White Haze Automatic - Bonsai in box

Started out in a home-made box with a 15w LED (until the 36w arrived), with a small USB airpump and GHE nutrient solution. Only the one in the bigger container is a White Haze Automatic.. the other plants are hot/superhot chilli peppers, that i've been growing for a few years.

week 2.. the 36w (at the wall) light arrived, so the chilis and 15w light got moved out again.. Initially I 3D-printed a cage for being able to mount the LST-ties, but in the course of the grow i decided to go a different direction, and 3D printed something else for it that worked much better. That can be seen in pictures of later weeks.

the new 3D-printed part works much better, as this way i can change the solution without having to dismount half of the cage, but just screw off the cap and swap containers.. i can also just lift it up for refilling with water (not yet necessary, but it will be at a later stage.. pretty much daily) I have bigger containers with the same lid, so i might switch to those during bloom, and if i manage to keep the plant small enough (else it'd get too close to the light).

week 4.. done some more LSTing and towards the end of the week a bit of defoliation..

last week of veg and noticing first flowers towards the end.. some more lst and defoliation.. "mistakenly" topped when doing some lst, but i had planned to do that anyways. also added some sensizym..

started the week with a water-change and added AN additives.. amounts are approximations, as i put the "suggested dosage" of 2ml into one liter of RO water and then topped the whole mix up with more RO water to get to an EC of 1.4, which ended up being about 2 liter, prior to setting the PH. Without adding more RO water, the solution would have had an EC of around 2, which for a plant this size would be way too much. day 39: she's getting more and more thirsty.. every morning about a 3rd of the (admittedly small) container is empty again, so i fill it up with PH'd base-nutrient solution every day (once a week with added Sensizym).. the other AN additives only come in once a week when the container is being exchanged with a new one with fresh solution... day 40: added a home-made co2 generator, because I can't pull the light up any further, so the PPFD will go up in case she still grows any higher.

new week so she got a new nutrient solution and i removed some of the leaves in the center that were blocking light day 45: by now she has stretched so much that she was within a few cm to the light, and much too close to it.. it was definitely not a good idea to try the small box with a type of plant that's known to grow taller, so I have now swapped boxes around, and she's in a bit of a taller box (1 meter total, whereas the other was 70 cm, but i couldn't pull the light any higher) under a 50w COB.. too bad, as i wanted to see if i can grow her completely in this box, but i will have to test this with a smaller strain.. It's not on the updated picture of today, but I also added the home-made CO2 generator after taking the picture. The Hindu Kush ladies and the unknown-gender White Widow have been moved to the smaller box (where they fit well). day 48: the box it was moved to is standing in the basement, while the other one was in another room, so i noticed it's a much colder environment.. also it's a bit more humid down here, so i might have to look into that.. so far she's still looking good day 49: given it was quite cold in the basement where i had this box (14C at night, around 17 to 18 during the day - inside the box), i have moved the box into another room, next to my other one.. should be back to the mid 20's very fast again

day 50: a new week is starting, so i instead of just filling the container with base-nutrients it was time for a change with the base nutrients plus AN additives again.. roots are looking good and healthy to me, just like the plant.. day 53: played around with my magnifying glass and the phone-camera yesterday and added one of the pictures.. the trichomes can be seen with the naked eye already and under a 15x glass they show up quite alright, but they don't come out well when using the phone to take pictures.. other than that: business as usual, so topping up the reservoir with about a liter of nutrient solution (without AN additives other than the calmag) every morning.. given the container only holds about 2 liter, this means that the AN additives are pretty much only in for about 2 to maybe 3 days and even then quite diluted.. today i did add about 2ml of Sensizym again as well, but all in all i keep it on the low side.. she looks healthy and the EC of the reservoir tells me, she should be perfectly fine with around 1.2 mS (she gets 1.4 mS with the weekly swap with AN nutrients, which pushes her a bit, and i can see this on the very tips of the leaves, but then for the rest of the week she is topped up to around 1.0 mS, which then drifts down to around 0.8 the next day when she's topped up again to about 1.0 and the cycle continues).. I know 1.2 to 1.3 mS would be ideal and keep her stable, but she's a Haze and i need to keep her size in check inside the box.. :) day 56: last evening i noticed some "sacs" on the lower nodes that i had removed - on first sight i was scared that she had turned on me, but on closer inspection it's the calyxes that have swollen up a lot - much more than expected.. I'm looking forward to the coming weeks!

day 57: a new week started, week 5 of flowering - so i started out again with changing the nutrient solution completely and adding the AN additives.. Yesterday evening after the lights went off, i did a very light defoliation again - just some of the bigger fan-leaves and some that were blocking light, so the light could penetrate the canopy and get to the lower bud-sites. might have been a total of around 15 leaves, if even.. the humidity has gone up, to around 65%, so i added a camping de-humidifier, but not sure how much that will help in the relatively small box. for the time being i opened up the box a bit, which then drops it down to the low 50's again. There's no strong smell yet, so I don't mind having it a slight bit open, but will have a look whether the camping dehumidifier will be sufficient, or i add some silica-gel-packs or such.. the defoliating should have helped a bit with the airflow as well. day 62: added some close-ups. she'll still take a few weeks, but i like what i see so far :) day 63: last day of the week again, where i only top up with PH'd RO water with the GHE base-nutrients & calmag.. this i do daily, by the way. tomorrow she'll get a full water-exchange with the AN additives again.

"will you still feed me, when i'm 64?" .. sure day 64: a new week has started for her, so i replaced her reservoir with a mix of GHE base-nutrients and AN additives. I sometimes have to keep the door open of the box, as otherwise the humidity creeps up to the 60's and i want to keep her in the high-40's to low 50's. The small humidifier does help a little bit, but not that much. This of course makes it a bit smelly but fortunately not in a way that it would be too noticeable (also thanks to the location of the box).. I am however quite impressed by how well the smell is filtered by my 3D-printed carbon filter, when the box is closed! There's nothing that gets out. day 66: some people may argue with this, but i do defoliate during flowering.. so that's exactly what i did this morning. This will provide better airflow for keeping the humidity in check, as well as will give bud-sites more light. and there are plenty of big leaves still on. I could have even removed quite a bit more... which will still happen at a later stage (not too much at once) day 70: topped up with just RO water again last night and this morning as well.. tomorrow they will get a new batch of nutrient solution with the AN additives again.

day 71: hard to believe that another week has passed already, but that's the way it is, so it's time for a reservoir change with fresh base-nutrients and AN additives. The past few days i topped up the reservoir twice a day with only RO water and adjusted the PH accordingly. day 76: i think she might get a bit too close to the light with some of the top-buds as there's a light discoloration, but i can't do much about it.. the light is already at the highest it can get.. otherwise she's fine and looking good..

day 78: and yet again the beginning of a new week.. this meant a full nutrient change with GHE base-nutrients, calmag and this time it was AN bud candy, carbo load, overdrive, rhino skin and sensizym.. i would guess about half strength, maybe a bit more. I first mix it together and then add RO water until it has the desired EC (now of 1.1) and what's left of the total amount (that doesn't fit inside the small pot/reservoir), i keep for the next days to fill up. This usually only lasts me a day, but if the EC goes too high, i usually water it down with more RO water. I've checked with my microscope and on the top-buds there are a few amber trichomes already. Some look like they're rather far advanced already even.. this is only on the top area of the two highest buds and only very few like that. The trichomes on the sides of the main buds, as well as the lower buds are mostly between clear and cloudy, so i think it will still take me maybe another 2 weeks. If i was in soil i would start the flush, with coco or peat i would think of starting in a few days, but given they're in a hydro solution, i will still wait. A reservoir change is quickly done, and 2 to 3 days after that it's ok to harvest, as there's no nutrient-buildup that needs to be flushed from the medium. This makes timing much simpler. day 82: the light-burn the top bud gets intensifies a bit, but there's no way to pull the light up any further.. given we're about 2 weeks away from harvest or so, that's just something that i have to accept and i'm not going to change anything with this setup anymore..

day 85: they got a change of reservoir again today.. this could have been the last time for her to get a reservoir change with AN additives.. let's see how she evolves during this week, but i think she could be about a week or a week and a half away from harvest.. i will definitely reduce the amount of nutrients from now on.. in some of the pictures you can see the light-burn she's having by being so close to the COB.. it didn't help that my local supermarket has been out of yeast for the past 4 weeks, and i ran out, so i couldn't substitute more co2.. (i'm always being told "in a few days it should be back, else i had already bought some online). evening of day 88: decided to go into the final phase, and replaced the reservoir with RO water with some Florakleen.. no more nutrients in any way, and i will keep her like that for maybe 2 or 3 days.. day 89: i decided to kill the light-switch around 18:30.. from now on she won't get any light for the next 1 1/2 to 2 days until i harvest her.. day 90: no picture due to her staying in darkness.. day 91: again, no picture due to the darkness.. i think in the evening i will harvest her

day 91 - I decided to harvest her today, so i cut off the stems and removed the trim (72 grams of fan- and sugarleaves).. the remainder is 279 grams wet (with the stems).. smoke report and strain review will come once she's been fully dried and cured.. day 92: took what was stuck on the scissors from trimming, made a small hash-ball out of it and put it into a joint.. if the buds after drying and curing are anywhere close to this, i should definitely have given it a better score than 8.. too bad i can't change it anymore to a higher value. day 94: there's a heatwave, so the drying process unfortunately went on a bit faster than i hoped for, with temperatures in the upper 20's instead of the lower 20's.. anyway, she's been weighted at 51 grams after removing most of the stems and she now started her journey of curing..