Apple Fritter [Auto #1]

Muuuy Our little ones are growing rapidly! We passed the first week and everything is looking pretty. Included CalMag into every watering due to our osmosis system. This is plant #1/3. No huge difference noticable compared to the other two plants. She is just a little shorter than the others.

Muuuy Second week of our Apple Fritter Experiment! Our Ladies are still growing strong, increasing in height every day. No problems occured so far, everything's going as planned. We spotted an increase of red colouring inside of the petioles of plant #2 compared to the other ones! Might be the first indicator of a different phenotype? This is plant #1/3. We began LST earlier this week by bending her down using some rubber covered wires. Removed one of the larger leaves that would be in the way of new upcoming shoots.

Muuuy Just look at these fine ladies! All of them are growing nicely, even showing signs of early flower phase already. #3 was getting a few yellow spots on the tips of the leaves, which indicated nutrient deficiency, so we included some in the watering for all plants; additional to the already provided CalMag. We have to constantly monitor and adjust the lamp, so #3 doesn't grow too closely to it. Since the other two would be too far away from the light source, we made sure to place them in an elevated position. This is plant #1/3. We continued LST by tightening the rubber wire that pulls the main branch to one side of the pot and bending the other ones by using plastic stretchers. Removed some larger leaves that could get in the way of possible new branches underneath.

Muuuy Week 4 is flower-week! All of our ladies showed signs of pre-flower last week, now there are already visible buds growing. We had to adjust the height of #1 & #2 once again because #3 is just growing crazy. Can't go any higher than the current position without redesigning our whole setup so this will be the final adjustment (hopefully!). #2 is obviously very different from the other ones, she's a little behind in growth. Though, she does have outstanding red colored petioles in comparison to her mostly just green sisters. We increased the amount of nutrients for them since they'll need much more now. This is plant #1/3. You can already tell she's got more bud-growing spots thanks to the training. Consistantly removing some bigger leaves, which would cast a shadow on the buds growing underneath.

Muuuy Welcome to week 5! #1 and #3 are developing the same red-coloring on their petioles like #2 did from the very beginning! Buds are growing nicely, getting visibly bigger everyday. Smell went from a rather unpleasant sweet-sour aroma to an almost pure sour scent. We set the humidity to 55% for all of our ladies to prevent budrot, since they are definitly in flower right now (big shoutout to our dehumidifier working his butt off). We noticed, that we need to water them more often; we just checked the pots and were greeted by a very dense rooting system. Being used to a big 20L pot we didn't expected that kind of thirstiness! This is plant #1/3. She obviously grew the most buds, which are also the biggest and most developed ones out of all plants. There are small signs of nutrient defiency showing at the tip of the leaves, so we adjusted the nutrient intake a bit further.

Muuuy Week 6, still going/growing strong! Yep, we raised the lamp again. We had to, because silly plant #3 just wouldn't stop growing directly into it, of course getting sunburned like crazy while doing so. #1 and #2 are now slowly starting to differentiate more and more. While #1 stopped growing in height at all, #2 almost grew 10cm this week. She's still, and will always be, lacking behind, though. The early induced stress was most likely the reason for that, could be a phenotypical thing as well. Today we defoliated all of them a bit, removing old leaves and the ones, that would get in the way of the light hitting the buds underneath. This is plant #1/3. Her buds are visibly growing bigger and the leaves beneath them are slowly getting frosty! The smell is still dominated by a very sour, almost unpleasantly citrussy aroma.

Muuuy Already in week 7 of our little experiment! They are all growing slower while prioritizing on thickening their buds. #3 is still and will for ever be a problem, though! But we have definitly learned a lot from our fine ladies so far. The smell is getting better every week, mostly consisting of a sour-apple-ring-aroma, which is actually kinda delicious! Adjusted nutrient intake by increasing the amount of Bio-Grow because #2 showed signs of deficiency by her leaves slowly turning pale. Watering every two days due to them living in that small 4,4L pot and probably having an dense root system by now. This is plant #1/3. She has developed the biggest buds so far, even merging some into one huge bud on a few branches.

Muuuy Welcome to fabulous week 8! The ladies are looking fantastic, they have stopped growing in height and are focussing on thickening their buds. Definitly developing sugar leaves, especially #2 tried her best to catch up to her sisters and now she's actually the one with the most frosty looking leaves, which will also prove our thesis of her differentiating from the others due to genetics. Smell intensified a bit, but didn't change much this time. Reduced the amount of Bio-Grow again as they are looking pretty fine now! This is plant #1/3. That one is looking really good, particularly the main bud, which is growing bigger every day. She is even showing some type of fasciation on one branch, two buds are slowly merging into one over time. Really beautiful plant with a really nice growth pattern, induced through our early LST!

Muuuy Week 9 and still looking fine! Not much happening right now, we don't expect them to grow in height anymore. We're just waiting for the buds to grow thicker and the trichomes to ripen until ~20% have an amber color. We took a look at them under our microscopic lens and estimated about 2-3 weeks until harvest, but we will constantly check them from now on. Their smell is slowly growing stronger, mostly consisting of sour aromas. This is plant #1/3. She is getting even more frosty day by day! Her trichomes are looking very good and plenty, really happy how she turned out. The LST definitly shows it's benefits now as it enables the buds to grow even thicker without stealing too much light from the lower ones.

Muuuy Week 10, slowly getting there! Buds are definitly thickening in every plant. When comparing the trichomes at each main bud you can clearly tell that #3 is ripening quicker, or at least the main bud is, which, in addition, is the closest one to the light. Pretty happy how they turned out so far. Added some sticky traps to cope with our gnat fly infestation. Adjusted the amount of Bio-Grow, as they won't grow much anymore and therefore won't need that much. Personally I don't like the smell that much, it has a pretty sharp sour aroma and didn't change much in the last few weeks. This is plant #1/3. Nothing special to talk about her! She's just fine (: