Titan F1 Spring Window Grow

All three Titan F1 seedlings are healthy and growing nicely. They now have two visible sets of true leaves, with the third set just barely sprouting. Each seedling received 1.5 ounces of tap water daily, poured by hand in expanding rings. They spent about two-thirds of their time in ambient air with a humidity of 30–35%, and one third under small humidity domes. The seedlings received approximately 12 hours of bright daylight each day. It's been mostly sunny the past week, so the majority of that was direct sun (through a large window pane). They also received another 6–10 hours of interior or houseplant-style lighting during the evenings and overnight hours. Since they're still small, I can move them under kitchen-cabinet lights or other low-wattage LEDs with little effort, but I still allow them to get the occasional few hours of darkness. Once they grow larger and the days get a little longer, I'll phase out the practice of moving them near interior lights, and will only move them to follow the sun's rays. Plant A resides in a 2.4-gallon air pot ("yellow" size) containing Happy Frog soil and pumice (~75/25). Plant B resides in a 2.4-gallon air pot ("yellow" size) containing Happy Frog soil and pumice (~65/35). Plant C resides in a ~1.5-gallon nursery pot containing Happy Frog soil, unknown leftover potting soil, and a trace of pumice (~45/45/10).

All three Titan F1s have grown in size over the past week, which included a mix of mix of sunny, partly sunny, and cloudy days. Plant A has grown the most, followed by B, then C, which grew noticeably less than either A or B. Plant C is little yellowish compared to the other two. I suspect low N, so on day 15, I fed it with 4 oz of water with Alive Organics V-N Dry Soluble 10-2-2 mixed at 1/2 tsp per gallon. I also fed plants A and B with 5 oz of the same product, but mixed at 1/4 tsp per gallon. I've grown a few other kinds of autoflowers over the past year and a half, and I recall one RQS Quick One and one RQS Watermelon that were stunted. Now that I think about it, those two may have included soil from a bin that I keep for houseplants and patio plants (Like Titan Plant C). Whether Plant C works out or not, I'll be sticking with Happy Frog (+ pumice) for my soil grows for the foreseeable future.

Plants A and B continue to grow nicely, reaching appx. 4" in height, while plant C remains stunted. Going forward, I will focus most of my attention on plants A and B, but I still plan on keeping C all the way to the end. I topped plants A and B above their fifth nodes on days 21 and 22, respectively, and pruned their first-node branches and leaves at the same time. After topping and pruning them, I gently tucked some leaves to expose the lower branches to more light. I will continue to tuck leaves in the coming weeks. See photos for further details.

Plants A and B continue to grow nicely, and their rate of growth is picking up speed. I'm still feeding them each time they get water, using Organics Alive Dry Soluble 10-2-2 at half the recommended concentration (1/2 tsp per gallon). For the past week, they've received 5–7 ounces each day. Leaf tucking continues, and I started to gently train plant A, which is a little ahead of plant B. The week was a little more cloudy than I'd like, so I decided to give them a small boost of low-wattage LEDs during those times, and in the evenings and nights, too. On sunny days, they get no supplemental light during the day or night (light hours estimated for diary entry). See photos and labels for additional details. Plant C remains stunted, and I blame the poor unknown soil it's planted in. I'm not intervening, but will allow it to finish out its life cycle.

Plants A and B grew quickly throughout the week, and they are beginning to show the first signs of flowering. Tiny plant C grew only a little, and is also starting to flower. All three are getting about 14 hours of light through the windows each day, which includes up to ~9 hrs of direct sun on sunny days. The intensity and duration of the daylight is increasing daily as we advance through spring. The plants also receive some supplemental light from low-wattage LEDs on a haphazard basis (light-schedule entry is an estimate). The more and brighter the sun shines, the less I worry about supplemental lighting. Over the course of the week, the two larger plants received about 12–15 ounces of water (with V-N dry soluble at 1/2 tsp per gallon) every two or three days. Soon, I will begin phasing in some Organics Alive V-PK Dry Soluble 0-10-8 bloom nutrients. Training continues on the two larger plants, with each one now sporting eight distinct tops (two each from nodes two through five), with a potential for a handful of additional smaller tops to form. I didn't notice when it happened, but the top two branches on plant B suffered damage as a result of too-forceful training (see photo). Thankfully, the plant shrugged it off, and both branches continue to grow and otherwise appear healthy.

The two larger plants continue to grow, with plant A now reaching about 10" tall. Numerous flowers are starting to appear on both plants. I'm giving them quarter-strength grow nutrients and half-strength bloom nutrients with each watering, and will increase the bloom nutrients to full strength in the coming days. The small one, plant C, lives on, but it is not growing much.