first grow for the decade

Okay I've gotten comfortable. Also way less pain this week. My plants no longer feel like babies that need me, there's less stress. As a friend told me, they call it weed for a reason LOL. The more I relax and treat it like my plants home, the better they look. The LA Ultra is drinking up all the water pretty quickly so I assumed the roots were ready for a bigger spot, and I was right. Again, mycorrhizae on the root ball and watered with the nutrient water. Doing your transplanting this way at the beginning of your light schedule is a great way to avoid stunting. I snipped off those leaves by accident off the Wedding Cake; they are about as big as my face (little hands). They smell very nice. I will spine them and use them as rolling paper. The Wedding Cake is bushing out beautifully. I've started taking off the smaller leaves closer to the stem and squeezed the stem. This helps it thicken up and more energy is guided towards the tops of the plants instead of on leaves that will never reach anywhere. I will also defoliate it which will increase the bushing. Some might call my defoliation intense, but I always give the plants a Vita Malt afterwards so it's not so much of a shocker. A Vita Malt is a malt beverage popular in the Caribbean that I've always been a fan of, high in minerals and vitamin B complexe. Pouring this in with the plant lowers the stress of defoliation and gives a nutrition shot. I'm kinda trying to get the two younger plants the same size as the Wedding Cake before flower, so the Grapefruit was topped at the beginning of the week. Because of this, the smaller branches are now starting to fill out more. Did a little defoliation at the lower branches. The LA Ultra was topped at the top of the week so it's just chillin for now, definitely no topping before the stem thickens up. Gave it a little push around though, pulled the leaves down to encourage spreading out. People might have something to say about me being in there barefoot, but my feet are clean (this is a socks and slides household). If you are growing in a tent YOU MUST KEEP IT VERY CLEAN. Please understand that you are creating a small environment for a plant to grow, in a humidity of 50-60% and 20C-26C, if you do not keep it clean (sweep and wipe down the walls of the tent, clean up any nutrient spills and remove standing water) you can end up with a myriad of problem. Nothing hurts like bud rot!