🥒 Project Blue Tent – Pickle Lemon Haze F1 – Plant A
Week 3 – A Change of Direction
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another week of Project Blue Tent! 💙🌱
This diary follows one individual Pickle Lemon Haze F1 from Zamnesia, grown completely independently from its siblings so we can appreciate each plant’s unique development from seed to harvest.
The goal of this project remains the same: growing multiple genetics side by side under identical environmental conditions while documenting how each cultivar expresses itself. Every plant shares the same home, the same feeding schedule, the same lighting, and the same care, allowing genetics to tell their own story.
This week certainly kept me busy.
Just after the reservoir refill, a small irrigation incident turned into an unexpected flood inside the tent. Thankfully, because everything is built around the Zamnesia ecosystem, the water never escaped the tent itself. The tray contained every drop, preventing what could have become a much bigger disaster. After drying everything thoroughly, checking every dripper, and making sure the substrate was still in perfect condition, it was business as usual.
The plants barely seemed to notice anything had happened.
But while nature stayed calm… I decided to interfere.
This week marked the beginning of this plant’s training journey with its very first topping.
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Environment
Conditions remained extremely stable throughout the week.
• 🌡️ Day temperature: 27°C
• 🌙 Night temperature: 25°C
• 💧 Relative humidity: 67%
• 🥥 Root zone temperature: 24°C
• 💦 Nutrient solution: 18°C
• ⚡ EC: 1.61 mS/cm
• pH: 5.8
• 💨 CO₂: Ambient (~450 ppm)
• ☀️ Light schedule: 18/6
Nutrient strength was increased slightly to match the plants’ accelerating vegetative growth. The Pickle Lemon Haze accepted the stronger feed without showing any signs of stress or nutrient burn, indicating that the roots are becoming well established inside the Plagron Premium Growbag.
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The Genetics Continue to Impress
One thing that immediately stands out with this phenotype is its beautiful structure.
Internodal spacing remains compact while side branches continue to develop evenly. The stem has thickened considerably over the last few days, giving the entire plant a sturdy appearance despite its relatively young age.
Like its neighbours in the tent, the foliage continues displaying that lighter shade of green I’ve been seeing across all four plants. Since every genetic is showing exactly the same coloration under identical feeding, environment and irrigation, I believe this is simply how these young plants are expressing themselves rather than indicating any nutritional issue.
Growth remains vigorous, leaves are standing proudly toward the light, and fresh growth appears every single day.
Exactly what we like to see.
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Time to Top
This week I made the decision to top this plant.
Unlike low-stress training, topping intentionally removes the plant’s primary growing tip. By doing so, apical dominance is interrupted and the plant redirects its energy into the lateral branches.
Instead of producing one dominant central cola, the plant now has the opportunity to develop two equally vigorous main leaders, creating a much wider and more balanced canopy later in life.
The cut itself was clean, quick, and performed above the selected node, leaving healthy growth tips ready to take over.
Now comes the important part.
Topping isn’t about what happens immediately after making the cut.
It’s about what happens over the following week.
Over the next several days I’ll be watching carefully to see how quickly both new tops begin accelerating. If everything continues as expected, those two branches should soon become the new leaders while the lower side branches also receive increased hormonal signals, creating a much bushier structure.
For a project like this—where every plant is documented individually—it’s always fascinating to compare topped plants with untouched ones grown under identical conditions.
Sometimes the smallest decisions create the biggest differences by harvest day.
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Recovery
The best part?
The plant barely reacted.
Within a short period, fresh growth had already resumed, and the remaining foliage stayed perfectly turgid without drooping or showing signs of stress.
Healthy roots, stable environmental conditions, and consistent irrigation make all the difference when performing high-stress techniques like topping.
A healthy plant recovers remarkably quickly.
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Looking Ahead
Next week should be exciting.
I’ll be watching for the formation of the two new dominant tops while continuing gentle canopy management if necessary. As vegetative growth accelerates, the structure created by this topping will begin revealing itself.
This is one of my favourite moments in the grow—watching a plant completely change its architecture after a single cut.
The foundation is now in place.
Everything from here will build upon it.
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Final Thoughts
Despite an unexpected flood inside the tent, this week turned into another successful chapter.
The environmental parameters remained stable, nutrient uptake continued improving, the plant accepted the stronger feeding schedule without hesitation, and the first topping was completed successfully.
Every week these genetics continue giving me more confidence, and I honestly can’t wait to see how this Pickle Lemon Haze F1 develops once both new leaders begin stretching toward the light.
The adventure is only getting started.
Thank you all so much for following along.
Your support, comments, advice, and encouragement make documenting these grows even more rewarding. I truly hope these weekly updates help other growers learn something new while enjoying the journey with me.
A huge thank you goes to Zamnesia for the incredible genetics and the complete ecosystem, Plagron for keeping these ladies perfectly fed in coco, and everyone following this diary from around the world.
Growers Love and see you all next week! 💚🌱
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P.S. One final shout-out has to go to the Zamnesia ecosystem itself. As dramatic as the flood looked at first, the Zamnesia tent tray proved exactly why it’s part of the setup. Every drop of water remained safely contained inside the tent, with absolutely nothing leaking onto the floor. What could have turned into a much bigger mess ended up being nothing more than drying the tray, fixing the issue, and carrying on with the grow. Moments like these remind us that great equipment isn’t just about making life easier on the good days—it’s about saving the day when something unexpected happens. Huge thanks to Zamnesia for designing an ecosystem that’s ready for real-world growing. 💙🌱