StrawNana!

I took down the Strawberry Banana on Day 61, which was much earlier than I had planned but after the attack of budrot and with nowhere to isolate this plant, I decided to take the decision to harvest early. To be honest, it was probably going to come down this weekend anyway, so I feel like I only went early by about 5 days or so in the end. The vast majority of trichomes are cloudy with only one or two ambers loosely dotted about due to this, but it's okay. Better to harvest early than lose the whole crop! The smell is fantastic. I gotta be honest, I don't get defined strawberries or bananas. It smells like a vaguely fruity, slightly sweet weed to me. It does have quite a strong scent profile, so not one for a stealth grow and it's very, very sticky. >> HARVEST AND TRIM << considering the fact I had to throw away the main top of this plant, I think the yield was really good. Coming in at 211g wet, I think I'll be looking at a good couple of ounces dry. I reckon the cola I tossed away due to rot would've gotten this to around 300g wet, which is not a bad effort at all! Real shame about the rot, but that's life and we gotta look at the positives! Trim for this one was nice and easy, not a massive amount of sugar leaves and what was there were nice and big so very easy to snip off. I trimmed it up and hung it to dry in 25c temps with humidity floating between 40-45%. Overall this only took me about 45 minutes for the plant, so I'd say that was good! >> DRY BUD REPORT << So after a good dry, the final weight came in at 51g, a little lower than I expected, but it's pretty good again, considering I had to throw away the main top. The scent has really come along and the buds have a really great, pungent, sweet and fruity vibe. I still don't think they smell like strawberries or bananas, but they do have an indistinct fruit smell. They're a little airy, not too dense, but overall have good structure and I'm pleased with them! >> EARLY SMOKE << Here's what it's all about. The early smoke was a little harsh honestly, but that's okay. I'm used to smoking well-cured bud so I expect a little bit of harshness with bud that's had only a short dry period and no cure yet. I'm quite sure they'll smooth out in time. As far as the stone goes, this hit me quite hard, though I am quite a casual smoker. Probably I would keep this for a nighttime smoke, as it was very relaxing and gave me a happy, contented head stone, with a nice mushy warm chest. I liked it, strong enough but gentle on the up. >> FINAL THOUGHTS << A good grow overall, marred by the Botrytis attack on the home stretch. I managed to catch it early enough to move past it though and rescue a good amount. I think Strawberry Banana is a good plant to grow though, a good yielder and relatively unfussy. Judging the early smoke, this is a really nice bud, so I'm going to grow it again in a couple of rotations and see how that one goes before making any final decisions. Always happy to chalk this one up to new experiences dealing with budrot anyway! And that's about that! Thanks for reading! Stay healthy, grow well! x