Silky Smooth's Solo Cup Challenge - NOT

TUESDAY 8/6: This past weekend she started showing signs of unhappiness. Paling lower leaves and droopy new growth. I poked some more holes in her cup and tried loosening up the soil...I think I should have used a lighter mix. I'm giving her nothing to eat or drink for a couple of days, and plan to leave her outdoors so that she has an extended nighttime and more gradually intensifying light for at least a day. I'll just foliar feed her if she looks like she's thirsty. I want her to be really dry before she gets her next batch of compost tea. WEDNESDAY: This morning she was "bone-dry", so I gave her about a pint of water with big bloom, kelp me kelp you, bembe, open sesame, great white, and terpinator. I've decided to just leave her outdoors for a few days and see if she recovers. If not, then I'll probably bail on the contest and transplant her into an actual pot..I just can't bare to sit by and watch her die because she's rootbound in a tiny little cup.😟 THURSDAY: She looks shittier every day... FRIDAY: I'm respectfully bowing out of the contest. 😕 But...since it's now extended through December, I've still got time to try again...😃 This morning I was gonna try to remove her rootball from the cup and loosen it up a little bit, but when I did, the entire contents of the cup was just a solid rock-hard mass of roots and soil...ridiculously compacted. I scratched the outer edges of the cup-shaped mass, but it wasn't gonna help, so I went ahead and transplanted her into a 3 gallon pot and douched her with a half gallon of water including big bloom, bembe, kelp me kelp you, great white, terpinator, and open sesame. I also foliar fed her with boom boom spray and big bloom. She was looking happier within an hour!👍 SATURDAY: I plucked off some dead and yellowed leaves and sniffed her little buds..😋 SUNDAY: She's looking healthier by the day. I gave her about a half-gallon of very frothy compost tea with pk booster, bembe, big bloom, kelp me kelp you, terpinator, beastie bloomz, and great white. MONDAY: I think I waited too long to transplant her and any opportunity at stretching she might have done was missed. She'll be a precious little dwarf, but hopefully with some thick and heavy flowers.