4) FastBuds / Lemon Pie Auto / MicroGrow

I like how circular this plant turned out to be. I didn't plan it that way. I swear I didn't. Yeah, I'm a little obsessive-compulsive about my girls, but no, I didn't plan that. It's technically fortunate. When you look at a PPFD chart for a lamp, the corners are the weakest spots (btw, discovered some interesting "high uniformity" LED lamps, yesterday. Give that a google search. Is that the next wave of LED lamp technology?). So to have the plant grow in a circle when you look at her from above like that means she's getting a more uniform, higher quality, and more intense part of the PPFD chart. When I did my DLI calculations, I accounted for this by raising the average PPFD for the space by 10%, about. Yeah, I've been enjoying what I've learned about lighting lately. MIGRO himself was on a live YouTube podcast yesterday and I wanted to give him a direct thank you on the chat....But I slept through the podcast (Wedding Cake from second grow is to blame.) 😂 Oh well.. I've found the right numbers to set my AC and dehumidifier and AC Infinity exhaust fan in order to maintain an average/stable temperature of about 81 degrees in my tent (more like 80.3, prolly) and have good humidity control. That's very comforting. I guess it's the benefit of having one year as a grower under your belt. A year ago, with my first attempts at germinating, I was having so many problems. Temperature and humidity control would eventually be a struggle, too. Well, you guys know what the first few steps are like. I must concede that my flowering stage lighting strategy of reducing hours in order to reduce heat stress risk and mimic nature's day/night cycle into autumn may have been faulty and foolhardy. If the Target DLI curve I've recently discovered from a very reputable source (DeBacco University) is reality, than I've been doing things wrong. I'm happy to change my mind if it helps the cause, so... Stay tuned if you find the journey interesting. Want another curveball/slider? I'm not flushing this time. When I become a Guru grower, I'll start flushing. But for now, no flushing. I need to give myself the room to continue a grow an extra three weeks if I need to because my newb ass might just get it THAT wrong. So if I start FLUSHING three weeks too soon... well there's no hope anymore is there. Otherwise, when you don't flush, you realize your mistake on "harvest day", say, and instead of cutting her down, you keep going. See what I mean? The benefits that not flushing gives you from a risk-management perspective outweigh, in my opinion, the miniscule (some say non-existent) benefits you get from flushing from a "smoke quality" perspective. At least at this stage in my growing career. Flushing is for REAL growers. I'm not there yet. Enough breaking pitches. Checked her trichs recently, like Day 68. Very glassy. I'd say she was at most 15% to 20% cloudy, which lines up well with a Day 98/105 harvest from my prior yet limited experiences. Still some white pistils, but not many, in the top canopy. Much more white pistil action under the canopy. Strangely, like prior grow, there were buds down there getting direct light that were still very white-pistils and undeveloped, and there were some in total darkness that were thick and juicy like small strawberries. 🤔 Checked the plant again on Day 73. At this point, the cloudiness of the trichs had increased but milky-ness wasn't visible anywhere yet. Looking more closely, I noticed that almost all the buds had at least a few tiny tiny white pistils, so all of these buds wanted to safely grow a tiny bit more. She wasn't done yet. Slightly more advanced by Day 76. Day 98 harvest seemed plausible, but I didn't have to worry about that anymore, cuz I wasn't going to start flushing. More relaxing this way. I'm already liking not flushing. And she was quite chunky already in some places. Lollipopping was impossible on this girl. Her four-or-so main branches were super close to the coco coir in the pot. So close that when I water the plant, the pooling of the water partially submerges those branches. I wouldn't be surprised if some grew roots, they are that close. I can't fit my hand or clippers under the plant to do any defoliating. If I want to defoliate down there, I need to come from above and down - not from the sides and under. I'll try to take a picture under there at some.... if she lets me. All I got for now. Have a great grow day! Check out my YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtLdjlvS0mK9Pu3pkumUu-w