Blueberry Muffin, Caramel Cream, Blueberries 'n Chocolate

July 19

Well it's been almost a week now with not much vertical growth going on, and more flower development, so I'm, crossing fingers, thinking the stretch might be over with and I won't have to fret over plant height climbing so much. Can't say at all for sure with Blueberries n' Chocolate, as they are taking longer to develop than the others, but I still expect them to be the most compact variety in the tent.

As for smells, Blueberry Muffins are still in a league of their own. I haven't picked up on the bakery/muffin notes yet, but I'm absolutely floored with how closely they resemble real blueberries, and not faintly either, but potently. They're also starting to change hue to a purple-blue as the buds are coming in!
Caramel Cream is still exhibiting a very pleasant, somewhat sweet, lemony-lime and pine fuel aroma. I haven't got any notes of caramel, or dessert at all, but it's still something I'm excited to see and smell as it grows.
Blueberries n' Chocolate haven't impressed me as much as they did initially with their aroma. I smelled chocolate the other week, but I haven't picked up on that aroma again...Maybe it was psychosomatic? Maybe new smells came forward and are stronger than the faint chocolate I thought I smelled earlier? I can't be sure, but this week I've only smelled a light minty, earthy aroma. Nothing impressive, but then again, they are the least developed flowers in the tent, so I'm sure in a few weeks some of their aromas will come to life.

July 30

Plants all look healthy, pest-free, and seems like each of them is focusing their growth toward their flowers and trichomes.

BB Muffins have been eating Late Bloom [Phase 2] for the last few days and begin a Ripen [Phase 1] schedule starting tomorrow.
Caramel Cream started Late Bloom [Phase 1] on the 23rd, and it's moving to Phase 2 tomorrow, one step behind the BB Muffins.
BBHP x Chocolate Diesels are still on Mid Bloom for the rest of this week, starting Late [Phase 1] at the end of this weekend.

7/30

Caramel Cream

7/30

Blueberry Muffin

BBHP x Chocolate Diesel

Aug 8

Good things going on in the Bloom tent!

Blueberry Muffins are getting super close, moved on to the Flush yesterday! I'm not sure what caused the one to get so much more faded than the other; I'm hoping it's not a build-up/nute lock out issue, hoping it's just finishing a little different than her sister; I'll be looking for signs but now that she's in flush that's about all I know to do, and won't really know what to change about it other than for next time...
But I'm beyond stoked to harvest these girls. They smell friggin incredible. One has a slightly more 'cream cheesy' blueberry smell, and the other one that is faded more smells more strongly of just the blueberries, but they are both just AH! I'm hoping by the next post I'll have at least one down and drying, with some nice pics to put up for everyone.

Caramel is just STACKED. Smelling just as fuely, lemon-piney and sharp as before, only stronger. I'm really excited to try this even if it's nothing like caramel, and really happy it's producing so well; just as excited to see how much it yields too. She was scheduled for a 63 day Bloom to go on to Ripen
yesterday but I held her back a bit and gave her some more time on Late 2, she still had a lot of development going on, making new hairs and still stacking up, so I'll delay her transition to Ripen by a few days and take her maybe to 70ish days.

Blueberries n' Chocolate - I have a feeling these girls are going to come from behind and steal the show, even though they're taking the longest and I have the least to say about them. They still don't have a big smell to speak of, and are still only on Late Bloom [1] but the buds on them are getting chunky AF for the stage they're in, and the leaves are suuuper greasy, much greasier than the other girls. I'm looking forward to making hash and rosin from these no matter how they finish.

Aug 8

Caramel Cream Photos

Aug 8

Blueberries n' Chocolate pics

Aug 8

Blueberry Muffin

Aug 26

Woops! I haven't updated my journals on RIU in a while!
Everything's going well in the tent though, both of the Blueberry Muffins have been harvested and almost finished drying since I've last posted, Caramel Cream is on flush for a few more days until she's ready, and BB 'n Chocolates are on Ripen for a while still.

I'll be honest, I've dipped my hand into the honeyjar already with the Blueberry Muffin, and I'm excited to let it cure and give a better amateur report. So far they smell amazing, they took on a cheesy kind of smell late in their life a few days before harvest, and I ended up letting the one that wasn't as faded go for about another week before getting the chop, just to familiarize myself with how it turns out. I tried to wait for about %20 amber trichome heads, but only the tops were able to achieve quite that much. It lessened in amber progressively the lower I went into the canopy. The bottom buds ended up just cloudy with almost no sign of amber. I let them both air dry, without freezing anything this time, and left the sugar leaves on for a dry trim. If I had any complaint about them is that they are some leafy buds, they went from almost golf-ball sized untrimmed to thumb-sized when I trimmed them down, but they finished fast and even the bags of sugar leaf smell *amazing* so I can't really complain!
I'm leaving the manicured buds to air dry for one more day or so before they go into a jar for a few weeks to cure and plan to make some bubble hash out of the trim.

As for the others, I wish Caramel would hurry up and finish for me! I've had her on flush for about 8 days now, and she's still got stigmas that haven't dessicated (some white hairs still) and when I looked at her trich's yesterday, they were only about %1-3 amber, very low numbers and some even still clear-ish. I'm sooo ready for her though! She smells wonderful, full of jet fuel and lemon+pine, and her colas are nearly the size of soda cans!
BB n Chocolate is still coming along, I want to dial in their nutrients a little better next time I pop any of their seeds. I've gotten some fox-tailing and not a lot of smell coming off them unlike the other girls. They're very trichome dense, but smell only faintly minty and a hint of chocolate. I'm still eager to get to know this strain better.

Anyway here's a few pics

Caramel Cream

(The trich shot is from 8/24, and the hair on that one bud has since been removed...grrr)

Blueberries n Chocolate



Blueberry Muffin (just a shot of a few buds drying and a trich shot taken a few days before the chop)

Sep 2

Well, it's down to Blueberries n' Chocolate now. Caramel Cream was harvested on the 31st of Aug, not so much because she was at peak ripeness, as it was that I needed to move some plants from Veg to Bloom and I needed the room. She was ready enough, with about %5-10 amber trichomes
showing on her primary buds.
Chocolates trich's are looking glorious, even though she's the most subtle smelling, she's the frostiest strain I've grown so far I think. I'll be freezing some of her yield and doing some bubble/rosin runs and hoping to improve my craft in that area.
I'm not going to review the first plants harvest of Blueberry Muffin, because I'm of the opinion she got chopped a little early and didn't grow as healthy as her sister, so I'm going to wait to review the second batch when it's done curing in a few weeks.
Caramel Cream's colas were absolutely humongous. Best yield I've gotten so far in my early steps, and her buds are still smelling good during the dry.
Speaking of the dry, I think it will be what I try to learn about and focus the most on. Growing good bud on the plant doesn't seem to be too hard for me, but getting those smells to stick around and translate into a *very* pleasant smoke seems to be the difference between "Major and Minor League", and I'm still very much in the Minor League, so to speak. I'm currently practicing as much discipline and not smoking on the new batch of drying Muffins, so that I can give them time to fully cure, and really get an idea about how important that aspect is.

Sep 7

Tonight is the night for BB Chocolates. Their hairs have matured and they've shown enough amber in their trichs that I'm confident they're ripe enough to harvest, plus I'm in need of the space now that my next run is stretching and in need of training and space.

Caramel Cream is losing most of it's sharp fuel smell and turning to a more decadent, subtle earthy smell with notes of burlap and leather? Almost unimpressive, but it still has me intrigued to see what it will do in the weeks during curing. It did shake my confidence in myself a little bit, even getting the large yield, I haven't been the most pleased with how it turned out after drying, and am going to blame myself for maybe letting the terpenes degrade during the drying process, so I'm still coming along in learning how to preserve that smell while it's on the vine and can't really give the best review of this cultivar other than to say it grew some very fat buds for me, almost three times what the BB Muffins yielded. I haven't weighed yet, but it's filled two large jars and had some to spare, so I'm guessing the one plant got me around 7-9 Oz.

Blueberry Muffins are still curing, and smell good when I open the jar. When I occasionally dip my hand in the cookie jar, it smokes a little less impressively than I would expect. Only a few of the blueberry notes are coming through, something I'm once again attributing to my failures in the drying process. It's still coming out as decent smoke, but it's not incredible like it is on the vine. Preserving that smell and taste from ripe to dry is definitely the area where I need to focus my efforts, because it doesn't matter how good of bud is on the vine, if I can't dry it and preserve it as well as I grow it, it's just mid-grade.
The trim I saved up from BB Muffin did produce some really good bubble hash, and a large yield of it too. I'm improving in yielding and preserving bubble hash a lot too. Getting past the initial learning curve left me feeling a little under-confident, but this last run went really well and gave me the boost I needed.

**EDIT: Fuck, I forgot to post this over a week ago

Sep 16

Caramel Cream ended up weighing in at 8.8 Oz off just the one plant, and that's not including the nearly 1 Oz bud I lost to mold (should not let buds lean against tent walls)
Finished drying BB Chocolates on the 14th mostly, I still have some drying that hasn't been trimmed, I plan to bag them with 2-way Bodeva packs, then chill in the freezer and make some bubble hash. Smells still haven't come out strong, except some pleasant menthol like smells and fresh bud aroma. It stayed very trichome dense and I'm excited to get some great yields with bubble hash, and try to leave what's jarred and curing alone for about 2-3 weeks before testing again.
I'm hoping I let the Chocolates and Caramel flush long enough before harvesting, that's something I'm going to put extra effort in to going in to my next grow. That was a problem with Blueberry Muffins I think, it smells good in the jar after about 3 weeks of curing, but it doesn't smoke very good and still smells a little planty. I put a Bodeva pack in its jar today, hoping to maybe revive some tasty goodness.

All in all this grow has been good to me. Learning a lot, especially about the importance of the flush and the proper conditions for drying more slowly and preserving those terpenes. Big things to improve during the next run.