Eagle Scout First Time Grow

Plants are looking great, although I know they could be much further along. I wish these plants would show their sex already! Taking care of plants knowing some might be male sucks. Things I learned this week: 1. Overly compacted soil leads to unhappy plants. I made the mistake of compacting the soil in my pots before I made my transfer from solo cups to fabric pots two weeks ago and the few times I watered, the plants would droop for a few days like they were the saddest plants in the world! My thought was “more soil, more nutrients” so I packed my fabric pots to the max. I probably could have used more perlite in my mix too. 2. The vivosun fabric pots from Amazon are crappy. The stitching sucks and the overall quality is poor. Because of my compacted soil issue, I decided to re-pot my plants into actual Smart Pots. These cost more, but you get what you pay for and I’m happy with them. 3. The crimson clover I was using as mulch was growing too tall so I cut them down. Replaced it with hydroton/clay pebbles to help retain moisture as well as displace water when watering from the top. I got a huge bag of these pebbles for $25 at a local shop 4. I was able to use the hydroton to create a self wicking watering system I read about on a Grass Cities forum. I filled a clear storage container with these pebbles a few inches deep, poured water into the container and the hydroton acts as a “wick” to transport water from my basin up to the pots. Just like magic! Perlite would also work, but I hated the thought of getting perlite everywhere. Now my plants drink as they please and less worrying about watering. 5. Back to point 2., the wicking system sucked with the cheap vivosun pots from Amazon since the fabric was of poor quality. I don’t know why, but the Smart Pot brand of fabric pots just worked better wicking, maybe because of the thicker fabric and the sturdier bottom of the pot. Plants are starting to dig the new system. Pics are of plants with some recent defoliation and topping.