Poison is the Antidote

Week 7! We're hoping that this might be our last week of veg. We still have some more training to do, hopefully to fill out the horizontal space a bit more. Day 43: - no changes - plants feel pretty dry but we'll wait one more day to water Day 44: - watered with dechlorinated tap water with .25ml/L of General Hydroponics' "CALi-MAGic". pH adjusted to 6.3. - made LST adjustments, as well as defoliation of some of the large fan leaves that were crowding the growing tips. Day 45: - no changes - noticing a very slight yellowing between the veins of a few leaves. It's barely noticeable but we'll be keeping a close eye on it. Day 46: - no changes Day 47: - no changes - the fabric pots felt light but we'll wait until tomorrow to water. Day 48: - watered with dechlorinated tap water, with .5ml/L of BioBizz's "Fish Mix" & "Acti-Vera", .5ml/L of Remo Nutrients' "VeloKelp" and approximately .25 tsp (a small pinch) of epsom salt per 10L of water. Resulting in a 250ppm solution with pH of 6.4. - Plant #1 also received a top dressing of Gaia Green's "Power Bloom" Dry Amendment Fertilizer, approximately 1 tbsp for the 5 gallon container (1/5th of the recommended amount). - we tested the runoff after collecting approximately .75L and had the following results: - Plant #1 runoff was over 1000ppm, pH 6.7 - Plant #2 runoff was 850ppm, pH 6.6 - we feel like our pH should be a bit lower and our ppm's seem a little high but given that we're using soil, with "BioBizz" organic nutrients, we don't think the ppm's are too out of place. Let us know what you think! - defoliation of Plant #2, removing the small side branches growing from the 2nd nodes of each of the 8 "tops". We each have conflicting opinions on whether we should be doing this gradually each week, while the branches are just starting to develop, or whether it's better to wait a couple weeks and then do a more invasive and extensive defoliation. Again, let us know what you think... better to do it gradually, or let the plant fully recover and defoliate the lower branches after they've grown out a bit? Day 49: - no changes - increased circulation fan speed due to higher humidity due to yesterday's watering. - we're noticing more yellowing coming out in the leaves, especially on Plant #2. We suspect that we've been going a bit too light on the organic nutrients but we're also worried that our soil pH is a little bit high and so could be causing lock-out issues with things like magnesium. Our runoff was testing at a pH of 6.7-6.8 but we'd feel better if it was around the 6.5-6.6 range. Overall, it was a good week, although, we were hoping to see a little more progress with the growth rate of these plants. We didn't push them too hard with the lighting this past week and we're still averaging around 20-22,000 LUX across the canopy. We continually try to push the light intensity up but the plants seem to react with "canoeing" leaves and the appearance of light stress. We had a fun time taking photos for the journal this week and we were happy to be able to participate in the Sweet Seeds "Masquerade" and "Mary Lovers" contests. A shout out to Sweet Seeds for putting on those contests. As always, we want to encourage body positivity and express our respect for people of all colours, creeds & orientations. That's all for this week, brothers and sisters... see you all next week!