase it 10 fold at a rapid pace, then spread it to other new growers. Which I've already been doing when I can. Also a thanks to Grow Diaries for an amazing site and community.