Laughing Buddha Weed Grow: A Pound of Top-Shelf Goodness From One Plant Indoors

Hi there, friends! If you want to grow Laughing Buddha weed, don’t think twice. It’s an amazing strain that I can personally vouch for, as my experience with the Laughing Buddha strain by Barney’s Farm was positive throughout.

This was an experimental run for me. From using CO2 bags and mainlining to fighting with faulty equipment, my grow was riddled with challenges, and yet my gorgeous and generous lady powered through it. I got a pound of top-shelf bud, way over the gram-per-watt mark, setting my personal record.

Germination and Seedling Stage

There was nothing remarkable about the start of the grow: I pre-soaked one Laughing Buddha seed in a glass of water, germinated it between paper towels, and then planted it into a 1-gallon smart pot. My girl spent her formative weeks under a 250-watt blue-purple light and got only light feeding from me (which I alternated with pure water). I started giving her nutrients only at the end of week 2, as one gallon of pre-amended soil offers quite enough food for a young plant.

The Vegetative Stage

During most of veg, my Laughing Buddha shared the room with sunflowers and peppers, but by the time those were ready to move into the garden, she got really big and had the whole grow space all to herself.

Training Worthy of a Champ

In week 4, I topped my feisty Laughing Buda weed for the first time. My plan was to try mainlining. For those of you new to this technique, mainlining means topping the main shoot and leaving only two secondary branches, then making the second split by topping those two, turning the four resulting tops into 8, and so on. It all depends on your patience, really.

In my case, things stopped at 8. I spent too much time deliberating whether I wanted to top one more time or not, and then there were so many secondary branches that I was busy deciding which ones to keep and which to prune. I ended up with too many tops than I bothered to count, and the canopy was perfectly flat and no taller than 16 inches (41 cm) by harvest.

What amazed me with the mainlining method was how thick the primary branches got. I’d never seen anything like it, and the trunk resembled a small tree. All this ‘piping’ worked great for providing the buds with water and food, and I couldn’t have been happier with the yields.

A Too-Hot Growing Medium

I transplanted my Laughing Buddha into her forever home in week 6 from seed. However, the particular brand of soil that I chose proved too hot – when I put my 16-gallon container in a drip tray and could finally measure the runoff, it showed 3000 ppm! So, I had to give the medium a good flush in week 7. She took off like a rocket and was on a tear from then on.

After I brought the TDS readings of the runoff to acceptable levels (and normalized pH as a bonus), I discovered how hungry my girl was even this early into her life cycle. I would throw 750-900 ppm, and later, as much as 1100 ppm at her, and she would just return 300 ppm. Small wonder with the lush foliage and thick stems like this. Heck, even the veins on the back of the fan leaves were massive!

By week 12, Laughing Buddha filled the tent completely and was devouring 9 liters of feed or, alternatively, 12 liters of water every other day. It was time to induce flowering.

The Flowering Stage

Laughing Buddha’s flowering time is supposed to be around 75 days, and that was my experience almost to the day. I harvested fully mature buds on day 73 from the moment the lighting was flipped to 12/12, although giving her the ax on day 70 would’ve been more appropriate.

The first few weeks of flowering were all about thinning the canopy, as I did several sessions of lollipopping small branches and removing excessive foliage. It always feels strange putting a perfectly healthy and beautiful plant through so much torture, but frankly, it only took a couple of days before she was her usual self again or grew even more lush.

Btw, I noticed that her need for food/water dropped every time I stripped her naked – you could see this by an ample runoff when I tried to water her with the usual amount. When the leaves grew back, the runoff would go back to normal too.

The Fight to Keep Humidity in Check…

My Laughing Buddha spread across the whole surface area, but she was delightfully low-profile at the same time, so the tent wasn’t crowded at all, and you wouldn’t expect trouble with excessive humidity. Yet still, there was some trouble. Although my dehumidifier ran non-stop, the RH was in the upper 40s at best and sometimes crept up into the lower 50s – very dangerous for a plant during flowering.

I tried everything, including running the exhaust air not just into the room where the tent was but also outside. I was also about to stop using CO2 bags, as I thought they were contributing to the high humidity, but then I got to the root of this issue – my dehumidifier was kicking down to the fan-only mode for no reason. I installed a new one, and everything was back to normal.

… And Then the Heat

At the beginning of this grow cycle (which was in winter), the temps were too low – 22°C (72°F) during the day and 15°C (59°F) at night – and it slowed down my girl’s progress. This reversed in late flowering. It was now spring/summer, and the day temperature sometimes peaked at 29°C (84°F). You might say this isn’t much, but my Laughing Buddha didn’t like it. Her leaves were tacoing, and I even found five nanners all in all. I guess it was her reaction to heat stress. Luckily, I didn’t find a single seed in my buds.

I had less luck with lighting – I had to dial it down from the maximum 450W to something like 300W through most of the flowering stage. Such a shame! Those missing watts would’ve made a huge difference.

This Strain Tends to Look More Mature Than She Is

Despite all minor troubles, my Laughing Buddha weed was maturing beautifully. Every top was at the same distance from the light and had the same chunky texture. Four weeks into flowering, her smell became pungent, and a week or two later, she started to get super frosty.

Around this time, I also noticed quite a few orange hairs, which was quite a surprise so early into flowering. However, I read that this strain shouldn’t be harvested prematurely, and that was the advice I meant to follow. I was just enjoying the show of the buds fattening up, giving her enough food and water, and finally cutting back on the nutrients and giving her the final flush. I cut her on day 73 of flowering, or after 23 weeks from seed.

Laughing Buddha from Barney's Farm

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Harvest, Yield, and Smoke Review

I harvested almost 16 ounces (452 g) from just one Laughing Buddha weed plant, which was my personal record. The buds were huge, lumpy, smelled like mango, and when fully cured, tasted like earth and pine – the kind of classic taste I can never get tired of.

The high was strong due to all that THC but quite mellow at the same time. It created a smooth and long-lasting glowing feeling, not couch-locky or anything but perfect to spend an evening with friends. I’d say it was 60% Sativa. I’m sure I would have gotten more Sativa vibes if I’d harvested her earlier, before she ambered in so much.

Final Thoughts and Grow Tips

All in all, it was a fantastic experience, slightly marred by faulty equipment and the fact that I tried too many new things at once. I’m sure my next Laughing Buddha grow will mark a significant improvement. As for grow tips, I’d suggest paying more attention to the correct temperature range and keeping in mind how hungry and thirsty this plant can be.

I’d also advise heavy training – be it mainlining or ScrOG or whatever – as having so many top buds of the same top-notch quality is a blessing. Try this strain, guys, and I hope you get even better results than me. Happy growing!

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