Raspberry Beret

Welcome! I'm pretty sure most people on here won't have heard of this strain. I bought some flower from CBD Hemp Direct over 3 years ago before I started growing my own plants. I wanted something to help me sleep and this strain has some nice Indica qualities: purpling throughout, high myrcene content and good relaxing effects. 17% CBD with less than .3% THC, so she's totally legal hemp! To my surprise one order was chock full of seeds, which I decided to take advantage of and throw in my freezer. I had germinated some plants last year and ended up giving them out to friends, but I think I might hold onto these ones this year. My aging gelding who has issues with chronic Post Treatment Lyme disease could really benefit from some CBD added to his feed, so I'll most likely combine it with some liquid coconut oil after I harvest. CBD Hemp Direct no longer carries this strain, but there is a product listing for it on Leafly.com from Inustrial Hemp Farms llc. "Dank, earthy and calming, our Berry Exotic Premium has all of the awesome qualities of an indica strain without the freakout or couch lock effect. Bursting with berry flavor and a perfectly balanced terpene profile, Berry Exotic CBD hemp flower will usher you into the chill zone and rouse you with its rejuvenescence. Thick orange red hairs give way to gorgeous nugs with a blue and purple tint. Each CBD hemp bud flower is nappy and dense, alive with the alluring aroma schwagg and a blueberry diesel flavor. This bud brings the entourage big time and won’t let you down with its phenomenal levels of Caryophyllene, Humulene, Limonene, Myrcene and Pinene." The most impressive thing is, every single seed I put in soil germinates. I had 100% germination last year and 100% germination this year. That's pretty darn good! I used Coast of Maine Organic Sprout Island seed starting blend and they were placed on a thermostat controlled germination mat set at 78F with a humidity dome under LED grow lights.

Seedlings have emerged and are making their way up. 100% germination on these seeds that have been sitting in my freezer for a couple years. The force is strong with these ones, so I look forward to seeing how they turn out. No nutes this week, next week will probably start a little bit but they're fine for now. Still on the grow mat with the humidity dome while they're young and tender.

It's been a very busy week. Didn't really get pics of the babies but I did give them a little Big Bloom this week. I removed the humidity dome since they've outgrown it but still keeping them on the heat mat. I also gave them a little bit bigger of a pot since they were outgrowing the 6's Next week I'll probably give them a little fish fertilizer. I'm still staying away from mineral salts and sticking with natural products. Much less likely to burn the plants and don't have to worry about flushing.

Babies really shot up this week! A little too much actually, they're too leggy. They doubled in size, so I pinched them and gave them some Alaska Fish Fertilizer for some extra Nitrogen. I think they'll definitely need larger pots next week. It's a nice day out so I currently have them soaking up some sun in the Daylily bed in front of my house. Maybe I'll put on some Prince for them later😉

Good week, they're happy to be in larger pots. Used Coast of Maine Bar Harbor Blend potting soil. Got some new growth coming in, especially on the redder one. Big Bloom this week. Seriously considering putting them in the ground soon despite cold nights. They want the sun!

Everyone got transplanted yesterday! They've been hardening off outside for almost a week. The got some Fish Emulsion a couple days ago. One night it got down to 38F, even though the weather said it would only get down to 50F! So I'm very grateful that they're so resilient. They're not showing much transplant stress so that's good. I watered in some lime when i transplanted. I put them in with my tomatoes that I need to stake. I started putting down seaweed mulch which hopefully I will finish tomorrow. Overall a good week and it feels good to have them in the ground!

Great week, everyone seems to be settling in nicely. Looking at them I have one definitely pegged as male and 2 I'm not sure about but 4 are definitely female. One of them that has some beautiful color and new growth has put out some preflower pistils. I finished mulching with seaweed, so that will retain moisture since we've had a very dry summer so far, plus when it dries up on the beds it gets crispy so the slugs don't like that. I've interplanted some nasturtiums, calendula, borage and marigold to help deter pests. All of these plants have taken the transition really well and I have high hopes.

I'm a little late on updating, it's been quite a week! We had a big heat wave move through, my thermometer read over 100F in the sun most days, one day all the way up to 110F which is crazy considering it snowed last month... We have also continued to have a severe lack of rain. I get so frustrated looking at the radar seeing adjacent towns getting poured on and the fronts dissipating over us. But thankfully we got a little rain last night. The Berry Exotics continue to be happy and relatively care free. The photos were taken before I fertilized so they don't look as green as they do now. This coming week I'll be top dressing and mulching the row once I have all the tomatoes staked. One if the plants decided to flower, which shouldn't be a light issue, therefore I'm thinking there are some recessive Ruderalis genetics coming through. Who knows...

It's been awhile since I had time to update so I have a couple weeks worth to do! I'll admit right off the bat I've Been neglectful. I've Been so tied up with battling cucumber beetles and worrying about my curcubits that I have not been paying enough attention to the cannabis. But all in all everyone is doing well. There is some bug damage but this hemp is pretty carefree. Could yave deeper color but of course I didnt give them any bites this week because my mind has been elsewhere. The lone flower child is almost ready to harvest.

The Berry Exotics are still chugging along! They got a top dressing if Blood Meal, Kelp Meal and Lime. All in all they're looking better than last week. Been better about spraying with Neem so that helps. The little mutant auto was ready to come down so I chopped her and she's in the upstairs of the barn drying. I got some liquid coconut oil at the store the yesterday so I can make some CBD oil for my old, arthritic, chronic Lyme pony😊

They're all looking good, and have really shot up this week. We've had great weather for them and they appreciate the top dressing of compost they got recently. The mutant auto that I chopped down was dry so I threw the buds in my Vitamix, decarbed the 12g I got out of it and put that in my slow cooker on low for about 8 hours with 1 cup liquid organic coconut oil and about 1 tsp of Sunflower lecithin. Each tsp should contain between 35-40 mg of CBD. This is for my senior pony who suffers from chronic post-treatment Lyme disease. One maintenance product I have found puts dosage at 50mg a serving, so I'm starting him out at 1 tsp that I fed him this morning and we'll go from there. He's smaller than your average horse so he usually gets the lower recommended dosage, and he's also already on several other supplements for support, but I may give him 1 tsp each morning and night.

Well, its been a very hot, hum8d and dry week. Well, over a week since we got rain, weeks since we've had a good downpour. The streambed is too low, and if this keeps up I'll have to truck water from the house. Despite the lack of rain everyone is doing well. The ladies are really stretching now that they're in flower and I'm happy with how everyone looks. I found another liquid fish fertilizer that's a 3-2-2 vs the Alaska brand 4-1-1 I was using before so I think this will work out even better for flower. And it's local!

"The rain sounds so cool when it hits the barn roof And the horses wonder who you are Thunder drowns out what the lightning sees You feel like a movie star" We could do with some rain and thunder, there's been only one small patch that the ground sucked up like a sponge. The streambed had about an inch of water before, but the past 2 weeks it's been bone dry. It's ridiculous. But these plants? They could really care less. This strain was bred to be grown outdoors, and I'm grateful for how strong these genetics are. They could do with a little more nutrition, but they're relatively unphased. I wish I could be as carefree as these girls are. At least the nights are cooling down. And September is coming.

I'm a couple days late on updating this one. So on Friday I made time for these ladies and gave them a much needed sprucing up. I went in and removed lower/inner fan leaves and branches and tried to pull back the jungle of tomatoes the best I could. This was after I removed the row of snow peas in front of them that was also blocking some direct light. I gave them a little top dressing of 2tbsp each of Dolomite Lime and then some more homemade compost on top and watered them in. These girls have been pretty neglected so I'm glad I made time to go in and remove dead fan leaves and smaller popcorn branches that wouldn't amount to much. Now they're getting more air in there and the plants over all will be healthier.

I've had a couple White Admiral Butterflies hanging around lately and it was nice to get a picture of one on these plants. Plants are doing well for the most part. It is interesting how I had that one autoflower earlier, and then there's one plant who's flowers are much more developed than others. I feel like harvest times for these plants will be across the board. But I'm not trying to complain. Using seed from flower that you got in the mail can be an unknown. You never know for sure if it was pollinated by the same strain or if it was cross pollinated with something else. I'll be really curious to see what kind of differences there are with harvest.

Girls were fed 2x this week and we had a really good steady rain day before yesterday. The streambed is actually holding water! Woohoo! The girl at the end of the row is really looking good. She's starting to bulk up and one of her sisters in the middle of the row is not far behind. The rest of them? It's anyone's guess. A couple of them will obviously be going into October, but hopefully not for too long or else they'll get pummeled.

All the ladies are looking pretty good. Flowers are filling out. The one on the end that's the furthest along is going to finish before I know it, and now it's going to be caterpillar and mold control. The fan leaves are fading beautifully on it. We haven't had a lot of rain, but we've had a few cold, misty mornings. I've picked off a couple caterpillars and removed some mold, so I've got to be more diligent about looking for these things. It's game time.

I'm a few days late on updating here. So things are going well, flower production is really spread out across the board. This is going to be interesting, since the seeds did come from Berry Exotic flower but who knows who the baby daddy is, especially since we already had that autoflowering one I chopped down weeks ago. So the plant on the end that's the furthest along is getting quite a bit of mold. I had thought about chopping her down today but I think I'll wait a couple days. I'm going to be out of town over the weekend so I think I'd better wait until Monday.

We got a hard frost on Sunday night that was part of a cold front that came in prior to the hurricane moving up the east coast, which has made for some beautiful coloration on these girls. Unfortunately the rain missed us and we're still in a drought. The stream bed is completely dry again. The girl on the end who is furthest along has about 10% amber and I'm no longer feeding her. She'll most likely get chopped down the same day as my Bubba Kush CBD that's in my "Neurotherapy" diary. The one that's the least far along looks like mid-late October, but she may surprise me and have a fast finish, we'll see. All these girls are looking good and I love their color!

Well, the big girl on the end I harvested on Monday afternoon. (I know, I know. I'm very behind on updating.) She was already getting some moldy spots last week, and she was basically finished with 3 days of rain ahead in the forecast. It was time. I managed to get 64.97 oz of wet bud weight out of her or 4.06 lbs which is pretty darn good considering how many moldy buds I pulled off of her. The other girls aren't far behind, but I'm feeling a little cramped because I also harvested 2 other plants from another diary and I only have 3 drying lines in my barn, so I have to wait for those to dry first! Ugh! Also, with the storm we got Wednesday with high winds that knocked out our power for 2 days and nearly destroyed my pea trellis, it split one of the plants in 2 and damaged some of the main colas from smacking them against the garden fence. No more feeding while the rest are finishing

It's Saturday now and most of these ladies are coming down on Monday. We've had a lot of wind this past week and these girls are showing signs of damage. Speaking of, the wind picked up while I was out taking pictures so I didn't get as many quality pics as I wanted. I'll be cutting down on Monday because Tues-Fri we're supposed to get a bunch of rain. I'll be leaving one of the plants in that still needs more time, and she was the only one who got a feeding yesterday. I am disappointed with the wind damage, plus the mold I had on the one I already cut down. I need to prioritize an area for my plants like I did last year so I can put a tomato roof up if need be. I was just so focused on the Market Garden being successful this year that the cannabis plants were thrown in as an afterthought with the tomatoes because it was really the only space I had for them. I think I need to make plans for them to have a separate area and I was daydreaming about it yesterday. I'd love to put in a cover crop of clover and some beneficial flowers and it might be worth it to have the area set back more towards the tree line so they get less wind damage or maybe have it set up so that I could attach some lattice to the sides as a partial wind break. I just know these plants are looking a lot like the High Amperage ones that got wind damage a couple years ago. Onwards we go.

Cut the last of the girls down on 10/13 as I was concerned about mold and rightly so, as I had a LOT of mold that I trimmed off. I had some really nice and thicc mains that I lost and it was very frustrating. All in all I harvested 4 plants and I also included the little mutant auto I chopped down back in week 10. About half of the bud I chopped down I got trimmed (the mains first) but I ran out of time trying to trim 5 plants in one day (that includes the Joannes and Gorilla from my Neurotherapy diary) so some of the smaller branches with popcorn buds didn't get trimmed before hanging up but I'll just have to deal with it later. Will give more info when dry.