I’m back with News Joint Grow Journal 9.0 (fruit flavors) and the one non-sativa strain for this round, Icy Grape F2 by Copa Genetics. Icy Grape F2 is a hybrid cross of Purple Zkittlez (SMMJ cut) and 1996 Black Domina (Sensi Seeds).

I popped a couple regular photoperiod seeds, and one was female. During vegetation, the squat plant grew bushy with tight node spacing and leaf structure and thin branches that needed trimmed at least twice as often as the other plants. The leaves were dark green and overlapping throughout the grow. I topped the plant mainly to help light penetrate in the middle and the lower branches. I also bent knots into branches to open the middle of the plant and leveling out the canopy.

The Icy Grape was so short that I had to put a box underneath it during vegetation and flowering to reach the height of the other plants in the tent. During the grow, I used Nectar for the Gods nutrient line, SLF-100, Fishshit, and Cultured Biologix no-brew microbial teas (all sponsored by The Apple House in Terre Haute). The stem rubs delivered a sweet fruit, but after flipping to flower under a BlackBird light sponsored by HLG, the aroma picked up more sweet grape funk.

Though the plant had little stretch, I trimmed and pruned four times while flowering. Because of the tight node spacing, the branches were stacked with flower. The buds grew round and large compared to the size of the stems. The buds became darker toward the end of flower with touches of purple, and the branches could not hold them up. I chopped the plant 65 days into flowering. I lightly trimmed the largest leaves before placing the buds inside my Cool Cure to dry. Again, the Cool Cure by Cannatrol had been the single best addition to my grow. Instead of worrying about the space and conditions for drying the plant as I had in the past, I dried the buds in four days and cured for two days in the Cool Cure before taking out buds and placing them in Grove Bags, so I could dry the next two plants.

Overall, the plant didn’t need large amounts of nutrients or heavy watering but was finicky throughout the grow. Once dried, the buds were difficult to trim with leaves protruding from between the stacked buds. The yield was less than average for my grows. But stay tuned for Icy Grape Part 2 to hear why the final product was well worth the grow and I keep going back to this strain after work.

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