Last week of actual veg! I plan to stick to the same old lighting and watering schedule this week but am gonna experiment with a foliar feed of the potassium humates to see how she likes it. I figure it's better to test things like that now than in flowering. She's beginning to develop something between the nodes, though it's still too early to tell for sure if she's a girl. (It was a feminized seed so I certainly HOPE so!)
This plant has given me absolutely zero problems despite being in the most maligned soil under a weak-ass CFL bulb AND transplanted, which is supposed to be a no-no for autos. It def looks unmistakably like pot now lol so I've gotta figure out where to hide it should the landlord come in. (Legal state, illegal building). Hoping this Ona Pro Gel will be sufficient to offset the stench once she starts reeking. 😁
So my 1st attempt with the humates was a fail. I for some reason thought the pH was too high so I sprayed some white vinegar into the mix to bring it down, which it did. But then I read that you're NOT supposed to mix the two, plus I'd possibly made the solution way too strong by using online "recipes" vs. what the package said: 1 tsp per gallon water. YIKES. I'd used 0.7 grams in 2 liters the 1st time. 🤦🏻
Thankfully I only sprayed that mix on the two bottom leaves before realizing what I'd done, so I sopped it up, poured out the rest and made a more dilute mixture without the vinegar this time. I used my little 8 Fl. oz spray bottle to mist the plant from a healthy distance before her brief dark period, which is where she's at now.
Did a 2nd foliar feed the following day and she's looking just dandy! (Aside from the twisty taco leaves at the top lol). After watering, she was incredibly bloated with leaves curling downward in that tell-tale "over watered" claw. How this is possible when I water only 1x every 7 days, grow in a fabric pot, keep fans on her at all times and am using moisture control soil is beyond me, but it would appear this plant HATES water. The soil was bone dry when I watered & I even pH'ed the water this time before giving her a drink.... no luck. Oh, and the H2O is room temperature every time. Same 16.9 FL oz. purified drinking water as last time...
After some reading it looks like this strain is just highly finicky and somewhat harder to grow than other autos, though most people ended up happy with the results. This also explains why she's so tall with so few leaves/branches: they say Zkittlez Auto stretches like crazy. I'm gonna try to stop obsessing now.
I added a 2nd CFL bulb (yellow) to see if it boosted her growth any, and sure enough, I got some noticeable and rapid change in her appearance after only one night. So that was a good thing. Next week will be when I switch to 20/4 light schedule and try a soil feed of the Potassium Humates with her once-weekly watering lol. Stay tuned.
Final update for the week: I put pipe cleaners on the ends of her big branches to help open up the bud sites. It's too late for actual LST, plus she's so sensitive I doubt she'd like it. Don't wanna waste 1-3 days recovering from that. But I'll probably lop off 2, if not 4, leaves early next week. (1-2 sets total). She's not leafy enough to "leaf tuck" as planned but some of those bottom ones are def redundant.