Caramel Sutra

From the Barney's website: "CBD CARAMEL™️ is a CBD enriched exotic 3-way fusion, culminating in a 70%/30% Indica dominant strain with a 1:1 CBD-THC ratio. This plant has dynamic growth from the start so the vegetative stage can be kept to a minimum. The flowering phase produces a very resinous, Sativa like flower structure, that is complete in just 60 days! An average indoor yield of 500 gr/m2 is easily attainable and CBD CARAMEL™️ is ideal for outdoor growing and in humid climates. CBD CARAMEL™️ produces sweet sticky buds whose psychoactive effects are mellow, cerebral and comforting to patients needing to medicate while free from a stoned effect." Little ones are in spare room with heat mat set to 70. They are in front of a Southeast facing window. They are in Fox Farm Happy Frog soil. From Fox Farm Website: "Your potted plants deserve the best. Their roots can’t seek out nutrition in the ground, so you have to bring it to them. That’s why Happy Frog®️ Potting Soil is amended with soil microbes that can help improve root efficiency and encourage nutrient uptake. Between the earthworm castings, bat guano, and aged forest products, your container plants have never felt so good."

4 out of 5 seeds germed. Growth is slow right now with the limited sunlight but we have plenty of time for them to grow up. Looking forward to seeing what these babies do, as this is a relatively new strain from Barney's. Will start nutes next week.

Put the girls under a 45w grow light strip instead of just the window. They'll still be getting sunlight but I think they could benefit from the added light. I'm not sure how much I like this "Happy Frog" soil. I've been having issues starting my veggie seedlings in it. Seems to be an inferior product compared with the Ocean Forest. They just got a little Fox Farm Big Bloom this week. Yummy earthworm castings and bat guano!

Not impressed with the Fox Farm Happy Frog soil I used. Plants aren't nearly as strong as last year. I'm thinking of adding a little Biochar next week to see if they perk up a bit. They may also be a little tired from the repotting. I'm debating what to do about nutes this year. I bought a gallon of the Big Bloom and am currently using that. However I don't think I'm going to use the other Fox farm products I used last year. I'm thinking of going a more natural route. I've been taking a permaculture course and learning about soil health, so I'd rather not use mineral salts so I have healthier soil. Soil salinization can cause serious issues unless you're periodically flushing the root systems to wash out the salt build up. So why are we even using this stuff in the first place? Excess salinization can compromise the soils ability to hold moisture, prevent plants from uptaking nutrients (lockout) and even change the soil PH. Just because something is labeled for organic use doesn't mean it's perfect. This is something I've been learning lately. For instance: Someone can be certified organic while they still till the soil, releasing carbon and nitrogen into the atmosphere as well as destroying the beneficial microbial activity in the soil itself. Instead, we could use: Blood Meal/Feather Meal for Nitrogen- Maybe a mix of both. Blood meal releases quickly while feather meal takes longer so you have a balance. Bone Char for Phosphorus. Kelp Meal for Potassium and micronutrients. Blackstrap Molasses for general health especially flowering. Molasses contains vitamin B6, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Manganese, Copper, Iron, Potassium and Selenium. Biochar will give a great source of Carbon for water retention, and provide beneficial bacteria + Fungi. Just some things to think about.

I haven't been as diligent updating this, I've had a stomach bug that has put me out flat. These kids got a top dressing of some Ocean Forest and some Blood Meal for Nitrogen. Growth is slow and steady.

This strain has been very good so far. Nice growth. I think the blood meal helped😊 The one on the left was a little finicky and droopy the first couple weeks but it's come around. I'll be repotting soon with more Ocean Forest and some Coast of Maine Stonington Blend fertilizer with kelp, worm castings and lobster shells that's 5-2-4.

Still waiting on the weather. It's supposed to get down to 49F overnight on Tuesday, after that I should be good to transplant into the garden on Wednesday after I finish at the Farmers Market. I'll be keeping an AG19 row cover on them as they settle in and don't get chilled at night. I managed to get a hold of some biochar so that will be going in with the Ocean Forest potting soil, as well as some lime to avoid lockout which happened to me last year the first time they were exposed to heavy rain.

The plants finally made it out to the garden. They don't look the greatest because of the stress from getting them out there and transplanted, but it's finally done! I made a video to go over almost everything, but I do want to say I didn't mention that I also mixed about 5-10% Biochar in with the Fox Farm potting soil. Also, the Agribon row cover will protect against pests as well.

I'm very happy with this weeks progress. They transitioned very well to the garden, which I'm chocking up to the row cover. They didn't need any water due to the thunderstorm we had last night, but I did make a ring around the base of each plant and gave them about 1-2 TBSP of the Coast of Maine Stonington Blend fertilizer. They also got their tomato cages.

Managed to sex out the males this week, especially since the girls were putting out some pre-flower pistils. Moved others around a little using my potato fork and now everyone is in a much better spacing. Bummer that 2 out of 3 were males, but that's ok! The ladies that are left will have more room to stretch. I gave them a little Big Bloom and some molasses.

CBD Caramel is still ahead of the class and looking just stellar. Little bit of Coast of Maine fertilizer around the base and some lime water. Sprayed with neem oil for bugs as well (cucumber beetles are out in full force and fornicating). This is going to be a big girl! Please forgive my slurred speech in the video, it's been a long week and my brain is addled😜

CBD Caramel is still doing stellar and is at the top of the class as far as height. Still getting a little bug damage tho, so I sprayed with neem oil, again. Going to water in some Big Bloom and Molasses later. Really good week.

This lady is filling out very well. She's looking really good. We've had some very hot and dry weather, but there's supposed to be an inch of rain tomorrow, the first we've had in weeks!

This big, beautiful healthy girl has switched to flower. Cooler night time temps are yielding some red streaks on her stems. Excited to see what these flowers will look like. She smells fabulous! She was given some Coast of Maine 5-2-4 around her base yesterday, and I have some BT arriving tomorrow to thwart those pesky inchworms.

She's a beast! This girl is 5ft tall. She's beautiful. Got some Big Bloom and Molasses this week. Still spraying BT to combat those pesky inchworms.

This girl is doing great! She is big and bushy. Getting down to business now with flower. I'm still spraying for inchworms, they are relentless. I've sprayed with Neem 2x this week. Temps are getting cooler and I really need to put up the tomato roof as rain is becoming more frequent and we're no longer in a drought.

Things are looking great. Now that it's September I thought I should really get that tomato roof up. But.... My idea of using stuff I already had didn't work out. So it looks like I'm headed to Lowe's on Wednesday! Barneys says 3rd or 4th week of this month, same as Critical Cure, but Cure is going to be ready much sooner (a week, maybe 2) than this Caramel, which makes sense since the Caramel is about 70% Indica vs the Cure being about 80% Indica.

Gave the photos a haircut today. Removed some fan leaves and lower branches that wouldn't amount to much. Gave the branches to my horse because he loves them! Tried enticing the ducks with fan leaves but they weren't having any of it. They prefer lettuce, not "The Devil's Lettuce"😂 I added in a little 5-1-1 fish fertilizer to my feeding regimen as well. Still picking off inchworms. And as you can see I made it to the hardware store and put up this baby almost completely by myself. I only asked my husband to hold the center roof panel support while I screwed it in. Couldn't have been better timing since hurricane Dorian came through yesterday and we had plenty of rain. Of course it didn't fully protect them but the majority of the rain hit the roof. And then it got down to 49 F last night. It's really Fall now! Barney's Farm says Caramel is 3rd or 4th week of September which is the same as Critical Cure but she is way behind Cure. This one may even go into 1st week of October because she even seems behind Blue Shark. Stay tuned!

It's been a good week for this girl. She's getting ready little by little. I need to remove more of the fan leaves, but she's bulking up with flower and some of the pistils are starting to brown. I cut back on the fish emulsion, and raised the ratio of Big Bloom. It's pretty chilly at night and the leaves on the trees are really starting to turn.

As of today we are at 12 hours and 10 minutes of daylight. We are coming up on harvest window for the majority of the photos. Critical Cure will be coming down this week, but Caramel won't be until at the earliest next week. We've had a dry spell with no rain for the past week but tomorrow and the day after we're getting rain. So fingers crossed, because I know I'll get some mold, but hopefully not too bad. I know that the Pacific Northwest has had a lot of mold problems in the last week (According to Ed Rosenthal on IG) and my heart goes out to those growers. I upped that ratio of molasses to hopefully get some more sugar on these buds. All I can say is that I've been impressed with how big this girl got and look forward to seeing the end result. She smells sweet and earthy with a hint of spice.

Welp, this is not a September plant😆 This girl is still going for at least another week. Pistils are starting to brown but trichs are still clear and cloudy, no amber yet. I'm hoping to get a little more sugar on her before she finishes. Hopefully it doesn't get too cold and rainy before she's done. All I can say is that I've been impressed with how strong this plant is and I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of numbers she puts out. She's been very healthy and easy to care for so I'm happy so far! She has a little bit of a spicy undertone, so definitely high in Myrcene (which is a pretty safe assumption) and maybe caryophyllene.

October 6: Wow! Just wow! This strain put out vigorous vegetative growth from the start. She was the largest plant throughout the season with a very large trunk and now that she's down it's official: 45.54 oz. That's a decent harvest. We'll see what the dry numbers come out to but right now I'm very happy. Barney's Farm has done it again! As I was cutting her down I noticed she smelled like a Tootsie Roll, it's uncanny! Notes of sweetness, chocolate and a little pungent/earthiness. I did cut down early due to some mold which was from caterpillars. They really seemed to love this strain, and apparently I wasn't diligent enough. It's also been in the 30's at night so it was time. I washed her buds, as I always do with Lemon Juice and Baking Soda, and she's hanging up to dry in the upstairs of the barn with the oscillating fan going. I'll let you guys know when I have dry numbers and a smoke report! I had 45.54 oz of wet bud that turned into 5.79 oz of dry flower. Stored in quart mason jars with Boveda 58% RH packs, burped and stabilized. I used 62% packs last year but noticed I was starting to get mold in some of my jars this summer, even though they hadn't been opened at all since I stored them. I really like the balance of this strain, not as motivating as Blue Shark, yet not as sedating as Critical Cure. You feel relaxed and comforted in your body, it eliminated my RLS. You're also contemplative and nostalgic. Great for meditation. I found myself yearning for a hot tub to sit in and gaze at the stars, or a hot bath and a good book. November 2020- A year later, and the flower is still good. Still smells like a Tootsie Roll and one of my personal favorites. The Boveda 58% packs worked really well and I'm using them from now on. This strain is so comforting, like a nice fuzzy blanket. I really like using this Caramel for edibles, perfect in brownies! My Favorite Brownies- Not overly cakey, nice, dense and fudgy. 1/2 C Cannabutter 1/2 C Cocoa Powder 1/4 C flour 2 eggs 1 C sugar 1 C Chopped nuts 1 t Vanilla Pinch of salt Cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time incorporating each. Mix dry ingredients and add, then fold in nuts. Use a greased 8"x8" pan. 325 F for 30-35 minutes