Perpetual Med Garden - Shiskaberry

The journey started several weeks ago…playing catchup with the diary and wanted to get this started. Much more information and detail to come in future entries. I like this cut…it has a sweet and leathery taste that knocks me on my ass if I consume late in the day. Good for sleep. Shes a pretty heavy producer and can go from cutting to harvest in well under 100 days if your cloning setup is efficient.

Here we are at the end of week 4. I’ve grown this plant once and took her at 56 days, but I have since switched to an 11-13 flowering photoperiod which does seem to hasten maturity. My garden is 100% personal and this plant is some of my favorite herb. She has a berry smell, but there is also leather. Very nice. Not recommended for daytime. She also yields very well. These flowers will really swell in the last couple of weeks. I was able to get a height measurement on her when I moved her into the flower tent. I take this measurement and compare it to the final height at harvest. This observation will give me a good idea of how much she stretches. I find that the ratio I record is applicable as long as the environment is similar. I do this so I can try to time the transition to flower to maximize vertical growth (and yield) on future grows. Nothing is worse than when you know they are going to grow into the lights and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

Once you get to this point in the cannabis life cycle, growing is easy. Using the Beanstalk line of nutrients allows me to only use water from beginning to the end of my grows. No mixing nutes, no teas, no anything. I adjust the pH of my water to the 5.8-6.5 range, but I’m not even sure that is necessary. I have never tested using water right out of the tap as it’s almost 9.0, but that would simplify things even further. Experience has taught me to simplify. This goes for all aspects of growing. I used to top and train my plants under a tellis. Then I would spend hours trimming and had jars overflowing with flowers that I was never going to smoke. Now, I go for a month of veg and right into flower. No training, no topping. In addition to allowing a much faster turnover, I can gauge the growth habits of my plants much more effectively. For example, you can see this Shiskaberry plant exhibits significant and abundant lateral branching. Not only that, but those branches are strong enough to support the weight of the flowers they hold. This means that this plant would be an ideal candidate for a ScrOG or LST setup where the goal is a ‘carpet’ of flowers. After running this cultivar several times, I also have an accurate flowering timeline and can approximate stretch to allow users to fit their grow. More on this in the future. For now, enjoy the end of week 5.

Here’s the end of Week 6. About 2 more weeks to go. Shes smelling great, looking strong, and will continue to pack on weight from here on out.