Zkittles Auto

6th June. Day 1: The seed was dropped into a glass of regular tap water. It will be left for 6 -24 hours with the top of the glass covered by a piece of tissue paper. After 8 hours I tapped the seed with my finger and it sunk to the bottom of the glass. I then poured the contents of the glass through a sieve and collected the seed. The seed was then placed into a 'sandwich' of wet tissue paper and put in a warm dark place. Day 2: The seed has now popped a root out. I'm really eager to get her going so have planted her 0.5 centimetres deep in a 6 litre pot with soil that has already been watered with regular tap water. I've then placed the pot under my light. Day 3: The surface of the soil seemed very dry today probably from being under the light so I sprayed it lightly with regular tap water. Day 4: The surface of the soil was very dry again so I sprayed it with regular tap water. In the late evening I noticed the seed popping through the soil. The photo isn't great but you can just about see it. Day 5: Today she's been wrestling to get her shell off, I was very temped to help it off but decided not too. I've been spraying the surface of the soil with regular tap water when it seems dry. By the late evening when I checked she'd managed to get her shell off and was just opening up. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture at the time. Day 6: Over the night she has really shot up tall. The first leaves are just coming through and she's growing towards the light. I've been spraying the soil the same as the past few days but gave her a little more today.

Day 8: Not much at all has been happening over the past few days. Today the soil was feeling very dry on the surface and mildly dry 2 centimetres deep so I gave her the first big water of her life with 2 and a half cups of regular tap water. I'm hoping over the next few days I will start seeing some leaf growth. Day 12: Today I opened the tent to check and her and she had fallen over which wasn't a great sight to see, luckily she seemed happy enough and had adjusted to the light while laying completely flat on the soil. I have since added more dry soil to the pot and made a 'mountain' around the plant with the soil to help her stand up straight. Hopefully that will stop it happening again. Day 14: Had a nice bit of leaf growth since the last update, as seen in the pictures the leaves are spreading nice and wide which is always good. It may just be me but I feel this one has been growing very slowly in these past weeks, I'm hoping things will speed up soon, maybe I'm just impatient.

Day 18: Growth has been slow and steady again. Been popping out some really wide leaves. The 'mountain' of soil around the stem has helped her stay upright and strong. Watered today with a cup and a half of regular tap water. Day 21: Today I have watered with one litre of regular tap water mixed with 5ml of Westland Houseplant Feed. I also removed a bit of the 'mountain' of soil around the stem and it seems she's a lot stronger and deeper rooted now so stands up straight.

Day 24: I can't believe how fast she is coming along now. Every morning when I wake up and open the tent I can see new growth which is really exciting. The leaves are still growing wide and bushy. There are also some leaves coming through on the main stem, unfortunately that is the best picture I was able to capture. Day 25: Today I have decided to try and top/fim her as I think she is ready. This is only my second ever grow and it will be my first time ever doing this so I'm nervous but excited for the outcome. I gently pushed the top pair of leaves down to try and create more space for myself to cut the top off, found a point at which I was happy cutting and snipped the very tiniest top piece off. In the pictures you can see where I have done this. I decided to also give her a tiny drop of Westland Houseplant Food mixed with 3 cups of regular tap water in the hope it ill help her recover. Day 26: This morning I opened the tent and she is still looking as happy as ever with no signs of any stress from the topping/fiming which is good. I was able to get two pictures of the leaves growing from the stem, they're really starting to pop through now.

Day 29: This morning she has made me smile. I checked on her and found some beautiful deformed leaves coming through from the top of the stem from where I had previously topped/fimed. I have always loved seeing pictures of deformities in other people's grows and now I have my own, awesome to say the least! Day 33: I have made the decision today to properly top her. As I mentioned before this was my first time topping/fiming and after a few days of growth all that seemed to be happening was growth of deformed leaves and flowering sites from the top where the cut was made. I feel I could have done it better so I want to correct myself before it's too late. As seen in the pictures I cut just below the second set of deformed leaves and the very top deformed flowering site. I still have a set of interesting leaves on her which you can see in the pictures. I have also watered again with a tiny drop of Westland Houseplant Food mixed with 3 cups of regular tap water to give her some help to recover. Day 35: Today I have decided to remove the remaining fan leaves from her. I'm choosing to do this because they are extremely bushy and are covering major flowering sites from receiving enough light. I also feel that they are not overly necessary at this point as the flowering branches are now quite long and have big enough leaves on them to soak up the light on their own.

Day 39: I have noticed today that the very lower branches seem to be growing straight up into the underside of the branches above which of course is restricting light to them. What I have done to combat this is peg a few of the branches down and outwards in the hope they will grow out and up instead of just up. You can see this in the pictures. I have also noticed that there are a number of pre-flower pistils coming through in various places all over her. I'm very glad I've had time with this plant to get it to a half decent size and shape before flowering unlike my first grow with the Royal Dwarf Auto which flowered very suddenly and very early! Day 42: It is visible in the pictures that the past 3 days has really brought some pistils with it. The branches I pegged down have stretched out and up like intended so I have adjusted the pegs to make them grow outwards even further. This plant is really beating any expectations I had of it already. It's been growing so nicely since the 'official' topping and she seems really happy in the environment she's in. I just cannot wait to get stuck into flowering now!

Day 43: I grabbed a couple of photos of her alone in the tent today while I was watering my other plant. I was thinking of running 4 plants next time round but after seeing how big she's getting I may have to reconsider.