Bubba Kush (Barney's Farm)

Welcome to the Bubba Kush! The seed I popped completely shed its shell during germination with a very small tap root. It was a pain in the butt to transplant into the cup of Happy Frog due to this and I had to baby her alot to get her going. That being said, she rooted just fine and has taken off. I'm growing her in a 3x3 veg tent along with a Grape Diamonds. Keeping the humidifier at 60%rh and the temps between 74-63 over the day/night cycle. I don't expect rapid temperature changes BUT as the temperatures get colder out the tent may get a bit colder at nights. I plan on topping her after 3 or so weeks and throwing her in the flower tent when both plants are ready to be trained under the net.

Week two of the Bubba and she's taken off! Good growth rate and a nice green color. I turned the clip fan on and put the humidifier in the tent and ever since then her first set of leaves are a bit mangled but I don't notice any ill effects really. Going to continue to grow her in the solo cup until she needs to be transplanted. Depending on how fast she grows I may have to just top her before transplant, although I would prefer to transplant first. Nothing really else to report other than that I'm on autopilot with the occasional watering at 6.5ph. See you next week!

Transplanted the Bubba Kush on day 21 to a 7 gallon fabric pot of 50% FF Ocean Forest, 50% FF Happy Frog, and a bit of dolomite lime. I usually transplant around week 3 without issue but it seems like the Bubba Kush doesn't like something. Her leaves are droopy and while there is decent growth every day she is super small and stout. Day 20 in particular you can see the first set of leaves fading and becoming yellow. This may be due to her needing to be transplanted, although I would like to note that she's been pretty droopy since germination. I forgot to take photos, but when I transplanted her I observed her roots for awhile and noticed that despite the Bubba being about a week ahead of the Grape Diamonds, her roots were not as long or vigorous. Regardless, I sprinkled some myco directly on the roots and transplanted her to her final pot. The humidity in the tent has been drastically lowered this week as I've moved the humidifier from the veg tent to the flower tent to provide the 60%rh needed to dry the Mephisto's Wedding. I don't expect low humidity to be an issue after I transplant into bigger pots and the plants start to become bigger. Hopefully in the next week she makes a full recovery and starts catching up to the health of the Grape Diamonds. If all goes well for the next few weeks, I plan on topping her alongside the Grape Diamonds. I also plan on feeding only water, compost tea, and dry amendments. I will probably veg her out for maybe another 4 or so weeks and will probably start feeding in 5 or so weeks.

Slow but consistent growth in the 4th week of veg. Not too excited about the growth rate though. Her environment checks out with temps ranging between 72-60f, RH at 50-60%, and water PH at 6.5. I'm not overwatering or underwatering her either so I'm not too sure whats going on. Maybe she's didn't take too well to the transplant? Maybe its just the genetics? Regardless she IS growing everyday and it doesn't look like she is in danger of dying or being severely stunted which is good. Hopefully within the next few weeks she picks up the pace as her root system fills out the pot. Just waiting for her to get big to top. Will probably only top once, but maybe twice depending on how long I want to keep her in veg. Also want to move her to the flowering tent down the line to get her acclimated to it as well as train her for a few week under the SCROG before flipping.

Looks like the bubba really took off in week 5. Was worried I got a runt or there was something wrong, but her growth rate has exploded this week. Obviously I would like for her to be further along but I'm not complaining now that she is on track. Look at the difference between day 29 and 35 with just 7 days worth of growth. The same has happened with the Grape Diamonds and I suspect that changing the light cycle in response to the very cold weather has sped up growth considerably with warming avg temps in the tent. Looking at roughly between 63-75f now (instead of the dreaded sub 60s we had for a few days) and a nice 50-60RH with the humidifier in the tent. I topped her at day 34 and look how she has responded! Incredible growth. I'm getting pretty excited to flip her but I'm definitely going to be vegging her out for maybe like another 3 weeks or so. I've got to figure out when I want to start training her under the SCROG net and also when to start feeding her. She's in the 7 gallon so I'm pretty sure she is good on nutrients for while still. See you next week!

She is perfect and on track to be flipped in about 2 weeks or so. Put the SCROG net up on day 41. She looks mangled and messed up under the SCROG but that's just the way it be and she'll fill out the net nicely in the coming days. I'm going to try to get every top as even as possible and give time for the lower branches to make their way to the top of the canopy. The fan leaves on both the Bubba and Grape Diamonds are fat and gigantic and they shade out lower nodes. The plan is to lollipop a few days before flip and then prune the large fan leaves in the first few weeks of flower but until then I'm not defoliating at all unless the lower leaves touch the soil. I'm probably going start feeding next week or the week of flip. She's looking healthy and I don't want to burn her but this is my first time feeding with dry amendments on a photoperiod.

I've been able to train the Bubba under the net pretty well over the last week and most of her tops are pretty even. Being the lazy grower that I am, I've opted to not defoliate at all (even though I should have) so I've been tucking what fan leaves I can under the net. My only concern is that the fat fan leaves do in fact shade out lower branches but that's okay because I'm going to be doing a big defoliation/lollipop in about two days. The plan is to cut at minimum the lowest 50% of leaves and branches from the bottom of the plant and then tuck the remaining leaves that block light from bud sites. I will also probably put up another scrog net to further train her branches during the stretch as well as feed her some dry amendments right before flower. Really looking forward to flowering her and seeing her fill out the net with beautiful buds

Pruned the girls this week. Been training her under the net nicely for a bit and decided that it was time to give her a haircut. On day 51 I stripped most of lower fan leaves and branches. I want to increase airflow and light to the bottom of the canopy while at the same time removing node sites that take up energy during flower. The idea is to put as much energy into the top buds so every bud you get is high quality instead of having crappy airy buds develop at the bottom. I'm a bit confused on the best way to defoliate/prune/lollipop so I like to do a bit of experimentation. This time around I left a few big fan leaves at the bottom. This will restrict airflow a bit but will allow me to diagnose problems with the plant as I feel most problems show on the lower leaves first. Most of the foliage below the canopy is gone though which puts me in a bit of a pickle because I didn't take off too many of the fan leaves at the top of the canopy. This prevents light from getting to future budsites which kind of sucks but to mitigate the shade I've been tucking those leaves under the net. I took two clones of each cultivar just for fun and also just in case the bubba or grape turn out to be 10/10. You can see on day 51 I've cut clones and placed them into the humidity dome. No clonex or anything fancy like that so hopefully they both root properly. After her lollipop and defoliation I fed her some dry amendments. The recommendation is 1-2tbsp per gallon of medium for both All Purpose and Kelp meal but I fed her about half of that and plan to do that every 2 weeks from now on. Will add Seabird Guano starting in flower. I've just changed the light cycle today to 12/12. Excited to see them stretch, but also worried I didn't take enough leaves and branches off. Will probably do another round of defoliation/lollipopping after week 1 and week 2 of flower. I think I've made a mistake by growing them too big, but we will see going into flower 😁.

Welp, we've done the classic "wait until the plant shows signs of deficiency and then feed dry amendments" move with the bubba (and also the grape diamonds). Seems I didn't feed early enough to prevent a potassium deficiency and now I'm paying the consequences. You can see the serrations yellow. New leafs are thin and weak. Spotting starting to show up now. Flipped her on day 56 and I don't plan on keeping her in veg to fix the deficiency. Pray for me fellas 🙏. Fed her some kelp meal and now some langbeinite with compost tea. I don't think she is going to bounce back and I may just have to start again. I thought the preliminary feeding one week before flip would be sufficient enough to take her into flowering but I guess not. Next grow I'll definitely be adding full+ strength nutrients at around week 4 or 5 and then keep up with the feeding every 2 weeks after. This is my second time trying out dry amendments over liquid nutrients and my first time doing it on a photoperiod so its to be expected that I make mistakes. Next grow I'll have to tweak my feeding to make sure we don't get any deficiencies.

Looks like shes going through stretch. Alof of the leaves are dead and dying. She may make it through flower, although I'm sure the results won't be very good. She's putting off pistils and she is stretching alot so I'm going to keep her going. Hopefully i don't have to kill her but we will see.

Not alot of pictures this week due to being busy. Admittedly also a bit bummed out about the deficiency so the passion and drive to document hasn't been there. All of her leaves are damaged and alot of them are starting to fall off the plant. That being said, the plant IS stretching and producing pistils. The leaf growth on the top seem to be decently healthy and I wonder if they're actually going to make it. I also wonder if the results will be any good. She isn't really giving off a smell yet although I think she should be. Fed her some more amendments and another compost tea. Will continue to grow them in the hopes of a decent harvest. If the buds don't form properly I'll just chop them and start over.

Her bud production is a bit slow and behind, but she is producing. Quite surprised considering the damage done at the beginning of flower. She has definitely finished stretching and now she is producing trichs on the tops. She is also starting to smell just a little bit but not as much as the grape diamonds. I've been taking dead leaves off her and the grape almost every day. It seems like there are more issues with the plant as evidenced by some of the newer leaves but there's no way I'm going to be able to properly diagnose every issue as the plant probably has every issue haha. That being said I think I've hit the point where I know I'm probably on track for at least a decent harvest. Hopefully I am right 👍 I didn't expect the bubba to stretch as much as she did considering the deficiency as well as the genetics. Barney's Farm states that the lineage is an Afghan Indica Landrace x OG Kush so you would think that its a bit more indica leaning than the grape therefore should stretch less. I know cannabis genetics is just more than sativa/indica, phenotypes and expressions etc. I'm not incredibly experienced though, just making some simple observations. What a disaster my feeding schedule has been. Just been winging it this entire time but now I've got a better picture of how to grow with organic dry amendments. Next run I think I'm going to use Build A Soil's Craft Blend for the majority of the grow and MAYBE build a bloom added in towards the end. I'll be popping some seeds for next run probably around week 7 of flower or so. Really looking forward to starting a new run and hopefully this run turns out good. See you next week!

Getting a bit worried about the Bubba's development. Her buds are very slow to grow compared to the grape diamonds. She's not really filling out that much and I fear that she won't yield. Will keep her going in hopes that she fills out.

Finishing up week 6 of flower and the Bubba is chugging along. She continues to put out trichs and her pistils are starting to turn color. While I'm happy she is developing, her bud development is not the best. Her colas are long and thin, not much mass on them at all. Regardless I will see her to the finish line. Another 3 or so weeks and I can chop her and put this plant behind me.

Chuggin' on to the end of flower. About half of her pistils are turning brown and shes packing on a little bit of weight. Buds are airy and fluffy and have an earthy/fruity smell to them. Another two weeks and she should be good to go.

She looks like she's just about done. Still putting off a few new pistils here and there but I don't expect her to bulk up that much more. Despite being thin and larfy, she has produced a good amount of trichs. Its interesting to see them form even on the the damaged fan leaves. A bit disappointed still as the quality isn't what it could have been. I'll start looking at her trichs under the microscope in the next few days to get a determination on when I should cut her. Looking forward to it!

Well boys, its time to chop. Looking through the microscope I spot mostly cloudy and some amber trichcomes. She's not going to put on much more mass so I chopped her and hung the full plant in the tent. Looking for a minimum 7 day dry!

Chopped her on 3/24 after 114 days of growing. She spent 11 days drying in the tent for a perfect dry. The humidity in the jars is 58-62 which is perfect. To summarize, I'm pretty disappointed with this grow. As you've seen, both the Bubba Kush and Grape Diamonds were hit with a pretty bad potassium deficiency right before flower and it definitely effected the quality and yield of the buds. I got 1.5oz on both cultivars, which is less than half of what I normally pull with this tent and light. Out of the two cultivars, the Bubba definitely did the worst. She took the brunt of the deficiency and most buds are small and unusable despite a lollipop. Most of the buds are small, with some being of medium size. Her buds are fluffy and the leaf to flower ratio was bad. Trimming her was a huge pain in the ass. That being said, there are some decent quality buds. The aroma of the buds is actually really good and it smells minty, fruity, sweet, and earthy. Despite the Bubba showing signs of deficiency last, she definitely performed the worst. I stressed the fuck out of this plant and abused her and I'm happy that neither her nor the Grape Diamonds hermed on me. If I enjoy the effect of the Bubba I will definitely be growing her again with the intent to grow her to her full potential. While I don't want to rate this cultivar (as I achieved a subpar harvest via user error) I will say that Barney's Farm is legit. Jarred the buds with 1.5oz on the scale. What could I have done better this grow? 1. Feed dry amendments earlier (in this case, 2 weeks earlier). 2. Give her more soil via bigger pot (7 gallon to 10 gallon). 3. Use better dry amendments (moving on from Down to Earth to BuildaSoil Craft Blend.) That's about it. I'm glad this grow is over. 17 weeks for a measly 1.5 ounce of usable bud is pathetic. I would have been better off vegging for half the time and would have probably gotten a better result. That being said, you live and you learn. I will adjust and get better for future organic only grows. :D