Granddaddy Purple

Goals for week 6 of Veg: - Defoliate - Stretch - Fill out the canopy This was a productive week. Definitely spent more time in the garden than any previous week. The changes I made last week to the nutrient levels and feeding schedule have resulted in better growth. Getting your nutrients dialed in is a huge relief and confidence booster. Also allowed me to focus on more important aspects of the grow. Leading up to this week the girls have been short, bushy and dense. This created some challenges in terms of access to the plant for watering, training and other general maintenance. It was also overwhelming when trying to visualize my plan for controlling the growth of the plants. This is what drove my goals for the week. Each of my goals relied on the other and were achieved in this order: Defoliate --> Stretch --> Fill. I would then continue to Stretch --> Fill until fill was complete. Defoliating was pretty intimidating as a first time grower. I had a lot of growth and no experience to guide me on how the plant would react. Did a lot of research and felt comfortable enough to move forward. Happy with the results and the plants have been thriving now that the light and air have better penetration. For the stretch, I raised my lights and dialed them back to about 50% power. Desired result came very quickly. This was exciting as I was worried the girls would remain short. However, my excitement was short lived. Each time I gained some height I had to immediately sacrifice it in order to fill the canopy by tucking it under the net. This is where I learned why patience is key to a successful garden. Things were coming together, I just had to stick to the plan. I made a lot of progress towards filling out the canopy. Added a trellis net for scrog and assigned each plant a quadrant it would be responsible for filling. As the larger branches moved outward, a gap in the middle opened up. This is where the recent bedefoliation, initial topping and LST I had done came into play. There was newly exposed growth happy to fill in the gaps. I'd say I'm about 65% of the way there. Still some uneven areas on opposite sides of the main branches. Confident I can fill the rest in during flower. Unexpected/Unplanned challenges: My exhaust fan for the tent started to make a loud noise. Determined it was due to the bearings rusting from moisture. Was under 2 months old. Turns out it's a common issue with this model. Replaced with an AC Infinity brand. So far so good. Lastly, the temperature outside has been a crap shoot. One day it's sunny, the next it's raining and then it's freezing. Managed to keep temp/RH under control but it's obvious I'm going to need to add a heat source as we head into winter. In summary, this was a very rewarding week. By assessing progress from the previous week I was able to create clear goals for this one. Through the help of this site and others I was able to create a plan of action and it actually worked. As a new grower this was a huge confidence boost and has really motivated me to continue learning and experimenting. Very cool.