News Joint Grow Journal 2.0: Five Signature Strains is back with a new spotlight entry for Jilly Bean by MzJill Genetics. We left off my last Jilly Bean entry with healthy fat-fingered leaves fanning out a week after transplant. From there, Jilly Bean has thrived.

The Jilly Bean plant’s height, as mentioned in Grow Journal 22, was in the middle: taller than the Peanut Butter Cookies by Tastebudz and Strawberry Cough by Kyle Kushman but shorter than the Tenzin Kush #4 x Hazy Kushby Green Bodhi and PuTang by Mass Medical Strains. I had topped the TK#4xHK (see last entry) and Putang (see next entry) to even the heights of the other plants. For the Jilly Bean, I decided to try for the first time a FIM top.

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FIM is an acronym for “fuck, I missed,” a term used to refer to a specific trimming or pruning method involving the removal of 75-80% of the foliage tip at the very end of the branch or stem. For my attempt at a FIM top, I’d read a few trusted sources and watch a few videos on how to FIM top during my first grow and probably should have refreshed before my attempt.

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Overall, I think I FIM topped the Jilly Bean in the correct spot, but I had forgotten that I had read and been told to rip the foliage with my fingertips instead of snipping them with pruning shears.

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After the top, all I could do was wait for the outcome. For the first couple weeks, I had no idea if I had succeeded in a proper FIM top because I had no frame of reference, especially in vegetation. I knew it was supposed to give me a bigger, thicker cola but not how it was supposed to look while getting there.

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The foliage at the top fanned out more each week, and the rest of the plant become thick with branches and leaves. I didn’t prune the bottom leaves or branches besides to remove anything dead or dying, which was minimal.

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I gave her Lotus Nutrients, Fishshit, and love. After the shaky start, I was super please how the inside of my tent looked. All five plants were a healthy green and growing rapidly with Jilly Bean right in the middle.

The aroma of Jillly Bean’s stems when I low stressed strained them had no tropical citrus or sweet candy smell as expected but instead an interesting earthy skunk (though that eventually changed). As mention, I started low stressed training each plant daily by continuously pinching and bending the branches with my fingertips.

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A couple weeks after the FIM top, my confidence began to grow with the plant’s growth. I wasn’t 100% sure I nailed it, but the plant was healthy and thriving. The top of the Jilly Bean’s foliage fanned out in clumps that thickened with more foliage each week. How that translated into a quality cola, I didn’t know. But I had hope.

Stay tuned for the next Jilly Bean entry in which I follow the growth of the FIM top and the cola it created. Spoil alert: I couldn’t be happier with the results!

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The next News Joint Grow Journal 2.0: Five Signature Strains journal entry (28) will rotate back to spotlighting PuTang by Mass Medical Strains. Follow all of our Grow Journals here. Or click here to follow News Joint Grow Journal. A Prairie State of Mind.