Friday I'm in Love

I'm back at it, growing this strain for a second season. Last year was a bit of a mixed bag with this strain. I had issues with mold, so this year they are definitely getting some cover from the rain. That being said, this is a great strain. Wonderful for nighttime use, I usually vape this about an hour before bed and get a great night's sleep. These babies are in front if a Southeast facing window on a heat mat set to 70. They are in Fox Farm Happy Frog soil. Started 3 Feminized seeds, no need for nutes yet. From the Barneys Farm website: "A crossing of the legendary Indica CRITICAL KUSH™️ crossed with Shanti Baba’s CBD enhanced strain. This is a fast flowering strain that produces huge heavy buds, but will need to be supported in the final weeks of flowering. The flowers are full of resin and CBD CRITICAL CURE™️ has an intense and earthy flavour, with an added hint of sweetness. The therapeutic benefits will speak for themself."

3 of 3 germed. Looking forward to growing this strain again! Nutes next week.

Put the girls under a 45w grow light strip instead of just the window. Unfortunately one of them couldn't shed her seed casing. May she RIP. They just got a little Fox Farm Big Bloom this week. Yummy earthworm castings and bat guano!

Not a lot to report this week, besides the fact that I'm not impressed with the Fox farm Happy Frog soil. The Ocean Forest that I used last year was a better product. I'm hoping that if I add some biochar this coming week that my plants will kick it up a notch. 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. 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 Blackstrap Molasses for general health especially flowering. Biochar will give a great source of Carbon for water retention, and provide beneficial bacteria + Fungi.

It's been awhile since I updated to to a hellacious stomach bug, but these girls are doing well. They got a bit of blood meal for Nitrogen and I'm weaning of the grow lights on to more natural sun for when they go outside in a couple weeks when temps stabilize. I don't want them getting confused after being under the LED's all the time to the natural light and dark.👻

Just 1 Critical Cure. Gave the other to my Grandma😊 Little bit of Big Bloom this week. I'll repot in a couple days with more Ocean Forest and add in some nice local fertilizer with kelp, worm castings and lobster shells that's 5-2-4. They're looking like they could use a little more Nitrogen.

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.

I finally got them in the garden! It was a trip getting out there, so they don't look the greatest because they're stressed. I broadforked the bed because I have very hard clay soil and put down Ocean Forest potting soil. I have some wire support hoops for the AG19 row cover I'm going to be using for the transition. It's lightweight and breathable but it will cut down on some of the sun so they don't burn and it will also keep them warmer at night since it's still pretty cool. And please disregard my comment about the Chamomile and Nitrogen... Chamomile sequesters Calcium, Potassium and Sulfur, not Nitrogen😜. Clover sequesters Nitrogen. I added about 5-10% Biochar in with the Fox farm potting soil which is an excellent source of carbon and helps retain soil moisture. I added some lime to stabilize ph and try to deter lockout which I had last year. I also added mycorrhizal inoculant for root health, it helps to reduce stress in plants and helps them to uptake more sugars which is exactly what we want.

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.

Critical Cure is still trucking alone nicely. No sign of bugs or nute issues. I had a friend who had issues with a couple of her Girl Scout Cookies that she's doing. She definitely had some lockout from heavy rain that we've been getting. That's why I'm glad I put down lime, but also got away from using mineral salts, because I think that was definitely an issue last year. Very happy with the results so far of going au naturale!

Critical Cure is still happy and putting out good growth. Fertilized with a ring of the Coast of Maine around the base and watered it in with a little lime water. Bugs are getting hungry so the plants got some neem oil spray. Heat wave going through right now. Please forgive my slurring in the video, it's been a long week and my brain is addled😜

Good growth this week. The inchworms are still munching away so I sprayed with some neem oil. Will be watering in some Big Bloom and molasses later. Really looking forward to this one flowering in a couple weeks. It had the prettiest purple flowers last year!

Good week for this girl. Plenty of sunshine and warm temps. This girl seems to be displaying a different phenotype than what I grew last year. She seems to be more sativa by the shape of her leaves. The ones I grew last year had huge broad leaves but this one has much thinner leaves. I'm starting to wonder if I accidently mixed up the Critical Cure and the Blue Shark!😅

Critical Cure is filling out nicely. Picked most of the inchworms off and have some BT showing up on Monday. She got a ring of Coast of Maine 5-2-4 around her base. I'll have to put up the tomato roof in the next couple weeks!

Great week for this girl. She's really ramping up the flower production. Still picking inchworms off so BT is continuing to be sprayed. Girls got a drink of some Molasses and Big Bloom this week so they can give me some sugar!

Very happy with this week. She is putting out flower and should be ready in 3-4 weeks. That means I need to put up a tomato roof ASAP and hopefully get the inchworms under control. They are relentless! I've sprayed with Neem 2x this week and have been picking them off by hand. Hopefully I don't have a repeat of last year!

This girl is looking great! Noticeably frostier than last year so I am excited! She smells really strong right now, lotta sweet and slightly skunky. I spend most of my video talking about how my plan for a tomato roof using stuff I already had didn't work out so looks like I'm going to Lowe's on Wednesday. Gotta get it up before the cold and rain starts in so I don't get moldy buds.

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! This girl is frosty and she ain't near done, those pistils are like a white walker! So looking forward to this finish, because it's gonna be better than last year for sure!

This girl is coming along nicely. Upped the ratio of Big Bloom by lowering the fish emulsion by quite a bit and the molasses a little. I did have 2 spots of mold I had to remove on a couple of outer colas that were exposed to rain. Not as many inchworms now but still spraying with Neem Oil. Pistils are starting to brown so I am excited to see this girl finish in the next 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to comparing this with what I grew last year since I feel like I've had better resin production on this one. We'll see😎

No nutes for this girl, just water. We're currently at 12 hours and 10 minutes of daylight and sitting in the harvest window. We've had a dry spell with no rain for the past week so that has been perfect for this strain that molds easily. However, I looked at the forecast and we're supposed to have rain for the next 2 days😓 That being said, trichs are only 25% amber, so looks like she'll have to get through the rain. Fingers crossed that she doesn't get too much mold, because she is beautiful! I'm pretty darn happy with how her colas look. She is fading and I'm thinking of chopping her down Wednesday. We'll see how those trichs look!

This strain went so much better than last year. A lot more resin production which I'm putting down to my good ol' gallon of Molasses. Seriously. Worked so much better than the $40 flowering nutes that I used last year. So honestly, I spent like $250 on nutes and sprays last year, yet I only spent around $125 this year, no mineral salts, natural everything and I ended up with better bud. Didn't have to spend time flushing or worrying about burning plants and trying to remember what I fed when and which product I need to use next, etc. Keepin' it simple. I also had less mold thanks to the tomato roof and also I was more diligent about caterpillars. And of course I really like the tomato cages. I mean some of the branches do rub, and they don't look the greatest in the photos (maybe I need to paint them green for next year?) But the convenience factor is high. It work out a lot better than the staking and tying I was doing last year. I had about 25% better harvest, since last year was 2.8 oz per plant and this is 3.72 oz of dry bud. So that's a big improvement! Not to mention better quality and not just raw numbers. And last year I harvested everything, whereas this year I didn't deal with a lot of the little popcorns and gave them to the livestock. But I gotta say that the pictures don't do her justice. She absolutely glittered in the sunlight. And I don't think the other strains will get nearly as frosty. Not to mention that distinct aroma of guailol. So intoxicating! Cut down most of the colas Wednesday and finished lower colas Saturday. Washed as always with 1/4 cup each of baking soda and lemon juice in 5 gallons of warm water and rinsed in 5 gallon plain cold water. Hung up to dry in the upstairs of the barn with the oscillating fan (Do pardon the mess, my mother in-law is a hoarder and we need to downsize her clutter since she's safely thousands of miles away). Storing in mason jars in cabinet with 58% Boveda humidity packs. The 62's I used last year were a little too humid for long term storage so I'm trying the 58's this year. For some reason Growdiaries isn't letting me review this strain at the top or the Big Bloom and I'm wondering if that's because I've already reviewed both? But anyway, I've gotta say that this bud is higher quality than what I produced last year. It's stronger and you really feel like you're wrapped in a warm blanket with this strain. I also got a little bit of a headband with what I sampled, so we'll see what she's like after she cures a bit. It's a wonderful comfort at the end of a long day. About an hour of being happy and relaxed and then after that it's all you can do to keep your eyes open. I really enjoy making caramels with this strain. It's so easy to just grab one out of the freezer, and that way I sleep all night😴 1 cup Cannabutter 2 cups brown sugar 1 can sweetened condensed milk Melt butter with sugar on stovetop over low heat until combined. Add milk and gradually increase heat while stirring. You want to bring the mixture to 245F or 118C but you want to do so slowly so that your don't burn the mixture, and you want to shut it off immediately once you get there. You can pour it into molds, little paper cups or I pour it onto a parchment liked cookie sheet. Feel free to sprinkle a little finishing salt on top if you like salted caramels. Then I put them into the freezer to harden before wrapping. I wrap them on squares of parchment about 4"x4" and put them in a freezer bag. If cutting, I usually get 40 caramels that weigh 20-22 grams each. The most important thing is to be gentle and stir often. Don't scorch it! Otherwise this recipe is pretty darn easy, you just need a candy thermometer.