I’m back with News Joint Grow Journal 2.0: Five Signature Strains. As with my original grow journal, I am growing four sativa for medication during the day, and one indica to help me sleep at night. This fourth journal entry spotlights the one indica: Peanut Butter Cookies by Tastebudz.

As mentioned in Grow Journal 22: Jilly Bean by MzJill Genetics, I want to support women in the cannabis industry. Of course I want to support established breeders, such as MzJill, but I also want to support up-and-coming breeders. I searched for a breeder as different as the one indica amongst four sativa in my tent and believe I found the perfect fit with Tastebudz.

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Admittedly, I have not sampled one strain (soon to change) from the women owned and operated company, but after discussing this grow journal with Tastebudz, I found many similarities in our businesses and believe in not only what the women at Tastebudz were creating but also how they went about doing it.

One of the biggest differences from the other four breeders is that Tastebudz hails from across the pond. Tastebudz has vendors in the States, though, such as North Atlantic Seed Company and others here.

Peanut Butter Cookies is an 80%/20% indica-dominant hybrid of OGKB (OG Kush Breath) and Do-Si-Dos that is supposed to provide the knock-out body-melt buzz (up to 25% THC) I’m looking for at night. The strain should have nutty and earthy flavor and take 9-10 weeks to finish flowering.

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The Peanut Butter Cookies seed was the first of the five strains (including Tenzin Kush #4 x Hazy Kush by Green Bodhi, Jilly Bean by MzJill Genetics, PuTang by Mass Medical Strains, Strawberry Cough by Kyle Kushman) to pop. The seedling thrived despite overwatering early on. But it was the second week that became “make or break” for the Peanut Butter Cookies plant.

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As mentioned in the first few journal entries, my PH balance for a gallon of water I premade unexpectedly raised back to my water’s normal PH of 7.6. The Peanut Butter Cookies took the brunt of this because I watered the plant three times with the premade water before noticing my mistake. For the first time since growing, I truly thought I was going to lose my first plant.

The Peanut Butter Cookies faded to a florescent green, and the tips of the leaves were browning and curling up. I flushed new PH balanced water through the solo cup but that just overwatered the seedling. In a few days, the top growth sprouted with a healthier green color, but the bottom branches of the plant kept dying.

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When I barely touched one of the bottom branches, the branch snapped off and fell to the soil. I was hit with an unexpected sadness, then frustration, because there was no one else to blame but myself. Eventually, three out-of-the-four branches on the seedling died. Only one branch (for reasons I don’t understand) stayed healthy enough to survive.

Again, as mentioned in previous journal entries, I am fortunately working with quality genetics that can withstand my mistakes. Once I stabilized the watering cycles, the Peanut Butter Cookies bounced back with a growth spurt.

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For Grow Journal 2.0, I had a list of new ideas/techniques I wanted to try, but what I kept learning during my second grow was that the plants were making the decisions on which growing techniques I use instead of which ones I’d planned to use. The plants were not adjusting to my growing techniques. My growing techniques were adjusting to the needs of the plants and grow space.

For example, it’s been difficult keeping an even canopy with five different stains. I topped the Tenzin Kush #4 x Hazy Kush and the PuTang earlier than planned, because those two plants were doubling the height of the other three plants in my tent. I FIM topped the Jilly Bean because the plant was taller than the Peanut Butter Cookies and Strawberry Cough but not as tall as the Tenzin Kush #4 x Hazy Kush and the PuTang, and I wanted to take advantage of the central trunk’s thick top that I already expected to produce a crowded bud structure.

For the Peanut Butter Cookie, though, I decided to low stress train in opposite directions the main central trunk and the one remaining branch. Check back for the next Peanut Butter Cookie journal entry in which I discuss almost losing the plant’s last remaining branch.

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The next News Joint Grow Journal (25) will spotlight our final “Signature Strain” Strawberry Cough by Kyle Kushman (Homegrown Cannabis Co.) and will discuss why I decided not to top the plant and let it grow with minimal interference from me.

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