Lemongrass Auto - Living Soil

Aircoholic She struggled a little getting the seed cap off, so I helped carefully. After the little surgical procedure, she went back under the Humidity Dome for a few hours, until she stood upright and with open leaves towards the light.

Aircoholic Growing nice and strong - so far everything seems according to plan. Not much to say at this stage, she's constantly growing. I'm basically just monitoring that nothing major goes sideways.

Aircoholic Compared to her sister, Blueberry Banana Auto, growing in a pot next to her, she seems about a day or two behind in development. Nothing to worry about in my opinion. She's looking healthy and happy. The living soil provides the necessary nutrients in this phase, I try not to let the soil dry out, but also not to overwater. So far so good, I think.

Aircoholic Today was the big day, at exactly 3 weeks old, she got topped. She looks healthy and vital, with good growth, so I figured it's the perfect time. Now she gets a bit of recovery time after the high stress, before we begin the LST.

Aircoholic She's generally responding pretty well to the stress of topping. There's a few newer leafs with some clawing, but not sure if I should worry about this, or if it's Post-Topping-Stress-Disorder (PTSD) caused by the HST. She's also showing an "Ectopic axillary shoot initiation", or an "Unusual shoot growth at leaf base", which looks super cool and I've never seen something like it. We'll see if the shoot survives though - apparently it does have a chance, if it has enough room and light, but I'm not sure if that'll be the case for long enough.

Aircoholic She's coming along nicely! Compared to Blueberry Banana Auto, which is growing next to it, she's a little smaller, and seems a little "behind" - which is the problem with direct comparisons... She's entering pre-flower and starting to stretch. I adjusted the water, mixing 1/3 tap water (pH 8.3) and 2/3 RSO (pH around 6), since tap water alone might've been a bit too pH-heavy. Ever since Topping, she's showing mild signs of clawing on a few leafs. I've reduced the watering schedule slightly, delaying watering for a day, to see if that makes a difference. No change so far. Next up, some mild Lollipopping, sometimes during the week.

Aircoholic It's somewhat funny that the whole grow so far, she was a little smaller and weaker, compared to Blueberry Banana Auto, next to her. Now she's not affected as much from the Nitrogen excess, caused by the soil pH being out of whack. She's showing some signs, like clawing, dark green leafs, canoeing, but milder than Blueberry Banana Auto, but also seems to respond well to pure RSO water. Beyond exploring that rabbit hole, I also did some mild lollopopping, making use of the growth spurt in the stretch phase, to focus her energy to the upper buds.