After another weekend spent away from home, on day 26 both Opiums present at 30 cm height, having grown big and bushy. Their thirst increased, I will water them when their next day starts. And do some more LST. Not too long until I can install the scrogging net. I am really impressed by their progress. They developed a lot of branching side branches and look really healthy and bushy. In contrast to what I wrote before, I think I can stay a few days longer with the current 80% 18/6 lighting scheme. Leaf positions do not show signs of light hunger, so no reason to change.
Watered them with 1.5 l each on their 27th morning, this time adding some flower fertilisers too. Compensated their relief with some more LST. I can see in timelapse video they are tmelselves compensating this stress easily; it’s amazing to see how fast they turn their heads. You’ll see soon too.
For reference: Pot diameter is approx. 25 cm. So lady #1 spreads about this much, lady #2 is even about 10 cm more. Guess they’ll make a very dense scrog surface, but first let’s have them have their stretch.
Day 28 evening revealed ladies are getting thirstier. The holey pots might be helpful in root development, but they are not when it comes to keeping the tent clean. Because of their structure, water runs out in respectable quantities each time they are fed, which takes a long time to evaporate and adds to air humidity of course. Which on the other hand is currently quite ok. Outside air temperatures are around 30 °C the last days, so a bit more humidity helps to keep the VPD in range. Which is quite ok as I still cannot complain about their growth – around 2–3 cm each day currently.
Grow video for day 28 (sorry about the interferences! Due to the control hard- & software being offline I cannot silence the blower(s) when a photo is taken anymore) shows steady growth and very vivid movements again. Dropping of their leaves around their evening is possibly due to me watering them again as soil was surprisingly dry already.
On their day 29 evening, it’s clear to see how much they are stretching: They really gained 5 cm since yesterday! Lights are close to 30 cm, so I think I’ll reposition things a bit when their next week starts. Attached video shows the day’s progress.
They say you cannot scrog an Automatic but seeing the development speed and bushiness I decided to give it a try nonetheless. I guess the buds can profit from being a bit more apart from each other if I handle to fiddle them through the holes in time.
I rearranged the lights to be at about 45 cm apart from the tops and set the lights to 100% at a 16/8 lighting scheme, waking them up one hour later than before and sending them to sleep one hour earlier.
Last day of this week, day 30, shows that growth speed has even increased. Lady 1 crosses the scrog net already which is positioned at 46 cm above soil. Gave them slightly enhanced water again, 2 l each.