1st Grow! Candyland Peyote, Hindu Kush

3/21 (1930): Well well well, folks, we've made it to the official start of week 3. Plants doubled their height over the last week and added a bunch of new leaves. I think I was over-lighting the Candyland Peyote gals because the 5-point leaves only came out with 4 or 3. Lights are less intense now, in the range of 200umol and things seem much happier. Growth has exploded in the lower nodes over the past few days and, even though top growth has slowed a little, I'm taking that as a sign that these plants are healthy and doing their thing. Hell, thinking I might even top them in a few days if they get to 5 nodes. Already thinking in advance that I may top at the 4th node just so the plant isn't relying only on light-stunted leaves. HK and 710 seedlings are doing great, already working on their second set of true leaves. They've gotten much less light through the process, so they don't look as ragged as CP, but I also think the genetics are just better. CP is super super hybridized while Hindu Kush is basically a landrace and I believe 710 Cheese is based on some fairly based genetics as well. Makes sense that the super hybrid might be a little more unstable/sensitive. Just fun things to think about while I breathe CO2 on my plants lol. 3/22 (1000): It had been about 4 days since watering (since transplant, really) and the pots were feeling light, so I knew I had to water. Out of curiosity I had been thinking about starting a light run of nutes just to see what the effect would be. Did some reading about TDS for early veg and realized that the runoff I was getting with plain water was already way out of the park (like 1900ppm). Probably due to FFOF being so hot (and the soil being very fresh). Did a couple flushes try and bring it down but could only get to like 1300ppm. Good enough I suppose, hope I didn't drown the gals in the process. Running things a little more hot and dry in the tent today so they're forced to drink thru the roots more. 3/22 (1640): Candyland gals are just fine after this morning's flush! No point to this update except I'm burning one before I get ready for class and had some thoughts. (1) Really interesting how the fabric pots contribute to the tent's humidity when they're wet. I've had the humidifier turned off all day and the tent is stable at 75%RH no problem. (2) Nature is so fucking genius sometimes!! I've been a little worried because it felt like top growth had stalled on the Candyland gals, but I've been watching the lower nodes grow out a lot over the past few days and realizing that the plants are creating more photoreceptors to pick up the light they're missing. No need to grow on top when you can get more energy by growing wide!! Peeked in from the top and saw how the new node leaves were filling out the gaps - absolutely genius. (3) I think my favorite moment of growing so far was poking my head in the tent and realizing that the Candyland gals are starting to smell like weed!! The scent isn't pungent yet but when I get a good whiff it smells a little gassy and almost a little fruity. Maybe it's wishful thinking (I love fruit/gas terp profiles) but I would be so stoked if that's how the final plant came out. End of the day, I'm feeling more and more confident about the grow and feel like I'm settling into the process. 3/23 (1000): All seems generally well, one of the CP ladies is getting genuinely big and prob ready for a topping in a day or two. I'm a little more concerned with the other CP because it hasn't made any progress on top for the past few days. Dropped the lights even further (down to ~130umol) to see if we can't make the environment a little happier. 710 is absolutely killing the game, looks super happy. HK is a little behind but still seems okay. 3/24 (0930): The one smaller CP still looks bleachy and hasn't grown anything on top in days. Also I've been struggling with enviro control (what's new) but have a theory that I'm going to try. Bearing in mind that all lights create a micro-climate under them, and also that my LED fixture has turned out to be way more powerful than expected, I'm raising the lights up to maybe 3ft above the plants. PAR is dialed in around 130umol still but I think having the lights farther away will reduce the funky climate that's been forming on top of the plants. I can see how the environment I had before, with the lights so close up to the plants, was fairly constraining and not conducive to growth. All part of the learning process, I suppose. 3/25 (0930): Still very little top growth from the one CP (the other is living her best life) but the lower nodes were booming! Prob 1.5-2cm long at node 2. That's nice but that's really not what I want - those nodes are gonna come off anyway once I top/mainline. Especially if lower growth is inhibiting top growth (which in turn is delaying topping), there's no sense in letting it continue. So I took off nodes 1 and 2, leaving 3-5, and buried the stem (with some dynomyco) as high as it could go with the goal of getting some more root growth down there. My logic is: no lower nodes to grow, so the plant directs its growth hormones up the stem. Maybe? We'll see. I just want the 6th node to develop a little more on each so I can snip the stem comfortably without hitting the nodes. 3/25 (1530): Plants grew enough throughout the day that I was able to top! Used the top from the bushier CP to try and make a clone... even if it's small when I flip them all to flower, it's extra nug right? Thinking I'll give them a few days to recover before I start taking off more lower nodes, but I don't want them to waste too much more time growing them. 3/26 (0930): Everyone looks happy after yesterday's trim. Starting to increase light intensity little by little, currently at DLI 16. I could probably push the light harder but I'm still kinda shook after scorching them early on. Gonna go low and slow. 3/26 (1100): Really trying to direct growth up the stem so I trimmed another node off the bottom for each CP. Started LST for the bigger Candygal but the other one is still kinda narrow, so I'll let her grow out some more.