Alberta Outdoor - Purple Lemonade

May 30: Transplanted outdoors in rural Alberta. Rototilled garden plot. Had decent amount of rain the past week and soil is moist. Thouroughly watered in seedlings and covered with plastic houses as the nights can get close to frost. Forecast for coming week is hot weather.

June 6: Looking very healthy. Watered it in and placed the cover back on for another week. Starting to smell already. Can't wait to see this one develop. The coming week forecast is mild and rainy.

June 12: We had about an inch of rain this week. Kept the plants covered with a small plastic cover given still mild weather. Removed the cover going forward. This one had overgrown the cover and a bit squished inside. Looking healthy.

June 20: We had an inch and a half of rain this week. Weather has been mild, windy and even a bit chilly. First week without cover and looking a bit rough and wind blown. Preflowers are showing purple! This one is going to be a beauty.

June 27: After a rough start, starting to look a lot better and roots getting established. I was hoping for more veg time before flowering but lot of new growth this week and some initial flower development. Weaker smell vs adjacent varieties, bur this one have some great color. Purple calyxes showing. Watered in thoroughly. Temps expected 35-40C this week🔥.

July 1: Very hot weather across Western Canada this week reaching 35-40C. Plants have grown considerably and now starting to form flowers. Thoroughly watered in with well water. The purple coloration on this cultivar is outstanding and frost is starting to show. Odor is developing nicely to smell of lemons. Top shelf, solid genetics exactly as advertised. Very impressed overall.

July 11: Another warm week across Western Canada. Some rain to support the hot weather with decent soil moisture content. Did not require irrigation. Really impressed with flower formation. The colors on Purple Lemonade are outstanding. What a beauty. Super stoked with this strain. Expect these ladies to fatten up over the coming weeks. Odor is strong and resin smells lime/lavender. I can smell these ladies from across the field. Completed single branch pollination with feminized pollen taken from Mephisto Double Grape reversed female. Solid genetics from Fast Buds... really impressed.

July 17: Cooler temperatures across Western Canada and very little precipitation. Soil is quite dry in first 4 inches then moist below that. Regional forest fires bringing in quite a bit of haze and smoke to the area. Did not irrigate this week. Buds are starting to stack. Resin smells lime/lemon and lavender. Plants seem to have stopped stretching and expect flowers to fatten up over coming weeks. Pretty impressed that side braches have decent flower and resin. Purple flowers are quite appealing.

July 25: There was about an inch of rain this past week. Soil has ideal moisture content. Temperature hovering around highs of 25C. Buds are fattening up and filling out and she is done stretching. Resin is sweet lemon/lime and lavender. Small lower bud removed to test.

July 31: Another hot week here in Alberta. Smoke from regional forest fires in the area. High temps but haze doesn't allow full sun. So far in this grow no nutrients have been added whatsoever. Aside from watering a couple of times from well water, these ladies have received only rain water. No special treatment. Surprised by the weight and thickness of buds. Lots of resin and very sticky almost oily, smelling of sweet lime/lavender. Only downside is dirt and sand. It appears lower buds are quite dirty. Has anyone washed their buds off? May need to do this. Some leaves are starting to fade which means harvest isn't far off. Maybe another 2 to 3 weeks to go.

Aug 7: Day 82 and harvest isn't far off. I'm thinking one more week, maybe two. The flowers have filled out and lower branches getting droopy from weight. Colas are about 3 inches wide on average, and main cola is about 6 inches wide at the base, which is probably a collection of buds. Lets see what it looks like after trimming. BTW this looks to be a trimmers nightmare, but will gladly put in the time👌😁 Some leaf fade but otherwise looking healthy. Resin rub has strong smell of lemon/lime 🍋.

Aug 15: Chop day. Local conditions being very dry and hot brought on some unexpected pest pressure. Ideally would have let this one go for 1 or more weeks. Flower has a hard to describe odor of citrus/lavender/cream. Buds came out very fat and heavy. Resin appears mainly as mixed capitate stalked, sesile and bulbous glands vs other varieties I've seen where most have capitate stalked dominate. Very sticky. Fairly significant aphid attack on lower fan leaves just starting. A couple of cabbage worms found also. Otherwise no other significant insect damage. Really pleased with the yield on this one: highest yielding plant this year. Will report dry weight when available. Purple buds are quite attractive... looking forward to drying, curing and testing. More details to come...