11/15 - Day 43 - I've changed the light schedule on the timer from 20/4 to 18/6. I will be heading out of town for 10 days on December 25th and so I'll need to harvest and hang to dry by the 24th at the latest. I've read in a few forums that decreasing the lights on/lights off ratio can speed flower maturation on auto-flowers. The other growers also mentioned that the decrease in light also reduces yields, but on such a tight timeline I'd trade total yield for more fully ripened buds any day of the week. Would certainly be interested if anybody has experience/knowledge that contradicts what I've read. Plants stretched another 2 inches in the last 24 hours putting them 22 inches from the light. I still have room to raise my light another 2 inches, but if these girls stretch more than 6 more inches they'll be < 18 inches from the light which I'm assuming would cause light burn based on the research i've done on this 600W ViparSpectra reflector series. Here's hoping they don't stretch more than 6 inches from here.
11/17 Day 45 - Haircut day. Left a few fan leaves on the shorter/lower shoots, but took almost everything else. Tallest tops had stretched another 4 inches in the past 48 hours, and were 18 inches from the light. I raised the light the final 2 inches I had available, which places it back to 20 inches from the tallest bud sites. Hopefully the haircut I gave the plants slows down the stretch, but either way it looks like I'll have to do a lot of retraining before I head out of town tomorrow for 5 days.
11/18 Day 46 - Fed nutes. Cal mag + advanced nutrients (micro, grow, bloom), and MKP. 4 Litres of water per plant. A lot of runoff in the saucers, but I'm out of town for the next 5 days so I'm leaving it to be absorbed throughout the week.