verdant WEEK 1: Topping, binding the four branches to an even height with LST, giving fertiliser twice a week. The lamp is set at around 40% (40W) averaging roughly 400 umol/m2s and a DLI of 23.5 mol/m2d
This is an unusual grow and I would normally not do it like this.
Background: I got a sapling (White Truffle from seedsupplier.de) and planted it in my tent, so it doesn't go to waste. Those last two months were very busy for me, and the plant was heavily neglected, not topped or low-stress-trained, underwatered and underfed. As a result, she grew as a thin, straight line all the way up until it squished against the lamp. I decided to top 90% of the plant and start anew with the lowest four branches.
Plan: While I have successfully grown a plant before with a good yield, that first grow was fairly unorganised and the plant was able to grow as it wanted. This is the first time am trying proper LST and keeping the canopy flat. For this, the four initial branches are at a nice 90 degree angle and I will try to get four even colas out of this.
Setup: The point behind this setup was to create a cheap, viable and low effort setup. The tent is a generic, cheap 40x40x120 tent from ebay for 25 euros. The lamp, Viparspectra P600, was B-Stock and came at a great price of 43 Euros. The felt pot, filled with a mix of generic coco coir and flower soil plus some depot fertiliser, sits atop a plastic container which acts as the water reservoir and which is continuously wateringthe pot via two wicks. This works great as the soil is evenly moist basically all the time. Ventilation is done with two Arctic P120 PST (B-Stock as well) fans for silent operation that have a light trap (designed by myself) between them and are powered by a DIY fan controller I put together. No filtration beside a dust mesh, as I have a small ventilated room I can use for the grow. Fertiliser is the BioBizz Indoor Try set.
Notes: I do not adjust pH or actively control humidity. While these may be recommended, the humidity generally falls in the green area in most VPD-charts, and pH was not a problem for my last grow. This is where I personally drew the line to keep the effort low and it's by no means a recommendation.
Things I would do differently:
1. The tent. The footprint is great but I would like a bit of extra headroom and I would go for a 40x40x160 if I did this new.
2. The reservoir. I cheaped out and got a generic transparent box from Action. It has holes for handles and thus reduced water capacity, also being transparent bears the risk for algae growth. Spending more money on a eurobox (40x30x12) would have been the better move.
The setup, specifically the self-watering system, was inspired by my friend who helped me a lot along the way.
If you want any details, specifics or photos, or have suggestions and improvements, feel free to post them in the comments. 😊
