By continuing to use the website or clicking Accept you consent to our cookies and personal data policy and confirm that you are at least 18 year old. For details please see Privacy Policy and Terms
Well, it's my first grow! This grow diary is about one Blackberry Kush, even though there will be some company to get cozy with. All seeds are fem, non-auto. I have always wanted to grow Blackberry and have high expectations! (Pun intended.)
Just to keep things interesting I have included a mystery plant. While doing some cleaning, I found 12 or so seeds (at least 2+ years old). Curiousity has me including the lone seed that germinated out of the dozen. After all, I must have kept them for a good reason?
After startup the humidity went up to 95-97%, but from research & reading about early vegetation stage it's ok. The other concern is the high temp which is odd since I'm using fairly low-powered LED lighting. The moisture being generated in the 40" x 40" x 60" GR is very tropical.
For this first grow 4 different plants are being grown together in a cozy sea of green (well, 5 maybe including the mystery plant if it's a she):
Blackberry Kush Fem (This Grow Focus), Super Skunk Fem, Gold Leaf Fem and last but not least two hybrid "Hazy Gorilla Time" (Gorilla Glue #4 x Clockwork Orange x Malawi) from Regs, so unknown but hoping for at least one female.
Low (3 out of 5) success rate of germination average across the board; seeds were put into cups of water for 24 hours, then the sprouts were placed carefully into AgroMax starter plugs & put under dome for 2 days. All "keepers" then transplanted into 2 gal. pots for official "Day 1" of the grow.
Thankfully I am lucky to have a guru who steered me to Great Lakes Soil and liquid gold SuperThrive; why be a mad scientist when others have done it for you?
The Hazy Gorilla were started about 5 days behind the others, I am hoping that they will catch up in time for flowering stage with the others.
Still too humid..tried opening some of the GR ports but it makes little impact. I will need to add a vent fan.
Solved the humidity issue by adding an awesome powerful 4" vent fan. Also ordered a small 2200ml dehumidifier in order to push the rh down to 50% (and below) for flowering stage. No one wants moldy buds.
The 2 Hazy Gorilla plants are starting to take off now & should have no problem entering the flowering stage with the other 9 plants that had a head start.
Just about ready to go 12h/12h and start them flowering. The biggest is over 16" and the smallest (Gold Leafs) are almost 12". Raised the lighting (LED) and will also possibly add a 90w red bulb depending on how the first week goes. The LED alone is supposed to be enough, but more overall coverage the better.
Watering every other day, sometimes every 3rd day when they start to droop a little and the soil looks dry. I did end up putting in a small 2200ml dehumidifier to help keep the rh around 65%.
Some cold weather slowed them down a bit earlier this week, they are back on track & getting bigger. Tallest blackberry is just over 30" now. Apologies for so many pics under LED, but I think those baby infrared flowers look so cool.
All plants have flowers, and quite a few too. Light getting to even the lower nodes, but I may add an additional 90w red bulb.
One of the 2 Hazy's turned out to be male, so it has been removed. I am putting the mystery plant in with it in case it's a female to get pollinated.
Many many many beautiful flowers. Happy Days!
Really impressive and pretty flowers scattering some nice sugar crystals. Tallest BlkBerry at 36" now, with shorty coming in at 29". Plants all look strong & healthy, thick trunks and branches.
Consistently watering less; now 5oz each every other day at "sun up".
Looks like the growth in height has pretty much stopped and energy is being put into bud production. Added a vertical led flowering light to help penetrate into the more dense sea of green.
Question: Should I pull out one of the female Hazy/Skunk/BlkBerry that's flowering now and STS it, then pollinate with this Hazy pollen to make some nice fem seeds? Anyone had luck with STS process?
On the final stretch now, trimmed a bit in the lower 1/3 but nature is taking care of business itself. The SOG still looks really healthy. I only have the main overhead LED on, turned off the vertical led bloom as it was throwing off too much extra heat. There is still overwhelming white hairs 80-20 to the red hairs, so I'm figuring another week or so still until harvest. Any thoughts are welcome!
(Day 83 update; looks like Day 86-87 will be the big day)
I'm really happy that I got a 40x to look at these beauties up close! It's a challenge to take pics, but it would take an IMAX to see all the details. I highly recommend getting a loupe, they go for $8-$9, don't get ripped off by people selling the same one for $30+
Harvesting plants tomorrow, pics & details to follow. Can't wait!!
What a fantastic experience, no wonder there's so many other smart people also doing this!
I'm really happy that everything went so easy, and that my first grow ended up with better results than expected. I wanted to keep my first grow fairly simple, but also get some reward for the time & care. Getting such a great result immediately has you thinking of all the options & new things to try during the next grow to make it even better!
The Blackberry Kush was a great choice, and is a really pretty plant when flowering. I'm glad that I bought a 40x to truly appreciate seeing all that sugar up close. And for any indica lovers, this one is living up to its high THC (24% claim); I will of course keep experimenting to make sure!
Woohoo it's finished!!
For my first grow, I'm really satisfied with how easy and fast the 3 months went, even considering how generally impatient I am. The sweet harvest was definitely enough to make me have a big grin for days! The cutting & trimming was a really fun learning experience. I definitely learned a lot of other things too, which I know will really help a ton on my next grow. All in all, I can't complain because I wanted to keep things simple and still have a decent result.
I also harvested a bit early, but from all the reading it seems for what I wanted it was better to harvest earlier than later. After all, it's all for ME!
Still needs a bit more curing, I'll add some final notes soon.
Please note that to add the light and grow room size data, I divided the room sq' and light by ten to approximate, as there were other plants also being grown (SOG) in keeping with this diary & data focus on only the one Blackberry Kush.
Update; after curing in the quart mason jars with the required airing (like that's a problem when "sampling" every day) l am happy to report that time has brought out the flavor big time. Definitely more berry/citrus but also a very sweet earthy taste too.
DrDrood
