5) FastBuds / Green Crack Auto - 2nd Try

This was the week when defoliation began. With this grow I decided I would just be defoliating always. At this stage, I can tell when a leaf is going to be useless or problematic early - so just get at it. Right? But the defoliation that happens in week 3 is very strategic. The bending over of the plant in week two causes the leaves from the main branch (or as I call it - the North branch) to droop over the center of the plant, blocking light to what are trying to become the East, West and South branch launch points. So the leaf I cut off is the one blocking the light. The cutting of one leaf begins the hyper growth of a monster - most important leaf cutting that happens in the life of the grow, under this strategy I employ. This was also the week that I started noticing something peculiar and slightly foreboding. I couldn't help but notice as I was doing my daily LST adjustments on the branches (more on this later) that the space between the nodes were awfully large. I was getting early vibes that this plant was leaning towards the sativa variety of the cultivar. If you know my diaries, you know I prefer the indica varieties better for many reasons I've mentioned before. The key #1 reason is size. The larger the plant, the more complicated things become overall. Heat stress, for example. Or the need to do extra LST work. Light stress. The list goes on. Well, by the end of the week, my vibes were proven right. The ScrOG net went in on day 21 - the earliest I've ever had to do that. At that moment I realized I prolly had to delay installing the flowering lamp on Day 42 as is my "rule" now. But I wasn't certain about that as of yet. But the wheels were already turning about it. Because the "blue spectrum keeps plant short" theory either was working and this plant was just born to be a monster (certainly possible), or it wasn't working and I might as well save 30 W per hour with the 65W veg lamp instead of the big hot 95 W. Right? Anyway, at least I didn't break the main branch in week 3 on this one like I normally do. Trade offs! 😂 So as for the daily LST, the reason for it was exactly that. I concluded during my reflections this summer that the reason why the main branch kept breaking was that I had failed to readjust that main branch and the others on a daily basis. So that was the plan this time - daily LST and defoliation. And with this grow, that luckily proved to be a great idea. Have a great grow day!