Blue Sunset Sherbet Grow Diary and Strain Review

Hi all! Let me describe my favorite grow this far – Blue Sunset Sherbert by Barney's Farm – and give you a short strain review.

I grew just one Blue Sunset Sherbet plant in a 3’x3’ tent and got close to 1.2 grams per watt in 16 weeks. The yield of 365 g from one plant was amazing, but even more amazing was the quality of the buds and the smoke itself. I hope you’ll enjoy my Blue Sunset Sherbert grow diary and that it inspires you to try it out too.

Blue Sunset Sherbet: Germination and Veg

I learned long ago that the simplest methods are the most reliable, which is why I germinate my weed seeds in a glass of water. You just let the bean float on the surface until it pops the taproot. You can then transfer it between two wet paper towels and wait for the root to get a bit longer or just plant the seed in the medium right away.

For my Blue Sunset Sherbet, I decided to start in a 300 ml pot and then make a couple of transplants. This makes watering much easier while the root ball grows strong and uniform.

I filled the starter pot with a soil mix, which allowed me to use plain water for the first couple of weeks. After the first transplant and until the end of the cycle, my Blue Sunset Sherbert stayed in an 85-15 coco/perlite mix and received nutrients with every watering.

I prefer not to stress seedlings with too much light, so I kept my LED at a comfortable distance and let the young plant stretch a bit, but not too much. My Blue Sunset Sherbet grew nice and healthy, obviously liking the soil, light, warm temperature, and high humidity.

The Training

She started to show new growth at the nodes quite soon, signaling that she’d grow to be very bushy. I transplanted her into a 20-liter air pot in week 3, and since she took the repotting in stride, I immediately proceeded to top her and remove the bottom nodes. She was left with just three nodes and six primary side branches in total. There’d be secondary branches later on, so I figured I would have plenty of good-sized tops by harvest.

I did the first major defoliation in week 4 to let all those side branches get more light and develop faster. As they extended, I bent them as far as they would go and tied them down. You could say that for the next few weeks, there was virtually no vertical growth, but the lady exploded sideways.

Her pot was large, but she soon outgrew it, and the canopy looked flat, wide, and impenetrably dense. In week 7 from seed, I cut all the ties, transplanted the lady into an even bigger, 35-liter container, and trained and tied down every branch anew. By now, she didn’t look so low-profile anymore at 60 cm (2 feet) in height.

After the second transplant, my Blue Sunset Sherbet looked a little tired and droopy, and I knew I should give her a week or two to settle into her new home. At the same time, her size made me nervous, and I decided to switch her to 12/12 right away. Maybe I shouldn’t have rushed it – by harvest, she didn’t fill the whole tent, so I could’ve let her grow more and gotten away with it.

Blue Sunset Sherbet Flowering Time

My Blue Sunset Sherbet took 10 weeks of 12/12 to fully mature, which is close to the flowering time given in the breeder’s specs. I love it when seed producers are upfront and honest about their plants’ characteristics. In the case of the flowering time, it helps to schedule the final flush so that the buds are perfectly clean by harvest.

I did no training after the second transplant and just let the tops grow into the light. They didn’t stretch much anyway, gaining only another 20 cm (8 inches) and then fully changing gear into flowering mode. After only two weeks of 12/12, there were flowers everywhere, not just on the tops.

In fact, there were so many and so far down that I had to heavily defoliate for the second time and lollipop much of the lower growth. I knew that I risked shocking my girl at this vulnerable time, but it needed to be done. In the end, even if the girl was stressed by the procedure, I saw no symptoms of it.

Thirsty and Hungry

Both the vegetative growth and the budding process were very rapid, and my Blue Sunset Sherbert drank a lot of nutrient solution. It was 1.5 liters per day around the time I switched to flowering, and when the buds began to really fill out some 4 weeks into flowering, I started giving her 2.5 liters a day.

I’ve already mentioned that it was plain water only for the first two weeks. Then – when the girl was already in coco – I introduced the three-part Jungle Juice formula by Advanced Nutrients. AD’s products are rather expensive, but they do the job perfectly, so I’d recommend them to anyone. At first, the diet was heavy in nitrogen (from Jungle Juice Grow). Later, I tapered it off while increasing the dose of the Bloom part. As for the Micro part, my lady received this throughout and was loving it.

Of course, Advanced Nutrients offers many other amazing products, and I used some of them, such as B-52, Big Bud, and Nirvana to get faster-maturing, bigger, and frostier nuggets. I wasn’t afraid to go heavy on nutrients – my Blue Sunset Sherbert received 900 ppm (EC 1.8) in veg and early in the flowering stage and 1150 ppm (EC 2.3) for the rest of the budding stage. She never complained or showed any signs of nute burn.

The Harvest Was Right on Schedule

I was amazed by how the buds were stacking up from early on. They were long, had no gaps, and were shaping up to be as big as my forearms. I usually support branches with stakes about the time I flush, but in this run, I had to use the stakes from mid-flower. Otherwise, the branches would’ve snapped under their own weight, especially, when I boosted their growth with Ionic PK Boost by Growth Technology and later with Advanced Nutrients’ Overdrive.

The flowers were tight and dense, almost impossible to squeeze, and the smell from all that resin covering the calyces and trim leaves was strong and delicious. For what it’s worth, it reminded me of sweet bakery aromas.

After about 8 weeks of 12/12, I saw that the trichomes were mostly cloudy, and I stopped giving the plant any nutrients. For the final flush, I used Growth Technology AquaBurst. It’s just a wetting agent that ensures every nook in the medium gets soaked and no dry pockets remain. The flush continued for two weeks, but my Blue Sunset Sherbet was well-fed, so she didn’t fade too much before I gave her the ax.

Blue Sunset Sherbert from Barney's Farm

VIEW STRAIN

Blue Sunset Sherbet Strain Review

The yield was fantastic – so many long, super-dense colas! They were absolutely easy to trim, but I had to remove the resin from my scissors with rubbing alcohol all the time. When cured, the buds smelled sweet and piney and had a lovely creamy taste. It’s hard to say whether they were more Indica or Sativa – it’s a very balanced hybrid.

I harvested close to 13 ounces (365 g) – not bad for an indoor grow and such a moderate plant height. The THC content in Blue Sunset Sherbet was high enough to shatter my tolerance, and I enjoyed the happy relaxation and cerebral stimulation it provided. As for the plant itself, she’s an amazingly strong cultivar with truly outstanding genetics. I got only positive emotions when growing her. I hope you’ll have just as rewarding an experience with Blue Sunset Sherbet. Happy growing!

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