It's been a crazy week, and I'm a day late posting this. Violet's appearance has changed so much since the week before last. This is her first week of flower, and like all kids that grow, it's like looking at her 6th grade picture next to her sophomore picture: hardly recognizable as the same plant! She's going blonde on us. Long, white pistils stick up like Wilson the Volleyball's hair. She's a crazy teenager now, and I can barely keep up with her growth!
9/6 day 30
Looking stellar today! I moved the tie wire up a little, and pulled her down more. I tucked and moved the large leaves down under the bud stems to allow light. a few hours later, and she has almost turned her top all the way up. Violet really seems to like all these little adjustments we are making to her light intake.
9/8 day 32
Although Violet still looks beautiful, I am noticing a loss of luster today when I look at her. I find myself looking for something wrong, but I'm not sure what. She just feels a little "off." I'm thinking I'll water tomorrow, because not only does she seem to need it a day early, But I am giving her her first top-dress with this watering, and I feel she's definitely ready.
9/9 day 33
Before watering and top-dressing Violet today, there are a couple of big leaves I am going to remove. I believe they have served their purpose, and this opens up the underneath to air and light. As I'm doing this, I definitely see a little sign of deficiency in the centers and along the veins of some leaves, and she just doesn't look as brilliant this morning. I rough up the top 1-1.5" of soil, and add my mix around the base as evenly as possible, and work it in gently with my fingers.
I water in stages, pausing a little every once in a while to allow the water to soak the amendments. In my mind, this helps them to become available sooner through washdown, kind of like a tea, which I am going to experiment with someday. I think it is especially helpful for the worm castings, which should be the first nutrients available to the plant for this feeding. I'm thinking this is going to perk her right up.
9/10 day 34
I have never seen Violet look so happy! Stretching toward the light, so bright, beautiful, and healthy! I know dry nutrients aren't supposed to be available for a while, but I can totally tell she's been fed. She looks amazing!
9/11 day 35
Violet is the epitome of grateful happiness this morning. Every morning I look at her, and think she looks better than ever before. I am noticing a little white on some of the tips, and it reminds me of a phenomenon we noticed with our West Coast OG auto (Fastbuds) as well, like they were hungry, but a little nute-burnt at the same time. The hubs thinks this may be due to the Miracle-Gro in the perlite we used for both, which we didn't notice until after planting. We'll be using a different perlite next run, and hopefully we won't see this as bad again.
We can already see a couple more fan leaves that need to come off, and a couple more LST points we are going to make for our next adjustments. I can't get enough of looking at the amazing structure of this beautiful plant, and I am sad that these leaves will be some of my favorites for color and beauty. I'm a real fan of the geometry of cannabis plants. They mesmerize me, and leaves of this plant seem to change colors in the light. She's a real treat to behold, and pictures don't do her justice. A few funky leaves still, but they are lost in the overall image.
At this point, the average canopy height is about 7". If you stretch out her main cola, it's probably about 8.5" She is about 16" across. This is the part where Violet is really going to get down to business.