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Hello, everybody! Today I want to show you my Shiskaberry grow diary and review this strain – something I’ve been meaning to do since I first grew this weed from seeds and kept one exceptional specimen as a mother plant.
In this Shiskaberry review, I describe my second experience with this strain, as I grew two plants from clones in just 10 weeks (9 of which they spent in flowering). All went remarkably well, and I got over 14 ounces (407 grams) of dry bud without a single issue. You can use my grow journal as a source of Shiskaberry grow tips – I hope you’ll enjoy cultivating this strain as much as I did!
A Very Short Grow Time Thanks to Using Clones
I used two Shiskaberry clones for this grow. Both were topped so that they each had two main shoots. By the time the roots started emerging from the rockwool plugs, both clones were about 10 cm tall and looked more or less like 2-week-old seedlings. They also had alternating nodes already, meaning they were quite mature and ready to flower.
When I saw the roots, I put the plugs into full-size rockwool cubes, having first dipped them into a 700 ppm nutrient solution. For this second run of Shiskaberry, I decided to go with the nutrient-film technique (NFT), as it ensures much faster vegetative growth than soil.
A Hydro Grow is All About Good Nutrient Balance
I used a mixed synthetic/organic diet throughout this grow. In veg, the staple formula was Hydro MAX Grow by Vitalink, but of course, you can use any other line of nutrients (preferably something designed specifically for cannabis) provided that it contains plenty of nitrogen.
I also used several root and general growth stimulators, such as Rhizotonic, Superthrive, and fulvic acid, which are a bunch of beneficial microbes, vitamins, and organic supplements. Another thing that I find essential is Shogun Silicon, which makes the branches more robust and able to support heavy buds at harvest time.
I inserted the cubes into my 40-liter NFT tank. In case you’re not familiar with this type of system, the cubes sit on top of a slightly sloping tray, and the nutrient solution flows constantly along. The bottom is also covered with a thin mat that serves as a substrate for roots. I use a 24/7 lighting schedule for clones, and when it’s time to induce flowering, I first decrease the schedule to 14/10 and after about 14 days, to 12/12.
Shiskaberry Flowering Time
The flowering time of this strain was 9 weeks in my case. Generally, for clones, this period is a bit shorter than for seeds, so I harvested mine after just 7 weeks (as I did the first time around with seeds), but what I wanted was to get a deeper Indica buzz, so I let my Shiskaberry weed plants mature for two extra weeks.
As I said, I switched to 14/10 as soon as the girls moved into their final home (the NFT tank), just to signal that they were about to enter the budding stage. I hadn’t changed their diet yet, as I knew that clones first need to develop an extensive and healthy root system and grow some vegetation. Even if you give them 12/12, they don’t start to flower in a week as mature plants do. My Shiskaberries still received a lot of nitrogen and loved it. All I had to do was check the pumps and air stones and correct the pH every time I topped up the reservoir.
After two weeks, I finally reduced the number of light hours to 12 per day, changed from Hydro MAX Grow to Bloom, and dropped on Rhizotonic, but I didn’t add any PK boosters or other budding supplements just yet.
The Flowering Period Proper Was Super-Short
After two weeks of 14/10 and two weeks of 12/12, I finally saw both girls transition to flowering. You’ll know it immediately by the way the color of the tops gets lighter, and if you look closely, you’ll notice tiny white hairs starting to form on every top. By this time, both ladies had grown a great number of branches and practically filled all the available horizontal space. They started to stretch too, as flowering plants are expected to do.
This was when I decided to introduce the CANNA BOOST Accelerator and the PK-rich Buddy by Vitalink. Of course, TDS values jumped to 1100 and then 1200 ppm, but it was okay because my Shiskaberries were drinking and eating at a healthy rate and looking very happy. Some of the branches shot too high above the rest, and I had to supercrop them. You probably know how it’s done – you crush the stem between your fingers, then bend it and tie it down. I also removed some of the lower branches and fan leaves.
In the third week of 12/12, I saw the first trichomes, and the ladies started to give off a very pungent smell. By this time, I made sure to bring the relative humidity to 45% and was struggling to keep the temperature down to 24-25 °C (75-77 °F). It wasn’t easy because of the heatwave.
The Sprint Finish
About 4 weeks into flowering, the plants stopped stretching at about 33 inches (83 cm) and the buds were already well stacked up. I removed most of the fan leaves to provide better airflow and upped the nutes to 1300 ppm, using the same mix of products. The flowers already looked like they were approaching maturity, so in week 5, I introduced Ripen and PK 13/14 to give them a final boost of phosphorus and potassium. At the same time, I started to dial down every other product to just 750 ppm total.
The buds weren’t just filling out – they were getting huge and bloated and were completely covered in resin. That’s why in the final, sixth week of flowering, I was just topping the reservoir with plain dechlorinated water at 5.8 pH, letting the plants eat the rest of the food and clean themselves of any salt build-up. For the last few days, I filled the res with plain water to complete the flushing.
Despite an insane number of branches and plenty of buds, harvesting them didn’t take long, as the calyx-to-leaf ratio was excellent and trimming was fast. I gave my Shiskaberries proper drying and curing to bring out their terps and potency.
Shiskaberry Terpene Profile and THC Content
Shiskaberry terpenes are dominated by the pungent sweet and herbal notes of traditional Afghan hashish – I mean the more fruity hashish variety. Old-timers will definitely recognize this smell and taste, and with a flavor like this, you can imagine how potent these buds are. The breeder promises THC at 26%, and I’d say it’s somewhere in that ballpark.
I prolonged the flowering to get more sedating, body-buzz effects that make me happy but super relaxed. However, you can harvest your buds earlier to get a more functional high that won’t be in the way if you need to get things done.
Final Thoughts on the Shiskaberry Grow and Harvest
Whether cultivated from seeds or clones, Shiskaberry (Barneys Farm) is a fast and productive, totally beginner-friendly cultivar. She’s one of my favorite strains now, as the quality of the smoke is top-notch and you only need so many weeks to get it. Also, extra weeks in flowering don’t seem to bring higher yields but make the flavor deeper and the high harder-hitting. I hope you enjoyed this grow guide and found it useful. Happy growing!
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