[testymctester]

I have been looking for Sour Bubble for a LONG time. I am lazy and don't have much room to garden currently, so I have not been pheno hunting through seed packs. I'm always looking for BOG cuts locally, but I have only seen a Sour Strawberry that didn't quite turn out how I had hoped.
Sour Strawberry?

I stopped by one of my local dispensaries a couple months ago and noticed they had 1 pack of Sour Bubble left. I haven't run seeds in a few years, but figured it was worth it to finally flower out some Sour Bubble. I soaked 6 seeds in a cup of water overnight and then put them in some Happy Frog soil.

4 popped above the ground and 1 never took off. I ended up with 3 healthy young ones and still have 8 more for next time.

[testymctester]

All 3 vegged very slowly and uniformly, but the 3rd one was more vigorous and taller than the other 2. Here they are around 4-5 weeks from seed.

[testymctester]

I topped each of them 1 time and they had all shown sex by week 8. I put the 2 females into flower with my Sour Strawberry cut which was a little over 3 weeks in. The pics here are not so great, but you can see the 1st one is the shortest plant from veg (SB1) and the second is the slightly taller girl (SB2).

The shorter one (SB1) is very dark green while the taller one (SB2) is a lighter green with HUGE fan leaves. The 3rd pic shows the 2 SBs in the tent with the SS already flowering. SB1 is in front on a stool to keep the canopy more even. SB2 is just behind her.

[testymctester]

I had to go out of town for 10 days or so when they first went into bloom, so I missed any pics of their first couple weeks flowering. Here are a couple shots from a few weeks ago (starting week 5). I have had this browning or burnt pistil problem on a few strains in my garden, but these Sour Bubbles have it the worst I have ever seen.

The first 2 pics are SB1 and the next 3 are SB2. The plants look healthy and appear to be developing nice buds, but the pistils are almost non-existent. I know it looks like broad/russet mite damage, but I would think the plants would be more devastated. The same plants in hydro do not exhibit this.

There are much nicer funk and fruit aromas coming off these 2 girls compared to the other SS girl they are sharing a room with. I'll be excited to pull these down in another couple weeks.

[DocZ]

Originally Posted by testymctester

I had to go out of town for 10 days or so when they first went into bloom, so I missed any pics of their first couple weeks flowering. Here are a couple shots from a few weeks ago (starting week 5). I have had this browning or burnt pistil problem on a few strains in my garden, but these Sour Bubbles have it the worst I have ever seen.

Hey testy, I agree about your idea on SSK thread "cutting-back or eliminating" any N-containing fertilizer earlier. Those are definitely dark GREEN!
Flowering ferts only with this soil from week one maybe?
Residual N and a good rooted pot should push the flowers out; preferential to longer, greener bud leaves.

Especially if you flower early and short ...

I have two SB's, Back-X 3 or 4 going now in veg- still in 1 gallon pots. They look more like the SB3- Tall and long purple fan stems.
Both are not as dark green as yours, but I tend to err on the low-N side as it is recoverable with a shot of low-N (EWC tea, etc.), unlike K or P deficiencies, especially right after up-potting and rooting.

One may be a male, but hoping for a female, also, as they look like the "cornstalk pheno" mentioned in Phoenix's SB logs. He mentions that he likes to pack this pheno in tight; and produce single cola Tops in one gallon pots... I'm shooting for same goal.. 1 oz per gallon of root space...under whatever light can make it!!
I have cut clones of both SB's, and am flowering one of each, and letting seed plants go until I sex/look at pheno/structure before alternate branching shows.

I'll try to post pics soon, so you can compare these for next run with clones.
But I up-pot selected females and root 5-10 days before switching; drop-back to just water if new leaf shoots don't show that lime-green fast growth...right before pistils start.

(With Hydro you maintain or increase P K, and micros, Right?) No limit on root space there, as in soil, also, so maybe that's something to consider, too.

Hope this helps~~!

[testymctester]

Hey Doc, thanks for stopping by. I don't use veg nutes because I know the nova packs quite a bit of N (4-8-7) and I guess there is a little in the soil too.

Maybe the combination of the Happy Frog and FNB is too hot at first? I have used the FNB for a while as a 1-part Lucas formula in hydro and keep it @ 1 tsp/gallon or less. I use the same recipe in Happy Frog with a (feed-water-water) cycle.

These SBs went in 2+ gallon pots from seed and I flowered them after 8 weeks in the same pot. I fed the SBs with a couple quarter strength feeds in veg and they got really dark. The SB2 started lightening up a couple weeks ago, but the SB1 has stayed pretty dark throughout flower. They are both starting to purple and fade now.

I am using FNB because it is so easy to crank out great buds in hydro and I would rather not mess with different bottles if I don't have to. I will try feeding less this next round and see if I can get better performance. If not, I guess I'll have to change the medium or consider another fert.

In hydro, I put rooted cuts into 5x5 containers of hydroton. Let them root the medium for a week or so, and then into flower. They get half of the recommended strength FNB (1 tsp/gal) from week 1 until 2 weeks before they are done. I keep PPM between 600-800 and ph between 5.6 and 5.9. I do plain water add backs the last couple weeks of flower to bring down PPM gradually and then give a fresh water res for several days before they are chopped. It takes very little maintenance and the results are always great!

Good luck with your SBs, Doc! Hoping you have at least 1 female.

[browntrout]

Nice work! cant wait for a smoke report!

[testymctester]

Thanks BT. I can't wait either!

It looks like I've got another 10 days before they come down. So, it will probably be Christmas before they have dried and cured enough to get a proper taste.

SB1 has a sweet candy kush aroma and SB2 is more sour, with a lemon/lime scent. I've got both backed up with clones and hoping for the best.

[testymctester]

Here is SB1 at 6 weeks.

[testymctester]

And here is SB2 at 6 weeks.