Echoes of Empires: A Diary of Afghan Heritage

3.8 As it turns out, the pH of the water that I have been feeding was quite high (~7.1), so I got myself the BioBizz pH- to bring it down to 6.5. After last weeks topping, it has taken some time for the plant to recover, and it's growth has slowed down, at least with regards to the growth of the new leaves. However, the stem and branches appear quite strong. I am still operating the inline fan in the same way: the speed is at 5 and is switched off during the 6 hours of dark for the humidity level to go up to around 75% (with the fan on, depending on the weather during the day, the relative humidity can go as low as 55% but 60% seems to be the average). I also noticed some insects crawling around the soil - for now, I am not alarmed and accept that this may just be the kind of ecosystem that has been built. In any case, may their poop be plentiful in nutrients. However, one thing that is bothering me is that the leaves seem to be curling down a bit. There are far too many conflicting reasons for why it is so when searching the web, but for now, I will assume that it is either due to the oscillating fan speed (it's always on and pointing down at the plants at an angle of about 30-45 degrees from the normal), or over-watering ever since I increased the dosage from 1 litre 2 litres every 2-3 days. As a result of this, I reduced the fan speed and will halt the water for at least 3, maybe 4 days and monitor the situation closely. There is still the possibility that the topping, defoliation of the larger base leaves, and the LST took a toll on the poor afghan girl. But if there's one thing I know about afghan girls (and I don't really know much), is that they're fighters 💪😏 5.8 Two days later and the plant looks to be doing relatively well. I think it was a combination of both, over-watering and the trauma from the topping, de-foliation and LST. The former because I started seeing 'holes' in the leaves, which I suspect are coming from the insects (gnats?), which are caused by overwatering or soil that is too moist. The fact that the bottom of the cloth pot is still a little damp confirms this. Because of this, I propped up the pot to leave a gap between it and the surface to hopefully allow for better filtration and faster drying. This also allowed me to adjust to height of the lights again, where it's now back to 24 inches at 100 W. I also upped the speed of the inline fan to 7 to recycle the air better, and to keep the humidity below 65% so as to ensure a more arid environment that better resembles the dry and sandy slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains. As such, I will end my experiment of turning the fan off during nightfall. It's been 48 hours since the last watering, and I think I will leave it for another 48 hours to make sure that the last of the gnats are gone (hopefully). Moving forward, I will have to watch out for the over-watering - water sufficiently but seldomly. Although I take some of the blame, I have a sneaking suspicion that those insects were already present in the soil before evening opening the bag; the soil was unusually damp when I opened it...