Purple Haze Auto by FastBuds

chaospace In the second week, I had some doubts about the plant, but it is growing just according to the schedule.

chaospace This week I started adding some nutes at low concentrations. The 2.5 l pot is final, and I have quite a bad experience with giving the plant the full charge. Also, this year I switched from Plagron Terra to Plagron Alga. I was considering gentle top-leaf defoliation at the end of the week. On day 19, I decided to do so. I also spotted some spider mites on my iris graminea in another corner of the balcony, so I did the surface treatment with Nissorun 10 WP. That was actually just in time, because after a detailed examination, I spotted some of these suckers on my purple lady too. On day 21, it is clear that the mild defoliation was tolerated well, and the side shoots are well pronounced.

chaospace On day 22, I did the first full pot watering. The nutrient levels are still rather moderate, somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the chart. The plant is growing more rapidly now. On day 24, the first pistils are seen. I am spotting some symptoms of a mild nutrient burn on the lowest leaf. That might be caused by the pre-fertilization of the base substrate. So the next 1-2 waterings will be plain water only. At the end of the week, I clearly see the beginning of the transition to the early flowering stage.

chaospace Still in the pre-flowering, but this will eventually break in the middle of the week. I did some LST on day 30. After experimenting with various LS training clips, I found that this simple design is the most versatile. All you need is a coated garden wire and some fine pliers. I just moved some branches further from the main stem, and the underlying fan leaves out of the way. This week will be a little rainy, so instead of watering, I'll be moving the plant indoors often to avoid drowning it. I "managed" to partially snap one of the branches, but it seems it could be repaired, thanks to Mother Nature. She keeps growing more than 2 cm a day now; that's a good sign.

chaospace This week is quite cold, rainy, and windy. But with some extra care, the plant keeps growing nicely. I am carefully raising the food rations. As you can see, there's a bit of everything on the balcony 😀

chaospace The early flowering stretch seems to finish. She's gaining only 0.5 cm per day, but her water intake is increasing. It's a clear sign that the flowering is a real thing now. I also bought several SUStee aquameters, and I really wonder why I didn't know about this thing before. Some mild LST was done, only to make the little lady look even better. A turn towards hot, arid weather marks the weekend. The watering frequency will increase further, so the nutrient levels will need to be reduced accordingly. Some of the day temperatures over the last week were as low as 15 °C, whereas tomorrow the scale should hit the 35 °C mark. That's a 20 °C increase in just one week.

chaospace That was a really hot week. It started at 32°C on Monday, gradually increasing to the expected 39°C on Sunday, with night temperatures varying from 19°C to 25°C. She abandoned some of her leaves in the heat, which I removed. I used the silver rescue foil to protect the pots from the extreme heat, and hopefully succeeded. I also switched temporarily from Plagron Alga to Plagron Terra, because at temperatures close to 40°C, the organic fertilizers seemed ineffective, and my plants showed clear signs of underfeeding. I will switch back from mineral to organic as soon as the temperatures drop back to normal. The forecast says that these heat waves should end on Monday with storms and tempests. But the plant is lovely. It is hard to believe there are another 3-4 weeks to go. But I don't hope for too much of the purple shades, because there won't be enough colder nights until the end of July. Nevermind.