I’m not sure if it’s the right time to start a new phase, but since more than a week has passed, I’ll just keep going.
All 4 plants are developing pretty much the same, although one is still more stretched than the others. I don’t think there’s much I can do about that right now.
On 12.10, we gave all 4 plants 0.8L of water mixed with 2 ml of Hesi Bloom Complex. I don’t have an electric pH meter yet, but I tested the water with pH strips, which showed 6.2. And we named each one after female Elden Ring characters. Ranni, Malenia, Miquella, Marika.
I’m really eager to turn on the Autopot system because the grow tent is quite far from us, and cycling there is exhausting. I started tracking how many trips I’ve made so I can feel proud of the workout once the buds are ready! So far, I’ve clocked about 125 km
However, another Autopot user mentioned that it can take up to 3 weeks before the plants can start feeding from the system, so I’ll wait for now.
IMPORTANT UPDATE 13.10
I made another mistake, and I’m not sure how much it will affect the plants. I accidentally used Hesi Bloom Complex instead of TNT Complex. A day later, the plants seem to have handled it okay, but we’ll see. I’ve now bought all the fertilizers I need and will follow Hesi’s feeding schedule from next week. I might need to flush the soil, but I’ll wait and see.
This is our second mistake in our first grow, but hopefully, we’ll still get good results. Growing has been pretty stressful so far, lol!
Update 14.10:
Since the plants seem to be doing fine despite the wrong fertilizer, I’ve increased the LED light intensity from 20% to 40%.
Update 15.10:
The plants appear to be enjoying the additional light. I’m just waiting for them to need water again so I can start using the correct fertilizers, haha.
Update 17.10:
I didn’t check on the plants for a day, and when I did, I noticed a spot on one of the leaves. It could be from thrips, although I haven’t seen any insects yet. I’ll keep a very close eye on how this develops. Otherwise, the plants seem to be growing well. My plan is to water them one more time with 50% of the Hesi-recommended nutrients, just to be careful after the fertilizer mix-up. I also want to start using the Autopot system, so I’ll water the plants with around 2L of water and 50% Hesi nutrients. Then I plan to fill the Autopot tank with 10L of water and 100% of the Hesi-recommended dose, and switch it on right after watering, as the manufacturer suggests.
Update 18.10:
The spot on the leaf hasn’t changed since yesterday. We followed through with the plan I mentioned before. While watering, one of the plants bent heavily to the side, so we’ll see if it sustained any damage. We stabilized it, along with another plant, using gardening wire—something I’ve never used before. We also turned on the Autopot system. I’m, once again, worried that we might have started it too early or messed something up, but fingers crossed everything will be fine.
Update 19.10
I can’t tell yet if the plants are feeding themselves from the Autopot system. I accidentally damaged one of the leaves on our strongest-looking plant, so I ended up cutting off the damaged part. When we first prepared the pots, we didn’t fill them up all the way, even though we had extra soil. So, I decided to top them off today—better late than never. While vacuuming the soil that spilled on the ground, I damaged the leaf I mentioned earlier, which is why I had to trim it.