Grape Ape - first cannabis garden

Day 36: This plant is a little chunk right now. I have raised the light an inch. Manufacturers recommendation is between 25" - 30". Last week was the first full week out of seedling mode and in veg. She is responding well to being bent over and the branches are starting to get going. Still too short to do any effective training so I will give her this week to stretch a bit and drink up the nutrients which are now at full dose every other watering. I am curious if I should have left the big fan leaves on the sides? Either way, too late now. She's been without them for a few days and I think she's built up a good layer of foliage to photosynthesize some shit. I will avoid doing any more defoliation until going into flower. Now that she has been topped and the branch sites all have room to grow it's time for me to be patient and let her girth up again. Day 37: Looked a little thirsty this morning. Gave 'er tap water with pH of 7.2. Runoff was at a pH of 6.3 with 340 ppm. Being able to read the dissolved solids is awesome. I can see that the plant is starting to use more nutrients with each feeding, but I can also see that she is not using up the full dose between waterings. This reassures me as I was wondering whether I could feed every watering. Judging that there is still over 300 ppm it would quickly stack to over 1000. With no signs of any nutrient burn or deficiencies I'll continue at the recommended full veg dose of 4mL/L. Supposedly Grape Ape can handle a moderate feeding schedule. The branches are reaching for the sides of the pot and she's really starting to look like a little shrub. Dense foliage makes it difficult to see the branching, but the nodes are close together. About 1" spacing. I have my eyes on a few of the branches and am starting to plan where to aim them. Later on Day 37: I went through the plant and explored her branch structure. There are a total of twelve branches working off the main stem. With a bit of very low stress training I was able to expose most of the branch tips. The plant looks well balanced despite being pulled off to one side of the pot. I will work to bring the plant back to a centred stance as the branches are able to be trained to the edges of the pot. My trellis net conveniently has 12 squares, so I will aim to get one main branch into each section before turning her into flower. Day 38: After exposing many of the branch tips yesterday they have all boosted for the light. Training this week is just tucking leaves and making sure the branches aren't blocked by any foliage. I am keeping an eye on the two leaders and will tie them down when they gain a couple more inches. I can't believe how tight the node structure is on this little girl. Later on Day 38: Got stoned and thought it would be a good idea to go and bend a few things around. She's still rather small... And I broke part of one of the top branches whilst tweaking it down. One leaf immediately wilted but the rest of the branch looks good. I'm just going to leave her alone for a few days now. Woops. But the rest of the LST attempt went pretty alright. Day 39: Fed her today with 1.5L. Solution - pH 6.3, ppm 930. Runoff - pH 5.8, ppm 830. I'm curious why the pH is continuing to drop so dramatically after each feeding. I wonder if it is because of the pH balancing base nutrients? I may top dress with dolomite lime to try and stabilize things. She's in grow mode for sure now. Each day this week there are measurable differences. I removed my LST wires. Longer branches are needed before they can be effective. The damaged top branch seems to have recovered and opened it's leaf, although there does seem to be a bit of permanent damage around the tips. Couldn't be happier with how she's bounced back! Now I know how delicate things can be. Day 40: Happy 2020 eh! The cheeba plant is looking great today. I can tell she is drinking up her nutrients with a thirst. The branching has once again reached the edge of the pot and this time I'm going to let her grow up through the trellis net before attempting any serious training. There has been some serious snowfall resulting in sporadic power outages. I am worried that this may freak the plant out. I don't want her to hermie on me. Can feminized plants become hermaphrodites with enough stress? I ran the tent on the generator for a few hours while I was out today to make sure she was good to go, but I won't be able to do that every day. I may look into making a battery bank that can keep things growing without running a noisy generator. Day 41: Week six comes to an end today, and what a week of progress! I can't wait to see what the next week will bring. I have reigned in on the LST and am currently just trying to get one of the lower branches exposed to the light so that she can make it up to the trellis. The branch that I broke a few days ago appears to be stunted compared to it's neighbours, but still green and healthy. She must be struggling to get nutrients to flow past the break. Hopefully she can recoup and keep up to the other branching. This may have worked as a sort of topping. I imagine that hormones are getting pushed all over the place to compensate for the trauma. Today I gave a regular watering. Solution (tap) - pH 7.2, ppm 110. Runoff - pH 6.2, ppm 550. The pH of the runoff continues to drop with each feed which results with me trying to bounce it back every other watering. I would prefer for the pH to be a bit more stable. Any ideas why this might be happening? I am considering adding some pH up to the base nutrients but am unsure if that's okay with the Advance Nutrients pH Perfect line? The ppm was also higher than I expected at 550. I might lower the dose if the ppm looks out of whack at the next feed. All in all, I could not have asked for a better week. I was quite stressed that she was lagging due to late topping, but now I am mollified. Once again, this is the learning curve and I must exercise patience.