Lemon Cherry Gelato - FIRST GROW

HillNSage They all came up nicely! A is stretching the least and C is stretching the most. Watering with a spray bottle when the top looks dry. A few sprayes per plant per day! At first I forgot to check the pH and ended up giving them tap water with a pH of 7.84 oops! That’s probably why their growth has been so slow in the beginning. I’ve started using properly adjusted water since I noticed, so hopefully they’ll pick up soon. Also the starter pots are really small — I might go for slightly larger ones next time.

HillNSage The seedlings were still a bit slow in the small starter pots, growth was clearly being held back. By the end of the week I decided to transplant them into their final pots. When transplanting I buried them a little deeper, since they had stretched a bit. I also added mycorrhizae to the soil to support root development. Before filling the pots I soaked the soil thoroughly outside the pots, so the medium would be evenly moist all the way through. The roots looked healthy, just not quite developed enough yet — so I’m glad they have more space now. Hopefully the extra root space will give them the boost they need next week!

HillNSage I did my first watering on Friday, July 11th. Since I was going away for the whole weekend, I gave them a good soak — 4 liters in total. It was also really warm that weekend, so I was a bit worried about the humidity. My current humidifier can only be either on or off, and on its lowest setting it lasts about 24 hours. To help keep the tent humid while I was away, I also filled the entire floor of the tent with about 2 cm of water. As you can see in the pictures, they grew really well over the weekend!

HillNSage This week I received a new humidifier (AC Infinity CLOUDFORGE T3) that can manage both humidity and VPD on its own. Super convenient — especially because my Spider Farmer humidity sensor broke. Luckily, their customer service was great, and they’re sending me a replacement soon. For now, the Spider Farmer sensor is still handling temperature, and the AC Infinity humidifier is in charge of humidity. The plants are looking great and growing fast! I did their second watering exactly a week after the first one. I might’ve pushed the EC a little high this time, so 5 days later I gave them another watering with only Power Roots (1ml/L). As for the individual plants: Plant A is doing well but seems slightly behind the others in development. Still, she’s catching up, and I decided to top her to help her bush out a bit more. Plant B has always lagged a little — she was one node behind the others during early growth. That’s why I chose not to top her. I'm going to leave her completely untouched as an experiment to see how an untrained plant compares to the others. Plant C is clearly the strongest and fastest-growing so far, with the biggest leaves and the fullest shape. I topped her as well and plan to train her later, depending on how she keeps developing.

HillNSage The girls are responding well to topping and training, and they’re starting to fill out the tent nicely! This week they got two waterings — one at the start and one at the end. For one of them I added a bit of mycorrhizae for extra root support. Runoff EC looks alright now. I did a lot of leaf tucking on all three plants to open up the canopy. Plant A → Just leaf tucking for now. The two main stems are dominant and the side branches aren’t really stretching past them yet. Plant B → I couldn’t resist some training — bent the main stem into a horizontal curve so the tops are more even. Plant C → Tied down some side branches to spread them out and create a more even canopy. Overall really happy with how they’re responding to training.

HillNSage The tent is really filling up now and the girls are almost ready for flower! This week I decided to bring in CalMag as a precaution. My tap water isn’t particularly soft, but with strong LED lighting and the plants growing fast, I figured it’s good to have that extra support ready. I gave them a small “half watering” while waiting for the CalMag to arrive, then continued as usual. Runoff values are looking stable, which is great. I also increased the light intensity a little bit. Training is basically finished at this point — from now on it’s just a matter of leaf tucking, removing a leaf here and there, and making small adjustments. By the end of the week the tent was completely full, and I already decided to flip them to 12/12. I’ll log that switch as the start of the next week in the diary, but by now it was clear they were ready to flower.

HillNSage Big change this week — I flipped the girls to 12/12. The first signs of stretch are already showing. I gave them two waterings this week: First one with just Terra Bloom and CalMag, second one with Terra Bloom, CalMag, Power Roots and Power Buds, following the Plagron schedule. Runoff came out around pH 6.2 and EC 1.3–1.6, depending on the plant. Everything looks stable for now. Leaf tucking and defoliation continues to keep the canopy even and allow light to reach the lower branches. The structures feel strong, and I improved airflow (hopefully) with a clip fan positioned at stem height to move air just below the canopy. At the very end of the week I noticed some yellowing leaves. This could be related to the rapid growth during stretch, but also possibly from too much light, since the tops are now quickly reaching closer to the lamp. I raised the light a bit to compensate. The only challenge is the high humidity and low temperatures (for summer) — VPD rarely goes above 1.0 here, which might become a concern later in flower. For now the plants look healthy and I’m happy with how they’re starting to transition.

HillNSage The yellowing leaves I saw at the end of last week disappeared right away after raising the light, so it really seemed to be just light stress. The plants are stretching nicely and everything looks on track. I’m still doing quite a bit of defoliation — removing large leaves for better airflow, and also cutting away some small branches that clearly won’t make it to the canopy. Overall the girls are looking healthy and I think the grow is going very smoothly.