Day 94
Flowering - Day 15
Things are going great. One thing I noticed was her water consumption dropped off considerably since I did the big round of defoliation - maybe that's part of what happens when she gets "stunted". At any rate, her water intake jumped dramatically yesterday and into today.
I've been letting her PH swing up and down...something I believe is important. If we call 5.8 her home base, I like to let her drift up into the 6.1 and 6.2 range. I will let her dip below 5.8 but I won't let her stay under 5.8 for nearly as long as I will above 5.8.
One thing on the PH topic that I find fascinating - I think the beneficial bacteria and roots are actually in control of the PH. I know this sounds crazy but hear me out:
My two previous hydroponics (NFT) experiments used a product called ZONE which created a sterile environment. Without fail, here is how the PH worked: I would change the reservoir with fresh nutes, PH to where I wanted it (5.8 to 6.2, generally) and then manually adjust as I saw fit. But the point being, the PH would not change - I was in complete control. At least until the 5th or 6th day at which point the PH would start dropping all by itself and rather suddenly. I'm not seeing this behavior this time. I will do a fresh rez change and the plant will determine where it wants to be. Sometimes it will be at 5.7 or 5.8 and other times it will be at 6.0, 6.1 or 6.2. I can add PH up or down, and it will change, but I have to add more than usual - it's as if the plant is saying "hey...I want to be here...quit fighting me". Call me crazy, but this is what I'm seeing and I love it...fascinating.
Nothing else really important going on. 75% of the branches that are tied down no longer have tension on the string which is pretty amazing. I did all of the tying on Tuesday - started in the morning and did a bit here and there during the day and into the night. Tomorrow morning I will remove all of the string, let her be natural until the evening, and then start all over - tie down what needs to be tied down. Looks like I need to focus on the middle areas now a little and not just the bottom 1/3rd.
Some pre-flowers are showing. The tops have that cool thickness to them where you can see the new growth is much more dense than usual. I love this part...I just love it.
The stretch is still going on but I really wish she would get taller quicker. She hit 36" tall today but has only been growing around 0.75" to 1.0" per day. It's still early so there is a chance she can pack on some height - we'll see.
I was a bit bored before posting so I spent like 20 minutes counting all of the branches that look like they will yield legit cola's. I didn't count anything that fell into the popcorn category. I ended up with over 100 and kind of stopped counting after that
Until next time,
HDS