20.09. F22
CHAPTER TEN — THEY JUST WON’T STAY DOWN
September 20th, 2026 — Flower Day 22
I thought I had finally taught the jungle some rules. Apparently, it disagreed. Six days after the last major training session, I opened the tent again and immediately knew that Zesty Bliss had been busy. The branches had pushed through the SCROG, climbed back towards the light and completely changed the shape of the canopy once again. Around 25 cm of growth in six days. At this point, I’m not even surprised anymore — I’m starting to wonder where these girls think they’re going.
And there might actually be another piece to this puzzle. Throughout flowering, I had been running the Deep Red from my AdLights continuously. But today, on Flower Day 22, I decided to switch it off for now. @Theia suggested that the Deep Red might be better introduced once the main stretch is really over and the plants have shifted their energy more towards flower development. I obviously can’t say for certain that this contributed to the extra stretch, but looking at how aggressively these girls have been reaching, I’m starting to wonder if I may have been giving them a little too much encouragement to keep climbing. For now, the Deep Red is taking a break. I’ll bring it back once the stretch has finally settled down and see what happens.
The interesting part is what happens when you look closer. The net is doing exactly what I wanted it to do, but the plants are growing so aggressively that they are already trying to escape the structure I created for them. Every time I bring one section down, another one seems to appear somewhere else. The canopy is becoming a dense field of growing tops, while underneath it the plants are getting cleaner and more open thanks to the hard lollipopping. There is now a very clear separation between the structure underneath and the green mass above it, and that difference is becoming more impressive with every update.
So once again, I had a decision to make. Do I let them continue doing what they clearly want to do, or do I step in and shape the direction of this grow? Well… you already know me. I went back in. More HST, more bending, more guiding. Some of the taller branches were brought back down and positioned where I wanted them, opening up the canopy and giving the lower sections more room to breathe. At this point, I’m not trying to make the plants smaller. I’m trying to make their growth work for the space I have. And looking at the last pictures, I think we’re finally starting to get somewhere. The canopy is spreading instead of simply climbing, and more and more flower sites are now sitting right where I want them.
What makes this whole run so fascinating is that I keep thinking I’ve reached the point where I can just let them do their thing. And every time, Zesty Bliss proves me wrong. I bend them down, they come back up. I give them a net, they grow through it. I open the canopy, they fill it again. At some point, you stop trying to predict what these plants are going to do and simply accept that they are going to keep challenging you. And honestly? I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Flower Day 22. The canopy is under control — for now. The stretch is hopefully coming to an end, the first real structure of the flowers is becoming visible, and the next phase is waiting just around the corner. I have a feeling the jungle isn’t finished with me yet.