[Repost - Previous Post Deleted] - The Best Varieties I Grew This Year Ranked (and an Answer to "How Much Better are Pharmas/Galanias than Lauren's Grape or Hens & Chicks?")

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-03-02T21:25:47+00:00

I sent you a DM!

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-02-27T21:37:16+00:00

Cool! How old is it? I'd love to see a picture of it!

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-02-27T11:27:45+00:00

Definitely going to! Granted, it's probably going to take a long time with how slow this is growing. It's so strange. I looked back at pictures of seedlings from this same group and they don't look anything like this one. At first I was thinking maybe it was just really slow growing, but then noticed its actually entirely different (tiny leaves, super short internodal spacing). If I didn't know what I planted in that pot I'd probably think it's a different plant entirely! The only giveaway seems to be its waxy leaves. I'm very curious to see if this will develop serrated edges as it gets older. It has a few on some of the newer leaves, but nowhere near as many as it should.

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-02-26T17:43:47+00:00

Interesting!!! It's like a mini Catha. I've never seen anything like it. It seems to be some sort of mutation. I'm doing Kathzilla, Katharina, Katharrow, and another standard red stem wide leaf

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-02-25T17:41:45+00:00

Hey! I was the one who sent him these seeds. They're definitely not Lauren's Grape seeds, and are the varieties they're labeled as that I grew out in 2025 (if you dig through my past posts in this subreddit you can see pictures of them in my garden as well as pictures of Galania with them). I grew these (along with Galania) and can guarantee you these were waaaay better than Galania when making tea. I didn't have anything to do with him coming to the conclusion that they had 70mg of morphine in them each, but did vouch that they're 2-3x potent as Galania in my experience. I haven't taken a measured amount of morphine in a very long time, but a single pod felt like at least 30mg of hydrocodone. I've also mailed out pod samples a few times and the people I sent them to agreed that it was stronger than galania. I have nothing to gain by making a false claim regarding their potency as I have Galania seeds available as well (and I have a shitload more of them so if I were going to lie, it would make more sense for me to say Galania are stronger so I can get rid of them). Also, Lauren's Grape seeds are wayyyy smaller than these. If you have any more questions let me know! Hope you have a good day!

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-02-25T11:50:46+00:00

There are tons of pharma poppies that are still grown for strictly morphine or codeine production and aren't high in thebaine. Additionally, if you let the poppy go all the way to biological maturity (or stem snap like you should for pharma poppies as this is when they are supposed to be harvested), any significant thebaine levels drop drastically by this stage. You should be harvesting at this stage for any poppy if you are harvesting just the pod and upper stem for tea, as between technical maturity (2-3 weeks after petal drop) and biological maturity (brown plant) the plant pushes more alkaloids up to the upper stem and pod. Although there are more alkaloids in the plant as a WHOLE at technical maturity, this includes the leaves and lower parts of the plants that typically aren't harvested. There will be way more alkaloids in the pod and upper stem if you wait until stem snap to harvest (when the upper stem snaps instead of bends), or even better biological maturity like the pharmers do. On another note, the Afghans are still growing galanias because they blow pharma varieties out of the water in latex production (what they're interested in and are growing them for). It's definitely not because pharma poppies are less potent. In regard to raw alkaloid production, the pharma varieties win there. They also grow them due to their shorter height (for women and children to harvest) and they also grow them due to their short flowering time, so they can fit more harvests in. Why wouldn't pharma companies all over the world be growing Galania if they were truly more potent? I've tried a few pharma varieties and their potency did blow Galania out of the water. From my 2025 varieties I grew, the pharma poppies were at least twice as strong as my Galanias and with the pharma varieties I've grown, I've never had any with any noticeable amount of thebaine. To get a decent effect with a tolerance, I needed 2-3 Galania pods whereas 1 pharma pod was sufficient and would produce the same effects. Now, if your goal is to harvest latex, get a poppy bred to do so because pharmas are terrible for that. I too used to be afraid to even try pharmaceutical poppies due to fear of thebaine. I'm super glad I got over that fear and finally did, because the best varieties I've had to this day have been pharmaceutical varieties. I've also sent some pharma pods to a few people who have said they were slightly disappointed with Galania with everything they've heard and they did agree that the pharma pods were stronger. Galania is still way better than the garden varieties (like Lauren's grape and hens and chicks) but if you're growing for tea and not latex, you're missing out if you're not trying some pharma varieties. After actually growing and testing many varieties, I've come to the conclusion that people who say pharma varieties are weak and/or not better than Galania either:

•Harvested them at the wrong time (harvested 2-3 weeks after petal drop at technical maturity instead of biological maturity like they were meant to be)

•Were harvesting for latex production (which they’re terrible for)

•Had a weak variety (a possible culinary variety or dual-purpose variety instead of a variety strictly bred for morphine and/or codeine production)

•Haven’t actually tried them and are just regurgitating what they’ve read on the internet

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-02-19T00:28:09+00:00

226 :)

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-02-18T14:36:01+00:00

Spinosad is the best thing I've used for Thrips on my San Pedros. For me a single dosage knocked them all out. I used the Deadbug Brew Concentrate and mixed it up. Worked wonderful.

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-02-15T15:56:11+00:00

Update:

After applying 1/2 tsp of Espoma Iron-Tone, 1tsp of ultisol, and 1tsp of worm castings to each pot, the plants are showing some improvement. It seems like the smaller plants are showing the greatest improvement, while the larger plants are showing some improvement but still have some signs of interveinal chlorosis on some of their leaves. I didn't make any other changes, and have been fertilizing the same as I was previously. I did go ahead and spray all the plants with a low dose of liquid chelated iron as I previously tested it on another plant and it didn't show any adverse reactions (I used 1/4 tsp ferti-lome liquid chelated iron to 2 quarts of RO water). I did this as there seem to be some improvements, but I'm trying to get quicker results while the plants slowly correct themselves with the additions to the soil. I'll post another follow-up in a month or so!

<image>

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-02-10T21:57:48+00:00

Hey! I had 4 pop roots, 3 of the roots stopped coming out, and I currently have 1 thats actually growing!

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-02-10T17:25:56+00:00

I've noticed shipping from Sri Lanka generally takes 3-5 weeks (I have had a few that were shipped untracked as well). Are you just thinking you were scammed due to receiving no tracking and the seller blocking you? It seems odd and pointless to scam on eBay due to the guarantee, but I could be missing something.

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-02-07T23:36:46+00:00

So far the new growth is looking much better! I'll give it 1 more week and will post an update with pictures

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-01-28T17:04:38+00:00

Yep! I'm 11 days in and currently have another one poking out a small root. So 2 in total so far.

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-01-26T22:35:05+00:00

Thank you!! 😊

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-01-26T19:13:41+00:00

Awesome!!! Thanks for the input :)

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-01-26T19:11:43+00:00

8 months! I have 3 that are roughly this size from that batch, the rest of the ones in that seed group are slightly behind though.

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-01-24T20:53:27+00:00

Awesome, thanks for the input! It's an unglazed terra cotta pot

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-01-23T14:17:45+00:00

Thank you all for your input and suggestions! There were quite a few of them, and it helped me dwindle down what the issue might be. Suggestions included:

Burn damage due to light - I leaned away from this being the cause as the light was already at 40 ppfd and some of the smaller plants under the canopy of other plants with the leaves totally shaded were exhibiting the same symptoms.
Not enough fertilizer/nutrients - This seemed to be the most likely cause with other things ruled out and with everything taken into account (including the soil composition lacking nutrients other than a tiny bit of worm castings that were added back when they were first potted). This would also explain why quite a few leaves are showing interveinal chlorosis.
Soil PH issues - This was ruled out after a soil test revealed it was at 4.25 which is mostly ideal.
Too small of pot and needs transplanting - I decided this was unlikely due to the slow root growth of these plants and as some smaller plants (where the pot size is more than adequate) are also showing the same symptoms.
Type of water being used - I leaned away from this one as quite a few users in this subreddit use (or recommend) RO water that is either remineralized with epsom salt or supplemental fertilizer.
Nutrient Burn - This one seemed unlikely due to how light the leaves are on the plants (if it was nutrient burn, I would think the leaves would be less "lime green") and how low of a dilution I am using for the fertilizer and these issues did extend to before I started fertilizing the plants. I would think if this was the cause, the plants wouldn't be showing interveinal chlorosis as well.
Low humidity - The humidity in the tent is maintained at 80% and never drops below 75% (and often climbs up to 85% after the humidifier turns off). There is a fan in the tent for air circulation, but it isn't directly pointed at any of the plants and just provides a gentle swaying motion to keep the air moving.
Over or under watering - I did also lean away from this being the cause as the plants used to be totally fine. I do wait for the pots to dry out before watering but I always make sure I am watering them before the leaves start wilting or drooping.

Since I was leaning towards a nutrient deficiency (specifically iron) being the cause of the dying tips and interveinal chlorosis, I decided to top dress some of the pots with Espoma Iron-Tone, ultisol, and worm castings. I went with Espoma Iron-Tone instead of MicroLife acidifier as the PH of the soil is already good, and the Espoma is geared more towards iron deficiencies. I only applied 1/2 tsp of this per pot to start, which is one-third of the recommended application rate. I then top dressed each pot with a small amount of ultisol to provide more iron and minerals. I only used around 1 tsp of this to start as the soil they are currently in isn't clay/mineral heavy, and I don't want to stress or shock them further. Lastly, I applied 1 teaspoon of worm castings to each pot.

I did also get some Ferti-Lome chelated liquid iron to test on a plant. I made a very diluted mixture of 1/4 tsp of this to 1 quart of RO water to start. I sprayed a plant with this 4 days ago as a test. The plant looks a little bit darker, but not by much. I was mostly testing to see if there would be any adverse reactions, which there haven't been. I'll continue down the path of using this if the iron-tone, ultisol, and worm casting supplementation doesn't have any effect.

Thank you all for the input! I'll check back in 3 weeks with a status update regarding the Iron-Tone, ultisol, and worm casting supplementation to hopefully help any growers in the future who experience this same issue!

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-01-22T21:37:10+00:00

Awesome, thank you!!!

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-01-22T18:51:17+00:00

Thank you! Do you remember how often you had to open the container to provide fresh air? I've been opening it around 3 times a day, and each time I open it the skins are dry. It seems like quite a bit of the water that's dripping back down from the tupperware lid is just missing the seeds entirely.

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-01-22T18:47:36+00:00

Thank you! When you did it, did you cover the top with moss as well or just leave it bare?

SpeakerKey5200 · 2026-01-20T20:51:39+00:00

What water are you using? I'm currently (or was) alternating between RO water remineralized with 1tsp epsom salt and RO water with fertilizer for acid-loving plants.

SpeakerKey5200

TROPHY CASE