Week 19 of Vegetative Growth
(Transition Week – Pre-Flower Move)**
This week marks an important milestone for the Pineapple Upside Down Cake: she was finally moved into the tent where she’ll spend her entire flowering phase.
She’s not flipping yet — this stage is all about controlled acclimation before the real show begins.
Up until now, she was growing under a 5000K blue-leaning veg light at low wattage, which kept her compact and focused on structural development.
Inside the flowering tent, the lighting is completely different: a full-spectrum 3500K panel, warmer, broader, and naturally more stimulating.
A spectrum switch like this can easily stress a plant, especially in late veg, so the intensity was intentionally reduced to 300 PPFD to give her a soft landing.
Temperature conditions also shifted: about 21°C during the day and 17°C at night, with the light set to 25% power.
It’s a cool, stable environment — ideal for a plant adjusting to a brighter and wider spectrum.
The second key topic of the week was training strategy.
Her growth was accelerating fast, and the debate was wide open:
Should she be topped?
Should we go for a scrog?
Should we prune more aggressively?
In the end, the most coherent choice was a clean LST session.
Her main branches — roughly ten apexes — were gently bent and opened to create a wider, flatter canopy.
This approach keeps stress minimal while giving her a solid architecture to handle the upcoming stretch.
Over the next few days, she’ll naturally stand back up, and once she does, her true structure will become clearer.
At that moment, we’ll be able to judge whether she needs extra shaping: a light defoliation, selective pruning, or even a late top if it really makes sense.
For now, the plan is simple and strategic:
• monitor her adaptation to the new spectrum,
• watch how she reacts to the LST,
• keep the environment stable,
• and only move to flowering once she shows full vigor again.
Summary for Week 19 (Vegetative Growth):
– Successful transition into the flowering tent
– Spectrum shift managed smoothly with 300 PPFD
– Cooler environment helping with acclimation
– Clean LST performed on about ten apexes
– No visible stress, good potential for a controlled stretch
– Next step: wait for full adaptation before flipping
See you next week for the follow-up — the pre-flower phase is getting close.