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Welcome! Here we go again, another month, another new diary!
>> SEEDS <<
Fastbuds - Orange Sherbet Auto
I've been growing a lot of Indica dominant strains recently, so I really wanted to break that tradition and grow something heavily Sativa dominant. It was a toss up between Orange Sherbet Auto and a Mephisto freebie cross of Hubba Bubba Haze x Mango Smile. I went with the Fastbuds in the end because I like the sound of the citrus vibe for a nice, fresh spring harvest. Here's the official blurb:
"A Sativa dominant citrus terpy beast that hash makers and extractors will fall in love with. A superb autoflowering hybrid that boasts an impressive 24% THC, to match her wonderful taste with potency. Well recommended for first-time growers looking for a low maintenance, yet extremely productive cultivar that will flower from seed to harvest in 9-10 weeks. This strain can grow tall making her one of the larger autoflowering hybrids, meaning she is a wise choice for commercial growers in search of something extra special."
Other details are 63-70 days from seed flower time, 70/30 Sativa/Indica with a total size of 110-150cm. I'll be doing some fairly heavy LST to keep that size down for sure.
>> EQUIPMENT <<
I keep things pretty Lo-Fi:
3 Gallon Felt pot
Vitalink Calmag
Bio-Bizz Light Mix
Bio-Bizz Grow
Bio-Bizz Bloom
Bio-Bizz Alg-A-Mic
Fecida CR600 125w LED
I grow in the Space Cupboard, a broom cupboard in my kitchen with the walls wrapped in survival blankets. It's small, but it's stealthy and convenient.
>> GERMINATION TIMELINE <<
26/03 - Seed put in between two cotton pads, soaked in water and kept in between two bowls kept in a warm space. I've filled the pot with soil and moved it next to the Space Cupboard to warm it up a little as it has been outside in my shed and is pretty cold, so it'd be nice to get it up to indoor room temps before planting.
27/03 - It took about 30 or so hours for the seed to pop and have a nice size taproot. I've planted her into a small section of pre-watered soil just off centre in the pot and covered with a humidity dome so that I don't have to keep misting the soil to keep it from drying out.
28/03 - Sprout broke the surface of the soil this morning, taking about 2.5 days from seed which is pretty good going. Anyway, we're up and running, so here we GO.
Looking forward to this grow, I love a nice citrus in my space and I love the sound of the orange tangerine vibe, so fingers crossed we get some of those later on!
Welcome to the first week of Sherbs short life!
Day 4 - Height: 2"
This plant was a little slow to germinate and when she sprouted, she stayed really, really small for a couple of days, doing very little at all, but then suddenly, bam, she's started to grow and rapidly at that! I'm doing very little as always in the seedling stage. Taking care not to overwater, just using a small amount, about a shot glass full of water every other day or so 1" around the stem. Looking healthy, but it's all just a waiting game for now until she gets into veg.
Welcome back to my current obsession, my Orange Sherbert grow!
Day 8 - Height: 3"
Just creeping through the seedling stage, she was a slow starter actually, staling out for a few days around day 4-7 but she's suddenly had a nice little growth spurt and starting to come along. Nothing much happening in the care side of things, just watering very little, every 2-3 days, just around the stem. She did fall over a bit, which was weird because it wasn't like she stretched or anything, but she seems to have corrected herself so whatever! I'm going to be training her that way anyway, so I wasn't really bothered by it at all anyhow. Looking forward to a good week of growth as she comes out of seedling and into some real veg growth!
Day 11 - Height: 5"
Coming along now, this plants Cotyledons are starting to fade now, so she will be ready to take on its first dose of nutrients at the next water, which should put her in line with my feed chart. Looking good though and I'll give her another week and start training her down towards the end of next week, around about Day 16-18 I think. Seedling stage beat once more and here we go moving into veg! She's developing a lovely structure so far, I have high hopes for this strain, so fingers crossed.
Thanks for reading, grow well x
Welcome back to my Orange Sherbet grow! Time to tie this one down!
Nutrient solution was low, given it was the first week, measuring 647 PPM in and 689 PPM in the run off. Nothing special to note, given it was the first week of nutrient use. (Note: my water sits around 350 PPM out of the tap.)
Day 15 - Height: 3"
Everything is looking good and she's nice and healthy, with the first nodes looking strong, so I began training. As per usual, I made a small anchor to one side of the pot about an inch up the main stem to ensure she doesn't get uprooted, then bent her over and pinned down the main stem, and began shaping the first two nodes worth of side stems, just pulling them backwards and towards the sides of the pot. I'll have to readjust as she grows out, but the internodal spacing is nice on this plant, so I think training is going to be easy to get a good, even canopy and nice bushy shape. Aside from the training, I gave her the first dose of nutrients, which she seems to have taken on completely fine without flinching, so thats good. I really like this plant so far, I have a good feeling about her...
Day 19 - Height: 4"
So after the LST, it seems I must have put a little too much pressure on the top of the plant as she basically bent 90 degrees at the anchor point, essentially supercropping her. Not ideal, but it doesn't seem to have bothered her any, so it's no big deal. She seems to be trucking on regardless, and has started to grow out over the last day or so, so should start stretching up over the next week and bushing into a good size. I think she's probably going to start showing pre-flowers next week too, so she's still motoring along and seems to be quite fast.
Thanks for following along, stay healthy and grow well x
Welcome back to the Orange Sherbet! This plant is flying through the weeks and looking great!
Nutrient solution was this quite high this week for early days at 829 PPM in and 932 PPM in the run off, but all good and she seems to be feeding well. (Note: my water sits around 350 PPM out of the tap.)
Day 22 - Height: 5.5"
What a cracking little plant, with the way the stem bent during training, you might think she'd stall and stunt at least a little bit, but she's ploughed through and is already showing pre-flowers and looking healthy as ever! So far things have been very basic, following my general feed guide to the dot, with 2ml/l of Grow and Alg-A-Mic nutrients, so I'll add Bloom next week and we'll be on track for a pretty fast grow. I'm really glad this one seems to be going well, I was a little worried after the accidental supercropping and I really want this plant to do well. Fingers crossed we'll be okay!
Day 25 - Height: 11"
I guess this plant hit the stretch in the last few days and has shot up in leaps, doubling in height in a couple of days. Leaf structure is a really beautiful example of a sativa dominant hybrid and she's looking great! Due to space I've had to train her quite narrow, but that should be fine. She has started spitting out pre-flowers now, so hopefully will start to fill out and hit flower nice and fast!
Thanks for reading, stay healthy and grow well x
Welcome back to my Orange Sherbet grow, we're ploughing forwards, starting into flower! I haven't grown a Sativa dominant plant for a while, so it's interesting to watch this one develop differently to the Indica heavy strains I've gotten used to.
Day 28 - Height: 15"
I'm really into this plant, I think she has a really lovely structure and leaf shape, but sadly I'm not sure if the training has helped too much, as the side branches have stretched up a bit, but there's one or two that have stayed small. Still, I think she would have stretched way tall if I'd grown her naturally, so it had to be done really, anyway. As far as care goes, I'll start this plant on Bloom nutrients this week as well as add a little CalMag into the feed, just to help her through the transition period from Veg to Flower. She looks really healthy, but I like to add the calmag for a few weeks just to stave off issues that can arise a few weeks into flowering if I don't bother adding anything at all. I did some really light defoliation, she's quite a sparse little bush right now, so probably won't need too much defoliation, but I'll take a few leaves off here and there over the next couple of weeks just to keep the canopy clean and clutter-free.
Day 32 - Height 16"
Still loving this plant. She's so easy to grow and has that nice, sparse leaf structure of a sativa, so I haven't had to do any defoliation at all. I think when she starts packing on bud, she's going to look a real beauty. Care wise, very easy and she looks seriously healthy. Sativa's are usually a lighter green than Indica's and her leaves are bang on, slightly darker than lime. She is also thriving on the proximity to the light and heat, which in my space can cause problems in some strains, but this one is just eating it up. Her vertical growth has slowed down and I doubt she'll stretch up much more now, maybe she'll squeeze up an extra inch or so, but I think she's pretty much reached her final shape now and will hopefully transfer over to full flower over the next week.
Thanks a lot for following along with the grow, take care and grow well!
Welcome back to the Orange Sherbet grow! The smell is starting to creep out and I'm looking forward to those citruses coming through soon!
Day 36 - Height: 16"
Still loving this plant, with its pretty leaves and sparse structure. She has started to kick up a bit of a smell this week, nothing too strong just yet, but I'm hoping they'll come along this next week or so and we'll be able to get a smell of the nice orange citrus that she is supposed to kick out. Caring for this plant is super easy, I'll reduce the Grow nutrients this week again and up the bloom nutrients to full strength and see how she goes. So far she's been fine with nutrients, though I did notice a very slight clawing after last feeding, so I'll have to keep a watchful eye and make sure everything goes okay.
Welcome back to the Orange Sherbet grow! This plant is coming along real well, despite the grow having to be moved to a completely different place with new temps and RH to work out and dial in and a few set backs along the way. Hopefully she won't be slowed down too much by the move!
Day 47 - Height: 16"
Care is easy for this plant at this point, just a few leaves to remove that started to fade hard at the bottom of the plant, nothing unusual for this stage of the grow. The buds are starting to fatten and multiply which is all good. Nutrients have fully switched over to flowering schedules now and she seems to be taking them on board easily with no curling or burn at all. Very easy plant to look after!
Welcome back to the Orange Sherbet grow, starting to get some great smells coming off this little beauty this week!
Day 52 - Height: 16"
Still looking beautiful, this plant is really great and starting to put out that lovely orange scent. I wouldn't say it's too strong until you touch the stem or the buds and then it's very obviously a tangerine/orange skunky stank! Care is really easy now, I have noticed one or two little brown spots appearing on the leaves here and there, but not in any bad way and she still looks really lush and healthy. I'm continuing to feed with 3/2/1ml of bloom/alg-a-mic/grow and everything seems good with that! Buds are starting to pack out now and fill up the stem, so hopefully a good bit of weight will be put on between now and harvest, which should still be a good couple fo weeks off yet.
Really great plant to grow, quite easy and doesn't really require any special care. The smell is pretty out there, when I touched the buds the scent was a clear orange, sort of like Vitamin C tablets. My yield was not great but I had to move my grow in the middle of flower and set it all back up again in new conditions, so I think that probably was not ideal at all. Will look forward to growing this again under better circumstances soon.
The end of the Orange Sherbet is nigh! Really interesting strain to grow, I enjoyed it throughout and it never really gave me any trouble. The smell was very strange, clear orange or mandarine type thing, quite fresh for a weed plant. When you touched it, it made your fingers smell like Vitamin C tablets!
>> HARVEST AND TRIM <<
Bit of a low yield, but that's okay. After having to move my grow mid-flower I knew this run was not going to be the best. I trimmed it up and hung it to dry in 25c temps with humidity floating between 40-45%. Trim was not too bad, bit bushier than some sativa strains but nothing back breaking.
>> DRY BUD REPORT <<
Initial dry took a full week. The buds went into jars with Boveda 62% packs for a good cure before I smoke properly. The yield is pretty low, but like I said, no biggie. Buds look great, smell great and should be a good smoke, so that's the important bit.
>> EARLY SMOKE <<
Love it! For an early smoke, really great, no harshness, but a very unique flavour. I enjoyed it but I can see it being a bit of an acquired taste because it's very flavourful and has its own clear character. Quite sweet. The high was great though, just what I was hoping, nice and energetic and perfect for a day time bud.
>> FINAL THOUGHTS <<
Overall I enjoyed this grow, no real problems and the plant itself is certainly a unique one to have in your grow. Every time I opened the tent up I couldn't resist giving the buds a little touch to get the weird vitamin c scent. I'll grow it gain for sure, next time under better conditions hopefully so I can get a better yield!
And that's about that! Thanks for reading! Stay healthy, grow well! x
scotch_egg
