Strawberry Fields Forever - A Dinafem Strawberry Amnesia Diary

[Dinafem-Mark]

Thank you for the update very much appreciated , can`t wait to see how the strawberry amnesia does for you at week 8 of bloom I would say 7-14 more days depending on trichome development then chop time

All the best

D-M..

[dannychoo]

Thanks @@Dinafem-Mark I think I posted another post just as you posted your post and that got lost in the last page http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=352026&p=4144834

Edited February 17, 2015 by dannychoo

[Dinafem-Mark]

Day 18 / week 2/3

07/01/2015

Today I decided to take the ladies out for a glamour shoot This also allowed me to run the rule over anything wrong with them and also to prune them for the last time before letting them continue flowering.

There were also slight signs of clawing / start of nitrogen toxicity in the leafs, but minimal enough to ignore at this stage since it was the first week of not using grow nutes.

I tend to feed grow nutes until the first or so week of flowering, then easing them into bloom nutes. Thinking back on this, it was probably around this stage my problems started with over-nuting them and not noticing my mistakes. In terms of feed, this is my record of what I did since the 12/12 flip :-

Before flip:

23/12/14

2 liter of 3.5ml root; 1.5ml grow; 0.5ml bloom; 1ml silicon

After flip:

26/12/14

2 liter of 4ml root; 1ml grow; 1ml bloom; 3ml seaweed

trimmed lower branches

SA1 43cm from top of pot

SA2 53cm

SA3 50cm

30/12/14

3 liters of 1.5ml bloom; 1ml grow; 4ml root; 1ml silicon;

3/01/15

2ltrs of 2ml bloom; 0.5ml grow;

7/01/15

2 ltrs of 2.5ml bloom ; 5ml epsom

Thinking back on what I should have done, I probably didn't need to increase the bloom feed to 2.5ml so quickly. I didn't give them a good enough settling in period. I think in future as well, I'll add epsom salts as is, rather than adding with other nutes/beneficials.

Other problems I encountered was the ridiculously cold weather we had over winter, and the distance between plants and lamp. For example, in pic 82c, you can see upturned edges of the leafs, which I believe shows signs of heat stress.

In the coming weeks, I had to battle with heat issues in the G'room as well as drops in temperatures at lights-out. Whilst I tried to warm the roots with a tube heater, it didn't really do much in my opinion and I will try to rectify that the next winter's grow.

----

Some G'room photos:

||

(Click to enlarge)

SA#1

||

SA#2

||

SA#3

||

In hindsight, I should have noticed how droopy and stretched SA#3 was and this added to problems later on (more to follow on that). The leafs that I was so pleased with earlier in this diary, have now shown somewhat mutated growth.

I absolutely love these detailed grow logs you put up . Really nice way of doing things

All the best

D-M..

[sy100276]

Very informative. SA is on my list to grow, so I will be watching with interest. (if that's alright).

Great diary by the way.

[dannychoo]

Thanks for your kind words @@sy100276

I think I've done a few things wrong along the way which may give you a better insight into what not to do with this strain. Although, currently at week 9, they still show good production and resilience towards my negligence. I've thrown quite a lot of unnecessary stress towards them and yet the two main colas from SA#1 and 2 are huge! (for a 250w / 60x60x140 grow anyway). I can only imagine what they would have done if I had scrog'd them or did a bit more LST. They certainly liked to stretch though...

It is a shame that I stressed them out because I believe the Trichomes count would have been much higher than what it is currently.

---

Week 3 to 4 of flowering

11/1/15 (w3d1)

~2ltr of 3ml bloom;

SA#1 ~65cm

SA#2 ~75cm

SA#3 ~78cm

Had to tie up SA#3 a bit as she was droopy from the stretched branches and buckling from the weight. I also think because I took them out for a glamour shot a few days back, that the way they were resting on each other was disturbed and so I added unnecessary stress to the branches - some of which would later snap/lose feed via its veins.

You can see in the following photos how close the top of the buds were getting to the lamp... I raised the light fitting further by clipping them with cable ties onto the metal frame a week or two later... They were initially on pulleys. I should have raised them much earlier imo, i.e. around this time.

Photos:

(click to enlarge)

Poorly taken Macros by LED light

||

===

14/1/15 (w3d4)

2ltr of 3ml bloom;

17/01/15 (w4d0)

2.5 ltr of 3.5ml bloom

Photos:

(2nd image is 8 inches)

||

(click to enlarge)

Edited February 21, 2015 by dannychoo

[Dinafem-Mark]

Thanks for your kind words @@sy100276

I think I've done a few things wrong along the way which may give you a better insight into what not to do with this strain. Although, currently at week 9, they still show good production and resilience towards my negligence. I've thrown quite a lot of unnecessary stress towards them and yet the two main colas from SA#1 and 2 are huge! (for a 250w / 60x60x140 grow anyway). I can only imagine what they would have done if I had scrog'd them or did a bit more LST. They certainly liked to stretch though...

It is a shame that I stressed them out because I believe the Trichomes count would have been much higher than what it is currently.

---

Week 3 to 4 of flowering

11/1/15 (w3d1)

~2ltr of 3ml bloom;

SA#1 ~65cm

SA#2 ~75cm

SA#3 ~78cm

Had to tie up SA#3 a bit as she was droopy from the stretched branches and buckling from the weight. I also think because I took them out for a glamour shot a few days back, that the way they were resting on each other was disturbed and so I added unnecessary stress to the branches - some of which would later snap/lose feed via its veins.

You can see in the following photos how close the top of the buds were getting to the lamp... I raised the light fitting further by clipping them with cable ties onto the metal frame a week or two later... They were initially on pulleys. I should have raised them much earlier imo, i.e. around this time.

Photos:

(click to enlarge)

Poorly taken Macros by LED light

||

===

14/1/15 (w3d4)

2ltr of 3ml bloom;

17/01/15 (w4d0)

2.5 ltr of 3.5ml bloom

Photos:

(2nd image is 8 inches)

||

(click to enlarge)

Thank you for the update very much appreciated

All the best

D-M..

[dannychoo]

Cheers DM

(You probably don't need to quote my uber-long posts though : : )

[dannychoo]

20/01/15 (w4d3)

2ltr each

SA#3 - 3ml bloom

SA#1+2 - 3.5ml bloom

The buds are in full bloom now and each branch is getting fatter and fatter with trichomes sprinkled on like icing sugar. I gave SA#3 less PM Bloom since it didn't seem as advanced as the other two. SA#3 also showing more of the mutations I was on about a couple of posts back: it's starting to claw more and isn't taking kindly to 3ml bloom (you can sort of see her in the back of the tent).

I was really busy around this time and in my stupidity, I followed my nutrients table from a previous grow... In hindsight I shouldn't have given SA#3 so much bloom. The calyxes are also different from SA#1 and 2, so much so I think it's a different pheno. Luckily I kept cuttings of SA#2 and 3... I'm not particularly sure why I didn't keep the cuttings of SA#1 and the progress made in week 9, given the amount of stress i've caused them all, SA#1 has responded much better than the other two.

Photos:

21/01/15

(click to enlarge)

22/01/15

(click to enlarge)

23/01/15 (w4d6)

2ltr each

SA#1 - 3.5ml

SA#2 - 3.5ml

SA#3 - 3ml

Photos:

23/01/15

||

(click to enlarge)

Edited February 21, 2015 by dannychoo

[sy100276]

Those buds look really nice, and the macro shots are cool. Do you think they will go much longer before they come down?

[dannychoo]

@@sy100276 Thanks dude

From Dinafem's website:

Characteristics of Strawberry Amnesia cannabis seeds

• Suitable for indoors and outdoors
• Sex: feminized
• Genotype: Sativa dominant
• Cross: Original Amnesia x Original Strawberry Cough
• Indoor flowering period: 65-70 weeks ( ... I think they meant days...)
• Outdoor harvest time: mid/late October
• Indoor yield: 450-500 g/m2
• Outdoor yield: 700-1100 g/plant
• Height: medium/tall
• THC: 20-22%

Those [macros] were taken at week 4 and Dinafem recommends 9-10 weeks of flowering for SA. Some seedbanks have it earmarked as 11 weeks. I'm currently in week 8 day 6 (although if you count the first week as week 1, then I guess I'm in week 9 day 6... really confusing that). The trichomes are half-milky to milky at the moment with some amber to dark amber ones thrown in also, but they are still spitting out white hairs so I think Dinafem have it spot on (9 to 10 weeks), because if it wasn't for the stress I've caused it, it would have blossomed much earlier than the projected end date I have in mind (probably going to run it until week 11).

I like having 75% milky to amber trichomes and ~75% to 100% orange hairs so just a week or two or so to go! It's quite a long flowering strain but I think it'll be worth it judging by the smells and stickiness Bearing in mind that when you hang them to dry, they will still 'cook'.

In terms of smells: I had a fragrant jasmine around the latter stages of growth; A haze whiff between weeks 1-4 and now a more calming fruity sticky icky flavour from rubbing her up.

I hope that curing will bring out even more smells from her. I've also decided that if SA#3 does turn out to be a poor crop, I'll throw most of her in with the loose leafs/trims I've collected/will be collecting to make some SA Bubble

----

So as I kept mentioning over and over again, I've managed to over-fertilize them and I believe this was the week that I finally topped them overboard. This was the dosage I gave them at the time and it was largely to do with the leafs turning paler and the budsites getting fatter:

27/01/15 (w5d3)

2 ltr each + 5ml epsom

SA#1 - 4ml

SA#2 - 4ml

SA#3 - 3.5ml

What I really should have done was either do epsom as is, or kept the dosage as it was last feed (3 to 3.5ml) and not mix them together. I also believe the size of the plants and the pots used (6.5liters square pots) have caused them to be root bound.

I've read a few topics that this can be detrimental to the overall process as well as unable to retain the mixture fed to it - just goes straight through. I should have used a rose nozzle or spray them to ensure the soil was properly drenched instead of pouring into a drain pipe I utilize to spread the water (quite useful though to reach the pots at the back).

Anyway, photos... (click to enlarge..)

Wk 5 day 1

Wk 5 day 3

Edited February 21, 2015 by dannychoo

[Dinafem-Mark]

I would agree 70 days is a typically average bloom time for our sa some may go 77 days or 11 weeks but 10 weeks looks about the norm.

Looking very nice and cant wait to see some sa extracts

All the best

D-M..

[sy100276]

As always a great update. Those buds are looking really juicy by the way.

[Mackie]

doing well. looks like your on target for that 70 days. ATB

[dannychoo]

Thank you @sy100276@Allen as well as other passer-bys and especially @Dinafem-Mark

Here's a sneak preview of the trichomes, taken today, for your for your continued support

----

Today I want to talk about a strain I grew a while back - THC Bomb. I had a few issues with that grow too but I kept cuttings and did an experiment with them, introducing molasses for the first time in my grows. One thing to point out is that molasses is already present in PM Bloom and with the THC Bomb cuttings, I used molasses at 2.5ml/liter when I was flushing them to see if it does make a difference...

This was the result:

THC Bomb cured:

THC Bomb, without molasses:

THC Bomb, with molasses:

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photos but when I put them side by side, the trichomes count was higher and the smells more vivid in the one with molasses, than that of the one without.

Although this could also be because I had heat issues with the mother and whereas I took a bit more care with the cuttings...

In any case, I was convinced that it was bringing out more flavours and smells and so I wanted to try it out in this grow.

The only problem was the fact that I was too busy to take notice of my plants needed at the time and stupidly gave them molasses in week 6, as well as PM Bloom, instead of when I was planning to flush. I think know now that it affected them in a very bad way in that it tipped them over the edge in nute burns, especially SA#3 which is currently a mess. Thankfully SA#1 and #2 wasn't affected too much and they soldiered on.

I also stupidly took them out for some photos and re-arranged them again in the tent. They'd have been ok if it weren't for the fact that they had big buds on long stalks and the weight was too much for some branches - so much so they bent and went slightly brown, cutting off circulation. Before I took them out, they were supporting each other and after I took them out, I wish I had my scrog net in, which would give better support and would also mean I had no way of moving them.

Oh well, lessons are learnt through trial and error and I now know what not to do.

---

03/02/15 (w6d3)

2ltr each

SA#1-3 3.75ml bloom & ~2.50ml molasses per liter

Photos before feed:

(click to enlarge)

SA#1

SA#2

Phew, almost caught up to date...

[sy100276]

Thanks for the diary update. Things are looking good. Those branches look heavy. How long do you think you will flush these beauties for?