Mainline strawberry kush

Doing well. On her 3rd node. She is in a multi strain grow and has an entry in a white label/sensi seeds competition. Grown before I know what to expect so hoping for an elaborate mainline

She is now pushing out her 4th node. I have transplanted her straight into a 7 gallon fabric pot from the small 1 or 3 litre. I am using Plagron 70/30 Coco/perlite. I will start a mainline soon. She produces large firm buds so a good/successful mainline should fair well. Updated. Now 5 to six nodes. Topping to set the main part of the mainline will be done soon. To do this I will top down to node 3 and remove nodes 1 and 2. This will leave only node 3's 2 fan leaves and two little growth tips. These will become the first main part of the 'manifold'. It's from these the rest of the plant will grow through. It is a long process but if not in a rush it is so rewarding. Once set and sent to bloom, then lollypopped, will hopefully give me 16/32 equal colas with homogeneous buds. Follow to give and/or take tips.

Start of week 3 veg and step one of the mainline is done. This small step now pays off so much. This topping will form the first and main part of the manifold. This diary was entered into the sensi seeds/white label competition but not enough time was given so I may not even get to flower before it ends. A mainline takes time and patience but has been very rewarding in the past. It makes homogeneous buds (all of equal size) so you don't have all the mids bottoms/popcorn buds and instead of one main cola you dictate how many with mainlining. 8/16 is a common amount but I've seen 32/64 and even a 128 on YouTube!! Think I'll go the 16 route. A traditional mainline will need 4 topping sessions for 16. An alternative can be done which takes less topping but doesn't guarantee the homogeneity as much As you can see it didn't skip a beat and recovered straight away. It was only two days. The main reason is because I grow it to 5 or 6 nodes at least and too down to 3. You may say why grow that too just to cut it off and the answer is it will probably faster doing this rather than topping straight away. She isn't as established so tales longer. I will tie these tops opposite each other when long enough. I will decide whether to just top each one and do it more traditional or I can top em, leave node one on (traditional would remove) This when each topped and node 1 to stay you will end up with 2 new mains and 2 node 1 on each side. This is now at 8 heads. Topping the 8 tops will give a total of 16. And again for 32. Never done more but who knows. I'd like to really push her. The large buds she provide àre the biggest I've grown. This is one of 3 strains that I have/I am growing again. as said earlier she never paused for a second. You can see in my pictures of the topping and just days later.. the growth has surprised me. I've seen it take 10+ days to get to this stage. The way to do this is for example you want to top your plant at node 3 or other low ones ( 2,3,4) is to let it grow first to at LEAST 5 or 6 nodes. You may think that it's a waste of time but you will save that with how quick shr should recover. Aaaaand as an added bonus you could use the cutting for a clone and a free plant Four.days after the topping and those tops are pushing out their 3rd node. Now something to decide. Do I keep traditional and take off node one and two of the new shoots or leave node one on. If I do this there will be four tops each side. One more topping then would give me the 16. I'll see

11 aug 2023 Well. She recovered very well with the first topping. Two big tips I am implementing is when I top, leave a stub. This will help prevent splitting later on. And to wait to do the toppings till there is more to cut off. This may sound counter productive but she won't stunt at all and power on as if nothing had been done. ,14 aug 2023 So now I have taken the second tops. This has now made 4 growth tips . I think I am going to top two more times. That should make 16 colas!!! 18 aug 2023 Less than a week after the 1st topping she is ready for the 3rd. 3rd topping done. Now I will Because I let her grow to 6 nodes and topping to the 3rd rather than as soon as 3 was up has shown in the recovery time. It could be said I wasted a week growing nodes 3 to 6 only to chop off but no way would I have been able to top to this stage by now so that's a good lesson learned. I may leave it at 8 as space is limited. I'll veg for a couple more weeks and decide depending on size whether to top, flower or veg

19 aug I have started training the main two manifold stems apart. I am hoping to train the 8 tops in a pizza slice /pie chart style by tying them to the pot edge then letting them bend up from there. After some advice taken from fellow gd growers I've decided to hold back 25% on my nitrogen nutes (grow+bloom) and omitted calmag for a few days. The leaves are huge and leathery so I've backed the light off. Also 25% via the dimmer. I have also read that giving too much N will cause very leafy plants, tho genetics play a part I would have thought . It was affecting 3 of 4 girls so too strong seems likely as the 1 that is fine is a lot more established (just put to flower) That's in another diary The 8 tops are all a couple of inches long now. I think I will train and veg for two weeks or so more . Hopefully that will be enough.

I have trained her 8 future colas apart. Plan is now to veg for two weeks then I'll have a space available for her to go to flower Wanting to flower but need some more growth first. The breeder states that she can triple in height during the stretch. Ime she at least doubles so I could flower her..... I'll give her till Saturday (5 days)

Well today is day one of flower. I am hoping I timed it right. I guess we will find out. I have changed my base nutes from emerald harvest, grow micro and bloom, to advanced Nutrients sensi Coco bloom A&B due to loss of confidence and a return to a known performer. My feeding plans will be : Wk 1-3 silica blast Shogun calmag A&B Roots excellurator Sweet grape Wk 4 silica blast Shogun calmag A&B H&G Bud XL New Millennium Ruby ful Sweet grape Wk 5 silica blast A&B H&G Bud XL H&G top booster Ruby ful Sweet grape Wk 6-8 A&B Bud XL Top shooter Ruby ful. Sweet grape But I may try Advanced Nutrients Overdrive instead of the Top Shooter. Just 3 days in an the growth is explosive as the photos show 5 days ====== She is bushing out a lot. Just days ago you could see in the middle of the plant at its structure but the leaves have totally covered it. I plan to do a good defoliation and a bit of pruning at around the 3 week mark but for now some light leaf removal to open up the growth tips.

Start of week 2 ============ She has bushed out a lot in week 1 due to my decision not to take off the nodes slightly lower down from the tops. I am starting advanced nutrients big bud Coco at half dose moving up to full dose by the end of the week as long as the plant says it's ok. I could raise her up a bit but I'm just going to leave it as it is. I'm also starting new millennium ruby fulvic. It will be the last week for house and garden roots excellurator. I have lowered the scrog net but it could do with being a touch lower but I can't because of a slightly taller plant in the same tent. End of week 2 and I have given her a defoliation. I will wait till end of week 3 and give her the final defoliation and prune off any tips that aren't going to reach canopy level, therefore the energy used to make the popcorn buds can be better utilized in the tops. Day 12 ====== Gave a good defoliation today. She will have another at day 21 that will be the last apart from ones covering bud sites. I did do some pruning as well as it would get very busy later on. Just a day later and she is taking a nice shape with a very level canopy. There are the 8 equal mains which are all tied to the edge of the pot and the growth lower down on the stems is filling up the middle of the plant . I have started big bud and in the coming days I will start the bud XL. I am coming to the end of my advanced nutrients sensi Coco bloom which I replaced emerald harvest with. I could go back to emerald harvest but I wanted a one part base so went with Terra Aquatica novamax bloom (was general hydroponics) and also the final part (ripen). That is to be used the last 2 weeks on its own! It's all new to me so I'm learning on the go. I will review all I use. Those aren't coming for another 5-6 days so if necessary I will substitute for either canna Coco , which I have a bit left or E.H. I'm looking forward to trying this one part base. I have a lot of advanced nutrients sensi Coco grow so it will just be the bloom part of the nova max I need. If it's good I will eventually move to the grow part

Week 3 start. I'm starting big bud and bud XL. I will be changing the base to ta/GH novamax bloom and later I will try the final part. I've never used the general hydro nutes so it's time to learn some more. The pk addition confuses me but I have found big bud and overdrive the best so far. But I want to try more as there are many systems . It used to be just canna a&b and pk13/14 . I think I'm well embroiled in the marketing bullshit! I am trying to use less but there is the fear of them not turning out as well. I would love to try soil but it seems a totally different ball game. I'll stick to Coco for now. Day 20 ====== Coming on well and every time I clear a few leaves she puts double back. Tomorrow I'm going to give her a final defoliation and prune off some that is lower on the plant and so air circulation is improved. I will only remove leaves that are blocking bud sites. Other than that I am going to leave her alone. Day 21 =================== At the end of week three and I couldn't be happier. I have grown this strain multiple times and every time is a pleasure. She clones excellent and is my all time/all round favourite strain. Skywalker cookies a close second. Mmm cross them together. That would be amazing. Strawberry jedi biscuit lol. Well I was going to give her a defoliation and prune but on inspection and readjusting of the plant ties it seems I don't need to do much. She opened up beautifully with a level or slightly domed canopy. I look forward to week 4 and a sea of fresh white pistils. She usually has large button shaped early buds with thick white pistils emerging in week 4 and then conical by end of week 5. She usually is done at about 60-65 days. Looking at her today shows me that come harvest she is going to be special.

Start of the 4th week and she looks fabulous. I she will be left alone now to flower. I've decided to use big bud then on t overdrive but seeing as I haven't much I will do big bud weeks 2,3,4 then overdrive weeks 5+6 finishing with 10 days of final part and 4-7 days of flush. End of week 4. She is looking stunning. Anyone who says mainlining takes too long should see what rewards you get. I may mainline all from now on.

We are in week 5 since flip. She's looking very healthy. I have cut out the calmag this week . I will add botanicare sweet grape which is a magsul with no nitrogen. I should be starting advanced nutrients overdrive in place of big bud but I'm trying Ripen instead for the last week or so.

Starting week six of flower. I have given her a random flush and reset of the nutrients. She is becoming very leafy so may remove some bio mass as I've recently had some budrot and until the rh drops I'm going to be over cautious. I have noticed something very strange, something I've never come across before. The canopy is very level but 6 out of the 8 mainlined tops are sort of like splitting the tip into two buds. Very odd. I have grown this strain many times too. I'll put it in the questions and see if anyone sheds some light. I am adding botanicare sweet grape for a magnesium and sulfur boost. I read somewhere that week six is a good time to give me some sulfur. I know TA Ripen is a 0-5-4 with a good dose of sulfur, 5% off the top of my head which I will use in week 7 and/or 8 An answer to my question that I am adopting is something called fasciation I think. Like fused stems. Might not be tho. Coming to the end of week 6 now and week 7 feed will change. I will stick with the silica, sweet grape (magsul) , ruby ful, and power buds. I have already cut out the calmag and this week will see me stop using big bud and novamax bloom. In place of the novamax and big bud I'm going to try Terra Aquatica Ripen. So no nitrogen at all from now

Week seven ========== This week I am stopping everything apart from ruby fulvic, power buds and starting TA Final Part. She is usually done around the nine week mark so over the next 3 weeks I'll slowly reduce the final part till nothing. She will be flushed for a few days to a week. Coming to the end of week seven. She is far from ready but showing some purple in the buds and the frost is insane!! Still ended up far too leafy tho. Something Ive been trying to reduce. Week 8 soon and I'll be tapering down on the final part . Today's feed was 1.2ec and I'll be dropping a 0.1 every day or so.

Start of week 8 and it may be too soon but I am starting a two week flush of just water. I've read that with Coco only a few days are needed but I rarely see the fade so that's what I'd like to see. The trichomes are about 20% clear 60% cloudy and maybe 20% amber. I'm hoping to wait till a good 40-50% have turned amber . I am trying to get a more sedative type of effect. . She is a really dark shade of green so hopefully will lose it as she uses her stored nutrients The buds are going very purple with red leaf veins. I've not seen this on this strain before. The buds are very large and sticky and smell great. These traits I have seen before. Her stretch was perfect for this mainline and I will use this technique next time I grow this strain. I still have beans and I know she clones well. Day 52 and I think I'm gonna stagger this harvest. The top of the tops are purple but lots of leaves so I'll take them off at day 56 and leave the rest for a few days to a week .

This grow went without a hitch. I mainlined her to 8 mains then let her flower. It does take a bit extra veg time but mainlining really is a good way to get very even light coverage along with nutrients fed equally via the manifold. The whole plant is grown from one node.