The Apes are flowering, and the difference between the plants is enormous. The one in the middle is the only one that truly took off, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up producing as much as the rest of them combined.
Putting them directly into the ground probably wasn’t the mistake. The real problem was that I only planted them with the six litres of soil from their original pots. I should have brought plenty of additional soil to give the roots a much better environment to expand into.
I’ve since added guano as a top dressing and continue watering with plenty of molasses, but at this stage, the smaller plants are not going to catch up.