Dark Star Feminised

Read Dark Star backwards from the harvest: 400-500 g/m2 under lights, 500-600g/plant outdoors, with resin filling out towards 19% THC. Most of the final weight lands between weeks five and eight, when the 100/50 genetics stack calyxes quickly and the trichome cover goes from scattered to solid. Outdoors you want that stage falling in late August and early September while the light is still long, so count back to it from the first frost your own area usually sees rather than from a date on a packet.

Three stretches of the 9 weeks of bloom decide whether you reach the top of this strain's range (400-500 g/m2 indoors, 500-600g/plant outdoors). The rest is maintenance.

The first ten days of flower. What the plant does during the stretch sets canopy height, and canopy height sets how evenly the light lands. Expect 20-30%, which is manageable; stripping the lowest fans around day seven sends the energy up to the sites that will actually finish.

Weeks three to five. Caryophyllene production climbs through here, and it responds to a day-night temperature gap of 6-8°C. British autumn nights hand that to outdoor growers for free from September; indoors you have to build it, at roughly 25-26°C lights-on and 18-20°C lights-off. Bloom feed goes potassium-heavy around EC 1.6-1.8.

The last ten to fourteen days. Stop feeding and run pH-corrected water. Check trichomes daily under a 60x loupe — cut at 15-20% amber for the weight of effect this genetics is bought for. Outdoors that lands between late September and mid-October across most of Britain, and the weather forecast should get a vote.

Flowering: 9 weeks. Indoor yield: 400-500 g/m2. Outdoor yield: 500-600g/plant. Plant height: 120cm - 140cm. Rated intermediate difficulty.

Dark Star arrives in stages. The first draw at 19% THC brings dry pepper that registers at the back of the throat. The euphoric, relaxed, sleepy character follows within minutes, starting as weight behind the eyes and working down through the shoulders and chest. By about a quarter of an hour it has become a physical stillness — not sedation so much as a strong disinclination to get up. Two to three hours at a moderate dose. The myrcene underneath adds body and depth beneath the rest.

Primary: Caryophyllene · Secondary: Myrcene · Tertiary: Bisabolol. How this profile survives the journey from flower to vapour depends on temperature. Low vaporisation, 180-188°C, keeps the myrcene and bisabolol audible over the caryophyllene base. Run it hotter, or burn it, and the three collapse into one note — pleasant enough, but none of the complexity that made it worth choosing.

Who does well with Dark Star? Indoor growers who want the timeline under their own control. Outdoor growers who want to choose when flowering starts. Anyone with the room and the patience to veg it properly before flipping. Difficulty is rated intermediate, which means a moderate learning curve that rewards attention without demanding a laboratory.