The Hippopotamus's Garden 2

Hroch_Tom This week I transplanted from 1.7L to 11L. It's my first attempt at growing in coco with 70/30 perlite with automatic irrigation. The first week after transplanting, I still did manual watering. I intentionally chose strains for this grow that I've done in the past so I can compare the results.

Hroch_Tom Before the photoshoot, I did the last defoliation and LST before switching. After a week, it looks like the girls are doing quite well and starting to gain some volume. Next week, I’ll be switching to flowering. I solved the water distribution using Festo components from work. After a few automatic waterings, it seems I’ll have to address the fact that one of the girls is drinking less than the others - she still has the heaviest pot. The drainage is also the biggest for her, even though I’ve measured that the same amount flows into each grow cap... We’ll see how it develops... I’m curious how this grow will go with the autos... I’ll still need to fine-tune it...

Hroch_Tom Granny Candy and Apple Blossom are getting just the right amount of watering - about 1dcl with EC 2.3. Shimo is thirstier - nothing was draining, and when I watered with flow, the EC was a bit higher at 2.8 (without flow, the EC goes up right away). Orange Creampop is the smallest, and the same watering doses don't suit it... the tips of the leaves started curling up + the biggest runoff = it was overwatered. I gave it two days without watering, and the leaves straightened out. On the third day, it got a quarter less watering and nutrients so I wouldn't stress Orange Creampop even more with high EC. Growing is a struggle (a pleasant one), and as I say at work: "if it were too easy, I wouldn't even enjoy it.

Hroch_Tom I ended up slightly propping up the Orange Creampop so it gets a bit less watering, and it's thriving because of it. Otherwise, everything is going according to plan, I just worry that the Granny Candy will outgrow the others during stretching.....