Pineapple Chunk Outdoors

Week 12. Another great week of weather this week with showers almost every day and evening, as well as sunny periods giving ideal warm and humid conditions for the plants. Chunk has slowed down in vertical growth, although it did grow another 9cm this week. The tops are starting to line up with buds now. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the shape of this plant, but it looks like it is showing that it has very nice strong stems, nice spaces between branches, and nice long rods which I expect to fill up in coming weeks. I have one branch which is especially full of buds and much more advanced than others. I wonder if this is because I had to chop an under performing branch right next to it, and it may be doing the work of both branches?? I do work off the theory removing lower/under performing branches and leaves to redistribute energy to the main tops. For this reason I consider myself a heavy defoliator compared to most. I go by feel mostly. Sometimes I may think I go a bit far, but it’s because I take pride in tidy and uniform appearance, and available exposure to sunlight for all of the main growth areas. So this week, on top of regular lollipopping, I removed some more of the lower leaves and branches which were never gonna make it near the tops. It left chunk looking a bit bare and I started to second guess myself a bit, but after a few days, it does look like the main rods have really beefed up. So I will continue to go by feel and trust my instincts into the future. Thanks to you all for your advice and comments along the way. Happy New Year to all!! 🍻