The growth this week picked up exponentially. The plants seemed to get over their mainlining, topping, etc. Instead of topping more, since it seemed to drastically slow down the plants and they were growing very well, I went more with a manifolding approach. I let the two main stems grow out and kept adjusting the LST to keep them horizontal. I think removed the 2nd growth nodes and left the 1st and 3rd nodes.
I kept feeding at the reduced PPM of 600 and the plants seemed to get past the nitrogen toxicity. The new growth looked very healthy. Kept it this way all week and never saw any problems with deficiencies. I defoliated on a very limited basis, focusing on leaves that were either touching the soil due to the LST, or on ones that were blocking light to growth areas.
The plants grew a ton over the week, but as I adjusted the LST for lateral growth, they are still short.
I transplanted them from 1 gallon pots to 3 gallon pots halfway through the week. I do have 5 gallon pots but felt like that may be too big. I suspect I will finish these plants in the 3 gallon pots unless I change my mind in the next week or two. The transplant did not seem to slow down their growth at all. I finally feel that they are in a groove.
Even though I am new, I think within two weeks I will flip these to flower. They are now taking up half the space in my tent and I think by then they will have filled out the tent.