Strawberry Cough - Fem - Summer 24

Menzee420 Had to move her to a little pot as the root had burst out from the peat pellet. She and her sisters are now living on a window ledge in my lounge where they'll get plenty of sunlight.

Menzee420 The weather has been shite this past week but she still more than doubled in height & is about to sprout her 2nd set of serrated leaves.

Menzee420 Started looking very strong this week. No longer drooping towards the light. Has overtaken her sister next to her after falling behind in height.

Menzee420 Looking really lovely at the moment, very green and lush. New shoots appearing from the first nodes now so should stat getting bushy this week. Will be transferring her to a 40L fabric pot once she's bushed out a bit - then let the Mediterranean sun do it's work! Spring has definitely arrived here now as the long range forecast is nothing but blue skies & increasing temps. Almost time to venture outside I think. Night temps are staying in double figures so I think she'll be fine :D

Menzee420 Outside she goes! It's very windy at the moment so I've had to prop her up with a stick until she's strong enough to handle the wind on her own. Once she's a bit more bushy & maybe a node or two higher I'll start topping her.

Menzee420 Got a bit rainy over the weekend so had to bring my girls back in. Looking a bit more perky now they have settled in after being transplanted.

Menzee420 Now this one has settled in after being transplanted into the larger pot she's really filling out. A few leaves went a bit ugly & she drooped for a few days but now the sun is out & she looks very perky! Will start topping her now she's showing fewer signs of stress. Think she's gonna be huge by the time she starts flowering in 6-8 weeks time!

Menzee420 She really shot up this week due to the increased sunlight & temps. Finally started topping her now too. Apart from the lower leaves which got ugly due to to the transplant stress she's looking perfect! Expecting some temps up to 28c this week she'll be huge this time next week!

Menzee420 This one is going very well. Am a bit worried she's going to out-grow my balcony. 1 month until the summer solstice & the days start to get shorter - and she goes into flower mode & stretches even more.

Menzee420 This one continues to grow & grow! The pistils have started to show now as well which I wasn't expecting so soon. Weather here in the next few weeks is going to be blazing so hoping she fills out a bit. She attracted a few pests this week (aphids I think) which thankfully I noticed early & dealt with as there was just a tiny patch of them under one leaf. Checked over the rest of the leaves for a few days following & haven't found any more appearing.

Menzee420 Ok, so she started flowering on me. Several weeks early! That meant I didn't end up topping her as much as I'd have liked but oh well. Just gonna go with it! Still looking a bit scrawny as she's continuing to grow vertically & stretch! Probably going to get some light nutes on the go.

Menzee420 She's still stretching! Chopped off a few yellow leaves this past week but otherwise looking lovely - although it rained and the rain deposited a load of sand on her which isn't ideal (here in southern Spain we get sand blown up from the Sahara desert which comes down with the rain). Not ideal to have this going on while she's flowering so I'll have to get something built to protect her as I don't want my buds full of Saharan sand! We had a massive mid-week thunder storm which washed off all the sand and now she's looking much perkier & greener!

Menzee420 Getting so hot here now but she's loving it. Taking 4L-5L of water per day, half in the morning half in the evening. She might get stressed and start to wilt a bit in July & August as it gets crazy hot here during summer but I have a sun canopy I can pull over her if needed. Still no issues with pests. Have been giving her a spray with insecticide every 2-3 days. Starting to feel quite confident of the outcome of this grow already. I tried to grow this strain last season but it went horribly wrong owing to some poor decisions made by myself (tried out a pine bark mulch & some 'companion plants'. Never again!).

Menzee420 She began to yellow a few leaves this past few days so I've increased her nutes a wee bit & it does seemed to have slowed down the yellowing. She's still growing taller & has started to bush/fill out quite a lot. Found a monster sized grasshopper on her the other day who was munching on her leaves - I sent it to the afterlife! Closer examination of the buds early development shows her lower branches/buds are starting to get frosty with trichomes. With this she's also starting to smell quite nice too! Quite happy with things overall.

Menzee420 Monday: Leaf yellowing has continued this past week. Rather than continue to increase the amount of general nutrients I've been using I think I'll just start adding some extra Nitrogen, starting this evening. Otherwise she looks great! Very lush, soft green leaves (aside from the few yellow ones). She smells amazing in a few places where the trichomes are starting to form. ************************************************ Tuesday: No new yellow leaves this morning! The ones that were a lighter shade of green/turning yellow didn't get any worse. Seems the tiny amount of Nitrogen I gave her last night had an immediate and positive effect! Will continue adding the Nitrogen - I imagine as she continues to build buds she's gonna need more and more. ************************************************ Thursday: Still looking lovely. Very small bit of yellowing on a few leaves. Deffo not worried about it anymore.

Menzee420 So the yellow leaves started to return towards the end of last week which was a bit annoying. I've doubled the amount of Nitrogen to try combat this. Decided to call it a day on the root booster as the root ball has now consumed the entire 40L pot. I use a plastic mulch sheet on the top of my soil to help the moisture retention (important when using fabric pots outdoors in mediterranean climate!) and the roots are growing out of the top of the soil. Yesterday I noticed some white patches on a few leaves that looked a bit like someone had splashed the plant with flecks of white paint. Upon looking on the underside of the leaves there were black dots. I removed them all and binned them as I wasn't sure what they were. Had a good look over the plant & couldn't find any more of them. Never seen this before so I examined them with my little microscope and the black dots didn't look like eggs or anything. Possibly insect poop. Ok, so a quick Google & I think I have Thrips...

Menzee420 Last weeks thrips just went away without me even trying. Seems the insecticide I have been using works for them as they seemed to die off without the need to break out the Neem. So hot here now I've had to add one extra watering/feeding to my daily schedule. Morning, noon & night. She grew another 7cm this week, last week she only grew 2. Not sure why. The top branches seem to be forming less flower than the bottom branches & also seem to be stretching. Making me wonder if the Top-Max is making the branches at the top elongate so for now I've removed it from the mix. I'll re-introduce it later once the buds are thickening up.

Menzee420 She's still stretching. Grew another 9cm this past week. Lower branches are developing some OK buds but up top the branches are thin & skinny. She started to flower a few weeks early for some reason. I've never had a plant do that or grow these skinny top branches. Apart from this she looks amazing, so I'm unsure what's happening. After this many weeks of flowering I thought she'd be well on her way to some big juicy buds. Maybe I'll ask the community on here.

Menzee420 I think she's done stretching. Have finally started seeing the familiar signs that she's about to start flowering properly (branch tips are going a lighter shade of green). Seeing more yellow leaves again, taking this as a sign she's about to make me some juicy buds :D payday this week so will be investing in a load more nutrients as I'm about to run out! She deffo seems to be bushing out. I had to stand further back to take photos as she's getting so wide.

Menzee420 She's looking ok & is deffo trying to flower properly now. I've got more Biobizz nutes coming in a few days & I'm going to see how much she can take as her bud development is way too slow. Meant to be harvesting in approx 6 weeks & right now she's not going to yield very much. Doubling the nitrogen seems to have helped her stop yellowing her leaves again. ************************** New nutes arrived so I've ditched the Nitrogen for now. I've also backed off the Top-Max a wee bit & added Bio-Grow & Bio-Heaven. Starting with lower than recommended amounts but will increase to match the manufacturers schedule a bit week by week. I have a foliar spray (https://www.biobizz.com/producto/leafcoat/)coming tomorrow which should help the plant survive the heat too as it's August which is the hottest time of year here in the Spanish Costa Blanca.

Menzee420 She's looking really lush now. The additional nutrients are making her look amazing. But I have a feeling something has gone terribly wrong... supposedly 5-6 weeks to harvest and she's just not producing enough bud. I live in a hot place & thought I could start my grow a month early and get a few extra weeks of vegetative growth in before the summer solstice & the days start to get shorter & she flowers. What I think happened is: she started to flower early, then stopped, but when the days began to draw in she didn't start up again properly. Even now she doesn't seem to be flowering properly. I shouldn't have germinated in March. I think I'm just going to have to let it run it's course & hope for the best at this rate. Last time I did a big outdoor grow like this I grew a Trainwreck. I didn't do anything different to this grow aside from when I started germinating & I got so much bud that even now I still have a bit left over, 4 years later! Anyone got any ideas on how to jump start my bud production? *** Update *** Got some great feedback from the community here about what to do. Everyone told me it's got to do with the lighting. The only thing different from this grow & my last (which went really well) is that my wife stuck a load of solar lights out on our balcony, so it's been too bright out there at night!! Those things are all turned off now so fingers crossed this beauty gets all heavy, stinky & sticky!

Menzee420 Having addressed the light issue from last week I can already see a difference in the amount of flowers she's trying to make. Her branches are starting to fill out nicely. She grew another 5cm since last week too. Not too much leaf yellowing going on anymore either. The weather here ought to start to cool off in a few weeks as well which will put her under less stress.

Menzee420 Been 10-14 days since I fixed the lighting issue & she's flowering very nicely now. Tho the top of the plant is still a bit behind. There's a street light outside my balcony which still shines a bit of light over the wall that catches the top branches & I wondered if this could be slowing down the uppermost branches. I found some extra sun netting & have hung it on my pergola to block out the street light some more too. Not sure this will make much difference but it has the added benefit of giving her some more privacy as she is getting huge! Have seen some evidence of thrips & mealyworms, which seem to be kept under control by the bio insecticide I have been using. I thought I might have to prolong the grow til late October but the rate she's bulking up now I don't think she'll need to be out there for that long. Time will tell!

Menzee420 She's doing great, but she got rained on which brought some new pests to deal with. Had a wee aphid outbreak, should be easy enough to deal with as it's not too out of hand yet. Noticed some fungus gnats for the first time this grow season too - probably a sign a should dial back how much water I'm giving her. The pest I'm most worried about is caterpillars. They ate a lot of my last big grow, Trainwreck, a few years back. Just gotta keep the insecticide topped up regularly & hope the moths/butterflies stay away! Spent Saturday working out a way to keep her dry since she'll be out longer to finish flowering - my grows usually end before the rain comes... Have put a large polycarbonate sheet screwed to my pergola directly above the plant. Have just bought a large plastic sheet to try keep the rain from coming in sideways when it's windy too. Due another rain storm tomorrow so I best get it done ASAP!

Menzee420 I ran out of Bio Heaven for a while there & had to wait a few days for a new bottle to arrive from Amazon. In that time she started to look a bit sad, but now after a few days back on it she's stopped yellowing her leaves again. She's quite stinky now but that's attracting the pests... white flies & aphids are trying to take a home. Seen a few fungus gnats as well. Some evidence of a grasshopper too. I'm hopefully keeping them under control. Her buds are forming quite nicely now. I was thinking she might need to be out there another 6-8 weeks, but I'm hoping that'll be more like 4 as she's plumping up rather nicely now.

Menzee420 The aphids & white flies are being quite persistent, but I seem to be keeping them mostly under control. She's turned a bit ugly with the yellow & dry browning leaves. Despite this her buds are looking quite nice so I'm just going to stay on the current plan. Few more weeks of max nutes, then 2 weeks flush before harvest. Been a long grow this one - looking forward to reaping the rewards.

Menzee420 So, I ended up harvesting this earlier than I wanted, and not under ideal circumstances. My plan was 1 more week of full nutes, then 2 weeks flushing, then harvest. Nature had other plans. Despite being quite meticulous with the insecticide I had to deal with a pretty nasty aphid infestation which messed up a few branches - but worse was the caterpillars I discovered over the weekend. I started the flush then & began to cut off all of the leaves that had the worst pests (as opposed to continuing the insecticide). I wanted to continue to flush for as long as I could until the bugs were getting out of control. I felt today was that day as I noticed caterpillar droppings in several locations. My last harvest was ravaged by caterpillars so I decided to just chop her down for damage limitation. She might not taste as good as she could have, but oh well.